Texas Ed Spectator

Project Will Tell High Schools How Well They’re Preparing Students for College Success:

Texas educators will soon have a place to go for concrete answers to whether their students go on to college and how well they do there.

Great. But then that means that the legislature didn’t have a clue as to high school students were doing once they got to college with or without four years of math and science.

Project Will Tell High Schools How Well They’re Preparing Students for College Success:

Four Texas school districts have agreed to participate in planning the database and testing and critiquing the reports during the nine-month development process. The districts are Plano, Garland, Fort Worth and Houston.

Hmmmm, and apparently if people had been willing to wait for a year or so, they could have made decisions based on real information.

Project Will Tell High Schools How Well They’re Preparing Students for College Success:

The project is made possible in part by an $83,500 grant from the Indianapolis-based Lumina Foundation for Education

Well, if it would cost the state the salary of an average high school football coach, there’s no way the legislature would make that kind of investment in education decision making when it’s much easier to say “4 by 4″ and be done with the matter. Okay, I’m guessing about the high school coach football salary part but not the investment part.

Here’s a guess at what Texas’ 4 by 4 will lead to.

Lexington Herald-Leader | 11/20/2006 | Educator works to reduce need for remedial courses

Joe Bagnoli graduated from Ashland Holy Family High School with a 3.7 grade-point average and with A’s in four years of college preparatory math courses — algebra I and II, geometry and trigonometry.So it didn’t add up when he took a placement exam as a Berea College freshman in 1984 and learned that he wasn’t quite prepared for college math. It took one hard week of work in a remedial math course for Bagnoli to get caught up.

Now, almost 22 years later, he is Berea’s associate provost for enrollment management and proof that Kentucky’s multimillion-dollar remedial education problem isn’t limited to slow learners.

It looks like Kentucky is facing the same problem.

Lexington Herald-Leader | 11/20/2006 | Educator works to reduce need for remedial courses

Currently, 53 percent of entering students at the state’s public universities and community and technical colleges need at least one remedial course, according to a recent report from the state Council on Postsecondary Education. The report also showed that 44 percent are not ready for college math, 32 percent are not prepared for college English and 25 percent do not have college-level reading skill.Overcoming these deficiencies costs $25 million a year, $11 million in state money and $14 million in student tuition for courses that are non-credit.

So is Kentucky mandating four years of science and four years of science as a solution like Texas? Nope.

Lexington Herald-Leader | 11/20/2006 | Educator works to reduce need for remedial courses

To try to better prepare students, the General Assembly passed legislation last winter that will require 11th-graders to take the ACT at state expense to diagnose remedial education needs while students are still in high school, as well as increase the number of students who go on to college.

Gosh, imagine that. They are going to attempt to diagnosis the problem before solving it. Furthermore, the state is actually going to pay for what it is mandating.

Lexington Herald-Leader | 11/20/2006 | Educator works to reduce need for remedial courses

Kentucky’s development education task force will make its proposals on Dec. 5. Some of those may require legislation in the 2007 General Assembly.Cain said some of her suggestions would most likely include:

• More communication throughout the K-12 and postsecondary systems so “there are clear expectations, very specific expectations” of the skills and content students must master to move to the next level, so that the “elementary schools know what the middle schools expect, the middle schools know what the junior high schools expect, the junior highs know what the high schools expect and the high schools know what the colleges and universities expect.”

• More instruction in college schools of education so that future teachers can more readily identify students with remedial needs and know better how to work with them.

• Making sure that the best teachers are teaching developmental education in college, and reduce what has become a heavy reliance on part-time and adjunct faculty.

Well, the problem with this solution is obvious to a Texas legislator. It’s too iffy, too touchy-feely, not enough commanding involved. Besides, with a name like 4 by 4, you know it’s just got be a good solution–for Texas.

Texas has the solution to poor math scores–require more math classes for graduation. It’s part the new “4-by-4″ curriculum that’s supposed to raise standards and better prepare students for college.

Tougher classes may await Texas’ college-bound | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle:

In September, the board gave a tentative nod to a plan that would allow students to choose from a variety of courses, including some lower-level math and science classes, for their fourth credit. But many in the business community and some concerned parents are stepping up pressure on the board to require more-difficult courses for seniors.

Inevitably, you’re going to hear about how students are going to college not prepared for majors that require advanced science and math. Something like this:

Tougher classes may await Texas’ college-bound | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle:

“A lot of key occupations like engineering and nursing are suffering because we’ve taken our eye off the prize and watered down the curriculum so much that it builds very little skills in students by the time they’ve graduated from high school,” said George Edwards Jr., a former trustee of Cypress-Fairbanks ISD who favors requiring challenging courses such as physics and pre-calculus.

Edwards, a certified public accountant with Exxon Mobil Corp., represents the 160-member Cy-Fair Minority Parents Association in his demand for tougher standards.

And someone will also say something about how high school graduates are surprised to find that they need remediation once they get to college.

Tougher classes may await Texas’ college-bound | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle:

Board member David Bradley, R-Beaumont, said he thinks the 15-member elected board will go with the tougher standards. He said something has to be done because half of entering college freshmen require remedial instruction in math or English.

With a solution this obvious and such a catchy name, how could it not succeed? Even Bill Gates is on the standards bandwagon. Well, some educators have pointed out that not everyone is going to be an engineer and schools need some flexibility in addressing varying needs among students.

Tougher classes may await Texas’ college-bound | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle:

John Folks, superintendent of Northside ISD in San Antonio, hopes that the State Board will let districts count a variety of math and science courses for the fourth year.”The bottom line is, kids have different skills, different abilities, different interests,” said Folks, a former math teacher. “We don’t need to put every kid in the same box.”

Good point. People tend to forget that these international comparisons of student achievement don’t always compare apples with apples.

But ultimately, this solution will only have minimal affect on math scores because it doesn’t actually address the problem of course content and standards. Let me give you an example. Recently, there was an article about a high school student who graduated with honors and found herself taking remedial math classes in college. She was shocked and disappointed.

For all we know, she took four years of math and still needed remediation in college. Apparently, she didn’t have to take the SAT or ACT to get into college or if she did, no one explained to her what her scores mean. Of course, not all colleges require such entrance exams so she may have never had a clue.

Then there is the case of students taking Algebra I from one teacher who gives them an easy A and then find themselves hopelessly unprepared for Geometry or Algebra II. Not all Algebra teachers are created equal.

In either case, will adding a class called “Pre-Calculus” really improve the student’s math ability?

So before we mandate a fourth year of “tough” math and science, I think it might be useful for someone to take a look at all of those people taking remediation classes. If someone were to take the time to look, I bet they would find a group of students who do very well in college having only taken three years of math from competent teachers and others who need remediation even though they took “Pre-Calculus.”

Actually, that’s not fair to the many teachers who are assigned to teach a class titled “Algebra II” and expected to have a certain passing rate no matter what level of skill the students have when they enter the class at the beginning of the year.

As much as I loath even suggesting more testing, I think end of year course exams would be a better first step to improving math and science preparation rather than requiring additional courses. I’m sure that there are all kinds of preliminary investigations you could do with existing data and testing scores before you would even have to mandate course exams. In any case, until the powers that be can demonstrate that students how have passed an Algebra II class have actually mastered Algebra II content, I think we should hold off implementing “tougher” standards.

This was released in late May so sorry if it’s old news to some. But with all the recent talk about “highly qualified” teachers, I thought it was worth a review.

Hoover Institution - News Releases - Students Achieve More with Teachers Who Take Personal Responsibility for Student Learning:

Teachers who take personal responsibility for student learning can improve student achievement, according to Laura LoGerfo, an education researcher at the Urban Institute. Her peer-reviewed study of first-grade teachers reveals that students with a highly responsible teacher can see a 3 percent increase in their yearly achievement gain.

The article initially attracted my attention because of the above statement, who would take more personal responsibility for student learning than the parent? But many argue that homeschoolers often don’t have professional qualifications and shouldn’t be allowed to teach their own. Well, apparently professional qualifications aren’t necessarily great indicators for student achievement.

Hoover Institution - News Releases - Students Achieve More with Teachers Who Take Personal Responsibility for Student Learning:

Surprisingly, teacher certification and experience, two of the cornerstones of NCLB’s “highly qualified” teacher requirement, were not determiners of committed teachers. In fact, teachers who have completed more coursework in education showed a slightly weaker sense of responsibility than those with less coursework.

The funny part of this is that don’t most free-market conservatives criticize teacher unions for mandating promotions and tenure based on such requirements?