93% of Detroit 8th graders fail reading test
While many union teachers in Michigan called in sick yesterday to protest in Lansing, 100 miles east in Detroit, only 7 percent of 8th graders can read at grade level.
From CNS News, we learn the math results are even more dismal.
Detroit public-school eighth graders do even worse in math than they do in reading, according to the Department of Education. While only 7 percent scored highly enough on the department’s National Assessment of Educational Progress test in 2011 to be rated “proficient” or better in reading, only 4 percent scored highly enough to be rated “proficient” or better in math.
Statewide in Michigan, only 32 percent of public-school eighth graders scored grade-level proficient or better in reading, and only 31 percent scored grade-level proficient or better in math.
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Now you know why teachers prefer to send their children to private schools.
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If they want high numbers, they should measure deficiency rather than proficiency…
The “educational” system may well just be ensuring that the next generation is incapable of supporting itself and is reliant on the government dole- and votes democrat.
Yes, it may not have been planned as such, but is a painful truth. Teachers should never have been able to organize. Unions were necessary to keep workplaces safe and to keep pay reasonable for the work done. Now, Unions have lost their reason to exist. There are thousands of Federal and State regulations to keep the workplace safe, sexual harassment instruction etc, etc. ?NEA cares more about keeping their bosses and stewards wellpaid, paying for propaganda to elect “their” politicians, getting more sick time, vacations and days off then they do teaching the children. I blame Unions the most for the shameless way we are educating our children. They will never succeed.?
You make good points- I would counter- allow then collective bargaining rights but submit every new contract to referendum- voted on by those who will be footing the bill- let the negotiations be open and the terms under which teachers (and other public sector employees) are working be open to the public.
Thanks, but I forgot to say that giving teachers tenure until they retire, also was a “right” given by the Union. Our children are being educated by robots who never change curriculum, can’t stimulate ?their class ?to want to learn, polish their fingernails in class (my son had a teacher who did this) , drink in class, smoke pot in parking lot, and some who are senile and the Union defends these cretins.
overpaid babysitters is all those teachers are.
Another conflict for the Democrat/liberal/progressive/ socialist crowd -?How can you fund your own utopia when you take away people’s ability to make the tax money that you depend on??
If we paid our teachers more and gave them better working conditions, these kids, these poor kids would know how to read.
SARC!/
Has anything that the unions, or the federal government for that matter, touched turned out for the better?
You need to study the report itself to see what it means.? Advanced; Proficient; Basic; and Below Basic mean what???? What do the scores represent?? We are not Lake Wobegone where all the kids are above average – which is true in Detroit as well.? Can we use grades such as A, B, C and D/F?? If so, then there are very few A’s, some B’s, many C’s, and some D/F’s.? This is a perfect Bell Curve used for centuries to account for the differences in grades among students.? Teachers were told that they had made the test fair if the results made a perfect Bell Curve.? THEN, the touchy-feelies came into power and we had to worry about “self-esteem ” – where no children should be below A+! Rather than tell the kids – and their parents – that there needed to be more effort into studying, we were told to change our grading systems.? Give more “projects.”? These scores do not surprise me at all.? Also, I can tell you that the poor scores do not reflect IQ – there are many very bright kids out there who are NOT academics – and these tests favor the academic rather than the non-academic hands-on kids – who are very important to our society.
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The percentage of students in Michigan who performed at or above the NAEP…
This info also shows a demographic divide between students who are successful and those not.? The other question is how many ESL students took their grade level test?? In CT, we were able to give an ESL kid who had been here @ 2 years a grade 4 or 6 CMT rather than the age specific 8th grad one.? Then, the rules changed and all kids had to take grade specific – ESL students and all.? This really made the test results absolutely worthless.
http://cnsnews.com/sites/default/files/documents/MICHIGAN-8TH%20GRADE%20READING.pdf
The percentage of students in Michigan who performed at or above the NAEP Basic level was 77 percent in 2011. This percentage was greater than that in 2009 (72 percent) and was not significantly different from that in 2002 (77 percent).
In 2011, students who were eligible for free/reduced-price school lunch, an indicator of low family income, had an average score that was 20 points lower than students who were not eligible for free/reduced-price school lunch. This performance gap was not significantly different from that in 2002 (13 points).
Any test is only as valid as the question of “what are you trying to measure?.” Gardner identifies nine, CHC identifies ten, and others. Linda is right, test taking intelligence is only one facet of “smarts.”
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The media,? the LSM, wants a sound bite to explain how students are doing in school — it’s not a subject that can be covered in a sound bite.
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First:? The original mastery tests were supposed to identify those students in need of remediation and then to provide for that remediation to build up their skills.? THEN – politicians took over!
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Second:? I argue with teachers who complain that they have to “teach to the test.”? The test is made up of skills ALL our students should know.? If they don’t, they you are NOT doing your job if you don’t address their weaknesses.? Attitude is important.? I still say a good teacher can teach any objective in any subject area using a dead fish!!!!? If you can’t, then you lack the skill to teach.
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I am going to go a little off topic here, although somewhat related. Connecticut senator Lieberman is retiring as did Dodd, they were both in the senate for many years and now they retire with a huge pension funded by our taxes and healthcare that is free and many other benefits. My opining is related to education in general. When they both entered office I think they spouted the same problems with education that we are facing today. We honor them as “great” public servants, but what have they really done to help this country. Nothing has changed, only more people unemployed, more people on food stamps, an uneducated populace and trillions in more debt since they were elected. Lieberman is now going to give schloarships from money donated to his campaigns and “left over” from not using. How come we honor them for doing nothing but making themselves wealthy and me with a tax bill my children will never be able to pay?
You can’t get good Congresscritters unless you pay them will and give them lots of benefits.
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You know, the same thing they condemn in highly paid corporate leaders…
There’s never been more flatulence and pretense in education- advanced degrees, certifications, pedigrees, ridiculous compensation, flawed research studies… ?And the product has never been worse! ?Even 30 years ago I had teachers who locked door and slept all period, and others who put on daily movies and told dirty jokes all day.?