It hit me today. Some disparate facts in my head came together to create one data point (more than just an anecdote) supporting the "kids aren't doing as well academically today as they did in the past" argument.
Each year our school's counseling office puts out a sign congratulating the students who have been named as National Merit Semifinalists and those who are Commended. This year our school, which has had a reputation for academic excellence going back decades, has one National Merit Semifinalist.
I went to high school at an average school about 10 miles from where I work. I've long stated that we weren't really expected to go to college; if we went to college, it would be at the nearby community college. Those who were great would go to Sac State, and those up in the stratosphere might go to UC Davis. It wasn't in a rich area at all--still isn't--and while we didn't think of such things at the time, it was certainly "racially diverse". That it was the highest scoring school in the district on standardized tests wasn't saying much, considering the academic caliber of the other schools in that district. (Note: it's no longer the highest scoring school in its district.) It was a good school, we loved going there.
In my class we had 3 (I'm not exactly sure if there was a 4th or not) National Merit Semifinalists. And recall, this was from the early 80s tests, before the "recentering" of the tests in 1995 that effectively raised SAT scores because students weren't doing as well as they used to.
So, an at-best-midling school from the early 80s turned out 3 National Merit Semifinalists, and a nationally-ranked upper middle class school from the late 20-teens, with more than 100 more seniors and an easier test, only puts out one?
Yes, I wonder about this. And I've been doing this long enough now that I, too, see changes leading down very bad paths in education. And it starts with parents and, in some cases, with their attorneys. You know there's something wrong when teachers send their kids to private schools in higher percentages than in the public at large. Our public schools have severe problems, and no one with any muscle is addressing them. In Sacramento, our state government actually makes things worse. I hope I can make it another 9 years.
I see the same thing in our schools. The scary thing is that parents and kids don't want to hear the truth. They are offended by anything less than an A (How dare you judge me?!) and do not know or want to knwo that their grades are inflated and they are NOT A students. Our high school changed the grading scale this year (lowest A- is 93% and failing is less than 64%) and there have been lots of complaints. I'm seeing a much better distribution of grades that matches performance better. I only have to last 8 more months!
ReplyDeleteI tell kids all the time: grades are not a measure of your value as a human (thus, I'm not *judging* them), they're a measure of your achievement towards the content area standards.
ReplyDeleteI think the change in the composition of the exam is lowering the numbers of National Merit Scholars. I know that prior to leaving, one of the laments was that numbers were dropping. Part of that has to do with the changing demographics as well as the prevailing attitude of passing students at all costs. Parents in high wealth schools don't like being told their kids aren't learning. They want scapegoats to blame. Usually those scapegoats are teachers.
ReplyDeleteNon-intuitively, "National" merit is awarded by relative rank within state and IS NOT determined nationally, as to avoid having entire states w/ no candidates. It's basically the top 1% of each state--and California is a relatively hard state.
ReplyDeleteAs an example, my kid JUST missed the Mass. cutoff, which is always the highest one in the country (California is right up there as well.) She is easily in the top 1% nationally but is not a national merit scholar. Conversely, there are folks from other states who get NM and they are far below her score.
Anyway, the issue is not growth in overall population (though that certainly has an effect) nor is it growth in population outside the top 5%. The difficulty of getting NM is almost entirely driven by a significant increase, since the 80s, in the specific population of smart people (and their kids) who are focused heavily on education and very able to prep for test performance in particular. As you probably know, there's a lot of those folks in California, courtesy of Silicon Valley. And in Massachusetts, as it happens.
I was not aware of the details in your comment, thank you for filling me in. It doesn't explain, however, the difference in the two California schools that I wrote about.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to Anonymous' claim, there are similar issues with things such as Top Ten Percent automatic admission into flagship state schools like UT or Texas A&M. I have known parents to move their high performing students from one school to a lower performing school for senior year solely for the purpose of raising their class rank. I've also had kids in the Top Ten Students ask me to RAISE THEIR GRADES in order to move up in the order.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that used to drive me nuts was the AP multiplier used by my district to entice students into taking rigorous AP courses. Our multiplier is 1.3. That means a student who earned a 70 gets a 91 on their score for the purpose of class rank. This also means students take AP classes with the intention of doing as little as possible because even if they make a 60, they can end up with what appears to be a passing grade. Worse than that, there is no school expectation that if they sign up for and take the AP course that they are mandated to take the exam. They take the classes just for the purpose of inflating grades.
Parents and some counselors actually encourage this as some sort of scorecard where the only thing that matters is getting kids in college. It's insulting to the teachers who work hard to produce the material. (Keep in mind I taught in what is called a "good school" which is highly touted by realtors when selling homes) It's damaging to the students who believe they know the subjects and quite often they do not. A friend of mine works in college admissions. She said the number of students coming to college woefully unprepared for independent learning is reaching epic proportions and colleges are quite concerned.