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Did you read the link to the document embedded in the original article, though? It shows how the study was conducted and how reading levels were assessed; tables, charts, graphs, etc.
Oh, yes, I've been through it with a fine tooth comb, and villageidiot is right. That so many seem to have missed it strikes me as hilariously funny, given this thread is all about critical reading ability. As usual, people in forums just want to argue what they already believe is true rather than evaluating the evidence as presented.
Did you read the link to the document embedded in the original article, though? It shows how the study was conducted and how reading levels were assessed; tables, charts, graphs, etc.
The document embedded in the article is toilet paper from a private resource provider of....reading material. They have charts and graphs of...nothing pertaining to their assertion.
“'We are spending billions of dollars trying to send students to college and maintain them there when, on average, they read at about the grade 6 or 7 level, according to Renaissance Learning’s latest report on what American students in grades 9-12 read, whether assigned or chosen,' said education expert Dr. Sandra Stotsky. Stotsky, a Professor Emerita at the University of Arkansas, served on the Common Core Validation Committee in 2009-10, during which she called the standards “inferior.” The study also found that most high school graduates don’t do much with mathematics past eighth-grade compared to students in other high-achieving countries. In addition, the lack of “difficulty and complexity” found in high school reading material is indicative of what colleges can assign to students once they enter higher education and professors aren’t requiring incoming students read at a college level."
Questions to parents: Do you even know at what level your child reads? Is that something you discuss at parent/teacher meetings? If your kid was in high school and planning for college and you found out he or she was only reading at the 7th grade level, what would you do about it?
My take on this subject: how much time is there in a school day... and how much of that time is devoted to academics? In other words, if schools did not have to teach values, life skills, and everything else that should be taught in the home, there would be more time to focus on what schools are there for in the first place.
Oh, yes, I've been through it with a fine tooth comb, and villageidiot is right. That so many seem to have missed it strikes me as hilariously funny, given this thread is all about critical reading ability. As usual, people in forums just want to argue what they already believe is true...
I would imagine that most people on forums are reading quickly through threads. What I took out of my--yes, brief--scanning of the document was that Accelerated Reader's database showed that the books students read inside and outside of the classroom affects their college readiness....and that the reading levels of students have fallen substantially.
I highly doubt that the "average" college student reads on a 7th grade level (although if the data includes community colleges, that might be likely) but I do see a decline in reading skills from the alternative ed high school kids I work with, so it's interesting to find out what other reasons might contribute to this.
A list of the institutions and their reading selections can be found in the following link.
Of the 341 colleges surveyed, 31 were community colleges. The remainder included a variety of public and private institutions. Fifty-one ranked in the top 100 national universities.
You can find the list beginning on page 59. The document as a whole provides a window into the purpose of common reading programs and a discussion of how the books were chosen.
Last edited by randomparent; 01-24-2015 at 08:04 AM..
I would imagine that most people on forums are reading quickly through threads. What I took out of my--yes, brief--scanning of the document was that Accelerated Reader's database showed that the books students read inside and outside of the classroom affects their college readiness....and that the reading levels of students have fallen substantially.
I highly doubt that the "average" college student reads on a 7th grade level (although if the data includes community colleges, that might be likely) but I do see a decline in reading skills from the alternative ed high school kids I work with, so it's interesting to find out what other reasons might contribute to this.
Maybe it's CD members who read at a 7th grade level! (Not meaning you!)
I didn't read the study, I just noted that "blame the parents" was in full swing on this thread.
A list of the institutions and their reading selections can be found in the following link.
That is curious. They have The Speed of Dark
Quote:
Rutgers, School of Arts and
Sciences (honors program)
The Speed of Dark
Moon, Elizabeth
2002
Disability/Disease
Fiction
But they do not admit that it is science fiction.
Quote:
Speed of Dark is a near-future science fiction novel by American author Elizabeth Moon. The story is told from the first person viewpoint of an autistic process analyst. Wikipedia
The trouble with good SF is that it puts too much information and ideas into too small a space. College is about dribbling information out. Nothing by Asimov, Clarke or Heinlein.
The trouble with good SF is that it puts too much information and ideas into too small a space. College is about dribbling information out. Nothing by Asimov, Clarke or Heinlein.
psik
Which college did you go to? I didn't get a dribble, I got a fire hose. When you're talking SF, the problem isn't college per se. The problem is lit profs who are too focused on "great" works or political poetry. They miss all the greatness in science fiction because it has that word SCIENCE in it -- something frightening to most in the humanities education system.
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