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Yeah I've noticed that is seems to really fall apart in middle school, especially 7th grade.
I disagree. Someone who is already a proficient reader in 7th grade is not going to fall down, reading wise, after that. The middle schooler veers off if he was a poor reader to begin with. The intervention needs to be done by about 4th grade, tops. After that, the child is enough behind that h/she starts to lose motivation and hope, especially when most of his peers are reading at grade level or above. ( At least this is what I've seen from literacy program training, elementary school reading intervention programs, and working with high school kids who are poor readers.)
[quote=HappyTexan;38068744]New statistics came out about K-12 students. 51% of US students are on free lunch.
They are at or below poverty level. And we all know that poverty has an effect on schooling.
And this data is from 2012. In the 2 years since that figure may have grown bigger.
So yes, your declining scores are a reflection of a changing student demographic.
And here we have the talking heads pushing college and pushing STEM.
quote]
But here's the real question no one is looking at in depth: Is poverty a cause of poor student performance (which is what everyone assumes) or is it an effect? Are student performance and poverty both the result of a third, less defined characteristic of this demographic?
I do a lot of volunteer work with young people and I've noticed a consistent trend. Perhaps it doesn't apply elsewhere, but seems to be fairly consistent. That is the kids who are in the free lunch demographic, and their parents, don't seem to value long range effort as much as immediate results. Some of the other volunteers are parents in this demographic. They are good people, no doubt about it, and many work hard. Yet they seem to have little innate understanding of long range benefit and relative value. For example, you can't let these parents be in charge of the funding for a project because they will spend the whole budget on one thing and then ask for more. They just can't put the picture together. Likewise, their kids, if you give them specific tasks, will do that. But no more and await the next specific instruction. In contrast, kids from the higher demographic, you can give them general instructions and they will head off on their own to carry them out.
[quote=HappyTexan;38068744]
For the first time in at least 50 years, a majority of U.S. public school students come from low-income families, according to a new analysis of 2013 federal data, a statistic that has profound implications for the nation.
quote]
Ok, but so what? Go back those 50/100 years prior to free lunches, and somehow we were able to educate a generation of kids that worked hard and built a roaring economy.
I don't believe there is a causal connection between poverty and learning, at least in the aspect that most do, which is: poverty causes poor school performance.
1. Questions to parents:[/b] Do you even know at what level your child reads?
2. 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?
1. Um, no.
He just turned 3. He knows all his letters and the sounds they make.
So he can sound out words.
Currently reading
HIT, HAT, HOT, COT, BAT, MAT...that kind of stuff. Having trouble reading multisyllable words, though he can spell them with sounding out.
I have no idea what "level" that is. Nor do I care.
I am not letting some concept based entirely on averages and catering to mediocrity be the standard I hold my kid to.
Besides, 7th grade level in this country might be 3rd grade in some other country.
2. There's no way I wouldn't know my kid wasn't prepared for college. I mean, do people spend two seconds with their kids or what?
“'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?
Yes, I do, and I don't believe for a minute that the average college student can only read at a 7th grade level. This is based on what they read/are assigned not what they can actually do. It does not make financial sense to write books and magazines at a higher grade level because most novels and magazines are written for pleasure.
The average newspaper is written at an 8-9 grade level. NYT 10th grade, London Times 12th grade Times of India, 15th grade . Most novels are written at a 7th grade level.
“'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?
If the average college freshman reads at the 7th grade level, then it's no longer 7th grade level. It's college freshman level.
If the average college freshman does math at a 3rd grade level, then that becomes the new standard for college freshman math.
Etc, etc. Unless you are comparing against other countries.
“Whose Fault Is It If The Average College Freshman Reads at The 7th Grade Level?
It's mainly the fault of the parent(s). Parents need to be part of the learning process. And parents can take their children to public libraries to take out extracurricular books to read. Teachers can only do so much and the time for reading is after school hours.
Parents should be making sure that their kids are reading good books and also showing them how to enjoy reading. What I see is that parents are more concerned with being their kid's best friend and showing them fun times, rather than helping with the schoolwork.
“'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?
Yes, I know the reading level of my two school-aged children. It's hard to avoid, with all the standardized tests. They also work on an online educational site, achieve3000, that tells me their Lexile level whenever I want.
It was discussed at one parent/teacher conference but not the other. The conference where it wasn't discussed was a very poorly-run conference in general, though, and I didn't have any concerns about her reading level, so I didn't feel compelled to bring it up.
I can't imagine a child of mine getting to the point of applying for college, and realizing they read at a 7th grade level. I'm sure I would have known long before then.
It's mainly the fault of the parent(s). Parents need to be part of the learning process. And parents can take their children to public libraries to take out extracurricular books to read. Teachers can only do so much and the time for reading is after school hours.
Parents should be making sure that their kids are reading good books and also showing them how to enjoy reading. What I see is that parents are more concerned with being their kid's best friend and showing them fun times, rather than helping with the schoolwork.
Yeah, but I don't remember "reading level" coming up at home. Even if a kid reads a lot, how would a parent know at what level their kid is reading? I would assume they'd just be happy the kid is reading. Plus, with grade inflation... I guess what I'm asking is how can they address what they don't know. I didn't read out loud at home once I learned to read. Maybe the kids should be tested in every grade and those results shared with the parents. Maybe they should be left back until they read at their grade level.
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