Hi, Rick, regarding your critical analysis of the Manhattan Institute's report, I want to point out that it was not my intention to use the data I cited from the report as demonstrating a developmental downward trend in the quality of public school education. Taking into account all relevant factors (e.g., increase in diversity of student body attending college - John Kulig) it may very well be that, academically, students today may not be that much different from those of, say, 20 years ago. However, based on my personal experience, I do not believe that to be the case and it seems that neither do many others on this list and elsewhere. But, I realize that personal experience and opinion are not data and I only have a passing familiarity with the issues at hand. And so I ask, are there any data to support the belief that students today are worse than before? Rick or others who may be more familiar with the empirical literature in this area can perhaps provide some references as to where students today stand relative to those in the past.
Lastly, regarding the percentage of graduating seniors who are prepared for college level work, let's assume that, as Rick's analysis reveals, that the report underestimates the actual numbers and that the actual percentage is higher than 32%. Let's say that it is as high as 40% or 50%. Frankly, given that one of the primary missions of high school is to prepare students for college-level work and given that we are talking about the educational system of the most power nation in the world, 50% should still be considered a rather disappointing statistic IMHO.
A very real and immediate implication of this data is that given the level of preparation of the students that most of us are accepting now, we must be prepared to offer far more remedial support than we are.
In effect, we have to give many of our students a high school education before we can even start to give them a college education.
Realistically, a year of intensive preparation may not be enough.
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* PAUL K. BRANDON [EMAIL PROTECTED] *
* Psychology Dept Minnesota State University *
* 23 Armstrong Hall, Mankato, MN 56001 ph 507-389-6217 *
* http://www.mankato.msus.edu/dept/psych/welcome.html *
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