Posts published in March, 2012
High School Reading Levels Below College Ready
What Should Kids Be
Reading?
By Sandra
Stotsky, University of Arkansas
Books above a sixth-grade reading level, for sure. According to Renaissance Learning’s
2012 report on the books read by almost 400,000 students in grades 9–12 in
2010–2011, the average reading level of the top 40 books is a little
above fifth grade (5.3 to be exact). While 27 of the 40 books are UG (upper
grade in interest level), a fifth-grade reading level is obviously not high enough for college-level reading. Nor is it high enough for high
school-level reading, either, or for informed citizenship.
And yet, the demographic gaps haven’t closed. As Renaissance Learning’s 2011 report
indicated, the average reading level of books read by “struggling”
readers in grades 9–12 was 4.9. Does the average book reading level for
all kids have to fall down to the fourth-grade level (it was 6.1 in Renaissance
Learning’s first report—in May 2008) before we can declare victory on that
egalitarian front and move on to what really matters—increasing everyone’s reading
scores? This republic cannot flourish in the 21st century, no matter
how much time English or reading teachers spend teaching “21st century skills”
with texts deemed UG, if the bulk of our population is reading at or below
the fifth-grade level.
In corroboration of this trend, national scores in reading have been moving downward for almost
20 years. Average scores on the grade 12 NAEP reading tests were lower in
2009 than in 1992.2 In addition, average scores on the SAT fell in 2011, “with
the reading score for the high school class of 2011 falling three points to
497, the lowest on record,” and the writing score continuing its decline since
the writing test was introduced less than a decade ago. The latter trend is to
be expected. As research consistently shows, writing is dependent on
reading, and as average reading levels decline, so will writing
achievement.
The average book reading levels for grades 9–12 on the new comparison tables in the 2012 report
are also very low, but some tables are more troubling than others. Let’s begin
with the most troubling one. According to the Top 25 Librarians’ Picks by Interest
Level, drawn from a list of 800 titles, librarians are recommending UG books
at fourth- to fifth-grade reading levels for high school students. The
books are in school libraries and have quizzes based on them; otherwise they
wouldn’t have been on the list. But why are librarians and/ or teachers
encouraging kids in grades 9–12 to read books with such low reading levels
even if the books are designated UG? Readability formulas don’t tell us about
the literary aspects of a literary text, but they do provide objective measures
of vocabulary difficulty and sentence complexity. And why no serious
historical nonfiction?
The list of most frequently read Graphic Novels raises a different issue. Many
high school students are now reading “classics” rewritten at a second-,
third-, or fourth-grade level (e.g., Harriet Tubman and the Underground
Railroad, A Tale of Two Cities, Romeo and Juliet, The Time
Machine, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Jane Eyre, Dr. Jekyll
and Mr. Hyde, The Scarlet Letter, and A Christmas Carol),
although only Romeo and Juliet is on the top 40 list for all high school
students. In a few years, struggling readers may be more familiar with the
“classics” as rewritten than regular readers are with them as written. This
is perhaps the most appalling insight I had after looking over these lists. And
some graphic novels are now required reading in college-sponsored summer
programs for incoming freshmen, according to a 2011 “Beach Book” report….
What Should Students Get Out Of College
FINE TUNING HIGHER
EDUCATION IN AMERICA
What should America’s students get out of their college education? It seems like
a simple answer, yet few institutions seem to be able to agree on the knowledge
and skills students need for success in career and life. But students,
colleges, and the nation’s workforce can’t afford the confusion any longer. In
an effort to streamline standards, colleges in seven states-Illinois, Indiana,
Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, Texas, and Utah-have joined in “Tuning USA,” an
initiative started by the Lumina Foundation, funded by both the Lumina and
William and Flora Hewlett foundations, and led by the and implemented by the
Institute for Evidence-Based Change. Tuning is a collaborative, faculty-led
effort to establish clarity and consistency about what is taught on American
college campuses. It sets standards for what students should know, understand,
and accomplish as they progress toward their degrees. That means transparency
about what students will learn in each course and how the credits add up to a
degree that holds value in the job market, and it makes student transfers more
seamless. The post is from Re:
Philanthropy blog via Carnegie Foundation
Is High School Too Easy?
A national report calls for more rigor in high school programs to
develop students’ critical-thinking skills and to prepare them for college and
careers. The report questions whether high school is “tough enough”
and cites the high percentages of students who require college remediation and
a dearth of high-level math courses in some 3,000 high schools as a major
barrier to postsecondary success. It is a good overview of this issue. (Bangor
Daily News, 03/08/12)
How Stress Affects Your Test Scores
by
Ben Bernstein, PhD
Feeling stressed out is a very common experience for college
students. So much is new and in flux, and there’s a lot of pressure on you to
perform at your best. You shouldn’t be surprised that your stress level
directly affects your success in test taking.
In 1908, two scientists, Robert Yerkes and John Dodson,
studied the effect of stress on performance. It is one of the most researched
phenomena in psychology. On a graph, stress is on the x axis and performance is
on the y axis. The relationship between the two is a bell curve. Simply put, thep Yerkes-Dodson law shows (1)
when your stress is too high or too low, your performance suffers; and (2) you
need some stress to perform at your best.
We all know that when our stress is too great, we become
preoccupied with the stress itself. Here
are typical comments from students I coach:
“I was so stressed, I could hardly breathe,” “When I came to an
unfamiliar question, I froze,” “With all that pressure, I couldn’t keep my
attention on the test.” Less common is
having too little stress: “This test doesn’t matter,” “I don’t care how I do,”
“I don’t like this subject anyway.” With too much stress, test anxiety takes
you over the top and you can’t think through a question. With too little stress
there’s no juice. You blow it off.
The ideal place is right in the middle: just enough stress
to feel pumped and ready for action. Athletes call this “the zone,” but it
sounds mystical—“Oh, wow, I was in the zone.” It’s like they found themselves
in a great place but didn’t know how they got there.
Getting into the zone
In over thirty years of coaching I’ve trained college
students to get into the zone consciously. Bar none, this is one of the best
test-taking strategies. You just need to become aware of when your stress is
going past the optimal point and then use tools reduce your stress. If you’re
looking for the best test-taking tip, or best test-preparation strategy, this
is it: get yourself into the zone.
When I ask people, “What is stress?” they always point to
things outside themselves: “My French class,” “My calculus teacher,” “Too much
work.” This thinking suggests that for
your stress level to go down, everything outside you has to change. That’s not
going to happen. If you want to decrease your stress level, you have to learn
how to keep yourself in the zone. In other words, you need to develop the kind
of study habits that involve using tools to keep yourself calm, confident, and
focused. That’s the three-legged stool I wrote about in my last post (February
28), the sturdiest platform for test success on any test.
What triggers your test stress?
In each of my next three posts, I’ll give you the tools for
staying calm, confident, and focused. But first you have to become aware of the
triggers that let test anxiety shake your cool, loosen your confidence, or get
you distracted. A trigger is something that happens outside you which fires off
a stress reaction inside: the date of your French final is fast approaching,
you see a tough item on an test, or the person next to you in the exam room is
sighing and fidgeting.
To get a grip on stress, start by becoming aware of your
triggers. Do you know what they are? This is your first step toward the kind of test success you are truly capable
of.
Ben Bernstein, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and
performance coach. He is the author of Test Success: How to Be Calm, Confident and
Focused on Any Test (Spark Avenue, 2012).
www.testsuccesscoach.com
Female Preponderance In College Enrollment Continues To Grow
Men continue to fall behind women in college enrollment
The ratio of women to men enrolled in post-secondary education continues to grow, especially at private universities. While women have outnumbered men at higher education institutions since the 1970s, the gap is now larger, with a female-male ratio of 56.4-43.6. The gap is especially pronounced at private schools (59.3-40.7).
forbes.com
What Is High Quality In Higher Education?
Colleges and universities have
long followed the “resource and reputation model” of academic
excellence supported by rankings in popular media, Rockefeller Institute Senior
Fellow Joseph Burke writes in a new commentary. Recently, however —- in the face of mounting global
competition, which fuels the need to raise quality while cutting costs —- education reformers are focusing on
more critical objectives like increasing degree completion and reducing the
time it takes students to earn their degrees. Burke worries that in their
efforts, however, reformers may overlook the need to dismantle the resource and
reputation model of excellence. Making undergraduate education better and less
expensive calls for a rating system based on how well students learn, he says.
To read his full commentary, visit the Institute’s Web site.
One Third Of College Students Transfer To Another College
The Chronicle Of Higher Education reported this trend, and it has many implications. Students “swirl” through the postsecondary system, but our data bases like IPEDs do not adjust well for this pattern, and underreports college completion.. Many students go from a 4 year college to a 2 year institution. We need to know more about who these students are. The concept of a nontraditional student does not describe well this attendance pattern.
Colleges Defer More Student Admissions
Colleges deferring more students
By Gary Stern, USA Today
They are neither accepted nor rejected. They are the deferred. With growing
numbers of seniors applying for “early action” from colleges — an
abbreviated application process in the fall that promises a decision by January
— more and more applicants are being deferred. It is a mysterious state,
unfamiliar to many families going through the process for the first time, that
leaves applicants with several basic questions. “The number of deferrals
keeps increasing and the message to the kids is so unclear,” said
Elizabeth Jensen, a longtime guidance counselor at Ardsley High School in
Ardsley, N.Y. “You’re really being thrown back into the regular applicant
pool, and there isn’t much you can do.
How To Prepare For An Online Class
Guest Blogger: Ted Bongiovanni, Director Of The Office Of Distance Learning , New York University School Of Continuing And Professional Studies
1) Get to know your faculty member and your peers. Make your virtual presence known. Students should pull in their own experiences, describe what they hope to get out of the course, talk about the ways they’re applying what they’re learning in class, and take advantage of social events organized by the university or student groups where possible.
2) Learn how to learn online. Your school should offer an orientation to being an online student. It’s more than learning which buttons to press. It’s about being at the center of many learning activities.
3) Be present. As the old Woody Allen quote goes, 90% of life is showing up. You need to show up in your online course; that means responding to discussions, blogging, or participating in a workgroup. In a similar vein, your instructor’s presence should also be apparent in the form of announcements, regular, constructive feedback and well-prepared materials.
4) Avoid technical problems. If you’re learning online, you need a modern machine. Something manufactured in the last two years should do. Check your institution’s recommendations.
5) Get a degree from a reputable institution. Do your homework. Where you go makes a difference in your future earnings.
6) Understand instructor expectations and course requirements. What is the scope of the participation and assignments? Where do you need to be more rigorous vs. more informal? What is the class culture?
These are just a few. What tip would you offer online learners?
Placement Tests Put Too Many Students In Remedial Courses
COLLEGES MISASSIGN MANY TO REMEDIAL CLASSES
Two new studies from the Community College Research Center at Columbia University’s Teachers College have found that community colleges unnecessarily place tens of thousands of entering students in remedial classes — and that their placement decisions would be just as good if they relied on high school grade-point averages instead of standardized placement tests. The studies address one of the most intractable problems of higher education: the dead end of remedial education. At most community colleges, a majority of entering students who recently graduated from high school are placed in remedial classes, where they pay tuition but earn no college credit. Over all, less than a quarter of those who start in remedial classes go on to earn two-year degrees or transfer to four-year colleges. The article is in The New York Times via Gay Glyburn At Carnegie Foundation
