Maybe they try too hard

[skate]

to push these kids thru school.


Despite modest gains in college-readiness among U.S. high-school students in the past few years, new data show that fewer than 25% of 2010 graduates who took the ACT college-entrance exam possessed the academic skills necessary to pass entry-level courses.

from WSJ


Seems very low, almost like we are being overrun by neo-libs, trying to get into collage, better known as "the-coffin-corner-of-cologneville".

from the-skate

[46zilzal]

Public schools are a disgrace mostly due to the gross importance of these tests. Kids are touted to pass the test not learn.

I tool the ACT and did well because I prepared several months for it, knew what it was like in pre-tests and spent extra time working on MY deficiencies I knew would be required to overcome.

[skate]

ah....is that coming from experience?:)



Oh, so that's what you've been up to...

[46zilzal]

I took the American College Test, the National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test in 1964...later the MCAT and the Graduate Record Exam.

Learning how to take tests is a major part of doing well on them

[skate]

Welp, you got that right.


the-skate is Not what anyone would be able to call 'good tester'.

You see, it's not the answer that i find difficult, but rather the questions, my goodness...the questions...

[TJDave]

Public schools are a disgrace mostly due to the gross importance of these tests.

Public schools are a disgrace due to the gross incompetence of parents. :rolleyes:

[Robert Goren]

Is this a change from what has been going on for many years? My very limited experience I had in hire people before I retired in 2007 was that average new high school kid I hired had improved quite a bit since 2000. I don't give Bush credit for much, but I think he improved the public schools quite a bit. The kids who graduated from the local Catholic high school were bit behind the public school kids. I know this flies in the face of conventional wisdom, so it may have been a local phenomenon.

[skate]

yepper, all the roads are there, but few take the right coarse.


Human nature i guess.

Schools, teachers, buildings (air condition etc.) PCs, free lunch, buses, leaderships, well maybe not leadership, that would be asking for too much.

[skate]

Is this a change from what has been going on for many years? My very limited experience I had in hire people before I retired in 2007 was that average new high school kid I hired had improved quite a bit since 2000. I don't give Bush credit for much, but I think he improved the public schools quite a bit. The kids who graduated from the local Catholic high school were bit behind the public school kids. I know this flies in the face of conventional wisdom, so it may have been a local phenomenon.

Not sure, finda took me by surprise, but under 25% does not sound good.

We are even worse off when it gets tough classes.

[Robert Goren]

In 1967,my college (UNL) year flunked out over half their freshman class. Almost all of the kids on my dorm floor transfered to the University of Saigon.

[plainolebill]

Thank goodness for community colleges, the kids there are usually motivated and those who want to and can afford it move on and usually do well at Universities. Those who take a vocational curriculam have a trade to carry out into the world.

My daughter decided to go to work as a bank teller after high school but changed her mind a few years later. She went to a community college (cheap) then graduated with a business degree from a university(expensive). She's now a CPA. :)

[sandpit]

yepper, all the roads are there, but few take the right coarse.




"Coarse" is too rough; how about course? :D

[skate]

"Coarse" is too rough; how about course? :D

Ok, how about it, why not explain yourself?:)

[46zilzal]

Ok, how about it, why not explain yourself?:)
since about 8 our of 10 of your posts need a narrative to understand them being written in some obscure rendition of the language.

[skate]

since about 8 our of 10 of your posts need a narrative to understand them being written in some obscure rendition of the language.

No poop.

and you do such a wonderful yob.

I keep skipping over your errors, along with hiccups, but that dont mean i do not see your Many errors, just means that i'd much rather go my way.

It seems soooo soooo very stupid to zerro in on a word (as long as you get meaning) and then you go off and Completrly Miss any point whatsoever.

And Then you and your "hop-toad friends" try to make hay from some inconvenient thing, but fail to make a point without help from your vague, hellish, opinion.

[46zilzal]

No poop.

and you do such a wonderful yob.

I keep skipping over your errors, along with hiccups, but that dont mean i do not see your Many errors, just means that i'd much rather go my way.

It seems soooo soooo very stupid to zerro in on a word (as long as you get meaning) and then you go off and Completrly Miss any point whatsoever.

And Then you and your "hop-toad friends" try to make hay from some inconvenient thing, but fail to make a point without help from your vague, hellish, opinion.
didn't need much time to make my point that few if any can understand even 40% of what you write

[skate]

but, you see, i already know that....boing


and thanks

[Tom]

didn't need much time to make my point that few if any can understand even 40% of what you write

Yes, but we smart ones can! :cool:

[skate]

didn't need much time to make my point that few if any can understand even 40% of what you write

Zilly;

Take a look here, if you will.

When your teacher started showing you the ABCs, you may have understood them, but it's not too likely that your fellow stiudents new just what was being taught.

30%/90% of the students were confused, but in time, they caught on.

If you'll print out, what you dont at first understand, take these printed notes and study them, then you'll be able tc ask about any Formulaic Imprecations.

[Tom]

Ya gotta love the skate! :ThmbUp: