Well, since we're off topic anyway, here's a question for those of you in public education: Is a school district in Ohio required to provide to parents copies of the standards and objectives that students are expected to meet? (Are they even required to actually have standards in writing???)

The situation: My eldest started Kindergarten this year. By all accounts, he's a bright kid. His pre-K teacher told us he was the most well-rounded kid the teacher had ever had. No behavior problems--in fact, last month he won his class award for exemplifying good character.

So this week, we get a stack of papers from his teacher where he had been tested for writing and math. Not standardized testing--graded assignments. The batch is mostly Cs, Ds, and Fs. From what I can tell, the problem isn't that he doesn't know his letters or numbers, or can't follow instructions or count, or do the things that I would expect a Kindergartner to do. It's that his fine motor skills aren't great and he doesn't put the answers right perfectly on the line. So the teacher marks them incorrect.

I cannot find anything at the state level stating that Kindergartners are expected to have perfect penmanship. The K-3 standards don't appear to address writing at all. The pre-K standards do--but it's pretty much can the kid make a symbol that sorta looks like the letter and use the quasi-letters plus pictures to tell a story.

If the school wants to have standards that exceed the state standards, I don't think there is a problem with that, but it's never been communicated to us. I've searched the district website, and there's nothing. Setting aside the fact that letter grades for Kindergartners seems pretty ridiculous, I don't get how I'm supposed to know to drill these extraordinary objectives with my kid if I'm never told what the standards are. And if there are no standards, how the hell did this curriculum get developed?

(Or, as the conspiracy theorist in me wants to believe, are letter grades some bogus method of trying to get parents' attention? My son has no clue what they mean.)

OK, here is actual data.
http://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/326995-census-mor...
Dramatically more people go to college now than ever before. 33.4% of Americans have a college degree, up from 28% four years ago, and only 4.6% in 1940.

OK, here is actual data.
http://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/326995-census-mor...
Dramatically more people go to college now than ever before. 33.4% of Americans have a college degree, up from 28% four years ago, and only 4.6% in 1940.

And still more actual data. Here's a link to the comparison between countries in math and science:
https://nces.ed.gov/timss/timss2015 /
The US has done better the last couple tests than they did a decade ago. They aren't a leader, but they are back to above average.

We are now approaching 70% of high school students who are interested in college. I'd say that is evidence that the resources put into schools, the fact that we are providing a more personal education, focusing more on applicable skills, and making school similar to future workplace, are having a rather positive impact on the educational environment.

I believe you are having comprehension issues.

There's a big difference between being "interested" in college and being prepared to do or suited for college level work.

My nephew had decent grades and S.A.T.scores,but when he started college he found out that his high school didn't prepare him for that level of education.

We see it at F.D.U. all the time.
Students with good grades and S.A.T. scores aren't capable of handling even entry level engineering courses.Calculus is still the "weed out" class.

The lack of preparedness has gotten so bad that N.J.I.T. now makes all engineering students take pre-admission tests to see if they need remedial classes before they start their engineering degree.

I also think that there is,to some extent,too much emphasis on "everyone has to go to college".
Some students are better suited to a trade.
Of course that can be hard to tell since a lot of schools no longer offer Industrial Arts.

This is a very interesting post, particularly the last sentence. Extend that a bit. I've been looking at post career opportunities in colleges and universities and "job inflation" no requires a masters degree for what I would consider pretty basic jobs. Not only has grade inflation skewed the true measure of student success but degree inflation has advanced a sense of self-importance that unfortunately shuts out very qualified candidates.

This is a very interesting post, particularly the last sentence. Extend that a bit. I've been looking at post career opportunities in colleges and universities and "job inflation" no requires a masters degree for what I would consider pretty basic jobs. Not only has grade inflation skewed the true measure of student success but degree inflation has advanced a sense of self-importance that unfortunately shuts out very qualified candidates.

...I believe you are having comprehension issues.
...[/quote]
I rather think that the problem is that you were having sentence phrasing issues, and that what you said was not what you meant.

What you said was:


What you may have meant:


Next, let's turn to your other comment:
[QUOTE=BillyTheCat]... Those other countries do not test EVERY student!!!!! In the U.S., we test every student from the brightest to the student with significant learning difficulties. Trying to compare our math scores with a country like Germany (who has weeded their students into academic or vocational tracts, or Japan where only the brightest are tested) is NOT an apple to apple comparison. ...

To enhance the gameday experience why don't we all get together, park in Tailgreat Park, paint some random yellow lines on the grass and discuss this over some hot chocolate . . . or hot coffee, but not both. Nachos without fake cheese, anyone?