Welcome
In a 1999 campaign speech, George W. Bush declared that disadvantaged children in our public schools were victims of "the soft bigotry of low expectations." Thirteen years later, a study suggests that low expectations are a common feature of our nation’s public schools.
Bulletin Board
- The John Locke Foundation and the Triangle Federalist Society cordially invite you to a meeting of the Shaftesbury Society with our special guest Miguel Estrada. Mr. Estrada will review the eventful 2012 Supreme Court term. The event will begin at Noon on Monday, July 23. Like all meetings of the Shaftesbury Society, it will be held at the John Locke Foundation office in Raleigh.
- The North Carolina History Project would like educators and homeschool parents to submit lesson plans suitable for middle and high school courses in North Carolina history. Please provide links to N.C. History Project encyclopedia articles and other primary and secondary source material, if possible. Go to the N.C. History Project website for further information.
- JLF’s research newsletter archive heard you were the wild one.
CommenTerry
According to a new report published by a prominent liberal think tank, The Center for American Progress (CAP), public school students in North Carolina and elsewhere say that schoolwork is too easy.
CAP researchers Ulrich Boser and Lindsay Rosenthal used National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) student questionnaire results as their data source. Every two years, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) administers NAEP math and reading tests to a representative sample of fourth- and eighth-grade students in each state and the District of Columbia. Science, history, civics, and geography assessments are administered every four years.
The NCES requires NAEP test takers to complete lengthy student questionnaires on a variety of topics, including demographics, study habits, academic courses, and the like. In their study, Boser and Rosenthal cite a handful of questions that highlight student attitudes toward standards, curriculum, and instruction. (See Facts and Stats for a complete summary of North Carolina’s results.)
According to the study, the vast majority of students are not challenged by grade-level math. Approximately 85% of North Carolina fourth-graders who took an NAEP test reported that their math work is sometimes, often, or always too easy. This was slightly lower than the national average. Eighty percent of the state’s eighth-graders agreed. The national average for eighth-grade students was 83 percent.
Similarly, nearly 50 percent of North Carolina students reported that they read ten or fewer pages in school and for homework every day. If the state is going to raise student achievement in reading and writing, then we need to expect public school students to spend more time completing high-quality literacy activities in and outside of school. The same principle applies to the 64 percent who say that they spend little time learning about engineering and technology.
The authors also concluded that many students "don’t understand their teacher’s questions and report that they are not learning during class." Between one-fourth and one-third of fourth- and eighth-grade public school students in our state reported that they "sometimes" or "never" understood what their science and math teachers asked or discussed. These questionnaire results suggest that existing classroom instruction may not be effective for a significant portion of public school students.
Simply put, most students were either bored or confused. I suppose that the former is better than the latter but obviously neither is desirable.
There was one bright spot. Ninety percent of eighth-grade students said that they "always" or "often" learned something in math class. Unfortunately, it is not clear what or how much they learned. The questionnaire does not specify and cannot quantify student learning. Indeed, I always learn something when I watch Lizard Lick Towing, but what I learn is seldom useful.
Boser and Rosenthal call for higher, more challenging standards. It remains to be seen whether the state’s new math and reading standards, called the Common Core State Standards, fit the bill. North Carolina is one of 45 states that have adopted the Common Core, but evaluations of the standards suggest that they lack coherence, rigor, and depth. We’ll soon find out. Schools will begin using the Common Core standards this year.
Random Thought
Speaking of Lizard Lick Towing, I learned that "you should never corner nothing meaner than you unless you wanna look like your face caught fire and was put out with steel spike cleats." Ok, I take back what I said about Lizard Lick Towing in the CommenTerry. That is a useful insight.
Facts and Stats
Percent of NC 4th Graders Who Say Math Work Is Too Easy
Never or Hardly Ever: 15%
Sometimes: 52%
Often: 20%
Always or Almost Always: 13%
Percent of NC 8th Graders Who Say Math Work Is Too Easy
Never or Hardly Ever: 20%
Sometimes: 55%
Often: 18%
Always or Almost Always: 7%
Percent of NC 4th Graders Who Report Understanding What Their Science Teacher Talks About
Never or Hardly Ever: 7%
Sometimes: 29%
Often: 24%
Always or Almost Always: 39%
Percent of NC 8th Graders Who Report Understanding What Their Math Teacher Asks
Never or Hardly Ever: 2%
Sometimes: 23%
Often: 31%
Always or Almost Always: 44%
Percent of NC 8th Graders Who Feel They Are Learning In Math Class
Never or Hardly Ever: 2%
Sometimes: 8%
Often: 19%
Always or Almost Always: 71%
Percent of NC 8th Graders, Number of Pages Read In School and For Homework
5 or fewer pages: 27%
6-10 pages: 20%
11-15 pages: 15%
16-20 pages: 14%
More than 20 pages: 24%
Percent of NC 8th Graders Taught About Engineering and Technology
Yes: 36%
No: 64%
Mailbag
I would like to invite all readers to submit announcements, as well as their personal insights, anecdotes, concerns, and observations about the state of education in North Carolina. I will publish selected submissions in future editions of the newsletter. Anonymity will be honored. For additional information or to send a submission, email Terry at [email protected].
Education Acronym of the Week
NCES — National Center for Education Statistics
Quote of the Week
"You might think the nation’s teenagers are drowning in school work. Images of students buried in textbooks often grace the covers of popular parenting magazines, while suburban teenagers complain about the length of their homework assignments. But when we recently examined a federal survey of students in public schools around the country, we found the opposite — many students said they were not being challenged. Consider, for instance, that 37 percent of fourth graders say their math work is too easy. More than a third of high-school seniors report that they hardly ever write about what they read in class."
– Ulrich Boser and Lindsay Rosenthal, "Do Schools Challenge Our Students? What Student Surveys Tell Us About the State of Education in the United States," Center for American Progress, July 10, 2012, p. 1.
Click here for the Education Update archive.
