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Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Oh, Wait, It’s Reading Where We’re Weak
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Less than a week after Superintendent of Schools Kathy Cox told the state board, “math is killing us,” in reference to the state’s SAT average, NAEP scores are rolled out.
And on this measure … “Georgia students are making steady progress in math…But like the rest of the nation, Georgia just holding the line in reading.”
Here’s the rest of the news release. And here’s Heather Vogell’s story.
The NAEP is a federally mandated test given to a sampling of students nationwide in grades 4 and 8. The results are sometimes regarded with a yawn because the results do not show how individual school districts or schools compare.
But NAEP score are useful. They show that Georgia is not at the absolute bottom when it comes to education, as folks sometimes perceive when they look at SAT rankings. And it serves as a reality check when compared with Georgia’s curriculum test, the CRCT. In fourth grade, 87 percent passed the reading portion. But on NAEP, only 23 percent of Georgia’s fourth graders were deemed “proficient or above” in reading.
What’s your take?
The Field Trip Quandary
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sorry, folks. Technical difficulties prevented me from posting this yesterday, bouncing off a story by arts writer Pierre Ruhe about how programs like the Center for Puppetry Arts are suffering because school districts have cut field trips.
Even before fuel prices soared, some schools cut back on field trips in favor of bringing arts programs into the school. In-house field trips take less time out of the day for students and enable the schools to work with the artists to tie the performance to curriculum.
Proponents of field trips - the leave-the-school-building variety - say kids, especially those from poor families, need exposure. Not all families have the time and money to take their kids to museums, musical performances or even the zoo.
But clearly some school officials are questioning whether a field trip is the best use of time. Teachers are under pressure to cover a lot of material before the state curriculum test.
What do you think about field trips? Do you like the trend toward in-house field trips? Do you think schools should take kids on at least one field trip per year? Or should field trips be dumped in favor of more classroom time?
