Get Schooled

By catlady

June 15, 2007 8:28 AM | Link to this

Or could it be regression to the mean?

By catlady

June 15, 2007 8:34 AM | Link to this

A full third of the kids at my 3-5 school get NO social studies or science instruction at all. They are sent to “interventions” in math and reading instead. They are with their homeroom class for 10 minutes before school, 20 minutes for lunch, and 40 minutes a day for a special (art, music, or pe). So that, and the fact that we aren’t worried about SS for NCLB=not so stellar grades. If it were not for the easy questions, it would be a lot worse.

By luvs2teach

June 15, 2007 9:21 AM | Link to this

The trend catlady talks about doesn’t change in middle school - SS is the red-headed step-child of academic subjects.

It doesn’t help that a lot of the SS questions are more trivial, rather than indicative of any kind of enduring understanding.

By SET

June 15, 2007 10:05 AM | Link to this

I suspect the SS failures have to do with political correctness. So much of history displeases the PC crowd you really can;t teach it. Besides, SS involves reading and writing. If you are trying to cook the books so that everyone passes you need to get rid of such subjects.

By Jane Brodie

June 15, 2007 10:08 AM | Link to this

I agree with catlady and luvs2teach. My son will be a 7th grader in the fall and only in the 6th grade did he get adequate instruction in SS. He’s a History Channel fanatic and he had a great teacher who helped us nourish his love of the subject.

In elementary school, his SS and Science grade were the same. According to his 5th grade teacher, she couldn’t teach SS so they had to get the same grade for both subjects.

By Lee

June 15, 2007 10:27 AM | Link to this

Actually, the Social Studies scores are more in line with what one would expect from a statistically valid sample. That is, a small percentage failing, a small percentage exceeding expectations, and the majority meeting expectations.

Ever hear of a “normal distribution?” (Or the Bell Curve for you politically correct types…)

By SET

June 15, 2007 12:24 PM | Link to this

Lee has a point. If the percent “passing” is 83 to 89 percent, what kind of improvement is possible? I believe that pass rate itself is evidence of the dumbing down of Social Studies. It’s way too high.

And it’s nothing new. When I was a sub in early 1981 in a Sacramento (CA) school district - in what was supposed to be a “good” high school - the “History Class” students were looking at a slide show and answering questions. These were seniors about to graduate near the end of the school year.

They couldn’t ID a photo of President Kennedy, discuss the issues fought over in the VietNam war, or tell me which countries fought on which sides in WWII. They only knew bits of current events - like the current President and VP, etc.

I see no evidence that History is actually being taught in most public high schools. Indocrination in Marxist and Collectivist theory maybe. History, no.

The current crop of students might be able to give an opinion on Bill, Monica, Hillary, Condi and Colin Powell. They would not be able to say anything about Hyman Rickover, the Manhatten Project, The Bombing of Dresden, 20th Century or 19th Century US History, or any economic history of the US. They know nothing of trends in economics, military and political power and demographics. They just live in the world and things “happen” - mainly to them.

Which is why they will really be caught by surprise with what is coming in this Country. Heck, they are caught by surprise on a daily basis - like when they get a job and start working.

By luvs2teach

June 15, 2007 12:41 PM | Link to this

Actually, SET & Lee, a Bell Curve distribution isn’t what we’re looking for here, and 83 - 89% isn’t necessarily too high (I say necessarily because we’ve all been reading about the cut scores and how vaild those may or may not be).

This goes back to the misunderstanding between a criterion referenced test and a normed test (like the ITBS). The CRCT measures just the student’s performance against a set of given criteris (QCCs or standards). It is theoretically possible for all students to achieve beyond the minimum cut score (I hope so, since NCLB wants a 100% passing rate by 2014).

The ITBS, on the other hand is a norm-test, which mean’s a student’s performance is measured against a group. From what I read about the ITBS, it is normed each time it is given, however other tests are normed every 5 - 7 years. This is where you are likely to see a normal Bell Curve distribution. Student A may perform better than 96% (likely gifted) of the normed group, Student B better than 50% (making him average), and Student C make score better than only 10% of the group (probably special ed). you should see most students score in the 40 - 60th percentile, and fewer on either side with each standard deviation away from the mean.

Now, that doesn’t address the issues of reliability and validity…

Hope that helps!

By Competitive

June 15, 2007 1:21 PM | Link to this

I teach 7th grade SS. In 2005-2006, a student needed to get 20 out of 60 questions correct to pass the Social Studies CRCT. This school year, a student needed to get 22 out of 60 questions correct to pass. Almost all of the questions are trivial pursuit, and the QCC were extremely vague in helping us understand what students needed to be taught to be successful on the test. In Gwinnett, the AKS had very little correlation to the QCC, despite official claims otherwise. For the other subjects, students had to get 50% of the CRCT questions correct to pass.

Students come to 7th grade with little knowledge of basic Social Studies skills because they have never been taught them. Social Studies is not required for promotion to the next grade in most systems (although Gwinnett 7th graders do have to pass the Social Studies CRCT). And Social Studies is not even thought about for AYP. Therefore, most principals will put unqualified teachers in Social Studies positions and move the better teachers into the “more important” subjects. Finally, students who move to Georgia from another state during the school year are at a huge disadvantage because there is no consistency in the Social Studies subjects taught in each grade level from state to state. All of these factors create a perfect storm for a lack of social studies knowledge. I’m curious to see the impact of the GPS and the new version of the CRCT on passing rates. Honestly, I’m not optimistic.