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Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 3,297
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Well, I agree with some of what he wrote and like the inclusion of the College Board's own material as evidence that he changes are politically motivated. But he goes overboard on dumping on the Common Core: Perhaps the most vivid example of how the Common Core lowers standards and creates a situation which invites mischief with the SATs is the decision of the Common Core architects to defer teaching algebra to 9th grade. That move, along with several other pieces of the Common Core's Mathematics Standards, generally means that students in high school will not reach the level of "pre-calculus." And that in turn means that as college freshmen, they will be at least a year behind where college freshmen used to be. Instead of starting in with a freshman calculus course, they will have to start with complex numbers, trigonometric functions, conic sections, parametric equations, and the like. Hmm. One, algebra in 9th grade meals precalc in 12th, which sets students up for calculus as college freshmen. So that statement seems to be a blatant attempt to distort and mislead. Two, personally, I think that leaving calculus until college is a good thing, given the generally low quality of high school calculus courses these days. If this isn't dumbing down, I don't know what is. Three, a major point of the CC math standards is that acceleration-itis is dumbing down the curriculum by virtue of equating rigor with t aking it sooner (e.g. algebra for all in 8th grade). Most students aren't capable, so the solution seems to have been to water down the courses. IMO, for a large majority of students, the new sequence will be beneficial (if the textbook manufacturers can do their jobs, and that's a big IF). For gifted students, the solution is to let them move through high-quality CC material at a faster rate. It's not the CC's fault if the schools don't do that. The standards themselves and how they're implemented are two very different things.
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Joined: Mar 2013
Posts: 1,453
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I tend to a agree with Val.
I think that a large part of the problem is the mentality that EVERYONE can take AP classes which itself stems from the unpalatability of tracking these days.
Having to move at the pace of the slowest means that something has to give - either rigor or the amount of curriculum that gets covered (as we cannot keep kids in high school forever) and given those choices I would choose rigor as the one to keep.
It is basically a version of the old project management conundrum of optimizing the three classic constraints of Time, Cost and Quality. To get things done in the real World more of one automatically means less of the others.
Last edited by madeinuk; 03/10/14 04:19 AM.
Become what you are
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Joined: Feb 2010
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From the essay: The "All In Campaign" aims "to ensure to ensure that every African American, Latino, and Native American student who is ready for rigorous work takes an AP course or another advanced course." From a College Board site https://lp.collegeboard.org/all-in/educators for school administrators: Our “All In” campaign is focused on increasing the enrollment of African American, Latino, and Native American students in AP® courses. We know that you, too, are committed to equality and helping all students achieve at a higher level. This is a tremendous opportunity for you to help by joining the College Board’s All In campaign.
By registering below, you pledge to review the master schedule at your school or in your district to ensure that 100 percent of African American, Latino, and Native American students with AP Potential™ are enrolled in courses in the 2014-15 school year. The AP Potential online tool projects a student's chance of earning a 3 or higher on an AP exam from his or her PSAT score. Maybe students who score well on the PSAT math should be encouraged to take AP Calculus, but it should still be their choice. The College Board, in encouraging principals to push only qualified students of some races to take AP courses, is advocating discriminatory behavior that is both illegal and racist.
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The group differences in SAT scores are also found in NAEP scores, which students are not directly preparing for. Differential access to test prep does not explain group differences in SAT scores. This post from the Marginal Revolution blog supports the assertions above. http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2014/03/the-sat-test-prep-income-and-race.htmlThe SAT, Test Prep, Income and Race by Alex Tabarrok on March 11, 2014 at 7:25 am First, test prep has only a modest effect on test scores, on the order of 20-40 points combined for a commercial test preparation service. More expensive services such as a private tutor are towards the high of this range, cheaper sources such as a high-school course towards the lower. Buchmann et al., for example, estimate that private tutors increase scores by 37 points while a high school course increases scores by 26 points.
The average SAT score among those with a family income of $20,000-$40,000 is 1402 while the average score among those with an income $100,000 higher, $120,000-$140,000, is 1581 for a 179 point difference. Even if every rich family had a private tutor and none of the poor families had any test prep whatsoever, test prep would explain only 20% of the difference 37/179. If rich families rely on tutors and poor families rely on high school courses, the difference in test prep would explain only 6% (11/179) of the difference in score.
The second surprising fact about test prep is that it doesn’t vary nearly as much by income as people imagine. In fact, some studies find no effect of income on test prep use while others find a positive but modest effect. The latter study finding (what I call) a modest effect finds that in their sample a 2-standard deviation increase in income above the mean increases the probability of using a private test prep course less than whether “Parent encouraged student to prep for SAT (yes or no).”
Since test prep differs by income only modestly and since test prep increases scores only modestly, the effect of income on test scores through test prep is small, Modest*Modest=Small. Contrary to the consensus, test prep can in no way account for the large differences in SAT score by income.
The third fact is that test prep varies by race in the opposite way that people imagine. In the quote above, Chris Hayes suggests that whites use test prep much more than blacks. In fact, blacks use test prep more than whites, as is well documented among education researchers (e.g. here, here, here), e.g. from the first link:
…blacks and Hispanics are more likely than whites from comparable backgrounds to utilize test preparation. The black-white gap is especially pronounced in the use of high school courses, private courses and private tutors.
Indeed, since blacks use test prep more than whites and blacks have lower SAT scores than whites the effect of test prep is to reduce not increase the black-white gap in scores. Of course, the net reduction in the gap is small.
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Joined: Apr 2013
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Thank you for sharing this link which contains interesting information both within the article text and the chart titled "A Test of Knowledge or Income?" Colleges and universities may be highly interested in an internally motivated student whose SAT score exceeded scores projected (by his/her family's income range) by >500 points, at age 14? Test prep, as I understand it, was limited to the free online sample test questions provided on the SAT website.
The purpose of this post is not to extoll the virtues of the SAT, but rather to share anecdotal evidence which runs counter to the chart summary: income isn't destiny. Even without the SAT this student was similarly distinguished by interests pursued due to a sense of internal locus of control.
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Joined: Apr 2013
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From a College Board site... Our “All In” campaign is focused on increasing the enrollment of African American, Latino, and Native American students in AP® courses. We know that you, too, are committed to equality and helping all students achieve at a higher level. This is a tremendous opportunity for you to help by joining the College Board’s All In campaign.
By registering below, you pledge to review the master schedule at your school or in your district to ensure that 100 percent of African American, Latino, and Native American students with AP Potential™ are enrolled in courses in the 2014-15 school year. ... Maybe students... should be encouraged to take AP... but it should still be their choice. The College Board... advocating discriminatory behavior... I agree with encouragement of all pupils as well as the right of each pupil to own their decision and make it work, whether they may choose to take one or more AP courses or forego them. Students benefit from developing internal locus of control. With regard to "ensuring that 100 percent..." some may say this type of influence upon a student's decision-making, if it is to be exercised at all, is best left to parents. Having an outside entity insert itself into the process may be overstepping. Do parents feel sufficiently out of the loop that they are willing to step aside from advising their children and welcome institutions to do this? Targeting specific ethnicities blatantly treats people not as individuals but as demographic statistics.
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Joined: Feb 2010
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Dumbing down is often done through subterfuge (warning: obscure word alert), but here it is blatant. Are college students never going to encounter "obscure vocabulary words" in their reading? ETA: good discussion by Steve Sailer, with links to other news coverage at "New, probably not improved SAT questions" http://isteve.blogspot.com/2014/04/new-probably-not-improved-sat-questions.html . http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/16/education/revised-sat-wont-include-obscure-vocabulary-words.htmlRevised SAT Won’t Include Obscure Vocabulary Words By TAMAR LEWIN New York Times APRIL 16, 2014 The College Board on Wednesday will release many details of its revised SAT, including sample questions and explanations of the research, goals and specifications behind them. “We are committed to a clear and open SAT, and today is the first step in that commitment,” said Cyndie Schmeiser, the College Board’s chief of assessment, in a conference call on Monday, previewing the changes to be introduced in the spring of 2016. She said the 211-page test specifications and supporting materials being shared publicly include “everything a student needs to know to walk into that test and not be surprised.” One big change is in the vocabulary questions, which will no longer include obscure words. Instead, the focus will be on what the College Board calls “high utility” words that appear in many contexts, in many disciplines — often with shifting meanings — and they will be tested in context. For example, a question based on a passage about an artist who “vacated” from a tradition of landscape painting, asks whether it would be better to substitute the word “evacuated,” “departed” or “retired,” or to leave the sentence unchanged. (The right answer is “departed.”) ...
Last edited by Bostonian; 04/16/14 05:27 AM. Reason: added Sailer link
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Are college students never going to encounter "obscure vocabulary words" in their reading? Unfortunately, college students actually may not encounter "obscure vocabulary words", as some believe that college/university studies may be required to move down a bit to meet students who've completed common core standards. For example, it has been indicated that for students who completed common core, college/university cannot administer placement tests and require non-credit remediation courses. This may be to the detriment of any students who "squeaked by". Similarly, the common core ELA standards prescribe one half reading material be instructional text and only one half of reading material be literature (often excerpts or passages, not entire works). This standard is sure to lower vocabulary considered "college prep"... indicating that college/university courses may need to be less rigorous in their vocabulary expectations in order to provide access to new high school graduates under the common core.
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A defense of the current SAT: http://www.slate.com/articles/healt...al_intelligence_predicts_school_and.htmlYes, IQ Really Matters: Critics of the SAT and other standardized testing are disregarding the data. By David Z. Hambrick and Christopher Chabris Slate APRIL 14 2014 11:54 PM The College Board—the standardized testing behemoth that develops and administers the SAT and other tests—has redesigned its flagship product again. Beginning in spring 2016, the writing section will be optional, the reading section will no longer test “obscure” vocabulary words, and the math section will put more emphasis on solving problems with real-world relevance. Overall, as the College Board explains on its website, “The redesigned SAT will more closely reflect the real work of college and career, where a flexible command of evidence—whether found in text or graphic [sic]—is more important than ever.” A number of pressures may be behind this redesign. Perhaps it’s competition from the ACT, or fear that unless the SAT is made to seem more relevant, more colleges will go the way of Wake Forest, Brandeis, and Sarah Lawrence and join the “test optional admissions movement,” which already boasts several hundred members. Or maybe it’s the wave of bad press that standardized testing, in general, has received over the past few years. Critics of standardized testing are grabbing this opportunity to take their best shot at the SAT. They make two main arguments. The first is simply that a person’s SAT score is essentially meaningless—that it says nothing about whether that person will go on to succeed in college. ...
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Are college students never going to encounter "obscure vocabulary words" in their reading? Where did you see that? That is a scary thought.
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