2012 SAT Reading Scores Lowest Since 1972 | NPR | Government Schools Have Failed Americans, Agree?

by Heisenberg Posted 2012/09/25 01:25:31

Related Topics: NPR, School, College, Schools, Sat, Americans, college board, Score, Government, 2012, President, Test, Commission, American

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28 votes
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	Agree	25 votes	89%
	Disagree	3 votes	11%

NPR.ORG reports:
The president of the College Board, which commissions the test, said these numbers should be a "call to action."

2012 SAT Reading Scores Lowest Since 1972 NPR Government Schools Have Failed Americans Agree

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Kane Fernau 2012/09/25 02:46:19

Agree

+3
Big government's good intentions gone bad. nothing new about that.?
>> See Replies

More polls by Heisenberg

elle 2012/10/04 02:43:07

Agree

The government is so busy thinking up all of these tests that confuse the students instead of helping them. The poor students barely have enough time to adjust to one test before a new test is thrown into the mix. Just leave them alone and let the teachers do their jobs.

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James 2012/09/26 01:47:26

Agree

Hey! I have an idea! Let's throw MORE money at the problem and hope and see if that fixes it!!!!

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lucky 2012/09/25 14:19:40

Agree

Along with parents who dont keep tabs on what their children are learning, social programs that should be left out of the classroom and school systems that put sports programs above basic English, Math and Science classes.

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thefatguy 2012/09/25 07:26:09

Agree

Government schools are a joke. Privatize them all and liberate the people from Big Government indoctrination centers.

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dallasjoe 2012/09/25 04:45:15

Agree

Time to strip out all extras from school until the SAT scores come up

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Scott C 2012/09/25 04:40:27

Agree

Private education is the only route to take.

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alw_ays 2012/09/25 04:05:26

Agree

"according to the College Board which commissions the SAT's, 6 in ten test takers are not prepared for college level work."

If you teach at a college level, you know this already. So many are taking 0-hundred level classes because they're not ready for even 101. So many in 1-hundred level courses are being re-taught grammar, algebra, even basic biology & American history. And if you don't cater to this new lowest-denominator, you can lose your job.

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Marc m 2012/09/25 04:04:01

Agree

yez i agre & tha speling iz ahful two

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dallasjoe to Marc m 2012/09/25 04:51:05

and in the Eight Grade GOD (Bill Gates) made Spell check

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Marc m to dallasjoe 2012/09/25 04:54:40

mi speling iz grate. me dont ned spelchek. pucksuashun now that"d b diferant

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dallasjoe to Marc m 2012/09/25 04:59:50

+1
i Zee Cuz

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mikeeonly 2012/09/25 03:16:11

Agree

sometimes they just push kids through. I blame the entire system, the use of calculators and computers during tests etc.

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Meagan 2012/09/25 03:00:05

Disagree

Americans have failed Americans

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RTHTGakaRoland 2012/09/25 02:55:00

Agree

+2
Willingly sending your children to government schools is becoming a form of child abuse.

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sglmom 2012/09/25 02:48:03

Agree

+2
I'm not even surprised at this information in this article at this time ..

(for here's a rehash of some interesting information I dug up for one of my own polls ... )

There's this about the TEST SCORES we should consider as well ..
http://times247.com/articles/...
"Seventy-nine percent of the 8th graders in the Chicago Public Schools are not grade-level proficient in reading, according to the U.S. Department of Education, and 80 percent are not grade-level proficient in math."

YIKES .. THIS IS EVEN WORSE!!!!!
(ONLY 21% are grade-level proficient by 8th Grade in Reading in CPS Schools)
(Only 20% are grade-level proficient by 8th grade in Math in CPS Schools)

WHICH by these statistics .. it calls in QUESTION The actual CPS Press Release ..
if you don't have even 1 of 4 students at Proficiency level by 8th Grade ..
how the blazes are you getting 6 of 10 to graduation
(IF you've not tinkered with the requirements to graduate in the first place?)

(this is what I put forth for comments .. and it contains the information sources too )
http://www.sodahead.com/unite...

NEEDLESS to say ..

ALL Around failure ..
Reading, Writing, MATH .. Science ..
when 60%+ are unable to be proficient enough to actually enter College .. (or just be proficient for 12th Grade basic education)

OU...

I'm not even surprised at this information in this article at this time ..

(for here's a rehash of some interesting information I dug up for one of my own polls ... )

There's this about the TEST SCORES we should consider as well ..
http://times247.com/articles/...
"Seventy-nine percent of the 8th graders in the Chicago Public Schools are not grade-level proficient in reading, according to the U.S. Department of Education, and 80 percent are not grade-level proficient in math."

YIKES .. THIS IS EVEN WORSE!!!!!
(ONLY 21% are grade-level proficient by 8th Grade in Reading in CPS Schools)
(Only 20% are grade-level proficient by 8th grade in Math in CPS Schools)

WHICH by these statistics .. it calls in QUESTION The actual CPS Press Release ..
if you don't have even 1 of 4 students at Proficiency level by 8th Grade ..
how the blazes are you getting 6 of 10 to graduation
(IF you've not tinkered with the requirements to graduate in the first place?)

(this is what I put forth for comments .. and it contains the information sources too )
http://www.sodahead.com/unite...

NEEDLESS to say ..

ALL Around failure ..
Reading, Writing, MATH .. Science ..
when 60%+ are unable to be proficient enough to actually enter College .. (or just be proficient for 12th Grade basic education)

OUR children are utterly failed .. by the 'education system' ..

(and it is not just teachers/administrators failing here .. also a FAILURE to parent too .. as well as a FAILURE of students to learn the JOY of Learning .. (and do their homework/classwork))
(more)

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Kane Fernau 2012/09/25 02:46:19

Agree

+3
Big government's good intentions gone bad. nothing new about that.?

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Striker to Kane Fe... 2012/09/25 03:50:47

good intentions? that's hilarious!

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Kane Fe... to Striker 2012/09/25 14:54:15 (edited)

+1
Isn't that what socialism is? Fairness? Politics

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Striker to Kane Fe... 2012/09/25 15:57:25

yeah, but they lie and many people don't seem to know the difference. Of course it's all for "the greater good", paid for by those who strive to survive and prosper.

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Kane Fe... to Striker 2012/09/25 20:07:01

+1
Progressives are just Marxists. Conservatives are capitalists

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Ken 2012/09/25 02:32:32

Agree

+3
How long before the people wake up to this fact?

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gregory.ditzler 2012/09/25 02:17:57

Disagree

STATE government schools failed the country, the FEDERAL government should be running education instead.

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thefatguy to gregory... 2012/09/25 07:24:43

You again with your love for Big Government?! Why don't we just get rid of the states entirely and just let one person run the whole country? Who needs a Congress anyway? What could possibly go wrong?

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gregory... to thefatguy 2012/09/25 23:49:55

You don't get exactly what I want from the government, I want a government that caters to the largest number of people possible. Not serve the will of a single tyrant, I want an efficient democracy that is stable.

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thefatguy to gregory... 2012/09/26 06:46:37

No, I do get what you want. You want to grant more power to a central government because you believe it will make things more efficient. But, what you are too ignorant to realize is that your path paves the way for a government that, rather than "caters to the largest number of people possible", caters to itself and its own power until the people are crushed.

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gregory... to thefatguy 2012/09/26 22:40:58

It doesn't have to lead that way, that's why we have checks and balances. We can balance a large central government with term limits and elections and dirrect elections.

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thefatguy to gregory... 2012/09/26 22:53:42

But, you want to strip checks and balances from our federalist system whereby power is shared between states and the Federal government. So, you are not in favor of our current Constitutional system? You think you are wiser than our Founding Fathers in this regard? I'm positive you are not. Your suggestions undo the protections put in place by our Founders.

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gregory... to thefatguy 2012/09/26 23:26:23

I am suggesting a modified version of the system of government in Canada, Sweden, Japan, Finland, and Denmark with some ideas from ancient Rome and Ming dynasty China and the works of Jeremy Bentham, John Dewey, Thomas Hobbes, and Machiavelli. Minor changes a real eclectic system of government that is both efficient and balanced. Splitting the government in half is a very inefficient and sloppy way of creating a balanced government and had always failed whenever it's been tried. Look at ancient Greece as your example. Instead we can balance this excessive power with 3+ political parties, term limits, and direct elections of representatives. This is obviously better and gives Americans something to be proud of. I don't know if wiser is the right word seeing as that would be cultural nono as far as american culture is concerned but, I have read much of the same literature they read and slightly more as of course more books on political philosophy has come out since the times of the founding fathers. The founding fathers favored Thomas Hobbes's personal rival in the realm of political philosophy John Locke who was very much a political optimist believing that a weak government wouldn't fail. He was very unrealistic in his view of humanity in that not everyone wants to keep to themselves and are obviously not altruistic.

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thefatguy to gregory... 2012/09/26 23:32:11

So, your short answer is that you think you do have better political ideas than our Founders. Our Founders opposed a direct democracy as you propose. I don't think your ideas are "obviously better". In fact, I'd say that history and experience suggest that your proposal would obviously be worse.

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gregory... to thefatguy 2012/09/26 23:47:28

There aren't any direct democracies in history and my suggestion isn't a direct democracy seeing as politicians are clearly elected in my system although what I suggest is somewhere between the two. Also considering the fact the founding fathers were limited in scope by personal experience and knowledge available at their time I would say that anyone interested in knowing the political history now has obviously more knowledge seeing as their is more knowledge available now than they had.

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thefatguy to gregory... 2012/09/26 23:53:21

You confuse knowledge with wisdom. One of the major problems today is too many intellectuals who have knowledge but no wisdom.

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gregory... to thefatguy 2012/09/26 23:57:10

You can't have one without the other. Critical thinking skills is a part of educated debate which is the sport of intellectuals.

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thefatguy to gregory... 2012/09/27 00:02:16

You couldn't be more incorrect. For example, most college professors have lots of knowledge but very little wisdom.

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gregory... to thefatguy 2012/09/27 00:03:59

How so?

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thefatguy to gregory... 2012/09/27 00:15:08

College professors live in an insulated cocoon away from the real world. They spend years being hyper-focused on a very limited range of study to the exclusion of a whole panoply of human understanding. There is not doubt they have great knowledge of a particular field but most have never had to operate outside the theoretical world of academia. This phenomena holds true for experts of virtually all professions. Many of the most successful people are experts in their field but ignorant of much of the world outside their area of expertise. Wisdom comes not from knowledge but real world experience. One could have never gone to any school or read any books but still have more wisdom than an expert. College professors usually have limited experience in the real world by virtue of the nature of their profession.

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Mike 2012/09/25 01:39:28

Agree

+3
The “lowest since 1972,” complements to our Government-controlled educational system. Perhaps, we should try the free-market private sector in education. What can we lose?

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Striker to Mike 2012/09/25 03:51:53

+1
free market education always worked well and cost WAY less

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robert.goldsmith.14 2012/09/25 01:35:44

Agree

+3
This is why home schooling is becoming an ever increasingly better choice. Teacher unions are going on strike, demanding more money and yet have been producing sub-standard results. The solution isn't more money. It's adjusting to your student's learning styles and not dumbing down the curriculum.

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Nika 2012/09/25 01:30:21

Disagree

I don't know much about the country but I certainly did good on my SATs and so did my friends. Although, we're the AP/honors kids soooo...

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Kat 2012/09/25 01:26:52

Agree

+2
100% agree liberal indoctrination camps.

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