Posted on 05/29/2012 7:18:20 AM PDT by SmileRight
When the passing rate for students taking the writing FCAT dropped to 30 percent this year, compared to 80 percent last year, the Florida Board of Education addressed the problem with typical aplomb: It changed the grading scale.
Like magic, failure turned into success for tens of thousands of students. Of course, they can’t write any better than before, but that’s beside the point. The students passed the FCAT, didn’t they? So their schools’ letter-grade ratings won’t go down, and their self-esteem will remain intact. That’s what’s important, isn’t it?
The high initial failure rate was due at least in part to increased emphasis this year on spelling, grammar and punctuation, a change in approach administrators didn’t adequately convey to the teachers charged with preparing students for the test. As someone who has made a living his entire adult life as a writer and editor, I find this curious. Good writing rests on a foundation...
(Excerpt) Read more at bizpacreview.com ...
This gives new meaning to grading on a curve, doesn’t it???
With all the Gender Confusion who has time to learn the basics.
Been harping on this since I graduated with a BA in English 10 years ago: MOST people, kids included, can’t implement the written language like our predecessors.
Texting, Tweeting, instant messages, and email brevity all lead the charge for linguistic simplicity that eschews proper vocabulary, grammar, and spelling. Kids don’t want to know how to properly use myriad (note: it’s an adjective not a noun) or the difference between you’re and your or they’re, their, and there. They don’t care about serial commas or proper punctuation. They don’t care about ALL CAPS or exclamations!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’d bet that Florida isn’t alone in this country, but it’s the most prevalent due to the increase of standards for the FCAT which left MOST kids in the dust on their scorecards.
FWIW, Florida used to have a program called “Florida Writes” where assessments were given to 8th, 10th, and 12th graders on writing skills. Charlie Crist did away with that, IIRC. I scored a 6/6 every time I took it. Those of us who scored a 6/6 usually numbered under 5 for the entire school.
The unfortunate thing is that if you cannot write well, you likely also cannot think clear thoughts.
how many schools even teach script?
Now that Florida has attempted to install some system of accountability, everyone is screaming because the FCAT testing system is revealing failure on multiple levels.
Well where is the surprise?
The FCAT system was not installed because the Florida Public School System was demonstrating excellence and success...just the opposite.
So an accountability/testing system was installed in a failing system and voila! It revealed FAILURE.
FCAT was not designed to be a universal teaching methodology...It was designed to reveal if the teaching that was being delivered was actually effective.
Public Schools as currently configured based on Politically Correct Values and Big Government Union Special Interests is a FAILURE.
Start by eliminating the Leftists Values and Big Unions...problem solved!
Texting, Tweeting, instant messages, and email brevity all lead the charge for linguistic simplicity that eschews proper vocabulary, grammar, and spelling.
Why do you speak in acronyms?
FWIW, IIRC.
Irony.
Who noes y kids cant rite? Teechers do there best i spose.
Too many damn yankees moving down here to escape from the hellholes they created in the north...........
In the 60's we had to learn "New Math". Now we rank 25th in world wide test scores.
In the 90's we went to phonetic spelling (fonetik spelng) now we rank 12th in reading.
In the millennium we concentrated on improving these scores so we neglected science, now we rank 29th in the world in science.
We took out physical education so no one would lose at any sport or physical activity and we improved our world score there to the #9 fattest country.
Look at Occupy Wall Street and you can see the fruits of our educational system (and a lot of nuts too).
It was reported just recently that schools around here were going to stop teaching script/cursive writing.
Teachers here complain that they have to “teach to the test” rather than teach, apparently, how they want. If the test is “spelling, grammar and punctuation,” what’s the problem? My kids are in an A-rated school and they already are being taught these things - in the first grade.
Kids don’t want to know how to properly use myriad (note: it’s an adjective not a noun)
Since myriad can be used as a noun meaning 10,000. By the way, Milton used it as a noun.
Of course, we have stopped teaching Greek and Latin, so the etymology of words is lost on today's student.
By the way, I remember a move back in the '90s to change certain plurals, such as appendices to appendixes and indices to indexes. Is this bastardization still going on?
How come the head of the Teacher’s Union isn’t summoned before the legislature at budget time to answer this question?
No... it’s not irony. Irony is another word that is misused. Irony means “the use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning”
We are posting on a forum, and those are common shorthand acronyms. I could spell out For What It’s Worth and If I Recall Correctly, but I’ve put in my time in school and excelled greatly. Shorthand can be useful in proper context.
Agreed. Having learned Latin in college, the meaning of words isn’t lost on me.
The common and proper use of the word is as an adjective. Most do not use myriad properly, even as a noun, but I digress.
I agree. I would also add the fact that few kids read for pleasure anymore. I briefly had a Facebook account, and during that time I would check my teenaged niece's page. I was appalled at how many of her "friends" said they don't read. If you don't see the English language used properly, how can you learn to use it yourself?
To answer the title question, one need only to peruse a few of the articles, titles, and responses on FR to understand that writing skills have devolved considerably. Just two articles down from this one is an article with the title “Many Obama’s” that was obviously typed in by the original poster rather than copy/paste since the author of the article, Victor Davis Hanson, clearly knows the proper use of the apostrophe by demonstrating the skill in the lead sentence. The excuse of “it’s (only) the Internet” is supposed to stand as the universal escape from being exposed for lazy writing and thinking. I, for one, don’t buy that.
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