Absolutely, but if those kids don’t have a high school diploma, many of those paths are not available to them.
Also, in my school of over 2,000 students, there is one person dedicated to college and career counseling. The other counselors are burdened with other administrative tasks.
And to be clear, my position is not “let’s give everyone a diploma!” I struggle constantly with how to navigate this.
In my state, students already need to pass standardized tests to graduate. In fact, the testing is far more burdensome than at my own children’s private school which has far better outcomes. The article by Bloomberg implies that if colleges don’t require ACT/SAT high schools will forfeit accountability.
Not all states require such tests, and parents are largely unfamiliar with the state tests or their standards. I am sure, at our affluent public school, all students pass the state tests, as that bar is so low. But the school’s mediocre SAT tests, despite the SES of its students, tells me much more about the level of performance and academic environment of the school. So parents here can, if they wish, address the causes of that.
I would question if the school curriculum matches the type of questions on the SAT. My understanding is that SAT is getting an overhaul.
I also wonder how to correlate what grades should match which test scores. We seem to be entering an age where we think anything below the top 95th percentile or so is a poor grade.
But yes, parents can absolutely address why their A kid is not getting a desirable score on the SAT. I would argue that it tells you about the performance of the STUDENT more than the school.
Absolutely tells you more about the student. But in the absence of that SAT test, how would a parent know that about their own student? Particularly in an age of grade inflation, when school reports are often meaningless. For that matter, how would the student himself know that his skills were weak compared to others, if he had not taken the SAT, when his grades don’t reflect that?
I cannot answer that as each state has its own method of setting criteria for graduation or skill mastery. There are many means outside of the SAT, and that opens the issue of teaching to a test. There are students who can score really well on a test, but don’t do well on other skills that are important for success in college and life.
If a parent doesn’t know how a school, district, or state evaluates their child’s progress, my initial reaction is that is on the parent. From my experience (and I know I can’t speak to everyone’s experience), a lot of parents only show up when they want to complain. Information about grades, assignments and standardized test scores is available online to them. Literally everything.
I would personally look at how my student is performing against a set of criteria rather than comparing to others.
I can understand that, but the criteria most known and understood by both parents and institutions is the SAT/ACT. No one claims it measures life skills, just some degree of academic preparedness for college.
All academic tests for youth are grade-level normed.
True, but that doesn’t happen until late high school. I would say if you are waiting for an SAT, it’s going to be a little late.
I am not talking about life skills. SAT is pretty much reading and math, and a very specific type of reading.
Again, my real issue with the Bloomberg article is the insinuation that if colleges don’t require SAT/ACT tests, high schools (and by extension, educators) will “forfeit accountability” and just start slacking.
I am not anti-testing or anti-accountability.
They are not all that good at measuring achievement in specific courses other than math (regular level, not advanced level) and (somewhat) English. Better measures of high school learning would be achievement type tests like SAT subject tests for regular level courses and AP tests for advanced courses. But these seem to be out of favor as either college admission criteria or measurement of school quality (as in, if the A students in an AP course all get 1 scores on the AP test, that is a warning sign about the school).
The US seems unusual in that college admission testing is much less subject / achievement based than in other countries.
I agree, earlier national tests would be better in specific subjects, but we don’t seem to be moving in that direction.
The score in math nationally for 4th graders went down 5 pts or 2%. The score in reading nationally for 4th graders went down 3 pts or 1.36%. This is 2022 compared to 2019. Considering what went on that isn’t that bad.
It is just as much the parents responsibility as it is the school/teacher to ensure the child is learning. Problem is many don’t care enough or are overworked.
I always paid closed attention to any standardized test my kids took while K-6. We all know getting good grades is easy in those levels. Just turn stuff in. Do bad on a test and oftentimes you can retake the test. So I wanted to make sure my kids could do it on their own.
Let’s face it many parents are more of an obstacle for their kids’ learning than being someone that is helping the situation. That being said tons of money should be poured into K-4 grades. I am talking about tons of teaching aides that at the first sign a kid is falling behind they can get the one on one work they need to stay with their peers. If you wait too long the child will fall too far behind and won’t be able to catch up.
But we don’t want to invest the smart money that will help the kids.
Our son had mediocre to poor grades at a private school in K-5. He was an eager student and turned stuff in, but his work was poor quality with loads of mistakes. The teachers did not really express concern, just kept telling us “get him to read more on his own” or “he should study more.”
After he finally started public school in grade 6, he took a standardized test and was 15th percentile in reading. This triggered a more complete evaluation and they found out that he couldn’t physically focus his eyes well enough to read books, or read his own handwriting to do math problems. He also had cognitive visual processing issues that probably came from not addressing physical vision issues early enough. He needed vision therapy and special glasses. Everything changed once the visual issues were sorted out and he became a top student after that.
We were lucky that our public school had excellent resources to evaluate and assist us. The private school had nothing. The whole process really drove home to me how a student with poor academic performance might just have some very specific barrier that was not discovered or addressed. In my son’s case, standardized testing ended up being the key to finding out what was wrong.