Chapter three focuses on a couple different aspects of the new state testing requirements under the 2002 No Child Left Behind law. The No Child Left Behind law is a hot topic in education today, and is under heavy scrutiny. Schools and districts are being held accountable for the adequate yearly progress of every student. Wagner brings up two questions in relation to the testing. The first is, are these tests assessing the skills that students need for work and college? And the second is, what is the impact of teaching to the tests on students motivation to stay in school?
Wagner looked into what employers thought were important skills that graduates should have in today's job market. I was surprised that math was not even on the top ten list of what employers thought were important. Employers seem more interested in professionalism and work ethics, oral and written communication, critical thinking, problem solving, teamwork and leadership. I was really surprised that all of those things made the list before math or science skills. Another thing that I was surprised about is the fact that advanced math classes in high school give you knowledge of algebra to pass state laws and college admissions, but unless you are a math major they are not even required for most degrees.
Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) are tests of scientific and mathematical literacy. The findings on the PISA tests showed that adolescent Americans are very unprepared in important subjects, when compared with adolescents from fifty five other countries. This saddens me to realize how far behind our children are in today's academics. I do not understand why all these other countries are giving their students open ended questions, and we are still giving mostly multiple choice. For this reason American students can not apply what they have learned to a new problem or context. I think this needs to change.
Wagner interviewed a group of people who had been out of college for a few years, and asked them how their time might have been better utilized in high school. Most of these graduates thought they would have been more prepared for college if they had spent more time on writing, research skills, time management, and working together as a group. I really hope that their suggestions do not fall on deaf ears.
An organization named Achieve, interviewed 300 college professors and this is what they thought: 70% say students do not comprehend complex reading materials, 66% say students can not think analytically, 65% say students lack appropriate work ethics, 62% say students write poorly, 59% say students do not know how to do research, and 55% say students can not apply what they have learned to solve problems. I was really shocked by these facts. How can that be? If this is really true, then there absolutely needs to be some radical changes in our schools, because something is not working.
I liked the part in chapter three when Wagner looked into Advanced Placement (AP) through interviewing three AP experts. His findings were that there are elements of AP classes that are more challenging than taking classes that prepare you for state tests. But, all three experts still thought that there was too much factual content which they had to master, at the expense of research, reasoning and analysis.
Wagner also points out that student motivation is a real concern. I can relate to student motivation being a problem in today's youth. I have a fourteen year old son, and I do not think his school motivates him at all. He hardly ever has homework, and if he does he complains about it, even if it only takes him twenty minutes. I always feel that there could be so much more to his education. It is evident to me that the teaching and testing method they use is not motivating students. I really think they need to motivate the students, and get them excited to learn, or our drop out rate is never going to improve.
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