03-06-2011, 06:11 PM
Grace62 wrote:
Not sure I agree with the "high school is easier now" idea when in fact standards for graduation have become tougher in nearly every state, with more math, science, and foreign language required now than a few decades ago.
250,000 high school students take AP Calculus, 3 times more than in 1990. Lab science is now a requirement for graduation in many places. Proficiency exams are required for graduation now too, designed to eliminate that problem of graduating kids who lack the minimum math and reading standards.
I know there's a lot of local variance, and the move towards national standards (core standards) will help.
oh, Grace62, if you lived in GA you'd understand. yes, more years of math and science are required but the curriculum is a mile wide and an inch deep. And proficency exams are a joke. case in point: GA has End of the Year exams in math. the results are listed as Exceeds Expectations, Meets Expectations, and Below Expectations. Last year only 51% of sophomores qualified as Meets Expectations or better. AND, the kicker is (and most parents don't know this as they don't dig) in order to meet expectations you only had to get 43%. that's right, just like in baseball if you get it right less than half the time you're doing great!
the 'proficiency' exams here only weed out the truly illiterate not the woefully undereducated.