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From what I have seen hard evidence for a decline in the US in general isscarce. But saying that there is some evidence from England. Michael
Curious -- my much less extensive experience is different. I never
heard of calc. offered in HS, is now, and AP what's that?
I think part of the reason for Mark's experience is the students that
once attended the State U now go to more demanding or at least higher
status Us, furthermore, the prop. of HS grads going to Us is much
higher. When these are factored in I think the decline will not be so
great.
bc, who attended the Slough U. (UCSB) free. (No tuition, just an
incidental fee of approx. $60 / semester.
Shapiro, Mark wrote:
Dear Richard et al.,physics courses). But, over that time I observed a steady decline in the
I can only cite my own experience (36 years of teaching introductory
level of preparedness of my students for college-level courses. In the
early 1970s I could count on most of the students in my introductory,
calculus-based physics course being reasonably familiar with the basic
concepts of algebra. Generally, more than half the class also would have
a reasonable acquaintance with the concepts of trigonometry. Since my
course also had a one-semester calculus prerequisite, many of the students
also were reasonably comfortable with differential calculus.
steadily, particularly in the areas of algebra and trigonometry.
As time went on I noticed that the level of preparation declined
at least a few formal lab reports. While the writing skills of the
Over the years I also taught a number of introductory labs that required
students never were great, they only got worse with time.
erosion in the quality of K-12 education in the U.S. from what I have
Does this constitute a crisis? Perhaps not. But there has been steady
seen. There are individual exceptions, of course. But folks, like
Bracey, who are quick to argue that everything is hunky-dory with the
American education system are not dealing with reality.
_______________________________________________
Dr. Mark H. Shapiro
Professor of Physics, Emeritus
California State University, Fullerton
Phone: 714 278-3884
FAX: 714 278-5810
email: mshapiro@fullerton.edu
web: http://physics.fullerton.edu/~mshapiro
travel and family pictures:
http://community.webshots.com/user/mhshapiro
CSU-ERFA Website: http://csuerfa.org
_______________________________________________
Forum for Physics Educators
Phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu
https://carnot.physics.buffalo.edu/mailman/listinfo/phys-l
Forum for Physics Educators
Phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu
https://carnot.physics.buffalo.edu/mailman/listinfo/phys-l