Re: [Phys-l] The U.S. Education Crisis: Manufactured or Real? #2

["John Clement" <clement@hal-pc.org>]

> From what I have seen hard evidence for a decline in the US in general is
scarce.  But saying that there is some evidence from England.  Michael
Shayer gave his test of thinking skills over 30 years ago.  He recently gave
it again, and observed a significant decline.  I do not know the population
he was testing, but he would have done a broad survey.  The paper is
apparently in a psychology journal, but where????

John M. Clement
Houston, TX

> 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.,
> >
> > I can only cite my own experience (36 years of teaching introductory
> physics courses).  But, over that time I observed a steady decline in the
> 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.
> > As time went on I noticed that the level of preparation declined
> steadily, particularly in the areas of algebra and trigonometry.
> > Over the years I also taught a number of introductory labs that required
> at least a few formal lab reports.  While the writing skills of the
> students never were great, they only got worse with time.
> > Does this constitute a crisis?  Perhaps not.  But there has been steady
> erosion in the quality of K-12 education in the U.S. from what I have
> 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
> >
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