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Re: [Phys-l] How Much Value is Added at Elite Institutions -Response to Haim #2




----- Original Message ----- From: "Marty Weiss" <martweiss@comcast.net>
Here's a typical example: My son attended a top notch comprehensive public high school in our suburban township. I was teaching in the inner city just a few miles away: his school offered courses we could only dream of offering. Every year, when NJ State high school testing "season" arrived we struggled just getting the students' attendance up for test days, plus we emphasized these tests to the detriment of everything else... pep rallies, "drop everything and read" days, guest speakers (athletes and entertainers, usually), and everything we could think of to get our kids pumped for the tests. I asked my son what his school was doing to prepare for the same tests. He looked at me and said, with a straight face, "What test?" When I named the test, his reply was, "Oh, that... we just go in and do it. No big deal." Guess what happened... my school had about 30 to 40% passing reading and about 20% passing math, while his school had 90% passing everything. By the ti
me he was a senior and had taken honors chemistry, honors physics, calculus 1 and 2, and AP chem, he was so ready for college that the first year at a "top 50 university" was like a review of his senior year of high school. These tests are a joke; any value added bonus based on such tests is an insult to the teachers who work there.

Marty

Then bonus part may well be an insult, but your example shows that the tests do tell us something--just not what people want to hear. It is the CULTURE/SUBCULTURE in which the kids reside (or are trapped) which seems to be the primary factor here. Engaged, motivated students (with engaged parents) will succeed. When the prevalent sub-culture lacks these things (and fill in your own excuses for why not) the students have to be extrordinary to succeed. Throwing money at education won't be enough to change those sub-cultures. Not sure what would be! ;-(

Richard W. Tarara
Professor of Physics
Saint Mary's College
Notre Dame, Indiana

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