The Loony Bin
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loonies@bloodaxe.com
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Wed, 28 Jul 1999 23:34:19 +0100
Hiya People...
Here's a fascinating article on the changes in educational standards...
Wishes & Dreams...
- ANDREA
xx
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------- Forwarded foolishness follows -------
Dan Walters: Century makes big difference
(Published April 11, 1999, Sacramento Bee)
Gov. Gray Davis said last week that in seeking public education reforms,
he would "begin to change the culture...from excuses for poor
performance to high expectations."
Those are certainly noble sentiments, although it's uncertain whether
the relatively modest, four-bill package he shepherded through the
Legislature will have more than marginal impact on a public education
system in deep crisis.
Just how deep is illustrated by a recently discovered book titled
"California Teachers Examinations," compiled and published by a Santa
Barbara printing company in 1888.
The publishers gathered samples of teacher licensing tests then
administered by California's 52 counties and compiled them to help
aspiring teachers prepare for exams. At the time, as the book explained,
there were fewer than 5,000 public school teachers in a mostly rural
California, averaging fewer than 1.5 teachers for each school. And the
vast majority of those seeking teaching certificates had fewer than four
years of college.
Typically, a licensing test covered 20 or more subjects and applicants
had to score 80 percent or better to be given certificates.
The tests were, to put it mildly, very tough by late 20th century
standards. Applicants were confronted with complex mathematical
problems, some of which had to be solved without even paper and pencil,
as well as questions and problems on grammar, geography, American
history, physiology, penmanship, writing, spelling, reading,
bookkeeping, music, entomology and other disciplines.
Here's one example from the Fresno County test on grammar: "Define and
make sentences illustrating the following: Attribute complement,
objective complement, copula, compound sentence and complex sentence."
Here's another from the Yolo County geography test: "Name four of the
leading exports of the following countries: Chile, Central America, West
Central States, Argentine Republic, France, Russia, British India,
Australia, Barbary Coast, Soudan."
Or this one from the San Bernardino County music exam: "Define melodies,
harmonics, dynamics, rit, a tempo and cres."
The 1888 teacher tests stand in stark, almost humiliating, contrast with
the California Basic Educational Skills Test (CBEST), which today's
teachers must pass. The 100 CBEST questions and two brief essays cover
only reading comprehension and mathematics, are infinitely easier in
content - no more than high school level - and offer multiple-choice
answers rather than the precise responses of 1888.
Here's an example of the math part of a recent CBEST test: "In an
election for club president, Sari received 70 percent of the votes. If
her opponent received the remaining 21 votes, how many people voted in
the election?" The respondent could choose from five answers: 91, 70,
64, 49 and 30.
That's barely junior high school-level material, and CBEST requires a
passing score of barely 50 percent. Even so, huge numbers of would-be
teachers with four or five years of college education fail each year.
One suspects that 90 percent of today's teachers would flunk the 1888
teacher tests, which is not so much a criticism of them as an
observation about educational expectations in general. Over the years,
we've simply expected less and less of students, partly because it was
easier on society and educators and partly, one suspects, because
maintaining very rigorous standards would result in a politically
intolerable number of failing pupils.
Restoring true intellectual rigor to California's public schools would
take years of very painful effort and be politically costly
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