Back To The Blog Again

And to kick things off, this story from the New York Times, which I'll link to, but it won't be available for long before they take it down and charge for it.

Bronx Sixth Graders Master Mysteries of the Biology Regents

I'll quote:

Although the biology Regents is usually taken in ninth grade, teachers at this school felt that their students needed a challenge, so they essentially started teaching ninth-grade biology and added test preparation.

Ten of the 23 students who took the exam (known formally as the Living Environment test) passed with marks between 65 and 80 on a 100-point scale. Of the 51,000 students who took the exam citywide in the 2003-4 school year, 58 percent passed.

Ten out of 23 students passed a 9th grade exam in 6th grade. The article says they completed 20 hours of labs, apparently mostly on Saturday extra sessions. Sounds impressive? Well, actually 20 hours is the bare minimum required to qualify for the exam. What did they do in the other periods? What happens to the 13 who didn't pass the exam? If they couldn't score 65 on a generously scaled (i.e., curved) exam then what exactly did they learn? How much confusion was sown, how many kids came away feeling that science is just too hard for them?

I don't mean to sound so negative, and I'm sorta happy for the kids who passed the exam. I'm sure they feel a good deal of pride. I do wonder about kids feeling pride in achieving a 65 on an exam and thinking that this is an "accomplishment." I graded a fair number of exams and a 65 on the exam, while passing, shows an incredible LACK of understanding of the mysteries of biology. I had a number of students pass with scores in the 65-75 range and I just had to shake my head at how little they knew. What really bothers me is that this approach to teaching is more about the school than the kids. There are so many other ways to make a science program rigorous and at the same time age-appropriate.