[Offtopic] American senior Maths and English results

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

Hi all,

Last Thursday the NAEP released the latest report on the academic
performance of American Year 11 and 12 (senior) students. 

"The (US) National Assessment of Educational Progress -- often called the 
nation's report card -- is viewed as the best way to compare students 
across the country because it's the only uniform national yardstick for 
how well students are learning." (quote CNN)

<http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/>

According to results, almost 40 percent of high school seniors performed 
below the *basic* level on the math test, and more than 25 percent of 
students failed to reach the *basic* level on the reading test. 

On the math test, about 60 percent of high school seniors performed at or 
above the basic level. At that level, a student should be able to convert 
a decimal to a fraction, for example.

Just one-fourth of 12th-graders were proficient or better in math. To 
qualify as "proficient," students might have to determine what type of 
graph should be used to display particular types of data.

On the reading test, about three-fourths of seniors performed at or above 
the basic level, while 40 percent hit the proficient mark.

Seniors working at a basic reading level can identify elements of an 
author's style. At the proficient level, they can make inferences from 
reading material, draw conclusions from it and make connections to their 
own experiences.
--

Cheers people
Stephen Loosley
Victoria, Australia