Reading Scores

I just found a printout charging the mean growth of our students from 9-11 grade. Now I won't take a stab and trying to comprehend the RIT, standard deviation, standard error, mean growth, growth index, percent of target . . . Yadda, yadda, yadda. The freshman had mean of growth targets. It dipped a bit in the 10th grade. Then it plunged down to 0 for the 11th grade. But now we're told that students grow less as they go through high school. They aren't expected to hit their mean growth targets. Then what the hell do we test them for?

This doesn't surprise me. First, it's ludicrous to think that juniors, let alone seniors, will take testing seriously. They aren't graded on them. They don't - as yet - have anything to do with getting into colleges. So why put in the effort. I wouldn't either. Okay, I'd give it the old college try, but I wouldn't blame others for not doing it. I'm just a freak like that at times.

Second, fewer and fewer students read. Nobody loves reading more or has reading impact their life more than me. But reading is facing extinction. It's a damn shame, but it's going the way of the typewriter. Into oblivion. I ask more and more kids either KoKo's age or my player's ages. To a person, they almost unanimously (at least the majority) say the don't read - and quite a few use the adjective 'hate' to describe reading. In the age of TV, ipods, text messaging, emails, and so on, the days of reading might be numbered. I hope I'm wrong. I really, really do.

Plus, I get frustrated by all of these high and mighty policy makers and educational experts who bemoan the lack of reading. It stinks - I agree - but let's not act like 50 years ago 90% of the population was reading around the hearth! I have to think that in the good old days of the 1950s, quite a few people didn't read. Even before radio and TV came along, how many read? It's not like their lives were easier! I just have a feeling that in the average American home in the 40s or 50s, if you peaked in on them after dinner, many wouldn't be all reading at the dinner table. In fact, I bet many traditionalists complained about how the radio was going to ruin reading. I guess we're back to the assumptions about learning again.