Headline, October31, 2013

''' SUCCESS IN ALL AND

EVERY LEARNING '''

A very impressive -past- study in the American Educational Research supports the idea that schools have contributed to the lower verbal scores and that they can also reverse the trend.

Professor Donald P.Hayes of Cornell University and two colleagues concluded that the biggest decline in the test scores, which occurred from 1963 to 1979, was due not to a change in the composition of the test-takers:

But to a progressive simplification of the language in schoolbooks.

The authors reviewed 800 textbooks used in elementary schools, middle schools and high schools between 1919 and 1991.

They discovered that the vocabulary of the school books became easier and easier after World War II. They concluded that daily use of simplified text books across 11 years of schooling produces:

''A cumulating deficit in students knowledge base and advanced verbal skill.''

Even now they find, the textbooks used in grades four through eight are ''at their lowest level in American history'' in terms of their language. In high school, only science books are written with any degree of verbal difficulty.

According to their study, the average literature text book used in the twelfth grade is even simpler than the seventh or eighth grade reader used before World War II.

SAT verbal scores began to fall when students who entered first grade in 1952 became high school seniors. And the scores even fell further in the years afterward.

If Professor Hayes is right, schools can reverse the decline in verbal skills by introducing students to challenging materials starting in the first grade.

This makes more sense the claim that today's low verbal scores are the best that can be expected from test-takers who include large proportions of racial and ethnic minorities and women.

Success in school, learning and education is, and always has been, the result of good teaching, individual student effort and rigorous curriculum.

That remains true, whether the students are male or female, black or white, Asian or Hispanic. :

With respectful dedication to the Students, Professors and Teachers of Chile. See Ya all on the World Students Society Computers-Internet-Wireless:

''' !!! Full Sail Ahead !!! '''

Good Night & God Bless!

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless