Curriculum

West Reading Scores by Ethnicity

2 Comments

These are the figures from the DPI Web site on minimum and basic 10th grade readers at West.
Asian/Pacific Islander:

Minimum – 5%
Basic – 11%

Black

Minimum – 22%
Basic – 24%

Combined Groups(Small Number)

Minimum – 25%
Basic – 34%

How will the core curriculum teach them to read and write?

2 thoughts on “West Reading Scores by Ethnicity”

  1. West High 10th grade WKCE (Nov 2004 data) from DPI WINNS database:
    Percentage of Students (enrolled = 457)
    who took the WKCE tests and scored basic or minimal, which I believe is below grade level.
    Reading – 19%
    Language Arts – 24%
    Mathematics – 33%
    Science – 20%
    Social Studies – 21%

  2. You know what’s really weird here? “Basic”, which we are all assuming is failing, seems to mean by DPI standards that the child shows mastery of some, many, or most areas of grade level material, but not all. Wow. And that is failing? How do we explain that so few kids score at minimal then? When I student taught at a middle school last year, I was shocked by the number of kids who could not even read at what I would consider grade level, much less write at grade level.
    If a sixth grader can’t read a “chapter book”, that many nine and ten-year-olds can read easily, well enough to understand it and write a multi-paragraph essay on it (even just explaining what went on), that is not at grade level, right? So, how come only 1/4 or so score minimal? I am talking about half of the kids I ran into. Among the minority students, it was much worse – 3/4 or more. We are talking testing out at second or third grade reading level, and some as low as early first (though very few). So with these standardized test scores, is “basic” really the same as “not passing” (people seem to use “passing” interchangably with “proficient or advanced” a lot), when it means that the student shows “mastery” of grade level material in most areas, just not all? I find it very annoying that people within the same broad field (education) use the same terms with very different meanings. But I guess people do it in a lot of ther areas too?
    I also wonder how so many kids who read “minimally”, however it is defined, will even begin to be able to read or understand the materials in a class that is supposed to challenge students at the highest levels also. Is it still “doing tenth grade English” in a core curriculum if they have to get the readings they do finish through books on tape?

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