Writing program improves test scores at MA high school
A large Massachusetts high school has vastly improved student test scores by incorporating writing into every subject taught. This seems like a simple way to improve local (and national) high school achievement. This account suggests how an innovative ideas can occasionally usurp conventional wisdom
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/28/education/28school.htm
The article starts as follows: "A decade ago, Brockton High School was a case study in failure. Teachers and administrators often voiced the unofficial school motto in hallway chitchat: students have a right to fail if they want. And many of them did — only a quarter of the students passed statewide exams. One in three dropped out "
Ever since the schools in
Ever since the schools in America started being informed by the government that they only needed to focus on TEST SCORES, TEST SCORES, TEST SCORES, it seems like writing has joined science, social studies, art, music, P.E., recess, etc. on the chopping block. It is not surprising, then, that the newest generations of college students are often completely incapable of writing at a college level. My fiancee is a TA for advanced classes at the U of I and she is constantly amazed at how awful the writing skills of these students are. We are talking the kind of stuff you would expect to see from middle school students. It will be a very sad day if writing skills are one day no longer considered important to have, and I think we are steadily on the way there.
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