Jungle Gym Math

And so continues the dumbing down of America. Case in point: Jungle Gym Math.
You can not make this stuff up.
The New York Times reports that advanced classes may be rigorous in name only.

But other studies point to a disconnect: Even though students are getting more credits in more advanced courses, they are not scoring any higher on standardized tests.

The reason, according to a growing body of research, is that the content of these courses is not as high-achieving as their names the course-title equivalent of grade inflation. Algebra II is sometimes just Algebra I. And College Preparatory Biology can be just Biology.

Lynn T. Mellor, a researcher in Austin, Tex., who has studied the phenomenon in the state, compares it to a food marketer labeling an orange soda as healthier orange juice.

Like the misleading drink labels, course titles may bear little relationship to what students have actually learned, said Dr. Mellor, who has analyzed course completion, test records and other student data in Texas We see students taking more and more advanced courses, but still not performing well on end-of-course exams.

The 2009 results the most recent available of the federal test that measures change in achievement levels over decades showed that the nations 17-year-olds were scoring no higher in reading and math than in 1973. SAT scores have dropped or flat-lined, too, since 2000.

But a federal study released this month of 38,000 high school transcripts showed that the proportion of graduates completing a rigorous curriculum rose to 13 percent in 2009 from 5 percent in 1990. Arnold A. Goldstein, a director at the departments National Center for Education Statistics, which administered both the federal test and the transcripts study, suggested possible causes for this apparent contradiction.

There may be a watering down of courses, he said. Also, high school seniors may not try hard when they take the federal tests, since there are no consequences based on how they perform, he said.

I’m a big fan of Advanced Placement and allowing open enrollment in such advanced courses, but pretending to offer more rigorous content or AP “lite” helps no one.

Students were taking more rigorous-sounding courses, but there was no evidence they had mastered the content, Dr. Schneider said. Researchers at Michigan State Universitybegan studying the issue for a 2001 paper that drew on the test scores of 13,000 American eighth-grade students who participated in an international math and science exam known as Timss.

They compared the schools math courses ranging from remedial through enriched to algebra I with the content of the textbooks used in them. In about 15 percent of the cases, the textbook covered less advanced areas of math than the course name suggested, said William H. Schmidt, who led the Michigan research.
Unfortunately this sort of nonsense is often used as the basis for not permitting academic acceleration.
Instead of doing a decent job of assessing readiness and addressing skill deficiencies, schools look at the number of struggling students and conclude that because some students are failing to master more rigorous content, all students need to slow down.
This watering down the content scheme is just one more example of the one-size-fits-all -approach to education. Perhaps even worse, this approach pretends that students are actually better prepared for life after graduation than they really are.
I guess we know why all those ‘A’ students need to take remedial math when they attend college.

Brandi Davis, a student in Mr. Bobys third-period class, Transitions to College Math, struggled to catch up, she said, after taking a chaotic eighth-grade math course in a neighboring district.

The course had a catchy name, she recalled: Jungle Gym Math.

It had some geometry, some algebra, Ms. Davis said. It jumped around.

Like I said. You can’t make this stuff up.

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