Confusing: What I found confusing was really how the OneGoal program gets students to sign on. If they are underperforming, then how are they going to have the motivation or curiosity to sign on for a program like that?
Questions: Fellow cohortians--do you think you could ever be a OneGoal teacher on top of your job? Also, why is it that we keep inventing all sorts of programs to help the underperforming kids when we should fix the system itself? Also, acts like No Child Left Behind...why do we even do that?
Interesting/Important: What I thought was really intresting is that affluent students go to college and drink heavily or do other things their freshman year, while the less affluent students sort of catch up and close the achievement gap--I never realized or thought about that before and that is so true--especially in America where college is so expensive. I wonder if in countries where university education is cheaper, or even free, if there is that sort of achievement gap?
I was thinking the same thing about OneGoal and the students who sign on, Rachel. It is hard for me to wrap my head around the concept, unless it is their parents who are signing them up.
Questions: I thought it was really interesting that students were undermatching with their schools and choosing colleges below their level of intelligence. I think that happens more often than not, many times because kids want to stay close to home or think that they can't do well at a bigger name school. How do you think we can help the students match their college options correctly?
Comments: I also think that the matching the college issue is a problem for some affluent students, as well. A lot of students are persuaded by their parents to remain close to home, which a lot of the time means community college. I guess this relays back up to the question I just asked.
I thought Kewauna's story was really interesting. She went through a great deal to get where she was, and with her low ACT score, I definitely wouldn't have guessed that she could have gotten into the school that she did. I guess it reminds me that we should push our students to match schools to their best ability.
Comment: I can relate to students who don't do well on standardized tests. I do not think the SAT/ACT was a good predictor of my success in college. I have test anxiety, especially when I know a test like the SAT determines if I get into college! It's crazy that one test on a single day can determine one's future. Even last year, the GACE through a wrench in my plans, but I think that it made me come back more ready than ever to give my best while in the MAT. It all worked out. :)
"ACT scores revealed very little about whether or not a student would graduate from college. The far better predictor of college completion was a student's high school GPA," (152).
Question: So, why don't colleges look more at the GPA & involvement/extracurriculars/sports during high school instead of one standardized test score? I do see how some GPAs may even be skewed. Some school systems require more of their students or maybe a student has a really challenging teacher that demands a lot to receive an A & that messes up one's GPA, but still...one test involves more than just content. It has to do with how students do under pressure, whether or not they happened to study those root words, or whether they accidentally bubbled in the wrong letter. But, in real life, we have more time to study for our exams in college & what not. I can see both sides, but sometimes people just have off days. A teacher at my school brought this up the other day in a faculty meeting. The kids are having a student growth sheet sent home in the next few weeks showing their growth from x-grade level to y-grade level. But, these scores are based solely off one day of the entire year. I do not see how that shows their growth over the course of a year.
Confusing: What I found confusing was really how the OneGoal program gets students to sign on. If they are underperforming, then how are they going to have the motivation or curiosity to sign on for a program like that?
ReplyDeleteQuestions: Fellow cohortians--do you think you could ever be a OneGoal teacher on top of your job? Also, why is it that we keep inventing all sorts of programs to help the underperforming kids when we should fix the system itself? Also, acts like No Child Left Behind...why do we even do that?
Interesting/Important: What I thought was really intresting is that affluent students go to college and drink heavily or do other things their freshman year, while the less affluent students sort of catch up and close the achievement gap--I never realized or thought about that before and that is so true--especially in America where college is so expensive. I wonder if in countries where university education is cheaper, or even free, if there is that sort of achievement gap?
I was thinking the same thing about OneGoal and the students who sign on, Rachel. It is hard for me to wrap my head around the concept, unless it is their parents who are signing them up.
DeleteQuestions: I thought it was really interesting that students were undermatching with their schools and choosing colleges below their level of intelligence. I think that happens more often than not, many times because kids want to stay close to home or think that they can't do well at a bigger name school. How do you think we can help the students match their college options correctly?
ReplyDeleteComments: I also think that the matching the college issue is a problem for some affluent students, as well. A lot of students are persuaded by their parents to remain close to home, which a lot of the time means community college. I guess this relays back up to the question I just asked.
I thought Kewauna's story was really interesting. She went through a great deal to get where she was, and with her low ACT score, I definitely wouldn't have guessed that she could have gotten into the school that she did. I guess it reminds me that we should push our students to match schools to their best ability.
Comment: I can relate to students who don't do well on standardized tests. I do not think the SAT/ACT was a good predictor of my success in college. I have test anxiety, especially when I know a test like the SAT determines if I get into college! It's crazy that one test on a single day can determine one's future. Even last year, the GACE through a wrench in my plans, but I think that it made me come back more ready than ever to give my best while in the MAT. It all worked out. :)
ReplyDelete"ACT scores revealed very little about whether or not a student would graduate from college. The far better predictor of college completion was a student's high school GPA," (152).
ReplyDeleteQuestion: So, why don't colleges look more at the GPA & involvement/extracurriculars/sports during high school instead of one standardized test score? I do see how some GPAs may even be skewed. Some school systems require more of their students or maybe a student has a really challenging teacher that demands a lot to receive an A & that messes up one's GPA, but still...one test involves more than just content. It has to do with how students do under pressure, whether or not they happened to study those root words, or whether they accidentally bubbled in the wrong letter. But, in real life, we have more time to study for our exams in college & what not. I can see both sides, but sometimes people just have off days. A teacher at my school brought this up the other day in a faculty meeting. The kids are having a student growth sheet sent home in the next few weeks showing their growth from x-grade level to y-grade level. But, these scores are based solely off one day of the entire year. I do not see how that shows their growth over the course of a year.