James Rogers wrote:
>
> On 8/24/01 3:04 PM, "Mike Lorrey" <mlorrey@datamann.com> wrote:
> >
> > Most of the countries that score higher than US kids on tests do so
> > specifically because they have a multi-tiered school system that weeds
> > kids out around the 6th or 7th grade, sending the achievers to
> > university prep high schools, and those that don't to vocational high
> > schools. The kids that take these comparison tests are only from the
> > university prep high schools, not the vocational ones, which is why they
> > score so high.
>
> While they don't exactly advertise it, most of the top public school
> districts in the U.S. do this too, with the predictable results that they
> look very, very good academically. People who either cause trouble or
> aren't making the grade are diverted to a second-tier school (nobody goes
> there unless they are sent there by the school district) that attempts to
> turn them into productive members of society rather than academic
> superstars.
Round here, they generally don't do this, but we do have a higher than
normal population of private schools here, which those with money and/or
few enough siblings can afford, unless you live near one of the private
catholic schools, which are generally highly affordable. Of all high
school students (public and private), NH has consistently one of the
highest rates of SAT participation as well as highest average SAT
performance (this year, number one in participation and number three in
average score). Oh, and BTW: NH also spends nearly the least per student
on education in the country...
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Oct 12 2001 - 14:40:24 MDT