Education professional: Missouri students need more non-fiction writing skills

[proud2BlibKansan]

Doug Reeves is being hailed as a great author by admins. Wonder how long before they throw him under the bus?

An education researcher and author tells the State Board of Education how to make Missouri one of top ten in the nation.

Doug Reeves says Missouri schools — like many other states — are over tested and under assessed. And he says there need to be some major changes in one area — writing. He says there’s a lack of non-fiction writing early on, which leads to dropping grades in high school.

“We need to dramatically increase nonfiction writing whether or not it’s part of a state test,” he says.

He says all of the top ten states have state-required writing exams. He says in addition to writing assessment, schools need to require students to incorporate writing into other subjects, such as science, social studies, and mathematics.

more . . . http://www.missourinet.com/2011/01/20/education-professional-missouri-students-need-more-non-fiction-writing-skills/

[zazen]

1. why? we have millions of unemployed who have decent writing skills

If it's to help them be more engaged citizens and reflective individuals, I guess that's great, but I am so fed up with the mantra of "improved STEM, critical thinking, collaborative, yada yada yada" skills and aptitudes will "make our students more globally competitive."

Hogwash.

We need organizing to bring jobs home and to stop the plutocratic theft of wealth from the middle and working classes.

The uber elite want to shift responsibility for their criminal behavior onto "education."

Thanks for the link.

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. We have unemployed with good Math skills too

Should we stop teaching it also?

[zazen]

4. not stop teaching it; just don't make reform the top priority

I'm an ed research consultant--so I don't say this lightly. I just see millions being poured into the subtlest of reforms that aren't clearly demonstrated to improve achievement anyway, while the same groups of policymakers and their philanthropist friends who get together at their posh "conferences" refuse to direct any money into deeper causes of low achievement in school and poverty in adulthood. It's mighty convenient for them, to displace blame.

Just because the Coleman report of the 60s had flaws doesn't mean that there aren't larger causes that can't be addressed. I've been up to my eyeballs in "STEM reform" since the early 90s--have helped people get around $60 million in research dollars for it--and I don't see it deeply changing much of anything.

There's only so much money and so much energy to go around, and I'm telling you, the obsession with STEM or any ed reform problem as a cure-all for our workforce problems has become a form of de facto silencing of larger issues.

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. When the publishers drive the reform, you get what we have.

It's actually very simple.

[Hannah Bell]

9. +100

[Karia]

2. They need to learn to do more than take tests

From the quotes, I think that was his main point. The kids are being taught how to take tests, but they are not really learning anything.

[Reader Rabbit]

5. What's funny is that there are a ton of business leaders who can't write.

For the first 7–10 years of my teaching career, I did temp work every summer to make ends meet. A surprising number of division managers, vice presidents, etc., couldn't write their way out of a paper bag. Not only were their business letters and reports barely coherent, but their spelling and grammar stunk, too.

As the minimum wage temp worker who had to correct all their mistakes and re-write a good portion of their work, I always found it extremely ironic.

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. I found a state rep on Facebook today

I don't think English is her first language.

Her FB posts are appalling. She can't even spell the name of her own profession. She says she has worked as a "dental hygeintist for 37 year".

And guess what? She's a tea bagger. :)

[txlibdem]

8. vice presidents and division managers, the privileged class

I'm not surprised to hear your assessment of the intelligence of our "upper class" overlords. I, too, have worked with many CEOs, company Presidents and VPs who couldn't manage their way out of an elevator. It seems that if daddy has enough money you don't have to study at all, dear old dad just keeps the checks coming and you get to graduate, guaranteed. Even though you never set foot in class and did more drugs than Cheech, Chong and Bob Marley combined. These people would be sweeping the streets if not for daddy's money and "connections" paving their way through life.

[Hannah Bell]

10. +100. can't spell, either, & don't think it's important, either.