Nbadan
05-13-2008, 02:17 PM
Some DISD students not ready for college
06:02 PM CDT on Saturday, May 10, 2008
By CYNTHIA IZAGUIRRE / WFAA-TV
No Child left behind/TAKS has been very efficient.....at making kids dumber....
DALLAS — It's May, which means thousands of high school seniors across North Texas can almost taste it: their diploma. This month 7,500 Dallas ISD seniors are expected to walk across the stage and make their families proud.
But what if we told you that 75 percent of the seniors headed to Dallas community colleges can't read above an 8th grade level, and others can't add or subtract?
Graduation is a time for feeling proud, but that might quickly change to frustration for thousands of DISD students like Gia Hollis come fall, when reality hits.
News 8 requested and received documents from the Dallas County Community College District that show, over the last three years, an average of 75 percent of the DISD students enrolled in classes took at least one developmental education course.
“My reading levels are so low, and I’m really not comprehending, and it’s really holding me back," Hollis said. "It’s taking me longer."
Hollis is in a developmental reading course at El Centro College. Developmental courses prepare students to take college classes. In the Fall of 2007, out of the 1,110 DISD students enrolled in Dallas community colleges, 810 had to take one of these courses.
“This percentage is much too high," said Dr. Joan Rodriguez, who teaches developmental reading at El Centro. In her upper level course, where we met Hollis, most students read at an 8th to 10th grade level, struggling to comprehend what’s in some newspaper articles.
“I get so frustrated," Hollis said. "Don't know why I wasn't taught those skills before coming here and having to be at this point in my life and start all over. It’s been very challenging."
”It's very frustrating ... for the students who come in here who say: ‘Wait a minute, you're asking me to do all this? I don't know how to do this. I don't have enough time to do this. I'm not used to doing this. I don't want to do it,'" Dr. Rodriguez said.
Dr. Rodriguez believes high school tests reward students for minimal knowledge, which won’t work in college where professors expect you to know how to read and comprehend complex sentences. She says college professors don’t grade you on whether you try, but what’s right.
Students who got points for effort in high school find that doesn't apply at the college level.
”We have watered down too much material, and a lot of teachers know that," Dr. Rodriguez said.
One student named Dominique made it clear what the focus was in high school: "I learned enough to pass the TAKS."
And then there's math.
There are some students in these remedial courses who cannot add, subtract, or do basic multiplication. One professor says calculators are a big problem.
“Students have learned which button to push, instead of why they're pushing it," a math teacher told us.
We took our findings straight to Dallas ISD Superintendent Michael Hinojosa.
“That’s why we’re asking our teachers not to use TAKS worksheets," he said. "That’s why we’re asking them to have rigorous instruction so that we can address that issue. It’s important to us.”
Teachers say they're teaching just enough for students to succeed on the TAKS exam.
“That's what we're trying to change," Hinojosa said. "That doesn't happen at every school. I go to school on Wednesdays and we're trying to get that changed, but that's moving an entire system. We'll see that occur in the entire system."
But most teachers will tell you TAKS worksheets are shoved down their throats. We tried to get some teachers to talk on camera, but they declined for fear of getting in trouble.
Dale Kaiser with the National Education Association of Dallas says it’s not just DISD, but the state and federal governments pushing TAKS on teachers.
“Testing should not be the end-all determiner of whether a child learns or not,” Kaiser said. “Teachers have their hands tied. They're told we have to succeed; in fact, principals are given a $10,000 bonus based upon how their students do on TAKS scores. Everything is driven by the test."
So will it ever be possible for teachers to teach so that they don’t live in fear of losing their jobs if they fail to meet the TAKS standards? “We’re teaching them the principles of learning so that they understand that the foundation for what we believe in is academic rigor,” Hinojosa said.
The superintended added that by asking teachers to have so-called “rigorous instruction” in the classroom, it will accomplish his goal in the next couple of years to prove DISD students are college-ready before they graduate.
“It's not just a Dallas issue. It's a national issue. It's a state issue," Hinojosa said. "Of course I'm upset. We don’t need to blame people. We need to fix it."
While Hinojosa talks about fixing things, 7,500 DISD seniors prepare to walk across the stage this month, many of whom won’t be able to handle the daily tasks of higher education.
WFAA (http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/wfaa/latestnews/stories/wfaa080509_jh_disdcollege.e5ca60c9.html)
06:02 PM CDT on Saturday, May 10, 2008
By CYNTHIA IZAGUIRRE / WFAA-TV
No Child left behind/TAKS has been very efficient.....at making kids dumber....
DALLAS — It's May, which means thousands of high school seniors across North Texas can almost taste it: their diploma. This month 7,500 Dallas ISD seniors are expected to walk across the stage and make their families proud.
But what if we told you that 75 percent of the seniors headed to Dallas community colleges can't read above an 8th grade level, and others can't add or subtract?
Graduation is a time for feeling proud, but that might quickly change to frustration for thousands of DISD students like Gia Hollis come fall, when reality hits.
News 8 requested and received documents from the Dallas County Community College District that show, over the last three years, an average of 75 percent of the DISD students enrolled in classes took at least one developmental education course.
“My reading levels are so low, and I’m really not comprehending, and it’s really holding me back," Hollis said. "It’s taking me longer."
Hollis is in a developmental reading course at El Centro College. Developmental courses prepare students to take college classes. In the Fall of 2007, out of the 1,110 DISD students enrolled in Dallas community colleges, 810 had to take one of these courses.
“This percentage is much too high," said Dr. Joan Rodriguez, who teaches developmental reading at El Centro. In her upper level course, where we met Hollis, most students read at an 8th to 10th grade level, struggling to comprehend what’s in some newspaper articles.
“I get so frustrated," Hollis said. "Don't know why I wasn't taught those skills before coming here and having to be at this point in my life and start all over. It’s been very challenging."
”It's very frustrating ... for the students who come in here who say: ‘Wait a minute, you're asking me to do all this? I don't know how to do this. I don't have enough time to do this. I'm not used to doing this. I don't want to do it,'" Dr. Rodriguez said.
Dr. Rodriguez believes high school tests reward students for minimal knowledge, which won’t work in college where professors expect you to know how to read and comprehend complex sentences. She says college professors don’t grade you on whether you try, but what’s right.
Students who got points for effort in high school find that doesn't apply at the college level.
”We have watered down too much material, and a lot of teachers know that," Dr. Rodriguez said.
One student named Dominique made it clear what the focus was in high school: "I learned enough to pass the TAKS."
And then there's math.
There are some students in these remedial courses who cannot add, subtract, or do basic multiplication. One professor says calculators are a big problem.
“Students have learned which button to push, instead of why they're pushing it," a math teacher told us.
We took our findings straight to Dallas ISD Superintendent Michael Hinojosa.
“That’s why we’re asking our teachers not to use TAKS worksheets," he said. "That’s why we’re asking them to have rigorous instruction so that we can address that issue. It’s important to us.”
Teachers say they're teaching just enough for students to succeed on the TAKS exam.
“That's what we're trying to change," Hinojosa said. "That doesn't happen at every school. I go to school on Wednesdays and we're trying to get that changed, but that's moving an entire system. We'll see that occur in the entire system."
But most teachers will tell you TAKS worksheets are shoved down their throats. We tried to get some teachers to talk on camera, but they declined for fear of getting in trouble.
Dale Kaiser with the National Education Association of Dallas says it’s not just DISD, but the state and federal governments pushing TAKS on teachers.
“Testing should not be the end-all determiner of whether a child learns or not,” Kaiser said. “Teachers have their hands tied. They're told we have to succeed; in fact, principals are given a $10,000 bonus based upon how their students do on TAKS scores. Everything is driven by the test."
So will it ever be possible for teachers to teach so that they don’t live in fear of losing their jobs if they fail to meet the TAKS standards? “We’re teaching them the principles of learning so that they understand that the foundation for what we believe in is academic rigor,” Hinojosa said.
The superintended added that by asking teachers to have so-called “rigorous instruction” in the classroom, it will accomplish his goal in the next couple of years to prove DISD students are college-ready before they graduate.
“It's not just a Dallas issue. It's a national issue. It's a state issue," Hinojosa said. "Of course I'm upset. We don’t need to blame people. We need to fix it."
While Hinojosa talks about fixing things, 7,500 DISD seniors prepare to walk across the stage this month, many of whom won’t be able to handle the daily tasks of higher education.
WFAA (http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/wfaa/latestnews/stories/wfaa080509_jh_disdcollege.e5ca60c9.html)