Schools Cut Back Subjects to Push Reading and Math

Parent Cafe
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<p><a href=“http://nytimes.com/2006/03/26/education/26child.html?hp&ex=1143349200&en=b3fe26575cacf3b2&ei=5094&partner=homepage[/url]”>http://nytimes.com/2006/03/26/education/26child.html?hp&ex=1143349200&en=b3fe26575cacf3b2&ei=5094&partner=homepage&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Schools from Vermont to California are increasing — in some cases tripling — the class time that low-proficiency students spend on reading and math, mainly because the federal law, signed in 2002, requires annual exams only in those subjects and punishes schools that fall short of rising benchmarks.</p>

<p>At Martin Luther King Jr. Junior High School in Sacramento, about 150 of the school’s 885 students spend five of their six class periods on math, reading and gym, leaving only one 55-minute period for all other subjects.</p>

<p>About 125 of the school’s lowest-performing students are barred from taking anything except math, reading and gym, a measure that Samuel Harris, a former lieutenant colonel in the Army who is the school’s principal, said was draconian but necessary. “When you look at a kid and you know he can’t read, that’s a tough call you’ve got to make,” Mr. Harris said.</p>

<p>“Only two subjects? What a sadness,” said Thomas Sobol, an education professor at Columbia Teachers College and a former New York State education commissioner. “That’s like a violin student who’s only permitted to play scales, nothing else, day after day, scales, scales, scales. They’d lose their zest for music.”</p>

<p>But officials in Cuero, Tex., have adopted an intensive approach and said it was helping them meet the federal requirements. They have doubled the time that all sixth graders and some seventh and eighth graders devote to reading and math, and have reduced it for other subjects.</p>

<p>“When you only have so many hours per day and you’re behind in some area that’s being hammered on, you have to work on that,” said Henry Lind, the schools superintendent. “It’s like basketball. If you can’t make layups, then you’ve got to work on layups.”</p>

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<p>Sure. If you are only tested on layups, if you only get points for layups, then you will only care about layups. The reduced time for other subjects means that kids are less exposed to science and history and lose the beauty of interdisciplinary studies. It is sad. Skill drills for tests all the time.</p>

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<p>How can they study science and history if they cannot read?</p>

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<p>Sad what has happened to education in our country.</p>

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<p>Well, I think it’s great. Kids can read about anything they want—once they know how to read. Once they know how to do arithmetic and think mathematically (logically), they can use those tools to learn science and technology. Kids who are struggling with reading and arithmetic in junior high SHOULD be spending more time on those subjects, not less. No one said these classes are drills or boring. It’s implied–but I don’t see an interview with the kids or the teachers.</p>

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<p>First off, hopefully, the reading instruction includes topics of history and science, and the math includes practical applications of science. As someone said, if you can’t read …</p>

<p>Secondly imagine how you would feel - 15 years old in the 7th grade, unable to read.! The kids who have truly been failed by the system - normal intelligence, etc, should progress very fast under those circumstances, particularly if taught properly. Illiterate adults can often improve their reading quite rapidly - it takes incentive on the students part, good focussed instruction, and appropriate materials.</p>

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<p>you can study science and social studies and learn to read at the same time</p>

<p>sometimes, cross teaching can benifet a student who is struggling…some students don’t do well with drills, rote learning, boring stories, (you read any of the stories), etc</p>

<p>but if you do science, or history that is relevant, and grabs the attention, then you will be amazed at how kids can learn</p>

<p>there are cooking lessons that teach reading, math and science all at once and engages the kids</p>

<p>perhaps HOW they are teaching reading to a test is not working</p>

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<p>Doubling the time that all sixth graders devote to reading and math is ridiculous, by the time I was in sixth grade I was reading at an adult level. So now it seems like kids who are way above the curve are going to be bored more than many already are because of requirements.</p>

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<p>Folks, read the article. These are classes aimed at the kids who CAN’T read, not the ones who can.</p>

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<p>I was referring to the school district in Cuero, TX, for which it says they have doubled the time for all sixth graders. I still say that is ridiculous when many can be way above the curve. What are schools doing for those students, those who are passing and outperforming the tests?</p>