Wednesday, August 17, 2005

And People Are Upset Because Kids Have To Go Back To School Before Labor Day?

I was skimming the online version of the NY Times today, and the following headline caught my eye: Many Going To College Aren't Ready, Report Finds. The piece was written by Tamar Lewin and the first couple of paragraphs went on to say:

"Only about half of this year's high school graduates have the reading skills they need to succeed in college, and even fewer are prepared for college-level science and math courses, according to a yearly report from ACT, which produces one of the nation's leading college admissions tests. Only about half of this year's high school graduates have the reading skills they need to succeed in college, and even fewer are prepared for college-level science and math courses, according to a yearly report from ACT, which produces one of the nation's leading college admissions tests.

The report, based on scores of the 2005 high school graduates who took the exam, some 1.2 million students in all, also found that fewer than one in four met the college-readiness benchmarks in all four subjects tested: reading comprehension, English, math and science."

When I see things like this, and read books like Tom Friedman's latest called The World is Flat, it is enough to make you want to adjourn to the nearest bar for the duration.

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