A Billion Dollars Later, S.C. SAT Scores Still Suck August 28, 2007
Posted by fitsnews in : SC Politics , trackback
STATE RANKS 49TH IN LATEST COLLEGE BOARD RESULTS
FITSNews - August 28, 2007 - After legislators pumped another billion dollars into South Carolina’s public schools over the last four years (much of it on SAT preparation), our state’s SAT scores are still on the decline. This year, South Carolina was ranked 49th in the nation - marking like the 1,000th consecutive year we’ve ranked either last or next-to-last in this critical measure of academic readiness. Of course if you ask S.C. Superintendent of Education Jim Rex, the solution is (surprise!) more money and more government programs:
As an incentive to get more students to take the courses recommended by the two exams, Rex suggested the possibility of having the state pay SAT and ACT testing fees for those students.
Uhhh … dude, we just gave you idiots another billion dollars. WTF?
We love it how every year when South Carolina’s graduation rates and SAT scores come out, it immediately turns into a massive “b*tch-fest” about all the additional money we should be pouring into our failed educational monopoly. And every year we cough up the cash, only to come back a year later to hear the same damn excuses all over again.
Nothing ever changes, of course, it just gets more expensive.
Seriously, these State Department morons might as well be purchasing gang indoctrination manuals and Burger King employee uniforms with our tax dollars, because that’s exactly what they’re “preparing” our kids for.
Comments»
All we need is more new programs from the education department. Really, we are just 3 or 4 new programs away from real success. Really.
Really.
I thought we tested everyone. I looked at the numbers and we only test a portion of the students in our state. What a joke. We need more money to go to test prep. The tests are important. We need $2 billion now. If we only had the money.
Where do we rank nationally in Football. Take all of our football teams nationwide and rank them by state. 1 through 50. Do you think we would be 49th? I doubt it.
Wouldn’t it be easier to pay someone to just take the tests? Illegal you say? We could just have Jim Rex propose we change that law.
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SAT is not only a misconception of measuring one’s intelligence and academic skills, but also imposes debilitating stress on American students and underprivileged families.
We just moved here from Maryland. We’re moving back. I have never seen such horrible schools or such poorly raised children in my life! My son is only in 4th grade and he has been punched, hit, spat on, and robbed by the other boys in his class. One of the kids actually wrote a paper for class stating that his New Year’s Resolution was to be meaner! I kid you not! Where we come from there are all kinds of after school programs, Mindstorms, Chess Club, Indoor Soccor, Lego. Drama, etc. Here in Conway the only after school club is bible class. Maybe they can pray for better scores, because money isn’t helping. This particular school district is spending almost as much money (and is way overbudget) as the district near Washington DC, where we come from, yet last year only 46% of the 4th graders could read proficiently compared to the Maryland school we came from where 96.4% of the 4th graders were reading proficiently. We are putting our home back on the market and moving back to Maryland.
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I have heard great things about companies like The Princeton Review. Couldn’t the South Carolina Department of Education partner with a test prep company and receive some sort of huge price break, as well as help increase our children’s chances of going to college? Surely they can afford this.
I am a Senior at Francis Marion University graduating with a BS in Biology and a Minor in Chemsitry. At FMU, also is my wife who is a Mathematics Major and working towards a Minor in Computer Science.
My wife and at first wanted to teach here in South Carolina but after a year in school taking education courses that changed.
We sat many times and talked about the problem with SC Edcucation and it is very large. From our experience the problem with education are all of these small colleges and universities that turn out SC Teachers. For all the Education courses, most anyone who is willing to talk in front of class will get atleast a B for the course. These education courses are made where a deaf,mute and blind person can run through with no problem. Besides the Education courses, one needs four (4) classes in two (2) different subjects and do 2 years of general class work and that’s it, therefore no education major has taken enough courses in one subject to teach properly.
The problem is that for the past 50 or more years we have Education Professors in SC colleges and universities that have handed out grades and degrees to students who have done nothing but warm a seat for them and now these seat warmers are teaching our children???
We should get rid of all Education Professors in all schools and replace them with another states Education Professors. If these schools are left doing the same thing, then South Carolina will be the most depressed state in the United States.
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