MORE LEARNING LOSS EXAMPLES

Struggling to meet challenges is a necessary ingredient of learning and life. If students are rewarded for backing away from challenges in school, will they have the confidence to face challenges in life?

If parents think those trends didn’t result in learning loss, consider the following: PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) is an international assessment program that measures 15-year-old students’ reading, mathematics and science literacy levels every three years. Students’ results place them at one of five levels. However, early in the 21st century, a sixth level appeared, below level one; students who could read words but couldn’t form sentences. Remember, these were 15-year-olds!

The Flesch-Kincaid reading ease score for 4th grade consisted of sentences with an average of eight words or less, and an average of 123 syllables or less, and is the reading level of comics. The Flesch-Kincaid reading ease score for 7th-8th grade consisted of sentences with an average of 17 words or less and average of 147 syllables or less. It is the standard for high school and adult literacy levels, and the reading level of digests.

However, the new Flesh-Kincaid chart no longer includes 4th grade. Its reading ease score is now the 5th grade reading ease score. The former 7th-8th grade reading ease score is now the 9th-10th grade reading ease score. The learn-to-read years used to be grades P-3 but now looks like they are grades P-4. The read-to-learn years used to be grades 4-12 but now looks like they are grades 5-12. It certainly looks like we have slipped one grade level.

There has been a great deal of money invested to address the needs of students, but it’s time to look at our educational model, and stop the demise of our educational system.

Al Moore Glace Bay