for Catherine

Maria Garcia

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Updated Thesis

American high schools are failing to teach their students critical thought and prepare them for college. Only 37% of high school seniors in 2015 showed college-level proficiency in reading and math (Camera). These data are further supported by community college placement exam data, which show that 59% of applicants are referred to developmental math, while over 30% are referred to developmental English courses meant to catch students up to level. Researchers have shown that placement in developmental math is an indicator that a student is at risk of dropping out of college altogether. (Scott-Clayton)

Obviously, critical thought is challenging when students cannot read and compute at 12th grade level. The ability to process information, weigh its consequences, and decide whether or not to accept or critique an argument or data set is essential to most any middle to upper-middle class profession. At the same time, this lack of skill has a civil consequence, as Damian Thompson points out in his book, Counterknowledge.

Thompson argues that the public’s inability to think critically about claims has contributed to a decline in responsible journalism and a spread of misinformation considered “fact”, something only accelerated since the birth of social media. Among the examples he uses are the belief in the link between autism and vaccines, and also various 9/11 truther theories. These, he argues, demonstrate how “counterknowledgable” large portions of our population have become.

Two solutions to both of these issues are first bring back story writing and sustained reading as part of English classes. Alongside this reform, schools should bring back story writing and sustained reading as part of English classes. A further reform, which might seem radical to many English teachers, should be to write English stories about math games and the lessons they present. Researchers have shown that students develop greater literary and mathematical flexibility across time when they see how language skills and math skills are related. (Snow, et al)

While high school teachers might not be prepared or equipped to…(and the essay continues).

Works Cited

Camera, Lauren. “High School Seniors Aren’t College-Ready”. US News. April 27, 2016

Scott-Clayton. “Do High-Stakes Placement Exams Predict College Success? CCRC Working Paper No. 41” Community College Research Center, Columbia University. February, 2012.

Snow, Eric; Allen, Laura; Jacovina, Matthew; Perret, Cecile; McNamara, Daniel. “You've got style: detecting writing flexibility across time.” LAK 15, pp 194-202, New York, 2015

Thompson, Damian. Counterknowledge: How we surrendered to conspiracy theories, quack medicine, bogus science, and fake history. W.W. Norton, New York. 2008