8th Grade Test Questions: 1895 & 2012

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What do exams given at the end of a course or a school year reveal about our children and about the quality of their schooling? In 1999, there appeared on the internet an 1895 exam given to graduating 8^th grade students in Saline County, Kansas.  Below are some questions from the test of grammar, mathematics, orthography, U.S. history and geography:

Grammar

·      Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you understand the practical use of the rules of grammar.

·      Name the parts of speech and define those that have no modifications.

Mathematics

·      Find the interest of $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7 percent.

·      What is the cost of 40 boards 12 inches wide and 16 ft. long at 20 cents per sq. foot?

History

·      Relate the causes and results of the Revolutionary War.

·      Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton, Bell, Lincoln, Penn, and Howe?

Orthography

·      What are the following, and give examples of each: Trigraph, subvocals, diphthong, cognate letters, linguals?

·      Write 10 words frequently mispronounced and indicate pronunciation by use of diacritical marks and by syllabication.

Geography

·      Name and locate the principal trade centers of the U.S.

·      Name all the republics of Europe and give capital of each.

The complete test can be viewed at http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/quizzes/8thgrade_test.cfm.

            Some folks cite this test as evidence of declining rigor of schooling over the past century.  It is apparent that most adults could not pass the test today.  I certainly couldn’t. But, consider the nature of academic exams. School learning often emphasizes short-term, rote memory of names, dates, facts and details.  Humans can force lots of information into short term memory.  We can stuff our brains with information for a short while, but the old adage is true for most of us: "Use it or lose it" .   Though we should not use the 1895 test as an indicator of the decline in modern schooling, it is an interesting historical document.  It shows us of how schools and exams change over time.

            Compare the subjects tested in this 1895 exam with the subjects today’s students encounter.  Science is almost completely absent from the 1895 test, as is government, world history, literature and the arts.  The exam requires students to name, define, describe and find.  Missing are more important thinking skills like compare, analyze, apply and evaluate.  The exam recognizes no part of the world other than the U.S and Europe.

            In spite of the flaws in the 1895 test, it is still reasonable to criticize the rigor of today's testing system.  Academic tests still underestimate the level of knowledge and skill needed to survive and thrive in today’s world. State departments of education have routinely manipulated standardized tests to make schools appear more effective. Standardized tests function as political tools as much as educational tools. The U.S. Department of Education is raising the political stakes by tying federal education funds to states’ willingness to adopt more rigorous curriculum standards.  The new standards in English and mathematics will require students to demonstrate significantly higher levels of skills with an emphasis on applying skill and knowledge to modern day problems.  Here are two math problems from the new 8^th grade math curriculum:

·      Frank Rd and James Rd. make a perpendicular intersection. The state wants to build a new road. The new road will intersect 3 miles north of the intersection on Frank Rd. and 4 miles west of the intersection on James Rd. How long will the new road be that intersects Frank and James Rd? The new road would cost $10 per foot to pave. What would be the cost of the new road? (This problem is similar to the 1895 problem to calculate the cost of a board, but this 2012 question will required students to use geometric knowledge to find the length of the road before they can calculate the cost of paving.)

·      Use the Internet to collect statistical data on the top five home run hitters for the current season as well as their career home run totals. Graph the data and determine if it is linear or non-linear. (There's nothing remotely close to this question on the 1895 test.  In 2012, eighth grade students will have to use modern technology to find data, then plot the data on a graph to determine if there is a linear or non-linear relationship between career home runs and home runs in a current season.)

The only item on the 1895 test that required writing was the 150-word essay asking students to demonstrate their understanding of the rules of grammar. Compare that 1895 essay task to this language and history assignment from an 8^th grade unit on the Holocaust:

·      Imagine you are Jewish and living in Nazi occupied Europe. Write five diary entries, describing what life is like, what events happen to you, what is going on with your family, and any other information that makes it seem like a real diary. Include lots of details and specific facts such as a name, place of birth, where you live, type of work, interests, etc. The diary will be graded based on effort, facts, details, grammar and creativity. (The 1895 essay question was an assessment only of grammatical knowledge. This 2012 assessment will require students to understand events and facts related to the Holocaust, then project themselves back in time and to a different point of view.)

Our criticism of modern schooling often does not take into account how rapidly the world is changing.  In 1895, eighth grade was about a far as the typical Kansas student could hope to go in school. The world view of a 14 year-old living in Kansas would have been limited to the continental United States. Their heritage was mostly rooted in Europe.  Asia, Africa and South America were little more than vague continents on a globe.  White, Native American and African American societies hardly intersected.  Boys and girls were limited to stereotypical adulthoods. Technology powered by electricity was still over the horizon.

Image from usi.edu

            Ironically, the eighth grade graduates in 1895 might have been prepared for their world at least as well as today’s high school graduates are prepared for their world. But that's hard to know. We don't live in that 1895 world. The schools of 2012 and the tests used to measure learning today are still flawed. Today’s young adults need far more than schooling has delivered, but maybe we are not being realistic about what schools can do for our youth in the absence of stable families and communities. In 1895, the quality of home and community life might have been more valuable to children than the quality of schooling. The good news for today is that technology has given us a level of access to information that could not have been imagined in 1895.  A variety of forms of schooling are available to almost anyone who really wants it, and many of us now realize learning is truly a life-long endeavor. Education is no longer the exclusive domain of brick and mortar schools. Most of us still need teachers to help us learn some things, but the potential for self-teaching is very real.

8th Grade Wisdom

Photo Credit: Einstein Wisdom Poster

Eighth graders are typically the oldest students in a middle school.  They are 14 years old and constantly amazed by their own intelligence.  Pleasing adults is a thing of the past.  Life is about connecting with friends. Teaching eighth grade is hazardous duty meant only for clever adults. Here are a couple of episodes from a real eighth grade class. Names have been changed to maintain confidentiality.

Tameka sashayed around the perimeter of the room toward the pencil sharpener.  She eyed her classmates, pecked the top of a boy’s head with her long fingernails and whispered something to a friend who responded with a laugh.  She arrived at the pencil sharpener with all eyes one her, including the teacher’s.

            Ms. Tolley had begun her lesson on African folktales. She paused and made eye contact with Tameka.  The pause endured for a second as the teacher looked from the girl back to her empty seat.   Tameka grinned at one of her friends, then began the slow journey back toward her seat.

            It was a one-person parade. Tameka’s hair was long and stylish; she wore lipstick, multiple bracelets on both arms, and dangling earrings.  Her nails were long and painted. While she made her way back to a desk, the boys attended to her slow walk. 

            Five minutes into this lesson, Tameka journeyed to the bathroom in the corner of the portable classroom.  While Ms. Tolley talked about the characters in the two African folktales students had read, voices whispered loud enough to be heard but not loud enough to be understood.  I waited for Ms. Tolley to confront Tameka, but she ignored her and kept talking about common themes in the two stories. 

Students began to focus more on the lesson when she used a slideshow to present images and key words about characters, themes and how folktales had been carried to the Americas during the slave trade. Several times during the slideshow she called students by name and asked for their attention to the information.  After the presentation, she gave students a graphic organizer and asked them to work in pairs to compare the two stories. Within the first five minutes of the activity, she had to restate directions and remind students of her expectations for their work.  After ten minutes, she told the students they had three more minutes to finish the graphic organizer. While the students worked in pairs, Ms. Tolley walked among the desks, asked questions and made suggestions.

            After the graphic organizer activity, Ms. Tolley held a whole class discussion about how the two folktales were similar and different. Near the end of the discussion, she returned to the slideshow and presented images that depicted American tall tale characters, Pecos Bill and Paul Bunyan (stories the students were familiar with). As a ticket out the door, Ms. Tolley asked students to write at least three sentences about how the two African folktales were different from American tall tales.  Most students complied and handed her their sentences as they left the room.  The lesson had lasted about an hour. I was impressed by the teacher’s determination to teach her lesson.

            When I returned several days later, Ms. Tolley was finishing the unit on folktales. The desks had been pushed to the sides and the students were seated in chairs in a large circle.  This was supposed to be a seminar, with less teacher talk and more discussion -- like Socrates had taught his students.  Before the seminar began, Ms. Tolley reviewed the rules.  Raised hands were not required to talk, but only one student could talk at a time.  No interrupting.  Students were to speak loud enough to be heard, to justify answers, and to be courteous to each other.

            The seminar was about The Beauty and the Beast, which the students had finished reading.  Ms. Tolley started the discussion with a question, “What is a sacrifice?” 

            A boy said a sacrifice was like a gift.

            “Okay, give me an example?” said the teacher.

            “Well, it’s like if I have something my friend wants, I give it to him.”

            “Okay.”  Then she went around the circle, addressing each student by name, asking for an example of a sacrifice.  Most were similar to the first one -- a sacrifice was some kind of gift. 

            The turn-taking came to Tameka, the girl who had sought so much attention a few days earlier.  She was dressed down today, jeans and a sweatshirt.  “It’s got to be something important to you,” the girl said.

            “Yes,” the student teacher replied, detached like Socrates.  “Explain.”

            “It’s like when you’re low on cash and your friend asks you for some money.  You give her some anyway, even if you’re nearly out and need it yourself, “ she said.

            As the talk went around the circle, a few eighth graders picked up on what Tameka had said.  They gave examples that were more in the ballpark of sacrifices, rather than gifts.

            Then the question turned to the story of The Beauty and the Beast.  Which of the characters had made the greatest sacrifice?  The students did not agree.  Some thought Beauty had made the greatest sacrifice because she left her family to live in the castle with the Beast.  Some thought the Beast’s sacrifice was the greatest, because he had nearly died.  It was a long discussion, sometimes more like an argument.  Rules were forgotten.  Occasionally, several students talked at one time, and not always courteously.  Ms. Tolley’s voice remained calm.  Somehow, each time the discussion seemed about to slip over the edge into pandemonium, she brought it under control and urged the students to listen to each other and to provide more justification. 

              Forty minutes into the lesson, these reluctant students had been engaged in a heated discussion of a work of literature.  Although the tone of discussion was not always courteous, it was always on task. No one had been disinterested enough to wander away, either physically or mentally.

            Ms. Tolley asked Tameka her closing question, “What sacrifice could you make to help someone have a better life?”

            Tameka thought for a few seconds.  Ms. Tolley waited. “Give some food to the poor. Respect my parents. Share with my brothers,” Tameka said.

            One student argued against sharing with her brothers.  “I have five brothers and I’m the only girl.  They treat me like dirt.  I ain’t sharing with those turkeys.”

            “Well, girl, you need a change of attitude, ” said Tameka.  “A sacrifice I could make would be to work on my attitude.  Sometimes you gotta try to get-along.”

            The pause in the discussion wasn’t long, but it was noticeable.  Tameka and Ms. Tolley made eye contact for a moment, then they both listened to the next student’s example.

             If all teachers worked as hard as Ms. Tolley, schooling would, indeed, be beneficial for everyone.  The episodes above provide a glimpse of how much energy and patience are expended by teachers in a short amount of time.  The episodes also show that schooling is as much about ethics as it is academics.  Teachers and students constantly make decisions about what to say and do – either intentionally, based on personal ethics, or intuitively, based on impulse and emotion.  At all levels, schooling works when teachers and students come to accept a similar set of ethical values – the desire for knowledge and wisdom, respect, kindness, curiosity and patience.  The best teachers have clever ways (often subtle and indirect) of moving students to the common ethical ground shared by good people.