JUDGING FROM the suggestion that middle schools in Anne Arundel County reduce music and arts programs in order to improve results on the Maryland School Performance Assessment Program, it would appear these tests have become the tail wagging the dog.
A task force of parents and educators, concerned about below-average reading performance by eighth-grade students on the MSPAP exam, would like to cut art and music electives and require a new reading course.
By making curriculum decisions that are narrowly focused on improving test scores, the schools run the risk of providing students with transitory test-taking skills rather than long-term fundamental skills and knowledge.
There is nothing wrong with trying to improve reading scores. The question is determining the most effective way.
As proposed by the task force, the required reading course comes across as a quick-fix designed primarily to boost MSPAP outcomes rather than teach the critical skills students need to comprehend written material.
By the sixth grade, most students know the mechanics of reading. What many have trouble with is gleaning information and meaning from what they have read. Some can't separate the most important information from the extraneous. They can't recall the sequence of a narrative, or differentiate major characters from minor. For many children, reading is merely repeating the words printed on a page.
Addressing these deficiencies makes a great deal of sense because better reading comprehension can't help but improve overall school performance. Instead of creating a reading course with boring textbooks, schools should make a concerted effort to integrate reading and comprehension skills into all middle-school academic subjects.
Writing and reading are inextricably linked, but all too often educators resort to multiple choice or true-false tests to measure comprehension.
Requiring children to write synopses or even short essays about their reading would probably boost MSPAP scores as much as a special course in reading. The goal should be to improve reading comprehension without discarding the benefits of music and art.
Pub Date: 5/01/96
