D.C. schools: Easy as Sunday morning?
Sure, if you believe the system’s students: 39 percent of D.C. fourth-graders and 34 percent of eighth-graders said their math lessons were often or always “too easy” on a survey by the Center for American Progress.
In fact, District eighth-grade students were more likely to say their math work was mindnumbing than their counterparts in Maryland or Virginia, of whom 31 and 32 percent said the same, respectively.
Of course, significantly fewer District students are graduating from high school, attending class or passing standardized tests than their suburban peers — so take the results with a grain of salt.
It is, of course, also the case that lessons below rigor can bore a child and turn him off school. But 90 percent of D.C. eighth-graders said they feel they usually learn in their math classes. Eighty-seven percent of Maryland students and 89 percent of Virginia students said the same.
Other findings from the survey include the 71 percent of District eighth-graders who report usually “understanding what their math teacher asks” (75 percent in Maryland and 77 percent in Virginia).
Virginia students were more likely to say they read five or fewer pages in school and for homework each day than students in the District or Maryland, while District students were more likely than Maryland and Virginia students to read more than 20 pages.
