dumbestgeneration

Sonny Ray Dominguez, Frankie McKeary, James Douglas, Chris Nielsen, Jerome Ashby

Statistics on the Dumbest Generation(under 30s)
 * The 2004-2005 State of Our Nation Youth's report by the Horatio Alger Association, in which 60% of teenage students logged five hours of homework per week or less.
 * The National Center for Education Statistics estimated in 2004, 20 percent of freshmen students end up in remedial reading courses and 23 percent in remedial writing courses.
 * In 2000, Kirk Johnson of the Heritage Foundation analyzed NAEP data on students who used computers in the classroom at least than once a week. Controlling for the major demographic factors, as well as the qualifications of the teachers, Johnson created a statistical model and applied it to NAEP's nationwide sample of fourth- and eight-graders who took the reading test in 1998. His conclusion: "Students with at least weekly computer instruction by well-prepared teachers do not perform any better on the NAEP reading test than do students who have less or no computer instruction." (Johnson)
 * In 2004, two economists at the University of Munich analyzed data from the 2000 Programme for International Students Assessment (PISA), the achievement test for 15-year-olds discussed in chapter one. They compared test scores for students in 31 countries with background information collected on PISA questionnaires regarding home and school computer use. Their conclusion: "Once other features of student, family and school background are held constant, computer availability at home shows a strong statistically negative relationship to math and reading performance, and computer availability at school is unrelated to performance." (Fuchs and Woessmann)
 * As part of the Technology Intension Pilot, in 2004 the Texas Education Agency directed $14 million in federal funds toward wireless technology in selected middle schools in the state. Teachers and students received laptops, teachers underwent professional development, and technical support was ongoing. The program included an evaluation component concentrated on student achievement. When the evaluation appeared in April 2006, it reported improvements in parental support, teacher productivity, and student behavior, but it said this about academic outcomes: "There were no statistically significant effects of immersion in the first year on either reading or mathematics achievement." Furthermore, the availability of laptops did not lead to significantly greater opportunities for students to experience intellectually challenging lessons or to do more challenging work." (Texas Center for Educational Research)