Re: In the News: Monkey Business

In article <1134257214.151652.249250@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Iain wrote:
>
> Jason Spaceman wrote:
>> From the article:
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------
>> For students who doubt the validity of evolution, college science
>> class can be daunting. What happens when beliefs and schoolwork
>> collide?
>>
>> By Victoria Bosch
>> Current Magazine
>> Updated: 10:46 a.m. ET Dec. 6, 2005
>>
>> Winter 2005 issue - Rich Scott's first few days on the West Chester
>> University campus in suburban Philadelphia were spent worrying-and not
>> just because he was nervous about getting along with his roommate. A
>> recent graduate of a Christian high school, Scott had grown up with
>> parents, teachers and pastors telling him that God created the earth
>> in six days and that evolution is a myth. "
>
> Are they allowed to do that because it's private? That's ridiculous --
> It's a public matter for as long as it counts a valid form of
> compulsory education as demanded by the state (if in America education
> is compulsory -- I assumed it was).

1. Yes because it is private
2. For the most part education is compulsory though what must be
taught varies wildly state by state. Biology for instance probably
isn't required.

It appears to me that what the state schools and the private schools
without a contradictory agenda try to provide in teaching will be a
combo of the State requirements and the entrance requirements for
their State's university system (the latter will be higher).

It might be interesting to investigate what the differing entrance
standards are for each State's university systems. California for
instance has students required to take a certain combo of state
university certified high school courses with the GPA of those courses
and the SAT scores being above a certain point (though there are a
couple of options for using other methods to show you've qualified).
It is currently being sued over this by a private christian schoool
whose biology course (among others) failed to get certified.

I suspect California is as strict as any. Oregon State University
requires

English- 4 years
Mathematics - 3 years culminating in Algebra II or higher
Social Studies - 3 years (this includes history, government, etc)
Science - 2 years (one year each of two different sciences so one could
avoid Biology completely)
Foreign Language - 2 years high school in the same language or equivalent
http://oregonstate.edu/admissions/firstyear/requirements.html
(note these are the minimum requirements, to actually get in a student
is wise ot take 4 years of math, 4 years of science, note it doesn't
appear that Oregon requires the courses be evaluated for what is
taught)

The university will probably also look to see that the high school is
accredited by some regional group (U. of California requires it as a
prereq before certifying courses). However I'm not sure the
accreditation groups actually look at the contents of the science
courses (or the contents of any other courses) which may be one good
reason UC now requires that it approve the courses.

Emma

--
\----
|\* | Emma Pease Net Spinster
|_\/ Die Luft der Freiheit weht

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: School Grades/Levels in the UK
    ... >> you have 'finished' or 'graduated from' high school. ... Typically students 17/18 can take AP classes ... AP level courses are meant to be substitutes for university level ... because colleges and universities use these exams to help them determine ...
    (alt.fan.harry-potter)
  • Re: Parents, kids dont see need for math, science skills
    ... students interested without boring them more. ... half the students is below median, ... At least for the upper level HS courses, ... or 10 (if they haven't dropped out of high school already). ...
    (sci.research.careers)
  • Re: What happened to the University of California Admissions Case?
    ... a public high school very quickly backed down on it's ... teaching of science in particular - religion at the expense of science. ... The problem is that you have UC accepting other students from other ... to give some courses advanced credit toward admission because they did not ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Public School was a waste of my time (Re: When even a Republican can see it....)
    ... those were students taking geology as the easiest way ... of satisfying the science distributional requirements. ... high school students. ... I did some teaching once and taught some 14 year olds what volume was - ...
    (rec.arts.sf.fandom)
  • Re: Prolems in Mathematics Education
    ... depth in non-honors courses, BUT: ... teachers and motivated students that it is possible to learn ... some rigorous mathematics in high school -- even in non-honors ... math scores above 700, with over half getting a perfect ...
    (sci.math)