It STILL Ain't Just Us!

The results are in and it seems that students nationally are failing to be proficient. I'm not sure that my math skills are good enough to count up all of the children being left behind.

Let's be sure to note that all our students nationally should be doing better, but it's pretty clear that Dr. Yonson and her cabinet are doing the job here in Morrisville.

U.S. Students Achieve Mixed Results on Writing Test
New York Times
By SAM DILLON

About a third of the nation's eighth-grade students, and roughly a quarter of its high school seniors, are proficient writers, according to nationwide test results.

That proportion of students demonstrating writing proficiency is about the same as in 2002, when a similar exam was last given.

But the results of the latest test, administered last year, also found modest increases in the skills of lower-performing students. Nearly 9 students in 10 can now demonstrate at least a basic achievement in writing, defined as partial mastery of the skills needed for proficient work.

As in the past, girls outperformed boys by far, most decisively at the eighth-grade level, where 41 percent of them achieved proficiency, compared with 20 percent of boys. The racial achievement gap narrowed slightly, with black and Hispanic students’ writing improving a bit more than did whites’.

The results for eighth graders, though not for seniors, were broken down by states, the top performers of which were New Jersey, where 56 percent of students scored at or above proficiency levels, and Connecticut, where the number was 53 percent. Nineteen states ranked above New York, where it was 31 percent.

That a third of the nation’s eighth graders can write with proficiency may not sound like much, but it is the best performance by eighth-grade students in any subject tested in the national assessment in the last three years. Only 17 percent of eighth graders were proficient on the 2006 history exam, for example.

Though some experts questioned whether the writing test, which requires students to compose only brief essays in a short time, was an accurate measure of their ability, officials of the government’s testing program said they were encouraged by the results.

“I am happy to report, paraphrasing Mark Twain, that the death of writing has been greatly exaggerated,” said Amanda P. Avallone, an eighth-grade English teacher who is vice chairwoman of the board that oversees the testing program, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as “the nation’s report card.”

The results were released at the Library of Congress in Washington. The host, James H. Billington, the librarian of Congress, drew laughs when he expressed concern about “the slow destruction of the basic unit of human thought — the sentence,” as young Americans do most of their writing in disjointed prose composed in Internet chat rooms or in cellphone text messages.

“The sentence is the biggest casualty,” Mr. Billington said. “To what extent is students’ writing getting clearer?”

Ms. Avallone sought to allay his concern.

“I know that the sentence has not been put to rest as a unit of communication,” she said.

Ms. Avallone also said the difference in scores between girls and boys might result in part from lower literacy expectations for boys in the public schools.

“These days I seldom if ever hear the message that math and science do not matter for girls,” she said, “yet I do still encounter the myth that many boys won’t really need to write very much or very well once they leave school.”

The national writing test was given to 140,000 eighth graders and 28,000 12th graders selected to form a representative sample of all students nationwide in the two grades. Each student wrote two 25-minute essays intended to measure skills at writing to inform, persuade and tell stories.

Thirty-three percent of eighth graders scored at or above the proficiency level, which the test designers defined as competency in carrying out challenging academic tasks. Eighty-eight percent scored at or above the basic level, up from 85 percent in 2002.

“These results pleased and encouraged me,” said Michael Casserly, executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools, which represents the nation’s 60 largest urban districts. “A lot of cities have introduced explicit writing programs. You go into urban schools and you see hallways lined with samples of student writing. Writing programs have gotten better.”

If Mr. Casserly was encouraged, some others were not, particularly in light of other indicators of Americans’ writing prowess. A survey of 120 corporations conducted by the College Board in 2003, for instance, concluded that a third of employees in the nation’s blue-chip companies, including many recent college graduates, wrote poorly.

“American students’ writing skills are deteriorating,” said Will Fitzhugh, founder of The Concord Review, a journal that features history research papers written by high school students.

Mr. Fitzhugh expressed skepticism that the national assessment accurately measured students’ overall writing skills, because, he said, it tested only their ability to write brief essays jotted out in half an hour.

“The only way to assess the kind of writing that students will have to do in college,” he said, “is to have them write a term paper, and then have somebody sit down and grade it. And nobody wants to do that, because it’s too costly.”

Strip Mall Sunday

I received some interesting news this morning while sitting in church. It was announced from the pulpit that at long last, it seems like there could be a tenant in the former Pryor's Pharmacy/The Record Collector storefront at the intersection of Pennsylvania and Bridge under the watchful gaze of Robert Morris himself.

The only problem is that it seems that the proposed tenant is apparently a less than G-Rated adult facility. The exact nature of the business that would be going in there was not disclosed. What was disclosed was that the zoning board would be entertaining a variance request at their meeting tomorrow, Monday evening, at 7:30 P.M.

If there is anyone who has more specific or better information, would you please share it with all of us?

We can argue about a great number of things, but I really do not think any of the respectable citizens here in the borough would want an adult oriented facility right at our main intersection. Please, show up for the meeting Monday evening, or call the borough directly at 215-295-8181 to register your opposition.

Gateway Land Sale Update

Nice to see that Morrisville can appear in the local Trenton newspapers once in a while. Here's a story on the first step of the Gateway project land sale.

Land sale to create office park
To be built on former site of bar
Sunday, April 06, 2008
BY CURT YESKE
Special to the Times

MORRISVILLE, Pa. -- The former site of a nuisance bar on East Bridge Street between North Delmorr and Central avenues will be developed into an office project as a result of an agreement between the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission and borough officials.

The land was acquired more than 10 years ago prior to the renovation of the Lower Trenton Morrisville Free Bridge (the "Trenton Makes" bridge) and was considered excess land by the current members of the interstate agency who said the sale will help the Morrisville Economic Development Corp.'s effort at revitalization.

The commission agreed to sell the property -- which no longer has a bar on it -- for its appraised value of $100,000. Morrisville officials have said they in turn plan to sell the property to a private developer who plans to build an office park with a publicly accessible recreational trail.

In published reports, developer Penn Jersey Real Properties estimated the project would create 400 to 600 jobs and involve a 55,000-square-foot building.

"This property transaction will provide economic, recreational and aesthetic dividends for Morrisville," said Frank G. McCartney, the commission's executive director. "The borough has always been an important partner with the commission, and we are happy to be able to support its revitalization efforts."

"With this sale we are one step closer to bringing in new taxes and hundreds of new jobs into the borough," said Morrisville Councilman George Bolos, chairman of the development corporation. "We appreciate the commission's willingness to recognize the importance of this project in the future of the borough."