Statewide, 83percentt of high school students have taken the global studies test and 71percentt have passed.
"I learned a little bit about them for the state fifth-grade social studies test," said Krystian Mitchell-Lazore.
In New York City, 68 percent have taken the global studies test and 50percentt have passed.
Roughly 65percentt of students in the state failed the social studies test, which assumed detailed knowledge of dates, places and events.
After taking a sixth-grade social studies test, my daughter provided leading questions to a friend prior to her taking the test.
What is New York State's new social studies test like? A. The middle school exam -- each level is different -- will be given at the end of eighth grade, and the test will be instituted in June 2001.
[New York Sun] Virtually the entire eighth grade at Intermediate School 318 in the South Bronx refuse to take a three-hour practice exam for next month's statewide social studies test.
She said that for her the last straw came this spring, when her school asked the fourth-grade teachers to spend the month of June preparing their students for a new state social studies test that they will take early in fifth grade.
"There is a big gap between the claims and the evidence," said Dr. Doraiswamy, who said he doubted whether short-term improvements in memory would last longer than the three-month period most studies test.
A collaboration between psychologists at Washington University in St . Louisand teachers at nearby Columbia Middle School, for example, lifted seventh- and eighth-grade students' science and social studies test scores by 13 to 25 percent.
Performance on the social studies test — which asks questions like what method of travel was improved by Robert Fulton and what the stripes of the American flag represent — has been below the median.
