Dr. Frank Marangos is CEO and Founder of OINOS Educational Consulting. He received a Doctors Degree in Adult Education (Ed.D.) from NOVA Southeastern University (Ft. Lauderdale, FL) and a Doctorate in Ministry and Childhood Education (D.Min.) from Southern Methodist University (Dallas, TX).
Dr. Marangos has taught at several American colleges and universities. He is a nationally Certified Distance Learning Leader with extensive expertise in developing and conducting on-line distance learning courses. He is currently an adjunct assistant professor at Saint John’s University (Queens, NY).
“Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility.” – Saint Augustine
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) recently released the vocabulary scores for 4th and 8th grade students on the 2009 and 2011 reading comprehension exam. This marks the first time that results of a separate mastery scale for vocabulary comprehension administered by the National Assessment of Educational Progress have been released. The scores are troubling – but not unexpected. While the average performance on the U.S. Education Department’s national exams remained mostly stagnant at low levels, the highest performers lost ground during the same period!
According to the report, the comprehension levels of 4th grade students were tested on words like create, spread, clenched, outraged, puzzled and striking. Eighth-graders, on the other hand, were expected to know the meaning of more difficult words such as anecdote, edible, replicate, specialty, and permeate. Finally, high school seniors were asked to recognize terms such as prospered, capitalize, articulate, proactive, mitigate and delusion. As the NCES described it, the exam’s word index was based on vocabulary usage across a variety of content areas. Unfortunately, while on average, 4th graders scored 218 out of a total of 500 points, 8th graders recorded a paltry 265!
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