I’ve been reading the TMSS and PIRLS reports that compare American schools to international ones.

In 4th and 8th grade, our attitudes toward reading are beyond shameful–as far as habits go, America was near the BOTTOM of ALL countries tested. While illiteracy isn’t a problem, aliteracy certainly is. I think this reflects poorly on America’s overall hostility toward education.

We aren’t quite where we need to be in other areas, though we are quite competitive in reading ABILITY at the 4th and 8th-grade levels and not-so-great-but-not-terrible in 4th and 8th grade in math and science, where we are above the international average and usually near the 70th %ile. We’ve improved a LOT over the past 10 years, which is quite encouraging. I think the first TMSS report in 1995 was a shock to our arrogance, uh, system.

Where it really gets awful is in high school, though there is only information available about a single year (1999) and that is restricted to math and science and Asian countries didn’t even take part.

What’s annoying to me is that the REASON other countries cream us so handily is incredibly obvious. They almost all have ****differentiated education**** and stringent national standards *for each level.* This isn’t NCLB. NCLB is the equivalent of setting standards meant to raise levels for the bottom third of students but not having standards for any other population—which is a marginal improvement over no standards at all but carries the risk of neglecting or even dumbing down the upper 66% of the school population, never mind the friggin’ idiots who are using it as an excuse to destroy all academic competition and all honors and AP classes.

Now, some of the poor results relative to other countries are a result of their high dropout rates, which essentially takes out most of their bad and marginal students and is in itself a kind of differentiated education–though not one we want! In order of average achievement in mathematics in the TMSS study of 1999, these are the rates of levels of education lower than completing some type of secondary education within the overall population according to a 2005 study–essentially, the level of “dropouts” in American terms. (Keep in mind that US’s immigration policies artificially inflate this number compared to other European nations, so the discrepancy is even bigger than it seemed.) (I am not using current graduation rates because it does not count people who are held back in primary or secondary school, and so it really distorts the numbers since this is not a common practice in most countries but is in some, especially the US, which I’m focusing upon.)

Netherlands - 34%
Sweden - 18%
Denmark - 18%
Switzerland - 14%
Iceland - 34%
Norway - 13% (This number is very suspect, BTW, because of other sources that point to numbers closer to 30%, and I think it has to do with the funny definitions of sec. ed. used in the study)
France - 35%
New Zealand - 22%
Australia - 38%
Canada - 16%
Austria - 21%
Slovenia - ?
Germany - 17%
Hungary - 22%
Italy - 54%
Russian Fed. - ?
Lithuania - ?
Czech Repub - 11%
US - 12%
Cypress - ?
South Africa - ?

Our very low dropout/non-secondary-grad rate will depress our average scores somewhat compared to nations with higher rates. It is, however, not the only factor, and that becomes obvious when we look at another set of figures.

See, what is completely inexcusable is how terrible we are in ADVANCED mathematics (that is, US students taking pre-cal and above compared to international counterparts). Of the 16 countries surveyed, we are SECOND TO LAST. Here is information (in order of achievement on the TMSS study) about the rates at which these countries track students into completely different secondary programs based upon expected educational attainment (the tracks here are non-university tertiary or university tertiary–called N, and U here–with rates of max. attainment each level and at and above for “U”). Extremely high secondary dropout rates seem to lead to low N enrollment even when available (noted again as D).

France - D 35, N 31, U+ 34
Russian Federation - ?
Switzerland - D 14, N 47, U+ 40
Australia - D 38, N 11, U+ 51
Denmark - D 18, N 46, U+ 36
Cyprus - ?
Lithuania - ?
Greece - D 46, N 5, U+ 46
Sweden - D 18, U+ 82
Canada - D 16, U+ 84
Slovenia - ?
Italy - D 54, N 8, U+ 38
Czech Republic - D 11, N 44, U+ 45
Germany - D 17, N 51, U+ 32
United States - D 12, U+ 88
Austria - D 21, N 49, U+ 29

Of all the countries on which the 2005 educational attainment report had information, not one country that had a US-like educational system scored in the top half for advanced mathematics in the 1999 TMSS study. In the US, there is a myth that all students will go to a four-year university, and so they all need the same education, and tracking leads to the danger that students who would otherwise go to a 4-year university will get shunted away from that path. If that is true, then countries with tracking into non-university-bound programs ought to have a lower tertiary graduation rate than the US. But that simply isn’t true. Despite our low dropout rates and undifferentiated education, which means that 87% of our students graduate from a nominally university-prep education, our students graduate from teriary programs at a LOWER rate compared to those of a large proportion of the other countries in the TMSS study–in fact, our 3-year+ tertiary completion rate puts us below average of 21 countries surveyed and scarcely above average out of the 18 who reported 1-2 year tertiary programs (basically an associate’s degree in the US). Total graduation rates from all tertiary programs of TMSS-participating countries on which there is data, in order of average math achievement (2005 data):

Sweden - 39.3%
Denmark - 51.9%
Switzerland - 40.2%
Iceland - 50.1%
Norway - 44.3%
France - 45.4%
Australia - 49.0%
Austria - 49.0%
Germany - 29.5%
Hungary - 37.5%
Italy - 27.8%
Czech Republic - 20.6%
United States - 41.7%

So not only are the average children enrolled in secondary schools better in math than we are in all these countries, but we are 6 of 13 when it comes to graduation rates from all tertiary institutions.

Our low dropout rates and undifferentiated education are clearly NOT making us competitive at the tertiary level compared to other nations, we are not educating the students who would otherwise drop out at to an internationally competitive level, and we are failing our best and brightest terribly compared to other nations.

So what are we going to do about it?

that I have a problem with moderation. *g* I tend to either throw myself fully into something or not do it at all (see the 16 dishes for Thanksgiving below…). This explains partly why my characters are so often highstrung and overly…EVERYTHING. It’s because I am. *g* I’m just a big person. When people meet me, they’re always suprised that I’m not very tall nor very strong-featured or anything. In fact, I look like everyone’s wholesome, pretty, average little sister. I think that’s why I take people by such surprise.

Mwahahaha!

Crudités

Salad - Butternut Squash Soup (I loved this–new recipe! Squash, shallots, Asain 5-spice, cinnamon, nutmeg, garlic, a little oil)

Red Onion, Orange, and Bay-Leaf Turkey (secret: brine, then bake first 30 min at 425 to brown and lock in juice) - Gravy - Green Bean Casserole - Stuffed Mushrooms (my own recipe) - Chestnut, Dried Apple, and Bacon Stuffing - Cheesy Mashed Potatoes - Homemade Cranberry Sauce (I love this! I’ve only had canned before–make your own because it’s easy and wonderful!) - Cheese Drop Biscuits - Homemade White Rolls

Bourbon Pecan Pie - Ginger Struesel Pumpkin Pie (too sweet for me, but I was proud of the crust and others really liked it) - Cream Cheese Brownies - Vanilla Ice Cream

I added some gravy packets to the homemade gravy because I knew that the turkey was too small to make enough gravy on its own, and I cheated on the stuffing by combining homemade stuff with a mix and on the pecan lie by buying a shell, but other than that, it was all completely and utterly made from scratch. Yay! *g* I stuffed my guests silly. *smug smile* I like stuffing people silly.

I’m not having mine until Sat, but for all you normal people out there… HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

uniterpretable
recrossed
Jovian
hatted
kerchiefed
manticores
muzzily
waisted
arse
sallowness
querulousness
mundanity

My WHISPERS cover!

It will change slightly before the final version, but ain’t it beautiful????

The most common words were not surprise (the, to, and, but, a, etc.), but was DID surprise me was the shere number of unique words I used. Out of the 65,000 words I entered, there were 8,000 unique ones. 8,000! Compare that to Pride and Prejudice with 121,000 words and 6,800 unique ones, or Wuthering Heights, with 116,000 words and about 9500 unique ones. I come right in between the two. *g* (Of course, about a hundred are actually typos, but still…)

I like words….

In my recent research, I’ve come across two words I didn’t know. One I’ve seen before but never really figured out the meaning of, and the other I’d never even read before.

irredentism - “nationalist agitation in other countries, based on historical, ethnic, and geographical reasons, for the incorporation of territories under foreign rule.” From the Columbia Encyclopedia–quite useful for studying Balkan history. I’d seen this one before, but no wonder I didn’t figure out what it meant other than “vaguely military hostility”!

autochthonous - “originating where found.” Okay. Sounds like a rather pretentious way to say “indigenous “to me. It also is…weird to me because “chthonic” means of or relating to the underworld and has Greek origins, so I expected a much more sinister or at least morbid definition! I can’t use that word without the other connotations interfering. A native demon might be autochthonous in my mind, but I can’t write that about something more benign!

Ahem.

I just know that some reader SOMEWHERE is going to read WHISPERS and say either A) horses can’t swim! or B) horses can’t swim that far! It seems like every other piece of research anyone could possibly be wrong about has been quite open to confusion and misintrepretation, and it’s not like this will actually clear anything up, but I’m just stating for the record that I have researched it and found it to be extremely plausible.

The width that the horses are swimming is between 180 and 1000 meters. Most likely, it’s around 400 meters, or about a fourth of a mile. A horse that is introduced to swimming for fitness for the first time in one particular place is swum for 200 meters the first day, working up to 1500 meters at the end of six weeks. The horses in my story, in very good physical condition, are swimming twice an introductory workout and a little more than a fourth of what a horse used to swimming would just just as a daily workout. Which means that the situation is very possible.

Thank you.

It seems that a lot of authors (not me!) are often asked what their favorite book is, and the most typical answer is either “I can decide” or “the last one I finished.” Their least favorite is always “the one I’m working on now”–not because it’s BAD but because writing can be a painful process.

I’m weird. *g* For me, my favorite book has ALWAYS been my current one, and my least favorite one the one that I most recently allowed out of my clutching hands and into the world. See, the thing is, for me, writing is never a process that’s finished. There just comes a point in time when I must quit on one project and move to the next–even before I was published, this was true, since I had to send out queries and partials and the like.

On the other hand, the book I’m always most excited about is always the book AFTER the current one. It’s new, it’s fresh, it’s untrodden ground. What could be better than that? Maggie’s going to see daylight again, and although she won’t be much different, Charles is going to be an entirely different person, and a much bigger pain in the ass. *g* Maggie’s essentially good-natured and loving, if perfectly mercenary when she needs to be, and so she needs some true antagonism to work through (other than the action-suspense subplot, which will be much bigger). My prologue is going to start with a murder. I hope my editor doesn’t flip out. *g*

I think something else I’ve learned recently is that I should simply screw marketability. Sure, I need a story that sounds good in a blurb, but overall, I need to be even more daring unless my editor absolutely hits the ceiling. For me, for what I am as a writer, less marketable is actually MORE marketable, if that makes any sense. Half measures, however sincerely recommended by agent and editor alike, merely weaken the impact and make no one happy. If I’m going to be standing on an edge, it ought to be a knife-edge, not a balance beam.

Pages I would have printed out and not been allowed to touch if only my main computer would work, curse it:

268 / 400 (67.0%)