New York State’s English and math exams include several questions each year about livestock, crops and the other staples of the rural experience that some educators say flummox city children, whose knowledge of nature might begin and end at Central Park. On the state English test this year, for instance, third graders were asked questions relating to chickens and eggs. In math, they had to count sheep and horses.
So leaving no possible test point unexplored, the educators at the Harlem Success Academy, a fast-growing chain of four charter schools known for a relentless emphasis on data, have invented a form of test preparation. The schools haul their students to a farm each year, hoping to expose them to the rural life and lift their scores.
‘There were passages, literally, about milking, plowing — things that were pretty foreign to Harlem kids,’ said Eva S. Moskowitz, who leads the Harlem Success Academy chain. ‘It’s a little bit annoying that there are no passages about the subway, or how crowded the streets are.’
