Dive Brief:
- After the latest National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) results found only 40% of American students are college and career ready upon graduating high school, Eric Lerum, the vice president of growth and strategy for the nonprofit America Succeeds called the K-12 system a "sham" for many students.
- "There are other subjects beyond math and reading, soft skills, exposure to enrichment opportunities … a student could master many things, but still perform poorly on NAEP," Lerum writes, highlighting the fact that NAEP scores are just one of many indicators of readiness.
- Lerum said despite similar results year after year, perhaps policymakers may feel pressure from this year's scores to reform the educational system, though he does not suggest explicit changes.
Dive Insight:
Issued every two years, the results from this year's National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) report, known as the Nation's Report Card, showed the average score for students in math and English is a point lower in 2015 than it was in 2013. The biggest takeawy for many, however, is that NAEP results showed fewer than 40% of students are ready for life after high school, 82% graduate.
An October 2015 study examined eighth graders' performance on math on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, and found the biggest chunk (over 50%) of the 31-point achievement gap between black and white students came from differences in performance at the same school.
But education philanthropist Ted Dintersmith pointed out in a recent blog post that the change in score for 2015 represents "statistically-insignificant declines," pointing out the drop is .2% from the last report year. Dintersmith called for a questioning of the definition of "college-ready," saying a disconnect exists between what schools think constitutes readiness for life after high school and what employers and colleges see as being prepared. Instead of a heavy reliance on test results, he calls for empowering teachers to create meaningful learning experiences for students.