How Educated Are We - Academic Standards

The chart above shows students' test results and professors' opinions of the academic achievement of high school graduates. Data for the "Percentage of ACT test takers who are ready for college level courses, 2001" are based on a 2001 American College Testing Program news release that revealed 18% of test takers' scores suggested that they were not ready for college level courses. "Percentage of 17-year olds proficient in reading, 1999" and "Percentage of 17-year olds proficient in math, 1999" data were taken from the Digest of Education Statistics, 2001. The test results were based on an exam administered by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)²⁵. The data include all those who had reading and math scores at or above 300 on a 500-point scale.

There is a wide disparity between what the ACT, NAEP, and college professors assess as student proficiency. If we look at ACT's standards, we see that 82% of those taking the ACT scored high enough to enter a college or university with liberal admissions policies, at the least. If we look at reading proficiency among high school graduates according to the NAEP assessments, only 40% of the high school graduates are proficient in reading (meaning at or above a level set by the U.S. Department of Education). In mathematics proficiency, this is about 61% of graduates.

College professors, however, do not think that the mathematics proficiency of most of the students is that high. According to them, only about 40% possess at least a basic knowledge of mathematics; all others fall short. And when it comes to writing clearly and using proper grammar and spelling, only about 20% of students are perceived to have these skills. This mirrors a 2002 survey of high school teachers in which only 20% said that students in their schools learn to speak and write well. One possible cause for the perceived shortcoming in mathematics and reading proficiency could be that schools of education don't stress these skills. A survey by Public Agenda found that only 19% of education professors said that it was "absolutely essential to produce teachers who 'stress correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation for their students."

What about non-academic skills that are useful for college and employment success? The picture isn't much brighter in many cases. According to college professors and employers, in 2002, few high school graduates have many of the skills it takes to succeed.

Percentage of Recent High School Graduates Who Possess These Traits According to College Professors and Employers, 2002

	% of graduates (according to professors)	% of graduates (according to employers)
Being organized and on time	26	31
Being motivated and conscientious	44	28
Being curious, interested in learning	49	47
Working with others effectively	69	53
Being respectful and polite	63	51
Honesty	65	56

The "standards movement" has been around since the 1980s. This movement, a reaction to the 1983 report A Nation At Risk, set out to increase academic standards in our nation's schools. Part of this reform was to emphasize standardized testing as a way of tracking students' learning. But is this an accurate way of assessing student academic progress when there are such disparities between test results and the perceptions of college professors and employers?

With the perceived lack of basic education obtained by high school graduates, is a high school diploma worth anything? We will attempt to answer this question in the next panel.

Sources: Chart data: "Reality Check 2000." Education Week, 16 February 2000. Online. Available: http://www.edweek.org; April 3, 2002. U.S. Department of Education. National Center for Education Statistics. Digest of Education Statistics, 2001. "Reality Check 2002." Education Week, 6 March 2002. Online. Available: http://www.edweek.org. April 3, 2002. "What is NAEP?" Online. Available: http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/about. April 8, 2002. Jeffrey M. Jones, M.D. Ph.D. "The Standards Movement - Past and Present." Online. Available: http://www.execpc.com/~presswis/stndmvt.html. April 8, 2002. "Item Map of Selected Item Descriptions on the NAEP Reading Scale for Grade 12." Online. Available: http://nces.ed.gov. April 8, 2002.