“Learning is like rowing upstream – to not advance is to drop back.” – Chinese proverb.
Well, get ready to go backward … again. Analysis of college-bound seniors’ 2011 SAT scores shows that student improvement is going nowhere, and that Hispanic and African-American students continue to face a wide achievement gap.
When you take into account this year’s SAT analysis and recent ACT scores, which reveal that only 25 percent of the 2011 class could meet the benchmarks for college readiness in all four core subjects, it’s no surprise that we’re dropping back.
The United States has slipped from 12th to 16th globally in college education attainment, according to a report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
How much more writing needs to be on the wall before we reach a consensus that how we continue to educate our kids is not working?
We’re not adequately preparing our K-12 students for college and therefore we’re falling behind other nations both educationally and economically. It’s time that we all step back, admit it’s not working, and then work to reform our education system to emphasize student achievement.
We, and especially our kids, need a system that puts students first and rallies against the backward trends evident in our education system.