Friday
Apr222011
Improvement in High School Completion in Math and Science
Friday, April 22, 2011 at 5:43PM
This past Thursday (April 21) the Washington Post published an article “CEOs Warn of Subpar School Standards.” authored by Ben Wolfgang. In the article, it is reported that the “Change the Equation” organization of educators and CEOs of major American companies had conducted a survey and found that “while students in many schools meet the benchmarks set by their states, those thresholds fall far below national levels set by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Assessment of Education Program(NAEP)."
The last NAEP testing was conducted in 2009 of 4th, 8th and 12th graders. Since CEO’s are interested in recruiting new workers, let’s limit this discussion to the 12th grade results. How bad is it? The average scores for math and reading were significantly higher than the scores in 2005; however only 38% were proficient in reading and 26% in math. For the 2009 NAEP testing, 21% of the students were considered proficient in science.
This is not exactly encouraging. However what we must keep in mind is that improvement is occurring. It needs to continue at a much higher rate, else the warning by the CEO’s is valid: “U.S. schools have set a standard for their students that‘s too low and that subpar expectations put the country in danger of falling even further behind other nations in reading and math proficiency.” (Add also science).
This month the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) published a report related to the NAEP testing: “America’s High School Graduates: Results for the 2009 NAEP High School Transcript Study”. It looked at the transcripts from a random sample of 2009 high school graduates and had some promising findings and conclusions:
• On the average, the 2009 graduates enrolled in 3 more credits than 1990 graduates.
• From 2005 to 2009, the percent of high school graduates completing Algebra II has increased from 78% to 84%
• From 2005 to 2009, the percent of high school graduates completing Pre-Calculus has increased from 30% to 35% and in Calculus, from 14% to 17%.
The increase in enrollment in math courses is good news; however due to the competitive nature of college and especially of the STEM courses; and considering the course speed, we need to encourage more high school students to enroll in {and be successful] in pre-calculus and calculus.
• From 2005 to 2009, the percent of high school graduates completing advanced biology has increased from 40% to 45%.
• From 2005 to 2009, the percent of high school graduates completing chemistry has increased significantly from 56% to 70%.
• From 2005 to 2009, the percent of high school graduates completing physics has increased from 36% to 39%.
• From 2005 to 2009, the percent of high school graduates completing technical courses such as engineering or computer science has decreased slightly from 31.9 to 31.1%.
It is encouraging that 70% of the graduates enrolled in chemistry; however more need to be enrolled in physics. It is also encouraging that we are making significant progress especially for the mid-level math courses.
The report indicated that those graduates who participated in a rigorous curriculum or AP course in math or science, on the average tended to score as proficient in math or science. These students will be well-prepared for college. With the national goal of 60% of young adults earning a college degree (based on economic growth and more than 50% of new jobs requiring a college degree -see Lumina Foundation website), the CEOs are correct in raising a warning.
A summary of the report is available at http://nationsreportcard.gov/hsts_2009/summary.asp
Cindy
The last NAEP testing was conducted in 2009 of 4th, 8th and 12th graders. Since CEO’s are interested in recruiting new workers, let’s limit this discussion to the 12th grade results. How bad is it? The average scores for math and reading were significantly higher than the scores in 2005; however only 38% were proficient in reading and 26% in math. For the 2009 NAEP testing, 21% of the students were considered proficient in science.
This is not exactly encouraging. However what we must keep in mind is that improvement is occurring. It needs to continue at a much higher rate, else the warning by the CEO’s is valid: “U.S. schools have set a standard for their students that‘s too low and that subpar expectations put the country in danger of falling even further behind other nations in reading and math proficiency.” (Add also science).
This month the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) published a report related to the NAEP testing: “America’s High School Graduates: Results for the 2009 NAEP High School Transcript Study”. It looked at the transcripts from a random sample of 2009 high school graduates and had some promising findings and conclusions:
• On the average, the 2009 graduates enrolled in 3 more credits than 1990 graduates.
• From 2005 to 2009, the percent of high school graduates completing Algebra II has increased from 78% to 84%
• From 2005 to 2009, the percent of high school graduates completing Pre-Calculus has increased from 30% to 35% and in Calculus, from 14% to 17%.
The increase in enrollment in math courses is good news; however due to the competitive nature of college and especially of the STEM courses; and considering the course speed, we need to encourage more high school students to enroll in {and be successful] in pre-calculus and calculus.
• From 2005 to 2009, the percent of high school graduates completing advanced biology has increased from 40% to 45%.
• From 2005 to 2009, the percent of high school graduates completing chemistry has increased significantly from 56% to 70%.
• From 2005 to 2009, the percent of high school graduates completing physics has increased from 36% to 39%.
• From 2005 to 2009, the percent of high school graduates completing technical courses such as engineering or computer science has decreased slightly from 31.9 to 31.1%.
It is encouraging that 70% of the graduates enrolled in chemistry; however more need to be enrolled in physics. It is also encouraging that we are making significant progress especially for the mid-level math courses.
The report indicated that those graduates who participated in a rigorous curriculum or AP course in math or science, on the average tended to score as proficient in math or science. These students will be well-prepared for college. With the national goal of 60% of young adults earning a college degree (based on economic growth and more than 50% of new jobs requiring a college degree -see Lumina Foundation website), the CEOs are correct in raising a warning.
A summary of the report is available at http://nationsreportcard.gov/hsts_2009/summary.asp
Cindy
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