Reports released Thursday show what most of us remember well from our high school days: It’s supposed to be about learning, but most of us didn’t learn all that much.
The two reports put out by the U.S. Department of Education highlight a deceptively rosy outlook “”mdash; with underlying problems.
One report studied high school graduates’ transcripts. Compared to students going back to 1990, today’s students have taken more classes, worked through more Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate tests, and have significantly higher GPAs, according to the report.
But a second report that studied 12th-graders’ abilities in basic math and reading comprehension revealed more disturbing results. Students’ reading scores have steadily declined since 1992, and their math abilities (which unfortunately aren’t statistically comparable to older scoring methods) are abysmally low.
According to the transcript study, high school students are studying more, studying more difficult material, and scoring better in those classes. At the same time, students’ actual abilities in math and reading have reached all-new lows.
This leads to a frightening conclusion. Schools are not gaining as much from their classes as we would hope.
In fact, this is a natural conclusion of many of the government policies and institutional changes that have shaped the educational landscape lately.
Legislation like No Child Left Behind puts huge pressure on schools, and in some cases it can derail learning. Some schools will meet requirements, such as standardized test scores and graduation rates, by really teaching students. But some will find it easier to simply meet the requirements without their students making actual gains.
Instead of teaching students to read and do math generally, some schools will simply “teach to the tests.” And instead of helping students pass their classes and earn their diplomas, some schools will artificially raise their graduation rates by shuffling unqualified students along.
On the other end, colleges and universities have encouraged students and high schools to focus on beefing up transcripts. Actual learning, however, is too difficult to quantify and doesn’t really lend itself to college application processes.
College admissions counselors want to see more AP and IB classes, higher GPAs and increased extracurricular activity. But there is no way for most students to put quality effort into their classes when they have so much on their plates just to qualify for elite colleges.
The result is that students learn to skate through classes with the minimum effort required to get good grades. And they learn that what matters is only what they can put on their transcript, not the actual experience of participating in clubs and activities.
Students today are in trouble. All the good intentions in the world don’t change the fact that students are being taught to improve how they look on paper “”mdash; not their reading and math skills. These problems continue on as they go through college.
In the end, it also affects our economy. The real world takes real intelligence, not manufactured intelligence. If tomorrow’s high school and college graduates are less prepared for skilled jobs, our economy will take a hit.
And don’t forget ““ these reports didn’t even look at the high school dropouts. We need to find ways to target the real problems in our schools or we’re going to face even bigger problems in the future.
Unsigned editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily Bruin Editorial Board.