News Brief
Public Schools: Glass Half Full or Half Empty?
Education Week (10/09/12) Smith III, Malbert; Turner, Jason; Lattanzio, SteveAlthough Gallup's Confidence in Institutions survey for 2012 shows a decrease in respondents placing "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in public K-12 education to 29 percent, down 29 percentage points from 1973, MetaMetrics President and co-founder Malbert Smith III, director of professional development Jason Turner, and research engineer Steve Lattanzio say more should be done to highlight successes in the educational system. They point out that performance on the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) and high school dropout rates both have improved in recent decades. NAEP average scale scores in math for fourth graders, for instance, rose to 243 in 2008 from 219 in 1973. Moreover, the National Center for Education Statistics reveals that the high school dropout rate fell from the double digits two decades ago to just 7.4 percent in 2010. They add that attention should be paid to several developments in education, particularly the adoption of the Common Core State Standards by all but four states. They note, "Retaining our nation's competitiveness among our international peers requires serious educational reform and a more rigorous and standardized curriculum, and the common core will address that." To view the Education Week Commentary, click here and to read the complete white paper, click here.
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