RELEASE: Low Proficiency Expectations Conveying False Sense of Achievement
Low proficiency expectations are leaving students unprepared for success in College and the Workforce
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Today, the Foundation for Excellence in Education (ExcelinEd), released WhyProficiencyMatters.com, an interactive website that shows student proficiency levels state-by-state.
“Achieving proficiency ensures every student graduates prepared for success in college, a career or the military,” said Patricia Levesque, CEO for the Foundation for Excellence in Education. “Yet,
because of low expectations, all children are not equally prepared for
the challenges of college or today’s workforce. Our education systems
must raise proficiency expectations to ensure every child masters
essential knowledge and skills.”
Every
state draws a line – also called the proficiency cut score – on their
annual assessment to determine if a student is proficient in the
subject. This proficiency cut score varies state-by-state.
The
respected National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is
considered the gold standard for measuring student proficiency. The
difference between NAEP and individual states’ proficiency expectations
are wide and varied. This discrepancy is called a “proficiency gap.”
Many
states reported proficiency scores that are 30 percentage points higher
than NAEP rates, with some states like Alabama and Idaho seeing a near
60 point variation between the two percentages.
When
the proficiency cut score is too low, it conveys a false sense of
student achievement to parents, teachers and educators. This false sense
of achievement damages students’ long–term chance for success in
college or the workforce.
- 50 percent of students entering two-year colleges are placed in remediation.
- Source: Complete College America, Remediation: Higher Education’s Bridge to Nowhere, 2012
- $7 billion is spent annually by first-year college students to learn what they should have mastered in high school.
- Source: National Bureau of Economic Research, Improving the Targeting of Treatment: Evidence from College Remediation, 2012
- There are
600,000 vacant American manufacturing jobs due to the lack of qualified
applicants and over the next decade that will likely grow to 2 million.
- Source: The Manufacturing Institute, The Growing Skills Gap Report, 2013 & Deloitte: The Skills Gap in U.S. Manufacturing 2015 and Beyond
“Across the country, states are in the process of reviewing their proficiency cut scores,” Levesque added.
“States must raise their proficiency expectations if they hope to
create an education system where every child masters the knowledge and
skills necessary to be successful in the next grade – and most
importantly – after high school.”
To learn more visit www.WhyProficiencyMatters.com. Join the conversation online with the hashtag #ProficiencyMatters.
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About the Foundation for Excellence in Education
The Foundation for Excellence in Education is
igniting a movement of reform, state by state, to transform education
for the 21st century economy by working with lawmakers, policymakers,
educators and parents to advance education reform across America. Learn
more at ExcelinEd.org.
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