High school test scores declining over time

(I ran across this story about lower standardized test scores and higher GPA's. You would naturally expect these two measurements to have a positive correlation: one goes up, the other goes up. I talked to a local business owner last week who told me hear daughter in high school spells "school" "skool." When the daughter was told that its important to spell properly, the daughter said with spell checking you don't have to know how to spell. The same business owner total me they ran a 15 percent off sale and the clerk, a high schooler now in college, was totally confused as how to figure out 15 percent off. She total him to just take off 10 percent, divide that number by two and add them together to get the amount to reduce the price. The store owner said the clerk said that was way too confusing.

I'd heard similar versions of this story over the past couple of years. I wonder if this seems odd to me because I have 52 years of life experiences compared to a kid with 16 years of life experiences. Maybe I've had more practical application of my education? Maybe it doesn't matter? Maybe I'm expecting too much when I'd expected college-bound high schoolers to be able to spell "school" and do simple, practical math.)---


Two reports released last week reveal that students may be learning less than students who were in school 15 years ago, raising concerns about high school curriculum reform by the U.S. Department of Education.

Margaret Spellings, U.S. Secretary of Education, said in a written statement that students are taking more rigorous coursework and earning higher GPAs but aren't performing better on standardized tests. The two reports looked at standardized test scores and analysis of transcripts from seniors who graduated in 2005.

One of the reports, called The Nations Report Card: 12th-Grade Reading and Mathematics 2005, showed a decline in the average scores in 2005 compared with scores in 1992. However, the second, The Nations Report Card: America's High School Graduates, showed students were earning about three more credits than students in 1990 and had an increase of a third of a letter grade higher in their GPA.

Read more on test scores.