What you see is NOT what you get

Where to even begin - so much to weed through here, but sadly none of it should surprise you.

Some concerning studies came out recently. An article in Education Week (3/16/22) titled, “12th Graders Took Harder Courses and Got Higher GPAs, But Test Scores Fell. What Gives?” pretty much says it all after untangling the title. Here we go.

Took Harder Courses: More than half of the students took more-challenging courses, characterized by researchers as moderately rigorous, which was up from 47% ten years ago. Sounds good so far. But … they found that what was being sold as an advanced course wasn’t really advanced when they looked at the material actually being taught.

Got Higher GPAs: As we’ve been seeing for many years, the average high school GPA continues to rise, from a 3.0 to a 3.11 over a recent 10-year span. Another study showed that schools were awarding more A grades than C’s, D’s, and F’s combined. Think of it as having three categories of grades: A (usually 90-100), B (usually 80-89), and neither A nor B (usually 0-79). Group 1 is more frequently given out than group 3. Knowing this, you would think that the students would be ‘smarter’.

Test Scores Fell: However, the NCES (National Center for Education Statistics) found that the average score of the National Assessment of Educational Progress actually fell during that same 10-year span. Better grades for the students in more challenging courses but a drop in performance on a national assessment. So are the students actually learning more?

In summary, student report cards look better (higher GPAs), their transcripts look better (harder courses), but they’re not learning more. Anecdotally, I’ve found that over the past three years I’ve tutored many math students who received A grades in their prior math class yet don’t have the basic knowledge of that previous year’s course to go forward with their new math class. It’s both sad and frustrating to work with students who received an A last year in Algebra 2 but have no idea how to factor a polynomial or use FOIL to create one.

How much longer will the GPA be a meaningful measurement of academic achievement? Or have we already passed that point?