The Center for American Progress has released a report on student surveys regarding how challenged they feel at school. Along with the report, CAP has provided an interactive map breaking down key results by state.
Popular assumption is that the nation’s teenagers are drowning in schoolwork. Images of sullen students buried in textbooks often grace the covers of popular parenting magazines, while well-heeled suburban teenagers often complain they have to work the hours of a corporate lawyer in order to finish their school projects and homework assignments. But when the authors of Do Schools Challenge our Students? What Student Surveys Tell Us about the State of Education in the United States recently examined a federal survey of students in elementary and high schools around the country, they found the opposite: Many students are not being challenged in school.
Key national findings from the analysis include:
- Many schools are not challenging students, and large percentages of students report that their school work is “too easy.”
- Many students are not engaged in rigorous learning activities
- Students don’t have access to key science and technology learning opportunities.
- Too many students don’t understand their teacher’s questions and report that they are not learning during class.
- Students from disadvantaged backgrounds are less likely to have access to more rigorous learning opportunities.
Based on their analysis, the authors have several policy recommendations. First, policymakers need to continue to push for higher, more challenging standards. Second, students need to be provided with more rigorous learning opportunities, and there needs to be more equity in how those opportunities are distributed across states and districts. Finally, researchers and educators need to continue to develop student surveys. It is becoming more evident that student surveys better predict teacher effectiveness and student performance than more traditional measures.
To read the full report, please visit http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2012/07/state_of_education.html
