A new analysis from the independent, solutions-oriented think tank FutureEd offers a way out of this “testing morass.” As of 2021-22, nearly 50% of parents say statewide assessments are “not helpful at all” in keeping their children on track for college.

“Some critics claim state tests take time away from teaching and learning without contributing enough to instruction and provide results too late in the school year to be useful to educators and families,” the report reads. “Others charge the tests are biased against students from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds and fail to measure important skills beyond academic knowledge.”

But at the heart of the issue is a desire for state tests to serve two different and incompatible roles. The first: giving policymakers comparable information on student achievement. The second: providing detailed information to teachers and families for instructional improvement.

Unfortunately, it’s difficult to improve statewide tests without altering the federal accountability requirements fundamental to their use. FutureEd’s solution? A two-tiered testing model.

“Intentionally developing a system of state and local tests that share the same view of student learning could create a more coherent system of assessments than the current tangle of state and local measures,” the authors wrote. “The premise is that local and school-level transparency would drive behavior and the allocation of resources rather than high-stakes consequences.”

For clarification, state tests would prioritize aggregated data for policymakers and education leaders to monitor educational opportunities. Local and classroom-based assessments, a.k.a. second-tier assessments, would give teachers, students and families timely information.

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Teachers said state standardized assessments could prove more useful if they:

• Captured learning over time (46%)
• Were more accessible for unique learners (30%)
• Were more aligned with the curricula used in the classroom (26%)
• Leveraged technology to adapt to an individual student’s abilities as they progressed (15%)
• Came with more guidance on how to use test results to inform instruction (15%)
• Released results more quickly (12%)
• Were more culturally responsive (12%)
• Offered more guidance on how to use the results to communicate progress to parents (10%)
• Were more aligned with state standards (9%)

To see the rest of the data from this comprehensive report, click here.

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Numerous studies show that students who cannot reach grade-level reading proficiency by third grade rarely catch up and face a greater risk of not graduating from high school. Alarmingly, a groundbreaking new report shows that, nationwide, children who were ages 1 through 4 when pandemic-related school and childcare disruptions began are now coming to school less prepared and struggling to achieve grade-level success.

The implications of these learning gaps are stark. They also explain why State Board of Education President Linda Clark listed “improving K-3 literacy” as Idaho’s top education goal for 2024. More than 60%% of Idaho students went back to school this September without the skills necessary to reach grade level, according to results from the most recent Idaho Reading Indicator assessment.

A data-driven cultural shift

In West Ada, the state’s largest district, our teachers could see evidence of learning loss in nearly every classroom across our 58 schools, from kindergarten through 12th grade. Like many schools in Idaho and across the nation, our district’s challenge in overcoming learning gaps was determining how to allocate the right resources to meet the individual needs of 40,000 students, all of whom were still adjusting to significant disruption. We turned to data to find that answer.

First, creating an ecosystem of data required a fundamental cultural shift around assessment. A broad misconception is that data is primarily used for punitive measurements, determining whether teachers meet the right metrics in their classrooms each year. This mindset reduces students to numerical figures while placing too much pressure on teachers to meet certain benchmarks at the end of the year.

We endeavored to redefine assessments as an instrument for learning and mutual accountability for a student’s success. Now, our teachers are trained to access, evaluate, and communicate data in real-time. They embed diagnostic tests into instruction rather than building instruction toward one or two high-pressure statewide tests. As a result, data serves as the foundation for a constant, continuous conversation between teachers, principals, and families.

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In the last nine years, we have worked with Curriculum Associates, the makers of i-Ready. These programs for K-8 math and reading equip educators with data about students’ skills and areas for growth. In the past, results from state reading assessments each spring would inform teachers about their new class of students, helping them identify learning gaps and skillset needs.

Now, instead of using data as a snapshot—and measuring students’ progress once or twice annually—West Ada’s teachers use i-Ready assessments multiple times throughout the year. Our teachers can now adjust instructional planning decisions and create individualized pathways for every student to succeed. We use assessments to drive progress, not just measure it.

Principals are playing a key role, too

And it’s not just our teachers who embrace data to advance student achievement. Our principals use data to facilitate honest conversations with teachers and students’ families. Our district leaders use data to inform our Leadership Institutes, a regularly programmed in-service day focused on solving department- or grade-level trends and challenges. During our Leadership Institutes, we zero in on data to understand how we can adapt instruction and, ultimately, improve student learning.

Having dependable, accessible data is no longer an advantage in today’s classrooms. It is an imperative. According to results from last spring’s Idaho Reading Indicator assessment, more than 77% of our students are now reading at grade level. As of January 2024, 75% of kindergarten-through-third-grade students are reading at grade level. Although we are encouraged by this progress, our primary goal remains to help every student reach grade-level proficiency.

Every child has the potential to overcome adversity and—in the words of Dr. Seuss—move mountains. We will continue to foster a culture of assessment and embrace data to achieve that goal and help our students reach the places they’ll go.

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I understand that to teach effectively, educators must readily identify areas where their students excel — as well as ones where they may need additional support. My career as an educator has been driven by this desire to give every teacher that may be in a learner’s life, whether one at school or in a community center, or their caregiver at home a reliable window into their students’ current knowledge base, and their potential for new growth and discovery.

The best assessment processes allow a learner to be measured alongside milestones of their own developmental trajectory, not in comparison to arbitrary—and potentially outdated—standards that may or may not reflect their unique, lived experiences.

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We at Assessment for Good are working to develop such a system of effective, asset-based formative assessments that can power the future of learning. These tools will be designed to deliver accurate, insightful data about the academic, emotional and social well-being of all students, particularly Black and Latino students and students from households experiencing poverty.

Assessment for transformative change

By creating more equitable, inclusive and culturally relevant assessment tools, we believe we can support positive learner outcomes and help eradicate the persistent gap in opportunity faced by preK-12 students who are Black or Latino.

Already, with our R&D partners, we have engaged over 4,000 learners and 1,000 educators across 14 states in our work to develop and validate new assessment measures and to test innovative assessment delivery platforms.

Together, we are working to capture the variables that learners, educators and community partners have identified as critical for understanding the fullness of the learner experience—an experience shaped by classroom-based achievement metrics as well as social and emotional well-being.

The Future(s) of Assessment

The Future(s) of Assessment project, launched in 2023, is an Assessment for Good initiative powered by the Strategic Foresight team at KnowledgeWorks. In February 2023, we held a multi-day workshop, where dozens of educators, researchers, thought leaders in curriculum and assessment design and community activists explored what effective, asset-based assessments could look like in the future—and how they could help positively transform learning for students from all backgrounds. Over the course of our discussions, we considered critical uncertainties and key drivers that might accelerate or derail our commitment to learners.

This short illustration by Rio Holaday, a Culture of Health leader with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, captures a few key moments of our work.

Thinking so intentionally about the future is challenging and it takes courage. But with such a forward-focused lens in place, it is clear that asset-based assessments can and must play a key role in our work to build a better educational experience for students.

When done incorrectly, an assessment identifies gaps or deficiencies. When done well, they can be useful tools to help educators uncover opportunities. Even more, when we leverage emerging technologies in safe and purposeful ways, we can make those data more accessible and useful to educators and learners. Asset-based formative assessment shows administrators which curricula are working and which aren’t—while providing learners with another outlet to share their expertise and creativity.

We envision a future where assessment and learning are intertwined to offer real-time, critical insights into each learner’s individual educational experience. With such tools, educators can more adeptly pivot and customize lessons to meet students’ specific learning needs.

Within a new formative assessment ecosystem, we will be able to provide educators with a more accurate means of pinpointing each unique learner’s best-fit timeline and offer suggestions to educators that can accelerate future growth for both subject matter proficiency and social and emotional well-being.

We’re on the cusp of developing more inclusive, intentional assessment tools capable of expressing a much richer picture of students’ overall learning experience. In capturing that perspective, these new assessments can positively transform the ways we teach—and enrich students’ educational experiences in myriad, fundamental ways.

Your participation matters

We are just beginning our journey to build asset-based formative assessment tools that provide learners with a rich, engaging experience that empowers them in decision-making throughout the measurement process.

There’s more work to be done. As part of the next phase of our assessment co-design and development, we hope to establish additional funded partnerships with schools and community-based organizations that share our commitment to the social and emotional health and academic success of learners.

Under this new paradigm for formative assessment, tools are designed to reflect the vast and beautiful learning potential of every student. These new tools will deliver unprecedented insights into the intricate processes underpinning how students learn. In doing so, they will help shape educators’ ongoing work to validate and support students’ varied—and ever-evolving—journeys of discovery.

Join us in building a future where assessment isn’t seen as an administrative burden for teachers and students but rather as a vital tool to facilitate their success.

With your help, we can create formative assessment tools that more accurately capture the magic at the root of my love for teaching—namely, that spark of mutual learning that happens when teachers and students forge real and engaging connections.

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History scores are also dropping, and alarmingly so: In 2022, the average U.S. history score in eighth grade decreased by five points compared to 2018 and by nine points compared to 2014. The average score in 2022 is very similar to the average score from 1994, the first year the assessment was given.

Districts have been directing billions in funding and other resources to meet these declines head-on through the science of reading and other important academic initiatives. But what if we’re only addressing the symptoms and not the root cause?

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An alarming undercurrent to these academic declines is a massive increase in non-academic barriers to learning, manifesting in a rising tide of maladaptive behaviors across all student populations. In a recent EdWeek Research Center survey, 70% of teachers, principals, and district leaders said that students are exhibiting more disruptive behaviors than in 2019, up from 66% in December 2021.

And in the same survey, one-third of respondents said students are dysregulated “a lot more.” Our teachers are well-trained in pedagogy, instruction, and assessment. But are they prepared for the dysregulated student who is disrupting the entire classroom?

It’s easy to send that student out of the classroom, but that doesn’t help the student nor does it lessen the disruption. What about a typical student whose grades started slipping? Do they just need tutoring or is something else going on?

A tidal wave for teachers

The lack of ability to manage and support mental health challenges that students face in and outside of the classroom is impacting teachers’ abilities to provide the highest quality learning experiences. Almost seventeen of students under 18 years of age have at least one diagnosed mental health condition, and roughly half of them receive no treatment such as counseling or other interventions. How this plays out in our classrooms should raise significant concerns for educators and school leaders.

Many school districts desire inclusive classroom environments where students with and without mental health conditions and other specialized needs are learning together. The fact is that most students with diverse learning needs spend the majority of their time in general ed classrooms.

In the absence of preservice training or coaching devoted to behavioral and emotional issues, our teachers are left to improvise and create untested responses to the behavioral challenges they face daily. This is not a new challenge. In 2019, a report by the National Center for Learning Disabilities and Understood stated that only 17% of general education teachers feel “very well prepared” to teach children with mild to moderate learning disabilities.

Moreover, 98% of the nation’s schools report special education teacher shortages, with the largest 200 cities in the U.S. reporting special education as being the area with the greatest shortage. In other words, we are losing our special education teachers and our general education teachers are not trained to address students with special needs. Throwing hundreds of millions of dollars at the science of reading initiatives will not make this challenge go away.

The growing wave of mental health conditions and behavioral challenges can feel like a tidal wave for teachers who feel unprepared and overwhelmed—more children with mental health challenges; more students with specialized learning needs in the general education setting; fewer specialized teachers. Once again, we have a math problem.

How to unlock learning for all

As chief administrators in some of our nation’s largest school districts in the country, we have seen and lived these challenges firsthand. Having visited over 60 school districts and over 1,000 classrooms, the way forward is clear to us.

Much has been made of the pending funding cliff. District leaders we speak with are naturally hesitant to begin programs that could lose funding in 18 months. Reframed, this remaining funding should be looked at as an opportunity to jumpstart professional learning and development, investing in our teachers in the areas where they face their biggest challenges and their most significant frustrations.

So, what can we do? First, light- to medium-scale self-care and wellness programs for educators should be table stakes. Next, address the non-academic barriers to learning by empowering and equipping school teams with practical, evidence-based tools to anticipate and defuse behaviors that are disruptive to learning, and to identify signs of mental health challenges. Not just once. Embed these strategies in the new-teacher training curriculum, make it part of annual training followed by coaching, and bring in third-party experts in these fields to avoid overstaffing and overtaxing your existing trainers.

These strategies do not require ongoing stimulus influx to fund. Using the remaining funding to get them “in the water” is the best way to lower the rising tide of classroom disruption and teacher dissatisfaction. By addressing these non-academic barriers, we can unlock learning for all students.

Brent Jones is the superintendent of Seattle Public Schools and is dedicated to making sure all students thrive by transforming organizational culture and redesigning PreK-12 systems and supports. With extensive public sector expertise in strategic planning, community engagement, change management, and human resources, Dr. Jones has demonstrated experience creating the right conditions and systems for advancing educational justice.

Robert Avossa is a senior advisor to FullBloom, a company that annually supports more than 150,000 children and 25,000 educators in over 1,100 school districts through its Catapult Learning and Specialized Education Services, Inc. (SESI) divisions. He spent 25 years as a teacher, principal, executive leader, and school superintendent in Florida (Palm Beach), North Carolina (Charlotte-Mecklenburg), and Georgia (Fulton).

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That’s also because “learning is inherently cultural,” said EdTrust Assistant Director of P-12 Policy Nicholas Munyan-Penney, one of the report’s authors.

“We connect new information to what we already know, including our experiences, social constructs and personal perspectives,” Munyan-Penney contends. “Attempts to remove culture from assessment questions in the name of objectivity not only privileges white perspectives but is out of step with how students learn and demonstrate their knowledge and skills.”

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Superintendents, their teams and other advocates can push for change. EdTrust describes five concepts that, with educators demanding them, would make assessments more equitable:

1. Reflect students’ own cultures and identities authentically: “Assessment items must intentionally reflect a range of racial, cultural, and ethnic identities, so that all students see aspects of their identity explicitly uplifted and affirmed in the test material.14 Assessment design choices — the selected passages, images, and questions — each provide an opportunity to uplift specific cultural elements, so they need to be diversified.”

2. Represent cultures and identities of others: “Racially and culturally inclusive assessments should provide not only mirrors for students to see their own culture and identity reflected, but also windows into other cultures. This combination of windows and mirrors within assessment items also develops a positive attitude toward cultural differences. … For every one assessment item that provides a mirror for one student, that same item offers a window for another student.”

3. Intentionally include important contextual and cultural information: “Intentionally including cultural topics that are familiar to only some students (and therefore unfamiliar to others) should be encouraged; however, assessment development companies need to carefully ensure that context is provided. This is most straightforward when cultural references in the assessment items clearly feature an obvious cultural aspect or behavior—an assessment item related to music, literature, traditions, food, fashion and festivals.”

4. Reflect student interests and intersecting elements of identity: “Assessment items must include items that showcase a range of interests, religions, abilities, sexual orientations, gender identities, age, national origins, and the intersections across these identities.”

5. Honesty about students’ realities—both opportunities and challenges: “In early grades, the focus could involve items promoting inclusion, comfort and validation for all students. Subsequently, in later grades, the assessment can include items that foster cultural consciousness by discussing topics—including systems of oppression—in a nuanced way.”

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High-dosage tutoring has proven effective K through 12—it can help elementary school students build foundational skills and boost high schoolers toward graduation, NWEA, the assessment nonprofit, says in its latest research brief.

Starting outside the classroom, administrators have to eliminate barriers that block students’ access to tutoring. NWEA advises pairing the programs with holistic services such as transportation, childcare and healthcare.

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When it comes to instruction, high-dosage tutoring is most productive when students can build progressively on discrete and targeted grade-level skills.

Here are some more ways NWEA says district leaders can differentiate tutoring:

• Instruction must be tailored to each student’s needs.
• High-dosage tutoring should be more structured, paced and direct. “Scripted activities can help students grow familiar with the curriculum and work at a fast pace without needing repeated directions,” the report advises.
• Tutors need time to give students immediate feedback.
• Interventions are most effective when mentoring reinforces instruction.

“Mentoring relationships that are sustained over time and focused on clearly defined academic and social-emotional goals can provide access to frequent social reinforcement and feedback and improve student confidence and engagement in learning,” the report advises.

High-dosage tutoring essentials

Administrators can also adopt several standard classroom techniques to enhance their tutoring programs. NWEA recommends using a variety of summative and formative assessments to determine which children need assistance and to measure whether students receiving tutoring are making progress. Districts should also track non-test data such as attendance and behavior.

It may sound counter-intuitive, but districts can also balance costs by hiring “less skilled” tutors, NWEA notes. “Because the small-group environment of tutoring is less complex than a regular classroom, districts can hire tutors across a range of experience and qualifications—e.g., certified educators vs. volunteers or college students—without sacrificing gains in student achievement.”

Still, district leaders must provide tutors with scripted instructional materials, training, ongoing supervision and feedback to ensure students are getting the instruction they need. However, the impact of high-dosage tutoring at scale remains unclear.

“District leaders can expect wide variation,” NWEA concludes. “Reviews of early-reading interventions show larger effect sizes for phonics and fluency-related outcomes, smaller effect sizes for reading comprehension, and larger effect sizes in earlier vs. later grade levels.”

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As this debate rages, there’s no question that school leaders still have to pay attention to key grade-level assessments and college entrance exams such as the SAT and ACT.

A new analysis of SAT and ACT scores and fourth- and eighth-grade math and English assessments has led Forbes Advisor to rank all 50 states and Washington, D.C., based on the results. Forbes also figured graduate-level MCAT scores into the rankings.

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Before we get to the full list, let’s dig a little deeper into a few states’ standardized test scores. The state with the highest average SAT score, North Dakota, only ranked No. 29 overall due to much lower levels of fourth- and eighth-grade achievement. High levels of proficiency in math and reading, on the other hand, landed New Jersey third on the list.

New Mexico, the state with the lowest average SAT score at 19, came in 50th—which is second to last on the overall rankings. Nevada, the state with the lowest ACT score at 17, placed 46th.

Here are each state’s average SAT and ACT scores, along with where each state ranks:

1. Massachusetts: 1112, 26
2. Utah: 1239, 20
3. New Jersey: 1066, 24
4. New Hampshire: 1035, 25
5. Connecticut: 1007, 26
6. Wisconsin: 1236, 19
7. Virginia: 1113, 25
8. Colorado: 996, 25
9. Nebraska: 1252, 19
10. Vermont: 1099, 24
11. South Dakota: 1208, 21
12. Minnesota: 1201, 21
13. Iowa: 1208, 21
14. Pennsylvania: 1078, 24
15. Washington: 1081, 25
16. Wyoming: 1200, 19
17. Ohio: 1044, 19
18. Indiana: 971, 23
19. Illinois: 970, 25
20. Michigan: 967, 24
21. Rhode Island: 958, 25
22. New York: 1039, 25
23. California: 1083, 26
24. Montana: 1193, 19
25. Maine: 1080, 25
26. Maryland: 1008, 25
27. Idaho: 970, 23
28. North Dakota: 1287, 20
29. Hawaii: 1114, 18
30. Florida: 966, 19
31. Missouri: 1191, 20
32. Kansas: 1245, 19
33. North Carolina: 1127, 19
34. Georgia: 1054, 21
35. Tennessee: 1191, 18
36. Oregon: 1125, 21
37. Kentucky: 1208, 19
38. Arizona: 1183, 18
39. Texas: 978, 19
40. Washington, D.C.: 969, 26
41. South Carolina: 1028, 19
42. Delaware: 958, 25
43. Alaska: 1082, 20
44. Arkansas: 1192, 19
45. Louisiana: 1194, 18
46. Nevada: 1166, 17
47. Mississippi: 1184, 18
48. Alabama: 1161, 18
49. West Virginia: 923, 20
50. New Mexico: 901, 20
51. Oklahoma: 953, 18

Dig into more data, including fourth- and eighth-grade proficiency rankings, on Forbes Advisor’s complete list.

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Administrators will emphasize growth and double down on the most effective interventions, such as tutoring and strengthening student-teacher relationships. The through line is that academic recovery will take on even more urgency in 2024, say thought leaders at NWEA, the testing firm. Here are some of their insights:

Which academic interventions are working best? “While school districts made some progress in reducing pandemic-related achievement gaps in the 2021-22 school year, progress stalled in the 2022-23 school year. Interventions that have strong evidence of efficacy include high-dosage tutoring, summer school programs and double-dose math classes. Districts should adopt these high-impact interventions while continuing to monitor implementation and adapt interventions to local context so that students can have access to meaningful opportunities to catch up on unfinished learning.” —Ayesha K. Hashim, research scientist

Classroom practices that support high-growth learning will be essential. “The cornerstone of elevating educational quality rests upon strengthening the student-teacher relationship. By fostering meaningful and constructive interactions and offering valuable feedback to students, we empower them to take greater ownership of their learning journey. Recent research underscores the efficacy of specific approaches and practices in promoting substantial learning growth, such as allocating time for retrieval practice (where students benefit from multiple opportunities to reinforce new knowledge) and maintaining flexibility in student group dynamics (allowing for effective student movement between learning groups), among others.” —Chase Nordengren, principal research lead, effective instructional strategies

Research-based interventions will be needed to help older students with reading fluency. “National data show that almost 70% of eighth graders are not considered proficient in reading based on 2022 test scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as The Nation’s Report Card. In 2024, districts will be working to find research-based interventions to help older students with reading fluency. Middle and high school teachers will need support to help older students with foundational reading skills to address this problem. Programs that emphasize repeated reading and allowing older readers to choose practice readings on topics they find engaging will help older readers improve fluency.” —Laura Hansen, NWEA director of academic services

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A data-driven revolution in gifted and talented identification. “In 2024, states are poised to revolutionize their approach to gifted and talented education, driving greater equity and inclusion through a dual strategy of data-driven identification and the implementation of state policies mandating access to gifted services. Universal screening, encompassing a multitude of assessment tools, will ensure that no gifted potential remains unnoticed, while continuous monitoring and transparent reporting will guarantee equal access to the selection process. Simultaneously, state policies will require the development of individualized learning plans for gifted students, promoting inclusive enrichment opportunities, differentiated instruction, and robust teacher professional development.” —Scott Peters, senior research scientist

Math will matter even more in 2024

If 2023 was all about the science of reading, state education leaders will turn their attention to providing systemic supports for math education in 2024, says Karen Beerer, Discovery Education’s senior vice president of teaching and learning.

In the wake of COVID learning loss, several states have already passed new laws requiring schools to identify and provide additional math support to students and teachers.

Alabama’s Office of Mathematics Improvement monitors the implementation of screener assessments, diagnostic assessments, and formative assessments for grades K5. Florida now requires students deemed “deficient” in math to receive intervention and monitoring from their district while Louisiana mandates additional professional learning in numeracy for math teachers in grades 4-8.

“While these are just a few examples of state departments of education adding additional support to math education,” Beerer notes, “I believe in 2024 these efforts will accelerate and become the norm nationwide.

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“This process resembles, to a degree, how education administrators and researchers consider school performance,” U.S. News said in revealing its rankings for 2024.

But the rankings—which are based on 2020-2021 assessment results—also give weight to the scores unadjusted for demographics because “parents value environments where most children arrive prepared to learn and teachers can provide a culture of enrichment,” U.S. News stated.

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“Certainly, nonacademic factors also matter in evaluating schools, but in this space we are measuring what can be fairly measured, and the academic performance of their children’s schools is generally of high importance to families,” the publication added.

Some 45,236 elementary schools and 22,053 middle schools were ranked, representing about 77% of public schools with elementary and middle school grades. But unlike its college and high school rankings, U.S. News did not produce a single master list of the top elementary and middle schools in the U.S. Rather, it compares schools only within each state.

• Here are the state-by-state rankings of best elementary schools.
• Here are the state-by-state rankings of best middle schools.

U.S. News notes that it could not update its data for California, Delaware, the District of Columbia, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington, and the rankings reflect 2018-2019 assessment data.

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The average score for the class of 2023 was 19.5, three decimal points below last year. When broken down by individual subjects such as reading, science and math, student scores still fell below the benchmarks the ACT says students must reach to have a high probability of success in first-year college courses.

These findings reflect a recent report from the National Assessment of Educational Progress that shows decades-low scores in math and reading among 13-year-old students. In both instances, education leaders believe students’ transition to remote learning during the pandemic has caused the setback. The class of 2023 experienced the pandemic during the spring semester of their freshman year.

“I didn’t have a hands-on, in-person class, and the information wasn’t really there,” said Virginia-based Diego Fonseca, 19, a computer science major struggling to pass a calculus placement exam, according to AP News. “I really struggled when it came to higher-level algebra because I just didn’t know anything.”

How low student test scores impact higher education

The swell of students falling behind in ACT scores may foreshadow students’ lack of preparation for the rigor of college courses. College students are increasingly placed in pre-college math courses as they find themselves struggling with basic fractions and exponents. One Temple University intermediate algebra class has seen its enrollment nearly double since the pandemic, AP reports.

In June, U.S. Education Department Secretary Miguel Cardona announced that schools have committed 60% of their American Rescue Plan money to recover students’ lost ground during the pandemic.

While standardized test scores may not be as critical for students looking to be admitted to college, ACT CEO Janet Godwin still believes in its value in gauging academic readiness. She believes the U.S. education system needs a deep reevaluation to combat the trend.

“The hard truth is that we are not doing enough to ensure that graduates are truly ready for postsecondary success in college and career,” Godwin said in a press statement. “These systemic problems require sustained action and support at the policy level. This is not up to teachers and principals alone—it is a shared national priority and imperative.”

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