Proficient in Georgia doesn’t really mean proficient in the rest of the world. That’s one of the findings from a study released this week by the American Institutes for Research, a nonprofit behavioral and social science research group.
Georgia considered 87 percent of eighth-graders to be proficient in math in 2011, according to the study. But, using international measures, only 24 percent of the state’s eighth-graders were proficient in math, the study found. No state had a larger gap.
AIR used data the state reported to the federal government under the No Child Left Behind education law.
The study found that Georgia, like other states, gave a falsely positive impression of student achievement. It seemed to be arguing in favor of the new set of national academic standards known as Common Core. “Fifty states going in 50 different directions is not a strategy for national success in a globally competitive world,” AIR vice president Gary Phillips said in a summary of the study. “It may look good for federal reporting purposes, but it denies students the best opportunity to learn college-ready and career-ready skills.”
Georgia has moved to Common Core and to a new standardized test called Georgia Milestones. The state is raising the threshold students must clear to meet the state standard on the new test.
State education officials argue the Common Core standards and the new test will be more rigorous and will do a better job of getting students ready for college and careers.
Common Core has been controversial in Georgia, as it has been in other states. Opponents argue the standards are lower than the ones they are replacing and that the state did not have enough input in creating them.
Officials in business, higher education and the military say the standards improve education by increasing the rigor of academic material and by harmonizing when students across the country are introduced to that material.
About the Author
