It's no secret that the American education system seems to have fallen behind that of other developed as well as some developing countries when it comes to academic achievement.
Now, in a new study, the teachers tasked with educating America's children have finally admitted that their students are not graduating prepared for the kind of course work they will find in college. In the just released Deloitte 2010 Education Survey two-thirds of those teachers questioned think students are unprepared for college and they want data to help solve the problem.
Specifically, the survey, conducted online by Harris Interactive, found that only slightly less than one-third (31%) of high school educators feel their students are ready for college when they leave high school. College students on the other hand disagree. In fact, more than two-thirds (68%) of current college students say they were "prepared" or "very prepared" for college when looking back on their first year of secondary education.
Despite the students' self-confidence, the survey reveals that as many as 28% still needed to take remedial courses after their first year of college. Additionally, previous data by The College Board supports these findings and shows that 40% of students will have to take a remedial course in college.
In addition to uncovering this disconnect in perception between students and teachers of college preparedness, Deloitte's survey also reveals potential solutions for improving the situation.
In particular, Deloitte's survey found that educators think more data, or official reports on student performance in college, will significantly help them to better measure how well their students do in college and adjust coursework accordingly.
- A staggering 92% of high school teachers feel they don't have the data they need to have a better understanding of students' needs in terms of college preparation.
- If data was available, 83% of teachers said they would use it to improve subject matter, and 78% would use it to plan coursework.
- Currently, only 13% of teachers receive official information on how students fare after high school. The majority of teachers receive information either from former students themselves, or from parents.
Chief executive officer of Deloitte LLP, Barry Salzberg said "we live in an information age, yet our nation's teachers are lacking the information they need to succeed as educators. This must change if we are to improve our college enrollment and graduation rates in the United States."
Recently, as part of its commitment to provide pro bono services to leading non-profits, Deloitte helped College Summit develop a state-of-the-art data reporting system of low-income, post-secondary enrollment trends.
College Summit shares the data with schools so that they can adjust resources, curricula and scheduling to increase college enrollment rates. This data-driven approach helped the high schools who partnered with College Summit to increase college enrollment by 18%.
