- According to an UCLA survey, 87.9% of freshmen this year said “being able to get a better job” is an important reason to go to college.
- Between 2005 and 2011, 45 states increased the number of 8th graders taking Algebra I. Nevertheless, states that didn’t actually performed 9.2 points better in 2011 than in 2005 on the NAEP, but students who took algebra in 8th grade only improved by 5.2 scale points.
- According to a National Center on Education Statistics, 3 million new students enter higher education and 50% of them must take at least one remedial course. Total cost: $7 billion a year for these non-credit bearing courses.
- According to a Kaplan Test Prep survey, college-bound students said they’d prefer taking the SAT with paper and pencil rather than online on a computer; nevertheless, 60% of their parents thought they would have preferred the online version.
- Interest in teaching dipped 12% last year, marking the 8th straight annual decline. Only 16,450 educators earned their credentials in 2011-12 compared with 23,320 in the 2007-08 school year. Meanwhile, the number of students enrolling in teacher preparation programs slipped from 51,744 to 34,838 in that same time period.
