The United States has always prided itself in being the ‘best country in the world’; yet it continuously falls short when it comes to education and college preparedness.
The US ranks 21st in average math scores, 10th in science and fifth in education. In spite of that, college readiness levels among high school students have decreased to staggeringly low levels.
In the past few decades, school curricula around the country have fallen below the standards required to ensure adequate education. This disparity is especially common for minorities as communities of color are more likely to lack the educational ability required for college. On average, 61% of white students were deemed ‘college ready’ while only 33% of Black students and 41% of Latino students were classified the same way.
The issue at hand, however, is indicative of a deeper systematic problem rooted within American schools: grade inflation.
For the past five years, the number of students who met or exceeded the SAT’s college readiness
benchmark fell four percentage points. In 2023, scores for the ACT dropped in all four sections-a 32-year low for the organization. Meanwhile, the number of students with high GPAs rose six to seven percentage points in the same year.
Junior Cooper Bries, an avid learner currently enrolled in four AP classes, believes that grade inflation is a reflection of a much deeper issue. “On paper, we should be doing really well,” Bries explained. “When there are so many students with a high GPA, there is room for pride. But it gets to a point where not everyone is truly deserving of such a high grade and it comes to show that students are actually underprepared for college-level education.”
Existing discrepancies between GPAs and academic ability threaten the legitimacy of educational systems as a whole. When students are constantly rewarded for under deserving work, their inefficacious work ethic becomes a reflection of their diminishing academic performance.
As students are subject to weekly and lengthy tests, it perpetuates a pattern of memorization-enforced studying in high school students. Rather than learning through critical thinking and active participation, students learn solely for the sake of passing their upcoming test, damaging their ability to retain information for long periods of time.
“When I learn at school, I often learn facts without truly understanding them,” junior Harjeevan Singh said. “In modern classrooms, students pay attention only to what is on the test, ignoring any additional information that is still useful knowledge.”
Arguably the most notable effect of college underpreparedness is the lack of reading comprehension and writing ability within students and adults alike. Currently, 28% of American adults cannot read past a third grade reading level – a 11% increase from 2017. In regards to students, average reading scores dropped two points from 2022-2024 and three points from 2019-2022.
AP Lang teacher Angie Staber believes that there exists an even deeper problem in society’s unsustainable reliance on technology in the educational world. “I see a loss of confidence in students-they doubt themselves. They need reassurance that they are interpreting something correctly or that they have arrived at the right answer, so they immediately go to technology. They are losing the ability to appreciate the productive struggle of something-nobody learns when something is easy.”
To remedy such staggering numbers, the Department of Education suggests schools adapt their five recommendations to enhance college readiness:
“Offer a college preparatory curriculum and make sure that, by ninth grade, students understand academic requirements for college entry and success. Use assessment throughout high school to help students understand their relative readiness for college, and help them address any identified deficiencies. Surround students with people — adults and peers — who build and support their college-going aspirations. Help students complete required steps for college entry. Increase families’ financial awareness and help students apply for financial aid.”
Though the DOE recommendations offer schools an adequate jump-start in their quest to prepare students for college, it fails to consider the complexities of student life.
Students are constantly enticed by an increasingly technological-reliant world where AI is used in place of their critical thinking. Issues in regards to college readiness stem deeper than just a lack of financial literacy in students; it stems from a pattern of lazy teaching and exposure to unsustainable learning habits that reinforce patterns of indolence in students.
