NBC News recently presented the Education Nation Scorecard (http://nbcscorecard.greatschools.org/) , a new online tool that puts easy-to-understand performance information about schools, districts, states and the nation at parents’ fingertips. The Scorecard is designed to help families and citizens better understand how well their local schools are performing, to ask questions, and to get involved so all schools are held to high expectations.
The tool was created by GreatSchools, a leading national source of education information, in collaboration with a team of data partners. It was released Tuesday as part of NBC News’ “Education Nation.” The Scorecard provides local, national, and international data that has never before been easily accessible and available in a single place. The scorecard provides data on the performance of students on state standardized reading and math exams relative to other schools and districts nearby and statewide; high school graduation rates; the success of states at graduating students on time and preparing them to meet standards on national reading and math exams; an indication of the size of the gap separating state results from national results on math, reading, and graduation; information about whether states have adopted clear, consistent academic standards and whether they require students to pass high level courses before graduating from high school; and American students’ performance on math, science, and reading exams compared to the performance of their international peers. The Scorecard is a project of GreatSchools, the National Parent Teacher Association (PTA), Education Week (EPE), Achieve, and the Alliance for Excellent Education. The partners drew on their own data sources as well as new information from the U.S. Department of Education. The website was funded by The Gates Foundation. NBC News’ Education Nation (http://www.educationnation.com/) is a nationally broadcast, in-depth conversation about improving education in America. During the entire week of September 26th, NBC News is highlighting education stories and drawing attention to state of education in the United States and the world. Education Nation seeks to engage the public, through thoughtful dialogue, in pursuit of the shared goal of providing every American with an opportunity to achieve the best education in the world.
As part of the Education Nation NBC coverage, President Obama spoke on Tuesday with Matt Lauer on the Today Show. Obama explained that his administration is very concerned about the decline in math and science scores. He believes that hiring qualified teachers is a key to reversing that trend. “My administration is announcing that we are going to specifically focus on training 10,000 new math and science teachers,” he said. “We have to boost performance in that area. We used to rank at the top; we are now 21st in science, 25th in math. That is a sign of long-term decline that has to be reversed.”