To others, it鈥檚 simply a case of helicopter parents gone wild.

The case, filed last month, tackles key questions of academic integrity, the college admissions arms race and even the purpose of school in an age when students can outsource onerous tasks like thinking to a chatbot.

While its immediate outcome will largely serve just one family 鈥� the student鈥檚 parents want a grade changed so their son can apply early-admission to elite colleges 鈥� the case could ultimately prompt school districts nationwide to develop explicit policies on AI. 

If the district, in a prosperous community on Boston鈥檚 South Shore, is forced to change the student鈥檚 grade, that could also prompt educators to focus more clearly on the knife鈥檚 edge of AI鈥檚 promises and threats, confronting a key question: Does AI invite students to focus on completing assignments rather than actual learning?

鈥淲hen it comes right down to it, what do we want students to do?鈥� asked John Warner, a well-known and author of . 鈥淲hat do we want them to take away from their education beyond a credential? Because this technology really does threaten the integrity of those credentials. And that’s why you see places trying to police it.鈥�

鈥楿nprepared in a technology transition鈥�

The facts of the case seem simple enough: The parents of a senior at Hingham High School have sued the school district, saying their son was wrongly penalized as a junior for relying on AI to research and write a history project that he and a partner were assigned in Advanced Placement U.S. History. The teacher used the anti-plagiarism tool Turnitin, which flagged a draft of the essay about NBA Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul Jabbar鈥檚 civil rights activism as possibly containing AI-generated material. So she used a 鈥渞evision history鈥� tool to uncover how many edits the students had made, as well as how long they spent writing. She discovered 鈥渕any large cut and paste items鈥� in the first draft, suggesting they鈥檇 relied on outside sources for much of the text. She ran the draft through two other digital tools that also indicated it had AI-generated content and gave the boys a D on the assignment. 

From there, the narrative gets a bit murky. 

On the one hand, the complaint notes, when the student and his partner started the essay last fall, the district didn鈥檛 have a policy on using AI for such an assignment. Only later did it lay out prohibitions against AI.

The boy鈥檚 mother, Jennifer Harris, last month asked a local , 鈥淗ow do you know if you鈥檙e crossing a line if the line isn鈥檛 drawn?鈥�

The pair tried to explain that using AI isn鈥檛 plagiarism, telling teachers there鈥檚 considerable debate over its use in academic assignments, but that they hadn鈥檛 tried to pass off others鈥� work as their own. 

For its part, the district says Hingham students are trained to know plagiarism and academic dishonesty when they see it. 

District officials declined to be interviewed, but in an affidavit, Social Studies Director Andrew Hoey said English teachers at the school regularly review proper citation and research techniques 鈥� and they set expectations for AI use.

Social studies teachers, he said, can justifiably expect that skills taught in English class 鈥渨ill be applied to all Social Studies classes,鈥� including AP US History 鈥� even if they鈥檙e not laid out explicitly. 

A spokesperson for National History Day, the group that sponsored the assignment, provided 蜜桃影视 with a link to its , which say students may use AI to brainstorm topic ideas, look for resources, review their writing for grammar and punctuation and simplify the language of a source to make it more understandable.

They can鈥檛 use AI to 鈥渃reate elements of your project鈥� such as writing text, creating charts, graphs, images or video. 

In March, the school鈥檚 National Honor Society faculty advisor, Karen Shaw, said the pair鈥檚 use of AI was 鈥渢he most egregious鈥� violation of academic honesty she and others had seen in 16 years, according to the lawsuit. The society rejected their applications.

Peter S. Farrell, the family鈥檚 attorney, said the district 鈥渦sed an elephant gun to slay a mouse,鈥� overreacting to what鈥檚 basically a misunderstanding.

The boys鈥� failing grade on the assignment, as well as the accusation of cheating, kept him out of the Honor Society, the lawsuit alleges. Both penalties have limited his chances to get into top colleges on early decision, as he鈥檇 planned this fall.

The student, who goes unnamed in the lawsuit, is 鈥渁 very, very bright, capable, well-rounded student athlete鈥� with a 4.3 GPA, a 鈥減erfect鈥� ACT score and an 鈥渁lmost perfect鈥� SAT score, said Farrell. 鈥淚f there were a perfect plaintiff, he’s it.鈥� 

While the boy earned a C+ in the course, he scored a perfect 5 on the AP exam last spring, according to the lawsuit. His exclusion from the Honor Society, Farrell said, 鈥渞eally shouldn’t sit right with anybody.鈥�

For a public high school to take such a hard-nosed position 鈥渟imply because they got caught unprepared in a technology transition鈥� doesn鈥檛 serve anyone鈥檚 interests, Farrell said. 鈥淎nd it’s certainly not good for the students.鈥�

Ultimately, the school鈥檚 own investigation found that over the past two years it had inducted into the Honor Society seven other students who had academic integrity infractions, Farrell said. The student at the center of the lawsuit was allowed to reapply and was inducted on Oct. 15.

鈥淭hey knew that there was no leg to stand on in terms of the severity of that sanction,鈥� Farrell said.

鈥楧istricts are trying to take it seriously鈥�

While Hingham didn鈥檛 adopt a districtwide AI policy until this school year, it鈥檚 actually ahead of the curve, said Bree Dusseault, the principal and managing director of the , a think tank at Arizona State University. Most districts have been cautious to put out formal guidance on AI.

Dusseault contributed an affidavit on behalf of the plaintiffs, laying out the fragmented state of AI uptake and guidance. She more than 1,000 superintendents last year and found that just 5% of districts had policies on AI, with another 31% promising to develop them in the future. Even among CRPE鈥檚 group of 40 鈥渆arly adopter鈥� school districts that are exploring AI and encouraging teachers to experiment with it, just 26 had published policies in place. 

They鈥檙e hesitant for a reason, she said: They’re trying to figure out what the technology鈥檚 implications are before putting rules in writing. 

鈥淒istricts are trying to take it seriously,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hey’re learning the capacity of the technology, and both the opportunities and the risks it presents for learning.鈥� But so often they鈥檙e surprised by new technological developments and capabilities that they never imagined. 

Even if they鈥檙e hesitant to commit to full-blown policies, Dusseault said, districts should consider more informal guidelines that clearly lay out for students what academic integrity, plagiarism and acceptable use are. Districts that are 鈥渢otally silent鈥� on AI run the risk of student confusion and misuse. And if a district is penalizing students for AI use, it needs to have clear policy language explaining why.

That said, a few observers believe the case boils down to little more than a cheating student and his helicopter parents.

Benjamin Riley, founder of , an AI-focused education think tank, said the episode seems like an example of clear-cut academic dishonesty. Everyone involved in the civil case, he said, especially the boy鈥檚 parents and their lawyer, 鈥渟hould be embarrassed. This isn’t some groundbreaking lawsuit that will help define the contours of how we use AI in education; it’s helicopter parenting run completely amok that may serve as catnip to journalists (and their editors) but does nothing to illuminate anything.鈥�

Alex Kotran, founder of , a nonprofit that offers a free AI literacy curriculum, said the honor society director鈥檚 statement about the boys鈥� alleged academic dishonesty makes him think 鈥渢here’s clearly plenty more than what we’re hearing from the student.鈥� While schools genuinely do need to understand the challenge of getting AI policies right, he said, 鈥淚 worry that this is just a student with overbearing parents and a big check to throw lawyers at a problem.鈥�

Others see the case as surfacing larger-scale problems: Writing in this week, Jane Rosenzweig, director of the and author of the newsletter, said the Massachusetts case is 鈥渓ess about AI and more about a family鈥檚 belief that one low grade will exclude their child from the future they want for him, which begins with admission to an elite college.鈥�

That problem long predated ChatGPT, Rosenzweig wrote. But AI is putting our education system on a collision course 鈥渨ith a technology that enables students to bypass learning in favor of grades.鈥�

“I feel for this student,鈥� said Warner, the writing coach. 鈥淭he thought that they need to file a lawsuit because his future is going to be derailed by this should be such an indictment of the system.鈥�

The case underscores the need for school districts to rethink how they interact with students in the Age of AI, he said. 鈥淭his stuff is here. It’s embedded in the tools students use to do their work. If you open up Microsoft Word or Google Docs or any of this stuff, it’s right there.鈥�

Perhaps as a result, Warner said, students have increasingly come to view school more transactionally, with assignments as a series of products rather than as an opportunity to learn and develop important skills.

鈥淚’ve taught those students,鈥� he said. 鈥淔or the most part, those are a byproduct of disengagement, not believing [school] has anything to offer 鈥� and that the transaction can be satisfied through 鈥榥on-work鈥� rather than work.鈥�

His observations align with recent research by Dusseault鈥檚 colleagues, who that four graduating classes of high school students, or about 13.5 million students, had been affected by the pandemic, with many 鈥渟truggling academically, socially, and emotionally鈥� as they enter adulthood.

Ideally, Warner said, AI tools should offer an opportunity to refocus students to emphasize process over product. 鈥淭his is a natural design for somebody who teaches writing,鈥� he said, 鈥渂ecause I’m obsessed with process.鈥漌arner recalled giving a recent series of talks at , a small, alternative liberal arts college in California, where he encountered students who said they had no use for AI chatbots. They preferred to think through difficult problems themselves. 鈥淭hey were just like, ‘Aw, man, I don’t want to use that stuff. Why do I want to use that stuff? I’ve got thoughts.’鈥�

SPRINGFIELD 鈥� When Illinois high school students sit down to take their annual state assessments next year, they will take a different exam than in recent years.

The Illinois State Board of Education recently announced that starting next spring, it will use the ACT exam rather than the SAT.

Both are standardized tests that measure students鈥� proficiency in core subjects such as English language arts and math. Both are also commonly used for college admissions 鈥� although many colleges and universities have stopped requiring them 鈥� as well as scholarship applications.

Illinois, however, also uses them as part of the battery of tests schools administer each year to meet federal mandates under the . Results of those tests are reported each year on the  and are used to hold schools and districts accountable for meeting basic academic standards.

Illinois started using the  as the state assessment for 11^th grade students in spring 2017. Two years later, it began using the PSAT 8/9 exam for 9^th grade students and the PSAT 10 for high school sophomores.

At the time, , incorporating a college entrance exam into the state鈥檚 annual assessment program was considered a bonus because it gave nearly all graduating high school students a reportable score, paid for by the state, which they could then use for college and scholarship applications.

In recent years, though, many colleges and universities stopped requiring either the SAT or ACT as part of their application and admission processes. 

In 2021, Illinois lawmakers passed the  requiring all public universities and community colleges to adopt a 鈥渢est-optional鈥� policy for admissions, meaning students could voluntarily choose whether to include them in their application package. But ISBE continued using the tests as part of its federally mandated statewide assessments.

The upcoming switch to the ACT exam came about through ISBE鈥檚 routine procurement process. The agency鈥檚 contract with the College Board, the nonprofit corporation that operates the SAT, was set to expire on June 30, prompting the agency to open a new bidding process.

The state board agreed to open the bidding process and solicit sealed proposals from testing companies at its regular monthly meeting in September 2023. The decision to award a six-year, $53 million contract to ACT was finalized in May.

According to an  that ISBE has circulated, one of the advantages of switching exams is the ACT includes a science component, whereas the SAT only covered the core subjects of reading, writing and math. That means 11^th grade students will no longer have to take a separate Illinois Science Assessment, thereby reducing overall testing time.

The change also means that students who still want to take the SAT or the PSAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test will have to do so on their own, in addition to the statewide ACT accountability exam. Local schools and districts will have the option of choosing whether to administer those tests during the school day, but the state will not pay for students to take those tests.

 is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government. It is distributed to hundreds of newspapers, radio and TV stations statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, along with major contributions from the Illinois Broadcasters Foundation and Southern Illinois Editorial Association.

A bill that would require high school juniors to take the ACT college entrance exam instead of a separate state assessment was tabled by the state House Education Committee on Friday at the Capitol in Pierre.

While a majority of testifiers supported , including the Department of Education, the bill鈥檚 prime sponsor Rep. Tony Venhuizen, R-Sioux Falls, recommended tabling it. That鈥檚 because Secretary of Education Joseph Graves said the department plans to switch to the ACT by the 2025-2026 school year anyway.

鈥淚鈥檓 not a person who sees the need to put things into law unnecessarily鈥� Venhuizen said. 鈥溾�� I just want to see this happen, and it sounds like it鈥檚 going to.鈥�

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One person testified against the bill, saying it would degrade parents鈥� ability to make educational decisions for their children.

Education officials within state government have talked about making the switch to the ACT from the Smarter Balanced assessment for years, Venhuizen told legislators. That鈥檚 because the switch would reduce the number of tests most high school juniors take, would save families money if they want to send their children to college 鈥� since the state would be footing the bill 鈥� and would put more weight behind the students鈥� scores.

The ACT would be the best choice for a replacement test, Graves told lawmakers.

鈥淪tudents don鈥檛 find any value in (the Smarter Balanced test),鈥� Graves said. 鈥淏ecause they have no use for it 鈥� for the most part 鈥� they tend not to take the test seriously. This is a common complaint registered by high school principals and teachers. Because the test results don鈥檛 have any other use, then the value is low. We鈥檙e taking a test we use for accountability and that鈥檚 it.鈥�

About 58% of South Dakota students take the ACT before graduating, since most colleges and universities require scores in the admission process and for scholarship applications.

South Dakota students鈥� average ACT score in 2023, but it remains higher than the national average. Testers earned an average composite score of 21.1 out of 36. Switching to the ACT for all 11th graders will likely lower the state鈥檚 score.

Some other states, like Nebraska and Montana, require 11th graders to take the ACT. States where 100% of 2023 high school graduates had taken the test had average scores .

ACT participation rates . During the 2022-2023 school year, 77% of white students took the ACT, 7% of Native American students took it and 5% of Hispanic students took it.

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. South Dakota Searchlight maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Seth Tupper for questions: info@southdakotasearchlight.com. Follow South Dakota Searchlight on and .

Likewise, when students are struggling, failing to turn in work or at risk of falling behind, teachers should tell them. It鈥檚 kinder 鈥� and fairer 鈥� for educators to set clear expectations and hold students to them.  

Many schools have started to take the opposite approach. Perhaps in the mistaken belief that it鈥檚 gentler to give struggling students second and third chances, schools across the country are essentially withholding honest feedback from kids (and ) through no-zero grading policies or by passing students along even though they haven鈥檛 mastered the content.

These trends started before the pandemic but have accelerated since then. And they鈥檝e created聽a growing disconnect between subjective evaluations like grades and objective data like attendance and achievement. Student and rates are rising to new highs, while attendance and academic performance are hitting modern lows.聽

Most recently, the testing company ACT announced that average scores this year than at any point since 1991. The declines were particularly notable for Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander and Latino students.

So, what does the research say? Is it better for schools to pass kids along or hold the line on high standards? 

A new working paper from Brown University titled 鈥溾�� digs into these questions by looking at what happened when a state, North Carolina, lowered its standards. North Carolina is unique in that it has a state-level grading scale for high school students, and in fall 2014, it lowered that scale. The threshold for an A dropped from 93 to 90, from 85 to 80 for a B, from 77 to 70 for a C, from 70 to 60 for a D and from 69 to 59 for an F. 

As a result, student grades went up, by a lot 鈥� at least initially. In the first year of the new policy, the number of A grades rose by almost 20%, the number of F grades fell by 20% and the average GPA rose by 0.27 points, an 11% increase. Students or parents who weren鈥檛 aware of the policy change may have been happy to see these gains. 

Except, the authors found that the easier grading standards had other consequences as well, and those varied across student groups. Students in the top half of the performance distribution were the main beneficiaries of the easier grading scale, and students with incoming test scores below the median saw no GPA increases at all. 

How could this be? After all, the policy made it harder to fail a class. One explanation the authors found is that students at the bottom end of the academic distribution started missing more classes. The new, laxer standards allowed the lower-performing students to increasingly disengage from school and fall further behind their peers. Worse, these effects compounded over time, and the more lenient grading standards eventually led to lower ACT scores for the students who came in the furthest behind. 

This builds on work suggesting that and individual can also affect student choices and behavior over time. On the more rigid end of the spectrum, there鈥檚 also a growing body of literature suggesting that holding back students who are struggling to read can be beneficial for their long-term trajectories 鈥� and for their younger siblings as well. 

Economist Eric Hanushek has framed this distinction as the difference between schooling and learning. Schooling in this context refers to the amount of time students stay in class, while learning is a measure of what they actually know and can do. It may be easier to keep kids in school, but metric that educators and policymakers should pay attention to. 

Hanushek estimates that the lost learning suffered by students during the pandemic will translate into on their earnings. That鈥檚 the average, and the losses are even larger for Black, Hispanic and disadvantaged students who fell further behind. Multiplied across the nation and over each child鈥檚 lifetime, that works out to an economic loss to the country of $28 trillion. 

In other words, policies that sound generous in spirit may actually harm students in the long term. Leniency may be easier, but honesty is the best policy, and kids who are the furthest behind will benefit the most from clear, objective and high standards.

The average ACT test score was 19.5 out of 36 from the class of 2023, compared to 19.8 last year 鈥� the sixth consecutive drop, according to the nonprofit organization that administers the test.

New shows Black students scored 3.5 points below this year鈥檚 average, continuing the growing trend of historically marginalized students being unprepared for college-level courses.

鈥淭hese systemic problems require sustained action and support at the policy level,鈥� said ACT chief executive officer Janet Godwin in a . 

鈥淭he hard truth is that we are not doing enough to ensure that graduates are truly ready for postsecondary success in college and career,鈥� she added.

Here are four key takeaways from the :

1. Black students had the lowest ACT test scores in nearly every category.

Black students had an overall ACT test score of 16 out of 36.

In English, Black students were more than three points below the average scores of 18.6 for English, 19 for math, 20.1 for reading and 19.6 for science.

American Indian and Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander and Latino students also scored below average in every category.

Stephen Barker, director of communications at , said the scores point to the systemic barriers minority and first-generation students face as they apply to college.

鈥淭here isn’t the generational support or knowledge to push kids and prepare them to take these tests,鈥� Barker said. 鈥淜ids are throwing their hands in the air and saying 鈥業’m gonna take it but I’m not ready鈥� and it’s stressful for them and bears out in these numbers.鈥�

2. Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander students experienced the greatest ACT test score declines in the last five years.

Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander students saw the largest overall ACT test score decline in the last five years, scoring 16.3 out of 36 鈥� a 1.6 point decrease compared to 2019.

The decline was followed by Latino and white students who decreased 1.3 and 1.1 points, respectively.

鈥淲hat you don’t see in these numbers are all of the environmental challenges that are stacked on,鈥� Barker said, adding how students, often women, are caretaking for families or working multiple jobs.

鈥淲e’re just throwing tests at kids and are surprised when it comes time to enroll them and they aren鈥檛 ready,鈥� he said.

3. Male students scored higher in math and science compared to females.

Male students scored 19.4 in math and 19.8 in science compared to female students scoring 18.8 and 19.6, respectively 鈥� a difference of 0.6 and 0.2 points.

Female students scored 19.2 in English and 20.6 in reading compared to male students scoring 18.2 and 19.7 鈥� a difference of 1 and 0.9 points.

鈥淚 can tell you that I definitely see this disparity,鈥� Medha Kukkalli, a first-year student at the University of Houston, told 蜜桃影视.

Kukkalli, who鈥檚 currently studying human development and family studies, said most of her classmates are women and her peers in STEM courses are predominantly men. 

4. Fewer students have taken the ACT test in the last five years.

Nearly 1.4 million students took the ACT test compared to last year 鈥� an increase of 40,000 students.

But there鈥檚 been a dramatic decline from the nearly 1.8 million students who took the test in 2019 鈥� a decrease of about 400,000 students.

This comes as several universities have made standardized admissions tests optional, including the that doesn鈥檛 even consider ACT or SAT scores.

Kukkalli opted out of taking the ACT test because she said it wouldn鈥檛 reflect how successful she could be in college.

鈥淚t鈥檚 more about time management skills, having resilience, support systems and mental fortitude rather than solely whether you have a high ACT score,鈥� Kukkalli said.

Barker said Kukkalli鈥檚 thinking is not surprising as the ACT and SAT tests experience a 鈥渂rand crisis,鈥� with the number of students taking standardized tests declining.

, which relies largely on recent findings from outside research groups and the federal government, warns that on just about every indicator that matters 鈥� basic skills, college going, mental health and more 鈥� the pandemic has set older students back.

鈥淭ime is running out for these kids,鈥� said Robin Lake, director of , a research organization at Arizona State University. 鈥淢any have already exited the K-12 system, either by graduating or essentially disappearing on us. Too many kids still are missing 鈥� we don’t know if they’ve dropped out or where they’ve gone.鈥�

Outside researchers who study these students said the fears are justified. In response, Lake and others are proposing a raft of reforms, including extending 鈥済ap years鈥� to any high school graduates who need time to catch up 鈥� as well as a new commitment to reforming high school so it works for more students. 

U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona acknowledged the slow pace of academic turnaround, calling it “appalling and unacceptable.”

“It’s like as a country we’ve normalized those gaps,” he said in separate remarks to reporters Tuesday,

Cardona spoke just before the department unveiled new efforts to spur pandemic recovery, including $50 million in competitive grants for literacy and higher expectations on districts to track and reverse chronic absenteeism. The department also released new data showing that roughly 187,000 tutors and mentors have signed up through its National Partnership for Student Success 鈥� bringing it closer to its goal of recruiting 250,000 adults to help students get back on track by 2025.

鈥業nsidious and hidden鈥�

As of this fall, researchers said, about 13.5 million students in four high school graduating classes have been affected by the pandemic.

CRPE first issued its 鈥淪tate of the American Student鈥� report in September 2022, saying pandemic school closures in 2020 and 2021 led to 鈥渦nprecedented academic setbacks鈥� for American students that made pre-existing inequalities and the nation鈥檚 youth mental health crisis worse.

A year later, CRPE says, students are still struggling in many areas. They point to record-low math and reading scores on the 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress for fourth- and eighth-grade students 鈥� in both grades, one in three can鈥檛 read at even the 鈥渂asic鈥� achievement level.

And missed more than 10% of school days during the 2021-22 school year, twice as many as in previous years. More than reported 鈥渟tunted behavioral and social-emotional development鈥� in students because of the pandemic, researchers note.

But they say schools should pay extra attention to older students, many of whom lost critical instruction time during the pandemic. 

The pandemic, Lake said, 鈥渋s continuing to derail learning throughout K-12. But what we came away with was that the derailment is looking a little bit more insidious and hidden, in some ways. That is true especially for older students.鈥�

The , for instance, needs 7.4 months of schooling to catch up to pre-pandemic levels in reading, and 9.1 months of schooling in math, according to recent assessments.

Last year鈥檚 NAEP scores showed that 30% of eighth graders performed 鈥溾�� in reading; 38% were in math. At the same time, just 2% of students received at school, which Lake called 鈥渁 massive missed opportunity.鈥� 

In a few places, researchers noted, the pandemic knocked older students off track, as in Washington state, where 14 percent of public high school students received at least during the 2020-2021 school year.

Even college-bound high school students are underperforming: The on the ACT college admission test last year was 19.8, they noted, the lowest since 1991.

Researchers also noted that, overall, college going is down: Between 2019 and 2023, the U.S. higher education system lost an estimated .

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday in advance of the report鈥檚 release, Lake said recent data on college are 鈥渆xtremely concerning.鈥�

She called for the development of what she calls a 鈥淣ew American High School鈥� that abandons academic tracking and standardized diplomas for a system that helps each student 鈥渦nderstand their own conception of a good life鈥� through knowledge and skills. It would also help them more easily change course if needed.

In the report, Lake noted several promising new models, including Colorado鈥檚 , designed to help rural districts create career-relevant learning experiences aligned to the needs and aspirations of local economies.

She also highlighted Seckinger High School in Gwinnett County, Georgia, a planned artificial intelligence-themed high school that will offer a college prep curriculum 鈥渢aught through the lens of artificial intelligence.鈥� Students will also be able to pursue an education in developing AI, she said. 

A gap year for struggling students

Lake proposed that high schools and community colleges consider a new kind of post-high school 鈥済ap year鈥� designed to help struggling high school graduates get back on track academically and prepare for college and careers. 

鈥�Gap years are oftentimes known for serving as a time for exploration for more advantaged kids,鈥� she said. 鈥淟et’s change that.鈥�

The idea is still in development, she said, but could be developed quickly.

鈥淲e don’t need to reinvent the wheel, but we need to get going,鈥� she said.

While high school graduation rates are rising, the researchers said, so is grade inflation 鈥� 90% of parents believe their child is actually above grade level in reading and math, according to a March 2023 , making it likely that many students are exiting the K-12 system unprepared for college and careers.

Outside experts who study education systems and secondary education said CRPE鈥檚 alarm over the data is justified.

鈥淭here’s going to be a long tail of the pandemic,鈥� said Robert Balfanz, a scholar who studies high school as co-director of the at Johns Hopkins University.

He said a key problem from the pandemic is that many students were forced into virtual learning at key points in their education: while making the leap to more challenging reading, for instance, or diving into Algebra or calculus. 鈥淜ids that miss core transitional learning, I think, are almost hit twice,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hey have that same amount of learning loss. But you could argue in some ways it was even more strategic of a loss because those are such key building blocks.鈥�

He noted that the best predictor of whether a student will earn a college degree is if they earned 鈥渄ecent grades in challenging courses.鈥� But if they don鈥檛 get access to these or don鈥檛 learn foundational material, 鈥渢hat’s a problem.鈥�

Unequal access to such coursework, Balfanz said, can push students out of advanced classes.聽

He is concerned that during the pandemic, many students who 鈥渙fficially took calculus鈥� or other advanced courses virtually may not have gotten all of the material required. 鈥淎nd those kids are probably already in college.鈥�

In the paper, researchers lamented that our K-12 system 鈥渓eaves to chance鈥� nearly every aspect of the transition from high school to college and careers, from students discovering their interests and talents to selecting a career pathway aligned to them. 

And few students ever get guidance on how to change careers and find new training or postsecondary opportunities when their interests and priorities shift.

Balfanz said the decline in 鈥減ostsecondary momentum鈥� could be the result of many factors, including the high cost of college, students who don鈥檛 feel well-prepared and a labor market that holds many opportunities for high wages without a college degree.

鈥淚 think a combination of those factors is going to push some kids to delay post-secondary,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd the more you delay it, the odds of success are less.鈥�

Trying to go back to school at that point, he said, is 鈥渁lways challenging.鈥� 

A new kind of report card

Dan Goldhaber, director of the Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research () at the American Institutes for Research, said COVID recovery 鈥渉as not fully happened鈥� in many schools.聽

鈥淚’m not feeling super optimistic about pandemic recovery writ large right now,鈥� he said. 

The new CRPE report, he said, demonstrates the 鈥渞eal conundrum鈥� that schools face in communicating with parents: 鈥淚 think that schools need to convey in more plain English where kids are at,鈥� he said. 

But he said results from large-scale standardized exams 鈥渄on’t resonate the way that information about their own students would resonate. What we need is for school systems to just be really clear with individual families about when their students are struggling. And I don’t think that school systems typically do that.鈥�

Educators, he said, are typically optimistic about students鈥� chances of bouncing back 鈥� and fearful of being blamed for kids鈥� academic problems. 

鈥淪chools don’t have a ton of incentive to communicate in ways that might negatively bounce back to them,鈥� he said.

Lake, the CRPE director, said one good way to fix this problem is simply to rethink report cards.

鈥淧arents look to report cards first,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd report cards need to be able to say how the kids are actually doing 鈥� not just that they’re getting a particular grade. Are they mastering the skills that they need to graduate? Are they on track? And so that’s where I’d focus my efforts.鈥�

Linda Jacobson contributed to this report.

According to through Brown University鈥檚 Annenberg Institute for School Reform, eighth- and ninth-graders who learned from math teachers with relatively higher performance standards earned better test scores in Algebra I. The same students later saw their improved results carry forward to subsequent years of math instruction, and 鈥� contradicting fears that high expectations might cause kids to resist or give up 鈥� they were less likely to be absent from classes than similar students assigned to more lax graders. 

Seth Gershenson, an economist at American University and one of the paper鈥檚 co-authors, said the breadth and longevity of the positive results showed that they were not flowing from a quirk of testing. Rather, high standards 鈥渃hange the way students engage with school,鈥� he argued.

鈥淭here really is a persistent, long-lasting sea change that students experience when they have a tougher grader,鈥� Gershenson said. 鈥淎nd it’s not like you have to be super tough; any marginal increase in standards adds a little boost.鈥�

The findings build on by Gershenson, which showed that pervasive grade inflation in K-12 settings 鈥� defined as student course grades that are considerably higher than their corresponding scores on end-of-year exams 鈥� is more prevalent in schools serving larger percentages of affluent students. They are also noteworthy in light of the post-COVID academic environment, which has seen many teachers either through personal initiative or in response to district mandates.

The study is built on grading and testing records for a huge swath of North Carolina students who took Algebra I in either the eighth or ninth grades. In all, the sample included over 365,000 pupils across nearly 27,000 classrooms and 4,415 teachers 鈥� a rich enough selection to allow comparisons between thousands of similar students assigned to different Algebra teachers over a 10-year span. 

To assess the impact of different standards, Gershenson and his colleagues used multiple measures of grading severity, again relying on the relationship between course grades (over which teachers have wide, though not total, latitude) and performance on end-of-year exams. For example, an Algebra teacher whose students tend to receive higher course grades than their scores would indicate is considered an 鈥渆asier鈥� grader, and vice versa. 

The researchers then sorted the teacher sample into four comparison groups, ranging from the easiest graders to the hardest, and charted the trajectories of their respective students before and after they took Algebra I. Disproportionately, the teachers grouped in the 鈥渢oughest鈥� quarter were likelier to be white, female, and more experienced than the sample as a whole. 

They also tended to achieve more in the classroom.

Across several metrics of academic success, students who were exposed to higher grading standards fared better than their peers. Compared with students who had previously demonstrated similar levels of math performance, those assigned to stricter graders saw larger scoring gains. Notably, those effects were both sizable and linear, meaning that the tighter the grading practices 鈥� moving from the easiest-grading quarter to the very hardest 鈥� the larger the improvement on test scores.

Students of tougher graders also maintained some of their scoring advantage into the next two classes of North Carolina鈥檚 math sequence, geometry and Algebra II. The effects were actually twice as large in Algebra II as they were in geometry, a nuance the authors specifically cited in the paper: Perhaps because of the similarities in content between the two levels of algebra, they theorized, students who were formerly held to higher standards did especially well in the later class, even though the effects should have faded more because of the further passage of time. 

鈥淭hat suggests this wasn’t a pure grade-chasing effect where students crammed more for the test so that they could do better and get the grade they needed,鈥� Gershenson explained. 鈥淚nstead, it makes me think that there was some real learning that happened and was retained.”

鈥楪ood for everybody鈥�

Though it sets out to measure the benefits of tougher grading policies, the study jibes somewhat with research investigating the inverse phenomenon of grade inflation. According to the , a long-term analysis of student grades conducted by the U.S. Department of Education, the average high school GPA rose from 3.00 in 2009 to 3.11 in 2019. But performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, referred to as the Nation鈥檚 Report Card, stayed flat over the same period. 

That federal assessment when it appeared last spring, but it only covered the years before the pandemic. Another report, , found evidence of significant grade inflation over 2020 and 2021, with self-reported student GPAs climbing even as ACT scores themselves did not.

Not all education policy scholars are concerned about these revelations. Zachary Bleemer, a professor of economics at the Yale School of Management, that some grade inflation 鈥� whether at the university or K-12 levels 鈥� can correct inequalities in which student groups pursue intellectually rigorous subjects. (Female college students, in particular, to discontinue studies in economics if their initial grades are poor.) What鈥檚 more, ACT鈥檚 hypothesis could rightly be viewed with caution, given the organization鈥檚 potential interest in casting high school grades as less reliable than scores on college admissions tests. 

But it is also broadly reflected in accounts given by teachers themselves, who have sometimes as a response to COVID鈥檚 disruption to in-person learning. In big districts like , , and (home to Las Vegas), new standards have deemphasized deadlines and classroom behavior, giving students more time and chances to complete graded work.

Education authorities have justified those changes as an equity-minded strategy to keep students engaged who might otherwise become frustrated or fall behind in their studies. But Gershenson and his co-authors found no evidence that North Carolina students assigned to harder graders became alienated from school. In fact, those students were slightly less likely than their peers to rack up unexcused absences.

Best of all, whether measured by attendance or test scores, the results of higher standards were broadly similar for a range of different students. While higher-performing math students enjoyed marginally larger gains than their relatively lower-performing classmates, effects were ultimately beneficial across 20 different student categories 鈥� each differing by race, sex, class rank, and prior achievement level in math. 

Gershenson, who sees grade inflation as a significant problem that distorts how scholastic performance is interpreted, said the near-uniformity of his team鈥檚 findings was a strong signal that high standards are 鈥済ood for everybody.鈥�

鈥淔or none of these outcomes鈥� is the effect negative. Sure, the effects are smaller for some groups than others, and they’re smaller for some outcomes than others. But on no dimension are students being harmed by higher grading standards.鈥�

The , and are among the dozens of schools in the commonwealth that have changed their policies to relax admissions exams requirements.

The test-optional trend is growing as more than 1,800 accredited, four-year colleges and universities nationally have committed to offering ACT/SAT optional or test-free testing policies for fall 2023 applicants, said Harry Feder, executive director of the National Center for Fair & Open Testing (FairTest), which promotes the fair and reasonable assessment of educators, students and school systems.

鈥淚 think it鈥檚 a recognition by four-year institutions that they don鈥檛 get that much additional benefit from administering this test,鈥� Feder said.

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FairTest has been as the number of test takers declines.

In Virginia, 194,909 test takers completed the SAT or a PSAT鈥恟elated assessment in 2022, below the 238,500 test takers recorded in 2019.

ACT test-taking also has declined in Virginia to 9% in 2022 compared to 21% in 2019.

Feder said schools that have instituted test-optional policies are seeing an increase in applications and minority applicants.

According to the American Educational Research Journal, from a study of nearly 100 private institutions is that the policy change was connected to a 10 to 12% increase in enrollment of first-time Black, Latinx and Native students, and a 6 to 8% increase in enrollment of first-time students who were women.

Feder also said taking away the admissions exams remove the need for students to be coached and prepared for a test with 鈥渁bsolutely no educational value.鈥�

A pandemic turning point

Colleges and universities for years faced criticism over their admission processes, but the pandemic was a turning point.

After a year or more of learning loss, low-income students and some students of color were scoring low on admission exams and being rejected by colleges despite having performed well in school.

Facing criticism for turning away students on the basis of ACT and SAT scores, colleges began taking a more holistic look at applicants, said Joe DeFilippo, director of academic affairs for the State Council of Higher Education in Virginia.

But the pandemic wasn鈥檛 the only factor, he said, noting that studies have shown there will be fewer high school graduates over the next decade and competition is increasing from out-of-state institutions.

鈥淐olleges were a little more desperate for enrollment, and I think that accelerated the thinking of 鈥榳hat do we get out of these standardized tests anyway,鈥欌�� DeFilippo said.

James Madison University changed its admissions exams policies before the pandemic after finding that admissions scores were not a consistent factor in predicting potential academic success, according to Director of Admissions Melinda Wood.

Instead, the admissions exams were potential barriers for prospective students to consider the university.

She said grades in core courses were more relevant for identifying potential academic success. The institution decided to become test-optional in 2018.

鈥淭he move to test-optional opened doors for students who may not have otherwise considered applying to JMU,鈥� Wood said.

Since JMU adopted the policy, she said fewer students have elected to submit test scores for consideration. The director said 27% of this year鈥檚 applicants provided a test score with their application materials.

Northern Virginia Community College does not require admissions exams, but instead encourages students to seek testing options they see fit for various class levels.

NOVA said admissions exams, including the SAT and ACT, are applied to assess college readiness instead of determining college acceptance. The General Education Development and Virginia Placement Test are other placement options.

鈥淣OVA is an open access institution, which means any person 18 years of age or older who holds a high school diploma or equivalent can enroll in classes,鈥� the school wrote. 鈥淲e鈥檙e proud to offer equitable access to our associate degree and certificate programs.鈥�

Members of the higher education community recommend students research admissions requirements because they vary between colleges.

For example, if a student鈥檚 grade point average or class rank meets the minimum requirements at some schools, then SAT or ACT scores are not required to be submitted. Homeschooled or international students, however, are required to take admissions exams regardless of their GPA.

Challenges still loom

Higher education institutions have studied the impact of test-optional policies.

Kelly Slay, an assistant professor of higher education and public policy at Vanderbilt Peabody College, researched how the changes have affected admission officers, who told Slay they are to place students without scores from admissions exams.

Slay did not respond to a request for comment but told the Hechinger Report that admission officers described the experience as 鈥渃haotic鈥� and 鈥渟tressful.鈥�

鈥淥ne of our key findings were the tensions that were emerging around these test optional policies,鈥� Slay told the Hechinger Report. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a struggle on how to implement them.鈥�

Feder said there are other ways to determine a student鈥檚 acceptance based on his conversations with admission officers. , interviews and extracurricular activities are some ways schools look beyond exam results.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 think they鈥檙e a great reflection of what students are ready for and what they鈥檝e already studied because, for one, it鈥檚 easy to bomb a test, no matter how much you鈥檝e studied,鈥� said Grace Madison, a homeschooled student in Alexandria.

Madison, who wants to be a teacher at a time when Virginia is to hire more educators amid a teacher shortage, found a school that meets their requirements of affordability and proximity, but traveling to take in-person tests remains a challenge.

The 18-year-old has two blind parents, is fearful of contracting the coronavirus while living with family members who are immunocompromised and suffers from a chronic pain disorder known as fibromyalgia while walking on a limited basis with a cane.

Madison said it鈥檚 a challenge for students in situations like theirs to be admitted into college.

鈥淚f it were easier to get into college, we鈥檇 all like to be teachers and we鈥檇 love to do that,鈥� Madison said. 鈥淚t would mean the world to me if some of those schools dropped those testing requirements because they鈥檝e been a hurdle for a lot of marginalized students like myself for years.鈥�

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Exam-takers averaged 19.8 out of a possible 36 total points on the college admissions test, the first time since 1991 that nationwide results dipped below 20. 

鈥淭here is no way to sugar coat these ACT results,鈥� Robin Lake, director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education, told 蜜桃影视. 鈥淐ollege entrance exam scores have plummeted, reflecting substantive holes in student knowledge and abilities.鈥�

Scores for students from low-income families were particularly worrisome. Those youth, who in many cases had to pick up part-time jobs during virtual learning or help out with child care, scored 17.4, on average. Only 8% hit college readiness benchmarks in all four subjects 鈥� math, reading, English and science 鈥� compared to nearly a quarter of their more affluent peers.

Declines can鈥檛 be attributed solely to the pandemic, experts say, as ACT scores have been decreasing since 2018. But the pattern has accelerated since COVID hit.

鈥淭he magnitude of the declines this year is particularly alarming, as we see rapidly growing numbers of seniors leaving high school without meeting the college-readiness benchmark in any of the subjects we measure,鈥� ACT CEO Janet Godwin said in a .

The numbers provide new insight into the educational harms older learners experienced during the pandemic, said Thomas Dee, professor of education at Stanford University. In early September, the release of 9-year-olds鈥� reading and math scores via the National Assessment of Educational Progress revealed unprecedented declines in learning among younger students, but until now there鈥檚 been less documentation of the impacts for high schoolers, he said.

鈥溾�嬧�婽hese latest [ACT] data should remind us to pay attention also to the experiences of recent graduates who spent most of their high school years under pandemic conditions,鈥� Dee wrote in an email.

Samantha Farrow, a senior at Stuyvesant High School in New York City, said the standardized tests she鈥檚 taken identified gaps in her learning from the pandemic 鈥� Algebra 2 especially, which she took when classes first went online in the spring of 2020. She sat for the SAT rather than the ACT, but said many of her friends took both exams and found them difficult.

鈥淭here was still stuff in the SAT, like the Algebra 2 stuff, that I was just like, 鈥業 have no idea how to do it,鈥欌�� she said. 鈥淚 self-studied, too. I used Khan Academy, I did all that stuff. I just didn鈥檛 know how to do it. It鈥檚 just stuff that we missed.鈥�

The college admissions testing landscape has changed in recent years. About one-third fewer high school grads took the ACT in 2022 than in 2018, as many institutions have become test-optional and an increasing share of young people choose to forgo higher education. Six states 鈥� Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, Tennessee and Wyoming 鈥� administer the exam to all students.

Amid widespread pandemic disruptions, which hit the most vulnerable students the hardest, declines in ACT results should hardly be unexpected, said Ronn Nozoe, CEO of the National Association of Secondary School Principals. 

“While these scores are alarming, they are certainly not surprising,” he wrote in an email. “School leaders and educators are doing everything they can. 鈥� We need our federal leaders to double down on supporting the academic and mental health needs of our students.”

In fact, schools across the country received an unprecedented windfall from the U.S. government鈥檚 COVID relief spending, with a total of $190 billion meant to revamp schools鈥� infrastructure and help students recover from pandemic losses.

鈥淭he trick now,鈥� wrote Lake, of the Center on Reinventing Public Education, 鈥渋s to face up to the enormity and urgency of the challenge while still recognizing that we do have the tools to act now to fix this.鈥�

Between 2016 and 2021, the average GPA for students taking the test increased from 3.22 to 3.39. But scores on the ACT I 鈥� reflecting performance in English, math, reading and science 鈥� declined slightly, from 20.8 to 20.3. The trend was especially noticeable among Black students and those from low- to moderate-income homes.

The results, based on a sample of over 4 million students in almost 4,800 schools, reflect 鈥減ersistent, systemic,鈥� grade inflation, wrote the authors, both researchers at ACT. Following a recent from the National Assessment of Educational Progress 鈥� or NAEP 鈥� the ACT analysis provides further evidence that grades, which often include points for effort and class participation, don鈥檛 reflect objective measures of academic achievement.

The study found more grade inflation in higher-poverty schools. Edgar Sanchez, a lead research scientist at ACT, said it鈥檚 unclear why that鈥檚 the case and called the study 鈥渁 starting point.鈥�

But Seth Gershenson, an American University researcher who has the issue, attributed the problem to what President George W. Bush 鈥渢he soft bigotry of low expectations.鈥� Schools, Gershenson said, award passing grades 鈥渁nd let someone else deal with the lack of learning later on.鈥�

His research also showed growing grade inflation over time in wealthier schools, where 鈥渕ore entitled parents and students鈥� are putting pressure on teachers to give A鈥檚 so students can get into top colleges.

It鈥檚 unclear to what extent the relaxation of grading standards during the pandemic affected the study鈥檚 outcome, wrote the ACT researchers. California students, for example, were allowed to change their lowest grades. And reduced how much scores on end-of-course tests counted in students鈥� final grades. The authors noted that students who tested in the middle of a pandemic, especially the spring after schools shut down, 鈥渃ould be different from typical tested students鈥� and also from those who didn鈥檛 test until 2021.  

At a time when more colleges and universities are making both the ACT and SAT for admission, ACT CEO Janet Godwin acknowledged the risk that the paper鈥檚 argument in support of standardized testing might seem self-serving, 

But she said the company has 鈥渁 responsibility鈥� to contribute to the conversation.

鈥淲e have the means and the data to do this kind of research,鈥� she said.

Michael Petrilli, president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a conservative think tank that has published Gershenson鈥檚 work, agreed that ACT has 鈥渁 big dog in that fight.鈥� Regardless, he agreed that current trends in grading are leaving students less prepared for higher education.

鈥淭he heart of the problem is that there aren’t any standards or guidelines for grading in most places,鈥� Petrilli said. 鈥淭eachers are on their own, and don’t get much, if any, guidance. Nor do they get much training in [education] schools.鈥�

鈥業n the dark鈥�

Parents rely on grades to give them an accurate portrait of their children鈥檚 performance 鈥� especially since they are given more frequently than annual state tests, said Bibb Hubbard, founder and president of Learning Heroes, a nonprofit that helps parents become better informed about their children鈥檚 progress. 

But many parents might not understand that grades are sometimes more about effort than knowledge, she said. 

鈥淲hen we ask teachers why they don’t share more with parents about student achievement, they report it is fear-based 鈥� fear of not being believed, of being blamed and of their principals not having their back,鈥� she said. 鈥淭he system is designed to keep parents in the dark about their child’s grade-level performance.鈥�

In recent years, some districts have adopted an approach known as 鈥渟tandards-based grading鈥� that educators say offers a more accurate measure of whether students are meeting expectations. It takes the emphasis off non-academic factors like turning in assignments early and attendance 鈥� practices that can vary from teacher to teacher.

The 3,000-student Pewaukee School District in Wisconsin, outside Milwaukee, implemented such a model in 2015. Students are graded on a one-to-four system, with one representing below expectations and four indicating advanced performance. 

鈥淲e didn鈥檛 want students鈥� grades dependent on whether they brought in a box of Kleenex,鈥� said Danielle Bosanec, the district鈥檚 chief academic officer. 鈥淲e wanted kids to stop chasing grades and start chasing learning.鈥�

Parents bought into the plan because it allows students more than one chance at a passing grade on an assignment or test so long as they can demonstrate the additional work they did after their first try. The district agreed to convert final scores into letter grades for transcripts.

Bosanec also conducted her own research to test the connection between the new grading model and ACT scores. In general, she found that in a standards-based model, 鈥渁s students鈥� grades go up or down, the impact on ACT scores follows suit.鈥�

Despite the studies pointing to grade inflation, there鈥檚 no 鈥渨idespread evidence that institutions have lost trust in GPAs,鈥� said David Hawkins, chief education and policy officer at the National Association for College Admission Counseling. What colleges crave, he said, is more context. 

In the future, he thinks, like research projects or class presentations 鈥� used widely in some states like New Hampshire in lieu of tests 鈥� could become part of the admissions process.

鈥淭here is more to be mined from the student鈥檚 high school record than we鈥檙e currently getting,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e missing a lot of data about what students can do.鈥�

But suggests that access to educational opportunity is also unequally distributed among children at the top of the academic heap, and that even some of the brightest young students are at a high risk of being overlooked within their schools and districts.

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The study, commissioned by the reform-oriented Thomas B. Fordham Institute, points to clear disparities in the prospects of high-achieving students along lines of race and class. Black and low-income elementary schoolers in Ohio who scored well on state exams were less likely to be classified as gifted and talented than comparable white and high-income children. Into middle and high school, they achieved at lower levels on standardized tests, Advanced Placement exams, and college entrance exams, and they were less likely to enroll in college.

Scott Imberman, the report鈥檚 author and an economist at Michigan State University, said that it wasn鈥檛 certain whether the lower rates of gifted identification exacerbated the performance gaps between student populations. Beginning in 2017, Ohio mandated more comprehensive screening for gifted status in the early grades, but historically, even some students who received that status have gone without gifted services.

“The main thing here is that there was, and probably still is, a problem with these gaps,鈥� Imberman said. 鈥淭hese higher-achieving minority and disadvantaged students were not performing as well, over time, as high-achieving students who were advantaged, and they were also less likely to be enrolled in gifted programs.鈥�

To study the long-term trajectories of academically promising students, Imberman sought student-level records from the Ohio Longitudinal Data Archive, which included third-grade performance on Ohio鈥檚 state standardized test for over 900,000 participants between the 2005-06 and 2011-12 academic years. Imberman focused on students of all backgrounds who scored in the top 20 percent statewide 鈥� a sample of roughly 180,000 鈥� and matched those results with scores on the ACT and SAT, as well as college enrollment figures from the National Student Clearinghouse.

In terms of both short- and long-term academic performance, poor and African American students who scored in the top 20 percent fell behind their peers. Subsequent standardized test scores from grades 4-8 revealed that high-achieving students generally lost ground to their classmates in the bottom 80 percent, principally due to improvement among lower-performing students in late childhood and early adolescence. But in both reading and math, the relative performance of high-achievers who were white, Hispanic, Asian American, and higher-income held up significantly better than their economically disadvantaged and African American classmates.

High school assessments showed evidence of the same persistent differences. Black and disadvantaged students who were high-achievers in the third grade were less likely to take the ACT test and AP tests, and scored lower than other high-achievers when they did. The average AP scores for more affluent students (3.2 on a five-point scale) and white students (3.1) were notably higher than less affluent students (2.6) and African Americans (2.3).

Finally, 57 percent of white high-achievers later enrolled in a four-year college, compared with 53 percent of Asian Americans, 30 percent of Hispanics, and 26 percent of African Americans; among students who weren鈥檛 classified as economically disadvantaged, 58 percent later enrolled in a four-year college, compared with 35 percent of high-achievers who did receive that classification.

In a separate set of conclusions that may offer a partial explanation for those sharp divergences, Imberman found that students from different demographics were identified for gifted and talented services at vastly different rates. Black and low-income high-achievers are less likely to be identified in the third grade than other student groups, and the gaps substantially grow by the time they鈥檝e reached the eighth grade.

In fact, the report finds that simply being identified as gifted may carry some achievement benefits: Receiving the gifted classification in math led to a modest increase in reading scores of .02 standard deviations and a boost to math scores of .03 standard deviations 鈥� equivalent to a performance boost of roughly one percentile annually. What鈥檚 more, those effects were relatively larger for African American and Hispanic students than white ones.

The findings echo those of published by economists David Card and Laura Giuliano, which found that when a large urban school district adopted universal gifted screening for second graders, it led to large increases in the number of minority and low-income students who were classified. A from Fordham found that just 61.5 percent of K-12 schools in Ohio offered gifted programming, and less than 8 percent of students enrolled at those schools received access to them.

Imberman called the effects on achievement 鈥減lausibly causal,鈥� noting that social factors other than gifted identification might play some part in explaining the effects.

鈥淚’d say that this provides some prima facie, suggestive evidence that expanding access to gifted education among minorities, in particular, could be a way to help reduce these gaps among high-achievers,” he told 蜜桃影视.