Test scores matter, writes Erika Sanzi on Good School Hunting.
In deciding where to build its second headquarters (HQ2), Amazon is considering average SAT and ACT scores of potential sites, reports the Wall Street Journal.
The company wants a strong local talent pool and to persuade employees to move to the city, writes Sanzi. “No parent, or future parent, wants to be transferred to a place with lousy schools and one objective and comparable measure of school quality can be found in the average scores on tests like the SAT and ACT.”
Her home state of Rhode Island was eliminated from consideration in the first round, she writes.
Whether it’s our lousy test scores, glaring achievement gaps, high teacher absenteeism, or depressing college remediation rates, Rhode island is not a place that a data driven organization like Amazon is going to look kindly upon when it comes to education. Especially not when they can see how much we spend and contrast that with out totally subpar outcomes. And our crumbling buildings? Those couldn’t have helped either. We are last in the country when it comes to the success index for Latino students. Dead last. Our student achievement pales in comparison to Massachusetts.
Tests don’t tell us everything, but they tell us something, concludes Sanzi. “They will remain a part of our children’s lives—and futures—whether they go on to become firefighters or astronauts, teachers, master electricians, or nurses.”
Today the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as the “nation’s report card,” will release 2017 math and reading scores.