In 2009, of the 73,000 8th graders in 283 school districts in Massachusetts taking the math MCAS, only 49% passed with a score of proficient or advanced. 23% failed outright and another 28% needed to make specific improvements to attain the necessary level of proficiency for their grade. In 45% of Massachusetts schools districts half of the 8th graders could not successfully pass the MCAS. That translates in raw numbers to 37,000 8th grade students. Most will move on to high school next year.
Although this lack of proficiency by half of Massachusetts’s graduating 8th graders may seem shocking to those outside of the educational industrial complex, what was even more surprising is that Massachusetts students are more proficient in mathematics than students in all other states as scored by a national test called the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) .
The publically available data demonstrates how much the education system is failing the children and parents of the country. In one of the most educationally progressive states in the country 50% of the math students are not performing at their grade level. This is in spite of a $12.3 billion dollar annual state education budget for grades K-12 which equates to nearly $12,500 per student per year. $8.9 billion of which pays the salary for 138,000 teachers.
