Our recent ROPS article Broadening Our Perspective Concerning America’s Education Attainment: Growth, Progress, and Data Gaps, by Michael Kirst and Victor Chan, was featured in Education Week. The media coverage dives deep into the findings on American educational attainment.
While the dominant public narrative often points to a "learning recession" based strictly on K-12 standardized test scores, this research looks more broadly at youth ages 15–25. By examining 11 distinct educational pathways—including Advanced Placement (AP) courses, dual enrollment, four-year degrees, and registered apprenticeships—the paper demonstrates a quiet but powerful pattern of growth, progress, and workforce integration across the country.
The feature highlights a key takeaway from the paper: the U.S. education system isn't failing outright; rather, it has adapted to offer flexible, applied, and workforce-linked pathways that increase the overall years of schooling Americans complete. Additionally, it highlights our call to action for lawmakers to fix critical data infrastructure gaps to better understand these expanding postsecondary pathways.
Read the full Education Week article here: Are U.S. Schools in Decline? Two Researchers Question That Narrative
Access our original ROPS paper: Broadening Our Perspective Concerning America’s Education Attainment: Growth, Progress, and Data Gaps