GCAs and “basic skills”

The two hot topics of the recent PSBA legislative conference were, of course, the GCAs, as well as the governor's proposal to overhaul the state funding formula for school districts. The speaker at one session was Dave Broderic, assistant to Senator James Rhoades (probably the strongest advocate for public education that we have in Harrisburg.)

Mr. Broderic was quite eloquent in his comments concerning the GCAs, which the senator opposes, and then quite incoherent on the proposed funding formula, which the senator also opposes, being a Republican.

But be that as it may, he caught my ear when he mentioned that part of the justification for the GCAs are comments of business leaders who claim that high school graduates lack "basic skills". Afterwards, I asked him what they mean by that. What are the basic skills that high school graduates appear to lack? (He told me he rarely got an adequate answer to that question.)

It was in this context that I read a recent Newsweek article on the lack of financial literacy, even among the highly educated. They gave this example: you have $200 in an investment earning 10 percent per year, compounded annually. How much would you have at the end of two years? (Answer below!) Only 18% of adults were able to answer correctly.

And so it struck me: This is what business leaders are referring to when they complain about the lack of basic math skills – along with the inability to balance a checkbook, read a profit/loss statement, or understand the terms of a credit card or mortgage.

Allow me to point out the obvious: none of this will be solved by requiring every student to take algebra II. As Newsweek noted, somewhat sarcastically, “some principals resist adding personal finance instruction to schedules already crowded with really useful classes, like trigonometry.”

What I find so disturbing in this rush to “add rigor” to the high school curriculum is that there has been no discussion about which specific skills and knowledge high school graduates actually need for them to be successful.  (To which I would include a basic understanding of statistics - how many adults understand the meaning of “+/- 3 percentage points”?  I would guess less than 18 %.)

(By the way, the answer to the question is $242.)