How Can We Make American Students Smarter?

[davidthefat]

Maybe Mr. George Bush was not so uninformed when he pushed for No Child Left Behind. This is not a discussion on NCLB, but it was a result of low test scores nation wide. May be I am just stuck in a bubble of education right now, I consider any ACT score under 30 and SAT score under 2000 as "bad". Now it may shock you that the national averages are significantly lower than I have even heard of anyone getting.

National ACT Averages (2010)

Composite: 21.0
English: 20.5 
Math: 21.0 
Reading: 21.3 
Science: 20.9

Now, the scores with the most kids

Composite: 21
English: 21
Math: 16
Reading: 20
Science: 20

Look at that math score. 180,723 kids got a score of 16 on the Math section.

National SAT Averages (2010)

Critical Reading: 501
Math: 516
Writing: 492

I find those figures appalling. Now, how can those averages be so low? Is it the nature of the tests themselves? Is it the fabric of how the educational system run? Are they mostly due to socioeconomic situations? How can we fix this problem?

Sources:
http://www.act.org/news/data/10/pdf/...utm_medium=web

http://professionals.collegeboard.co...report-cbs.pdf