What’s missing from the nation’s report card

Abstract

This study re-envisions the Nation’s Report Card from a “whole child” perspective that considers not just students’ academic achievement, but also their physical and mental health. Jaekyung Lee’s integrated analysis of the National Assessment of Educational Progress and the National Survey of Children’s Health datasets reveals that many of our children and youth are not in good shape, getting the average grade of C, with grades of B+ for physical health, C for socioemotional wellness, and D for academic proficiency. The analysis also shows that better health and wellness measures are associated with higher achievement. In addition, the states with stronger “whole community” scores, which measure protective and nurturing family-school-neighborhood environments, produce students who do better on all measures.