Academic Scores Plummeting In the editorial, “Can we trust the school numbers now?” school officials in Illinois say the numbers of students who meet academic standards have plummeted. Chicago public schools Officials say that students have not been able to meet academic standards over the past few years. I believe that students have been getting lower scores on academic standards because there are many students who are having trouble with the new tests that have been created. In my opinion these new tests are in fact getting more difficult than they were before. They have set a higher bar for us now than they did back then. They explain how public schools in Illinois are struggling with standards such as math. In 2012 state officials said 82 percent were meeting or exceeding the standards in math, science, and reading. Now in the year 2013 that percent has gone down by far. It is 62 percent now which is 20 percent less than it was last year. I believe we didn’t get “dumber” I think that the new tests have been more difficult for students to cope with. Since they’ve raised the bar in Illinois students haven’t been doing as well as they were last year. Although this problem is in Illinois I believe it is maybe happening here also. These new tests aren’t just issued to students in Illinois schools; they issue them in other places. Our scores might even be lower because some students wouldn’t take this new test as serious. Those who do graduate from high school in Illinois aren’t prepared for the real world after that. From my perspective, maybe the teachers aren’t that great or maybe it’s the students. We should really fix this