For the end of November, Dr. Goss of Creighton discusses his thoughts on the future of education. As a professor of higher education, Goss discusses the fact that ACT averages have been on the decline for the last six years and are at the lowest they have been in 30 years. SAT scores have also seen a drop since 2016, with the current average at 1028. Current studies are showing that only around 40% of high school seniors are considered prepared for college, many not reaching college-level requirements in Math, English, and Science.

These low scores are leading many schools across the country to consider removing ACT and SAT scores as part of admissions. And article by Forbes earlier in November showed that more than 80% of four-year schools are planning to remove the requirement for ACT/SAT scores for their fall admissions. Said Harry Feder, the executive director for the National Center for Fair & Open Testing, “de-emphasizing standardized exam scores is a model that all of U.S. education – from K-12 through graduate schools – should follow.”

Goss in his newsletter stated that “today admissions depend more heavily on grade point average which cannot be adequately compared across the nation and leaves admissions to the whims, biases, and discretion of members of admission committees.” He questioned where budgets were going for schools across the country when many schools — using the public school system of Baltimore, MD as an example — have a yearly budget of nearly $2 billion and received over $700 million in federal grants due to COVID, and yet have such a high percentage of students not managing to pass requirements.

On more economic topics, Goss believes that the Federal Reserve will leave short-term interest rates unchanged until mid-December, following their next meeting, and believes that the real estate market will begin to see foreclosures rising as we run the risk of entering a recession by the beginning of 2024 Q1. December 14th will also see the US Census Bureau release their numbers on retails sales, which is an important factor in how the economy is shaping for the coming year.