It’s a question that is asked pretty regularly — are high schools getting students ready for college? Specifically, how well did high school prepare students at Rutgers for the math classes they have to take there? Not too well, said education consultant Chad Aldeman, who said his recent research found a case of extremes.
“The highest performing students have done okay over the last 10 years while the lower performing students are doing much worse and that is showing up even at Rutgers, which is a prestigious public flagship in New Jersey,” he said.
Aldeman said grade inflation in high school makes many students appear more proficient than they really are, and that students often end up retaking classes in college that they took in high school.
“We heard stories from the Rutgers faculty about students who didn’t have adequate study skills, maybe they had experienced in high school where homework wasn’t graded or they had multiple retakes on tests,” said Aldeman. “I heard horror stories of students using their calculator when they weren’t supposed to, turning to AI.”
Aldeman says students’ problems may have started early on.
“Math is a pretty cumulative subject and by that I mean that if a student doesn’t have a strong number sense they might struggle with fractions and if they struggle with fractions they might struggle when they get to algebra,” he said, “and so if students are passed along without mastering those foundational skills they’ll just sort of struggle up the ladder.”
In 2025 New Jersey high schools had a 92% graduation rate, but less than 60% of 11th graders met the math requirement through the state graduation test.