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“Everything about manufacturing involves math, but many students in the U.S. are lacking when it comes to those skills,” cautioned Peter Connolly, CEO of the New Jersey Manufacturing Extension Program. “A person that can’t read a tape measure or do simple computations cannot be on the shop floor,” he said. “And higher-level skills are necessary for the many advanced manufacturing jobs that are opening up.”
He’s not the only one sounding the alarm. A report released in June by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics noted that average math scores for 13-year-olds fell 9 points compared to the previous assessment, which was administered during the 2019–20 school year. The numbers are even worse compared to a decade ago, with a 14-point drop.
In a bid to boost those scores, NJMEP is working with a…
