Report | June 23, 2014

K­-12 Standards and Aligned Assessments: A Crime Prevention Strategy

How higher education standards in North Carolina schools will lead youth to productive employment and away rom crime

More than 35,000 people are currently in state prisons in North Carolina. Many of these individuals could have avoided crime if they had a better education. Nationally, almost 7 in 10 inmates in state prisons failed to graduate from high school, whereas fewer than 3 in 10 of the general population had failed to graduate from high school.

North Carolina’s schools need to improve to keep kids off the path to school failure. Too many North Carolina students are not getting the education necessary to be employable in the new North Carolina economy.

  • 36% of North Carolina 8th graders are proficient in math
  • 33% are proficient in reading
  • 26% are proficient in science
  • 20% of North Carolina high school freshmen do not graduate within four years.

This policy brief discusses how North Carolina’s K­-12 Standards can help reduce crime by helping youth gain the real academic and social skills necessary to be successful in school, on the job and in life.