Various factors come into play when analyzing the reasons for students' lack of preparation for jobs after graduating college. These include educational curriculum priorities, methods of evaluation, teaching methodology, philosophies of education, school resources, and teachers' and students' learning styles. The system of education and evaluation in colleges is generally a continuum of previous models found in elementary and high school. The types of courses, amount of information and grade of difficulty change drastically, but the system is profoundly similar with respect to evaluating progress. As a result, elementary and secondary schools also share some responsibility for preparing students for jobs, and helping them take responsibility of their own education.
According to Dr. Tony Wagner, author of the book "The Global Achievement Gap" and co-director of the Change Leadership Group at Harvard Graduate School of Education, there's a gap between what's being taught in the school systems and the skills needed to have a successful career as a researcher, employee, entrepreneur, or educator. He claims that successful careers are greatly dependent on the attainment of various skills and abilities that aren't being addressed in current curriculum or through the current evaluation methods of accountability. He believes the essential skills needed to perform well in jobs include critical thinking and problem solving, agility and adaptability, entrepreneurial spirit, effective oral and written communication, accessing and analyzing information, curiosity and imagination, willingness to continue learning, independent learning, and becoming active and informed citizens. Currently, many of these areas aren't part of the nationwide educational curriculum.
Great pressure is put on teachers from the elementary to college level to adhere to state curriculum and federal progress measurements, such as the AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress). This and other federal acts, such as No Child Left Behind, set minimum standards on how each school and district should perform academically. As a consequence, this conveys an urgency to educators to increase graduation rates, which must be reported to the state department of education. Since curriculum stresses the need for tests as a way of measuring academic levels, exams take priority over other aspects of education. The educational curriculum is affected to the point where, in many cases, it can be narrowed down to a single priority: preparing students for tests.
The problem is not on putting evaluations as a priority, but on prioritizing knowledge of content rather than the development of necessary skills needed to perform well outside of educational institutions. Tests can be a great tool when content is used as an instrument to achieve competence and deep understanding of the inner-works of a subject. However, the evaluation mechanisms typically used--standardized, computer-based and multiple-choice tests--hardly reflect students' ability to reason, analyze, hypothesize, compare, contrast and weigh evidence, or their ability to communicate well in person...all things that will be required in any professional job.