The opinions of students, regularly used at institutions of higher education, have been shown to correlate with overall student performance at the middle-school level, said Thomas Kane, a professor of education and economics at the Harvard Graduate School of Education who has studied the issue.

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But my goal is to challenge more schools and more communities to take part in this, particularly middle and high school students, because right now those 635 students are at the elementary school level, and we need to take this challenge up to kids in middle schools and high schools.

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However, by the time they reach middle school, only 32% are at or above a proficient level in math, according to the 2007 Nation's Report Card by National Assessment of Educational Progress, and they fall behind internationally.

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