In one of those telling ironies that pop up every now and then, this week’s release of scores by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (which are, again, underwhelming) just happens to coincide with the 35th anniversary of the release of the landmark report on education: A Nation at Risk. For Americans that report was, to say the least, unsettling.
It was a principle of citizenship to believe that America was the best in everything, especially in education. So it all came as a shock when the report, authored by the broad, bipartisan National Commission on Excellence in Education said there was “a rising tide of mediocrity,” in our schools; that educational content “was a mile wide and an inch deep;” and that our teachers were lacking the necessary qualifications to ensure expert teaching, particularly in math and science. And it didn’t calm any concerns when former President Ronald Reagan stepped up to lead the call to action, telling his fellow Americans that our education system was plagued by “low standards, lack of purpose, ineffective use of resources, and a failure to challenge students to push performance to the boundaries of individual ability.”
A Nation at Risk posed troubling, if not frightening, ramifications. There was an inextricable link between education and America’s economic competitiveness and national security. In a growing global economy, we were losing out to such friends as Japan and Germany; and in the midst of the lingering Cold War, we were losing to decidedly unfriendly competitors, namely Russia and China.
And while in countries around the world education (particularly in math and the sciences), was a national priority, at home it was a different story. There was no special focus on education.
The report sparked a national outcry. Reagan made more than 50 trips around the country to get Americans’ attention. Never had a president devoted so much time, energy, and political capital to education — which, it is now clear, is an issue on which all else rests.
Since then the nation has devoted vast amounts of attention and resources to getting education right — to little avail.
The time to change that is now. The latest NAEP scores give us ample reason to refocus our attention and redouble efforts to make education work for all learners at all levels. NAEP, also known as the “Nation’s Report Card,” is the gold standard of assessments. It measures students on all the core subjects — not in comparison with other students, like many tests, but in comparison with what students should know and be able to do.
The most recent scores on reading, math, and writing are dismal. Fewer than half of students are rated “proficient” in each of these subjects. The only significant change since 2015 is a one-point increase in eighth-grade reading. Otherwise students are doing just as poorly as they were in 2011.
In 1983, the National Commission made recommendations: districts should institute 11-month contracts to give teachers more time to prepare for each new year and to allow time for more professional development. They recognized that this would require an increase in teacher salaries. They also suggested recruiting from other fields — noneducators with degrees in science and math, especially those who had been in the workplace and knew what students’ future needs would be. And they believed that providing a ladder for success would attract and motivate more people to go into teaching.
Some of these recommendations would be taken up over time, and some, like the 11-month contract, would not. But the ideas debated in that era spurred the creation of new and diverse educational opportunities for the students most in need, and spawned the modern-day charter school movement.
Some cities and states with robust reform efforts have shown remarkable increases in achievement among the disadvantaged and students of color. Researchers studying state NAEP data have reported substantial improvements in student performance in states that provide more opportunities for students to find the schools that best meet their needs, have high academic standards, and work hard to attract diverse professionals to the teaching ranks across all school sectors.
So it’s no surprise that the winner in the NAEP Report Card ranking this year was Florida. While most states showed un-notable results, Florida and two of its biggest districts (Miami and Duval) showed unprecedented gains. Significant gains were made across the board, by low-income students, students of color, and students with disabilities.
That’s because since 1999 Florida has consistently adopted measures that hold schools, students, and communities accountable for results. Schools improved, threatened by the prospect of losing funds. Over time, the Sunshine State adopted an expansive array of opportunities for students, including public charter schools, private scholarships and tax credits, innovations in online learning, early-college programs, and more.
Last year, Florida led all states on the Parent Power Index — compiled by my organization, the Center for Education Reform — which measures how much power states give to parents to make significant decisions in the educational futures of their kids.
Florida is not the only state that has improved education for kids by adopting bold innovations. Massachusetts, Indiana, Arizona, and Washington, D.C., all have made impressive gains in recent years on a myriad of measures including past NAEP assessments.
In these states, the economic landscape is also improving, attracting more families and sending school-enrollment trends upward — another indication of how much economic prosperity and education go hand in hand. But small victories are not enough. We must do more. We must demand education opportunities for all students and access to new innovations in teaching and learning for all educators.
There is a larger picture here that we shouldn’t lose sight of: Education defines us as a nation, past, present, and future.
“Broad educational opportunity not only secured our role as the path breaker to progress. It also protected and strengthened our freedom. We were wise enough to heed Thomas Jefferson’s warning that ‘any nation that expects to be ignorant and free expects what never was and never will be.’” Those are Ronald Reagan’s words from 35 years ago, when he also challenged America’s students, saying:
“Your generation is coming of age in one of the most challenging and exciting times in our history. High technology is revolutionizing our industries, renewing our economy, and promising new hope and opportunity in the years ahead. Make sure you get the training and skills you need to take advantage of [these] new opportunities. . . . Get a good education. That’s the key to success. It will open your mind and give wings to your spirit.”
The students he spoke to then are now middle-aged. Those who had access to a quality education were able to heed that advice. But far too many didn’t have that access and have been left to struggle economically.
NAEP shows us the necessity of “giving wings to the spirit” of learning from kindergarten through all manner of higher learning. Our economy, society, and polity are increasingly at risk from an educational system that does not consistently prepare all children to succeed as adults and is least effective for the goal of deep and rich learning.
The schools available to most students today were designed in a different era and structured for a different society. Teens understand time, technology, and how to get what they want and need. But we saddle them with a school system that still looks like it did not just 35 years ago, but 135 years ago.
The NAEP results show us what happens when schools measure students’ progress by time spent in a classroom instead of by the mastery of a subject. They also serve as reminder that we if we are ever to make progress in addressing the shortcomings identified 35 year ago, we must heed the subtitle of the Nation at Risk report, which is: “The Imperative for Educational Reform.”
Jeanne Allen (@JeanneAllen) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. She is CEO and founder of the Center for Education Reform.
