📉📚❓🧑🏫 What’s caused reading scores to drop to worst point in decades? Education expert weighs in
🤖 AI Summary
The 📉 decline in high school students’ math and reading scores to their lowest levels in over two decades is a serious issue. These scores are from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as “the nation’s report card.”
- 📉 The average reading score for high school seniors is the lowest since 1992, with nearly a third lacking basic reading skills. Math scores have also dropped to their lowest point since 2005.
- 📉 The decline is most significant among lower-achieving students, and the bottom 10% have lost about two grade equivalences since 2015, which could result in a 5% loss in lifetime earnings.
- 🤔 There are three main hypotheses for this trend: a reduced focus on test-based accountability since the No Child Left Behind Act expired, an increase in social media use, and a rise in student absenteeism.
- 🏫 The solution is not just about bringing back old testing regimens but about finding effective ways to lower absenteeism and studying the effects of cell phone bans.
🤔 Evaluation
The 🎬 video’s perspective on the decline in student scores is largely supported by external data, which also confirms the long-term nature of the problem, predating the 😷 pandemic. While the video focuses on a few key hypotheses, other perspectives suggest additional contributing factors. Some 👨🏫 educators point to a shift in teaching English and language arts toward shorter texts, which may contribute to the drop in reading scores. Other perspectives highlight the role of teacher shortages and budget shortfalls. The conversation also includes a political dimension, with some officials attributing the decline to “student-last policies.” Furthermore, the widening achievement gap between high- and low-performing students is a recurring theme, suggesting that the problem is not uniform across all demographics. To gain a better understanding, it would be useful to explore the impact of specific education policies at the state level and to investigate the effectiveness of different approaches to addressing student absenteeism and social media use.
📚 Book Recommendations
- 💀🇺🇸🏫 The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education by Diane Ravitch. This 📓 book argues that education reform has strayed from its purpose by focusing on testing and accountability instead of on curriculum.
- 📖 How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character by Paul Tough. A 📖 deep dive into the non-cognitive skills that matter most for student achievement, focusing on character development rather than test scores.
- 📖 Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools by Jonathan Kozol. This 📓 book provides a powerful and heartbreaking look at the vast disparities in funding and resources between school districts, offering a contrasting view on the root causes of educational struggles.
- 📖 Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling by John Taylor Gatto. This 📕 book critiques the very structure of the modern school system and its effect on natural learning instincts.