The New York Times reported December 4 that math and science test scores for U.S. fourth and eighth graders have been essentially stagnant since 1995. Nor have they have been stagnant near the top — lots of countries outrank us — but rather in the middling middle. American elementary/middle school students perform behind Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, England, Ireland, and Poland.
“’This is alarming,’” opined a Department of Education commissioner.
Yes, it is, but perhaps not just for the reasons the article identifies.
The spin of the article is that scores are down and American kids have lost significant ground as a result of the pandemic. Author Dana Goldstein says the results corroborate “a large body of research showing significant academic declines since the Covid-19 pandemic began.” “Experts are debating potential causes,” reports Goldstein, including maybe the fact that American public schools were shuttered comparatively longer than in other countries.
Let me argue that spin is far too limited and selective.
While the “experts” debate, American kids continue to move through the public-school industry, advanced perhaps more for social promotion than mastery of skills. Eventually, they’ll hit college where freshman year will be spent in math remediation before they can undertake a required general education math or science course. I know. I worked as an associate dean at a private, tuition-driven Catholic university. One year, a fifth of the freshman class was in math remediation prior to regular college-level math classes.
You can argue the young people shouldn’t be admitted and it’s not a college’s role to make up deficiencies in elementary and secondary schooling. But somebody’s got to do it. These kids relied on what their schools told them, credentialing them with diplomas after going through multiple “proficiency tests” (that more often were “teaching to the test” than teaching). At some point, somebody’s actually got to teach them.
Goldstein’s article blunts the fact that the public-school industry stayed out after COVID long after private schools resumed… and resumed safely. (We won’t ask how many DoE employees may still be out).
Anecdotal information: Back in 2021-22, I would often attend noon Mass at my local parish, which had a Catholic school attached. The kids were in school long before the neighboring school districts were. I did not see ambulances regularly coming to the school to retrieve victims of the “irresponsible exposure.” There was no uptick in youth funerals at the church.
Yes, the pandemic did contribute to suppressing scores, just as it contributed to parents discovering all the ideological nonsense crammed into the curriculum that displaces time for substantive education. Kids might not know what it is to diagram a sentence (and where the “pronoun” fits in that diagram) but they waste plenty of time picking their “pronouns.”
No, while the pandemic affected scores, Goldstein’s article notes that America’s mediocre scores have been stagnant since 1995. That’s thirty years ago. That’s over three, almost four complete cycles of elementary school students.
Which means the problem is not just the pandemic. It’s the Department of Education.
While “experts” debate “causes” and DoE bureaucrats wring hands about “alarming” results, the truth is that the almost half-century old DoE has almost nothing to show for its existence in terms of improving American students’ educational performance. Its advocates will identify tons of legislation that have poured millions of dollars into “standards,” but we all see the subminimal results of federally imposed ‘standards.”
“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.” That classic definition makes the case for renaming DoE the “Department of Insanity,” because, despite half a century’s investments, little has changed but we are nevertheless told the dire consequences that would befall little Johnny and Mary should President Trump succeed in putting those failing bureaucrats out of taxpayers’ misery.
Instead of insisting on keeping DoE alive, it’s time — after half a century — to try something different. School choice. Since education money is for education and it’s kids — not schools — that get educated, why are educational dollars going to schools rather than kids? And not even all schools: public education is an Animal Farm monopoly in which some schools are more equal than others, even monopolies.
Putting educational dollars in parents’ hands to decide where a child will thrive empowers parents, who are the primary educators of a child (not “co-participants” with schools). It affords all children opportunities to choose the environment in which they can perform best. It incentivizes schools to maintain and enforce academic rigor in order to be competitive for students. And it cuts out the subsidy net that keeps underperforming schools — primarily public schools — humming along while they do damage to concrete kids and our international academic standing.
Insanity is not changing the model and empowering parents through school choice. Insanity is continuing to do what we are doing to our children’s and our national detriment.
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