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Behind the Curve
For the United States to succeed in a new era of global
competitiveness, the next generation needs to be equipped
for the intellectual demands of the modern workplace. An
alarming
new state-by-state assessment of our nation's
education system indicates that the United States is
failing to prepare a 21st century workforce (click
here to see
an interactive map that breaks down the data). The new
report card, produced by the Chamber of Commerce with
assistance from the
Center for American Progress, finds that there is not a single state in
the country where a
majority of 4th and 8th graders are proficient in math
and reading. The report's aim is to identify both "leaders and
laggards in the tough business of school performance"
and to highlight the
many areas needed for education
improvement. The
report card's conclusion is unambiguous: states need to do a far better
job of monitoring and
delivering quality schooling. As Secretary of Education
Margaret Spellings noted recently, “The consensus for
strengthening our high schools
has never been stronger.” Progressives and conservatives are united
around
common goals for our education system -- better teaching, more
innovation, better data, and better management.
The report is one step in building the political will
needed to "upend
familiar arrangements and comfortable routines"
and achieve much-needed reform.
WHO'S HOT AND WHO'S NOT: The study --
entitled "Leaders
and Laggards: A State-by-State Report Card on
Educational Effectiveness" -- distributed grades for all
50 states and
Washington, D.C.,
assessing each across
nine different areas, including academic achievement of
low-income and minority students, return on investment,
rigor of standards, postsecondary and workforce
readiness, 21st century teaching force and flexibility in
management and policy.
Massachusetts earned the top ranking overall, followed by
Minnesota,
New
Hampshire,
and
Vermont. Washington, D.C.'s school system ranked last in educational
effectiveness, joined in the bottom tier
with
Mississippi,
New
Mexico, Alabama,
Louisiana,
Hawaii,
Nevada,
West Virginia, California, and Oklahoma.
The report does find some good news amidst its largely
disturbing survey: the
states with large percentages
of
low-income and minority students score far better than others on
achievement tests. Florida, Kansas,
Texas, and
Virginia stand out as case studies for achieving success
with large percentages of low-income and minority
student populations.
MOVING IN THE WRONG DIRECTION: The
state-by-state assessment starkly reports that not a single state
in the country has a majority of 4th or 8th graders who
are proficient in math and reading. Only about two-thirds
of all 9th graders graduate from high school within four
years. The Bu$h administration recently issued a
disappointing report card of its own -- the
National Assessment of Educational Progress. In standardized
reading tests, 73 percent of high schoolers read at a
basic level, down from 80 percent in 1992. Just 35 percent
scored at a proficient level, down from 40 percent.
But evidence from the national report card that high school
students are earning better grades -- possibly due to "grade
inflation" or changes in grading standards, among
other factors -- obscures the fact that student
achievement is falling behind. The decline of the U.S. education
system has been even more drastic by international
standards. A
2005 report by the Organization for Cooperation
and Development ranked the
United
States 9th among nations in the share of its population with a high
school
degree, and 7th in terms of those with a college degree.
Twenty years ago, the United States ranked first
on both indicators. The reason for the disparity
is not that the United States has declined, but rather that other
countries
have grown past it. A 2003 UNICEF report ranked the United States
18th out of 24 nations in terms of
overall effectiveness of national education systems.
UNSATISFACTORY AND INCOMPLETE DATA:
The report card used available data from the math and
reading scores on the
2005 National Assessment of Educational Progress to compile its
state-by-state
breakdown. In the process of producing the report, the
education policy experts noted an alarming lack of
reliable and available data on state performance that
created serious challenges in evaluating results on a
state-by-state basis." Not a single state can provide
systematic data on how teachers are being rewarded for
essential skills or the quality of their work, how cost
effective a remedial program in one district is compared
with a similar program in another district, or how many
teachers were terminated last year for poor performance.
Compounding the lack of available data is the
unreliability of the information coming from certain states.
Alabama,
for instance, reported in 2005 that
83 percent of its 4th graders were proficient in reading on its state
test --
seemingly making it one of the nation's
highest-performing states. But according to the National Assessment of
Educational Progress (NAEP), only
22 percent of Alabama's 4th graders scored at or above the proficient
level
on reading, making it one of the nation's poorest
performing states.
WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE: Student
achievement has remained stagnant for decades, and the K-12
schools have stayed remarkably unchanged -- "preserving,
as if in amber, the routines, culture, and
operations of an
obsolete 1930s manufacturing plant." The first step in beginning the
difficult and long
process of educational reform is to
address teacher pay. Teacher quality has the biggest impact
on student achievement. In order to attract the
best talent to teaching,
improvements need to be
made in teacher compensation. Career advancement opportunities and
financial rewards are proven
methods of motivating employees in every profession. As
salary for starting teachers increase, more effective
ways must be identified to remove teachers who are not
serving kids well. Another key reform is to alter the
school year schedule to provide
expanded time for student learning. The school year is organized for the
late 19th century economy, not the 21st. Expanded
learning time should include opportunities for
enhanced tutoring, after-school programs, and
experiential learning. Some of the most promising
models not only extend learning time, but also
change the learning place by creating opportunities on college
campuses, in community service, and through internships
with employers.
A Harvard education
study has found that No
Child Left Behind is “failing
to close racial achievement
gaps and will miss its
goals by 2014 according to
recent trends.” Also, the
legislation has “had no
significant impact on improving reading and math achievement since it
was introduced in 2001,
contradicting White House claims and
potentially adding to concerns
over America's academic
competitiveness."
"The combination of state
budget shortfalls, Bu$h's unfulfilled promises of increased federal funding
for schools
and students, and the effect of the administration's massive tax
cuts for the wealthy, is taking a heavy toll on public
schools across the
country. Our schools, teachers and students are being asked to do far more,
but they are being
forced to do so with far less." --Sandra Feldman, President, American Federation of Teachers
"Let us think of education as a means of developing our greatest
abilities,
because in each of us there is
a private hope and dream
which, fulfilled, can be
translated into benefit for everyone and greater strength for
the nation." - John
F. Kennedy
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BERRIEN
COUNTY DEMOCRATIC PARTY