From the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress—a test given periodically to the nation’s students—the 2024 reading and math test given to 4th and 8th graders has further demonstrated the need for immediate change to America’s system of education.
This from frontpagemag.com.
Peggy Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, which administers the NAEP, said:
The news was especially bleak for our lowest performing students, who are reading at historically low levels.
We need to stay focused in order to right this ship.
NOTE: 4th graders continued to lose ground, with reading scores slightly lower, on average, than in 2022 and much lower than in 2019.
Further:
– In 2019, 35% of 4th-graders scored at or above the test’s reading proficiency standard, but that figure dropped to 33% in 2022 and, further, to 31% in 2024, and
– The percentage of fourth graders at “below basic” was the largest in 20 years, at 40%. Some 33% of 8th graders scored below “basic” on the exam—a record low.
Worsening reading skills have wide-ranging consequences. Poor test scores have been linked to the economic success of both individuals and the nation. Students with limited reading skills are less likely to graduate from high school, and as adults, they are more likely to be incarcerated.
Mindy Sjoblom of On Your Mark Education, a group dedicated to using the science of reading to promote literacy, asserts:
When students are not reading on grade level by third grade, their life-long choices are severely limited. One long-term study found that students who fail to meet this bar are 4 times more likely to drop out of school. In fact, 88% of these dropouts were struggling readers in third grade.
Mike Petrilli, president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, explained:
It is worth noting that we’ve seen the same pattern recently on other tests—TIMSS, PIAAC, i-Ready, MAP, and state assessment results.
The only bright spot on the NAEP was very slight progress by higher-achieving children in math.
Why is this happening?
The teachers’ unions, of course, say we do not spend enough money on education. Union boss Randi Weingarten, who never misses an opportunity to say something absurd, claims the “stagnant” NAEP scores show the need for “expanding community schools to provide wraparound services”—e.g., social and healthcare services—and “securing investments for smaller class sizes, good ventilation and the tools and technology for 21st-century learning.”
If lack of money is an issue, perhaps Weingarten would like to explain why the results were so poor after taxpayers forked over $190 billion to aid students in the pandemic recovery period.
Others blame the excessive student use of cell phones, too much TV-watching, social media addiction, the pandemic, etc. While these factors may have had some effect on the abysmal test results, there’s one fix that would significantly improve our educational woes: parental freedom.
Coincidentally, the NAEP scores were released in the middle of National School Choice Week, and indeed, parental freedom is certainly on the move.
Ed Tarnowski, policy and advocacy director at EdChoice, affirmed:
[I]n 2024, five states created new school choice programs and six expanded existing ones. Alabama and Louisiana now have universal programs, while Georgia’s Educational Savings Account law provides limited eligibility. With Gov. Lee’s expected signature, Tennessee will soon become the 13th State to enact universal school choice. Moreover, Texas, Idaho, North Dakota, and South Carolina could adopt universal choice this year.
EdChoice’s Colyn Ritter reported last week:
All in all, more than one million students in America are participating in private school choice programs
Further:
Participation growth has climbed rapidly, having more than doubled since the beginning of 2020.
NOTE: While traditional public schools did poorly on the NAEP, Catholic school students are one to two years ahead of students in TPS in reading and math.
The National Catholic Educational Association reported:
13.7% of Catholic school students are there because of a choice program.
On the national level, President Trump signed an executive order last week directing federal agencies to find ways to prioritize school choice programs.
The order instructs the Department of Education to favor school choice programs when awarding discretionary grants. It also mandates that the DOE and Department of Health and Human Services issue guidance on how states can use specific grants to encourage families to pursue educational alternatives.
Thankfully, more and more parents and voters are seeing the importance of school choice.
