Certainly not every school is failing and I’m sure most are dedicated and trying hard to do the best they can to turn out well-educated youngsters. But the facts tell us that in general our education system is not anywhere near what it should be and can be. In terms of “proficiency”, a very large percentage of students are currently deficient, too many kids dropout of school and way too many high school graduates are in fact functionally illiterate.
What are we doing about this? Habitually, when concern over education achievement reaches a critical point, we, the federal and/or state governments, throw money at the problem, and/or increase the number of bureaucrats involved and/or publish more regulations. This has not, is not, will not fix the problem. President Biden’s Dept of Education budget requests were $79.2 billion, FY 2023 and $90 billion, FY 2024.
It is somewhere between difficult and impossible to solve a problem until one adequately defines the problem. Let’s see if we can get there.
SOME GENERALIZATIONS
Worldwide, there is a correlation between a country’s education system’s quality and its economic status. Quality levels move up from “not developed” nations to “developing” to “developed.” The U.S. should be high on the list. We are not.
Results from a 2023 Maryland state math exam reveals that 13, which is 40%, of Baltimore’s High Schools did not have a single math-proficient student. ZERO.
As of first quarter, FY 2024, there are 115,171 schools in the United States; 95,852 public and 19,329 private schools.
TESTING ORGANIZATIONS
There are two organizations that are considered credible when it comes to rating education results.
PISA, the Programme for International Student Assessment. The international PISA test is taken by 15-year-olds every three years. in 2019, pre Covid, the U.S. ranked 36th out of 79 countries and regions that participated in the test.
NAEP, the National Assessment of Educational Progress tests 4th and 8th graders every two years and 12th grade every four years. NAEP, often referred to as “the nation’s report card,” is a congressionally mandated large-scale assessment administered by the National Center for Education Statistics in various subject areas; mathematics, reading, and science are assessed most frequently. Results are reported based on “gender, race/ethnicity, public or nonpublic school, teacher experience, and hundreds of other factors.” NAEP has been testing in the U.S. for over 50 years. The point being, they appear to be a credible organization and we should be capable of drawing some conclusions from their findings
The 2019 NAEP results found that U.S. achievement has not progressed over the past decade and, for low-performing students, was the same as 30 years ago.
NAEP student achievement levels are performance standards that describe what students should know and be able to do.:
- NAEP Basic: This level denotes partial mastery of prerequisite knowledge.
- NAEP Proficient: This level represents solid academic performance. Students reaching this level have demonstrated competency over challenging subject matter to include application of such knowledge to real world situations
- NAEP Advanced: This level signifies superior performance.
HOW ARE OUR SCHOOLS DOING?
High school graduation rates vary by state from 82% to 96%. But that does not necessarily tell the whole story because it is a fact that some states have lowered the standards for graduation in order to achieve a higher number.
According to ELEVATE USA, on average, over a million students drop out of high school in the U.S. every year; that’s 5-6,000 every school day thereby creating a linkage to a life of crime and/or welfare.
“Dropout factories” refer to high schools with less than 60 percent graduating seniors when compared to the number of freshmen. Of the 26,727 public and private high schools in America, almost 2,000 graduate less than 60% of their students. Those dropout factories account for over 50% of the students who leave school every year. One in six U.S. students attend a dropout factory. One in three minority students (32%) attend a dropout factory compared to 8% of white students.
Throughout the U.S., of those graduating high school, over 20% are unable to pass the test to enter the U.S. military because they are functionally illiterate.
In the U.S., high school dropouts commit about 75% of the crimes.
About 70% of prison inmates do not have a high school diploma.
More snapshots that illustrate the problems in government-run public schools:
- Providence, RI: Only 5% of eighth graders are proficient in math.
- Newark, NJ: 21% proficiency in math.
- North Carolina: From NAEP 2022 testing, 68% of North Carolina fourth graders were not proficient in reading.
- Wisconsin: Black American eighth graders perform only slightly better than white fourth graders in reading and math.
- Oregon Governor Kate Brown quietly signed a bill on July 14, 2020 that suspends a requirement for Oregon students to demonstrate reading, writing and math proficiency in order to receive a diploma.
And so it goes across the country. A recent survey found that 20% of American adults cannot name even one of the three branches of government.
END OF GRADE TESTING
My sense is that there is too much emphasis on EOG and when a student does not do well on EOG tests, it is already too late to do anything about it. Normally our school systems do not have summer school programs for deficient students. Proficiency deficiencies just get passed on and, of course, compounded the next year as the teacher has to move on to more advanced subjects. It is a formula that will guarantee failure on through middle and high school and leads us to our country’s unacceptable dropout numbers.
HOW BAD IS THE PROFICIENCY ISSUE?
PRE-COVID NAEP REPORT CARD: In 2019 NAEP tested 150,600 grade 4 students, 143,100 grade 8, and 26,700 grade 12 students and reported the findings. Here is a summary pulled from a very large comprehensive report:
READING: The assessment measures reading comprehension by asking students to read selected grade-appropriate materials and answer questions based on what they have read.
Grade 4 Grade 8 Grade 12
NOT proficient: 59% 66% 76%
MATHEMATICS: The assessment measures both mathematics knowledge and the students’ ability to apply their knowledge in problem-solving situations.
Grade 4 Grade 8 Grade 12
NOT proficient: 65% 66% 63%
Other subjects were even worse. For high school seniors 88% NOT proficient in history, 77% NOT proficient in writing ability and 78% NOT proficient in science.
Also keep in mind that there is a category lower than “proficient.” Many of those who are below proficient are actually in the “basic” category or less.
CONCLUSIONS
The above narrative and statistics are designed to do two things. One is to impress on you the length and breadth of the overall education crisis. And secondly to begin to identify and then define problems. If we cannot articulate the problem, there is no solution.
What is the main reason students get poor grades? Why do they fail end-of-grade tests? Why do they drop out? Why do they graduate high school functionally illiterate? The shortest, simplest answer is, at some point THEY GOT BEHIND.
Once behind they could not catch up and as they moved on to more complex material in the next grade they got even further behind.
If you look at enough of the NAEP proficiency test results one thing will jump off the page. That is, if the proficiency levels are bad in 4th grade they are going to be worse in 8th grade and too often also worse from 8th to 12th.
Once behind, grades continue to get worse, students get frustrated, harassed, ridiculed and get to the point that dropping out looks like a good solution and put school in the rear-view mirror.
UNDERSTANDING THE ABOVE, PERHAPS WE CAN DEFINE TWO PROBLEMS:
- One, it is inevitable that some students will get behind but, in most schools, there are no adequate systems in place to assist them in quickly catching up. For example, in 2022 only 32% of North Carolina’s 4th grade students scored at or above proficient on the NAEP reading assessment, placing NC 23rd among all states. There is no way for those thousands of kids to catch up during their upcoming 5th grade year.
- Two, “basic training” is inadequate. It is a valid conclusion that almost any training regimen in life will begin with what we usually refer to as “basic training”, that is, the fundamentals upon which everything thereafter will hinge. Think of it as the foundation. That is exactly what is supposed to happen in grades K-4, instill a solid foundation for academic excellence. When NAEP test results tell us that across the country 65% of 4th graders are not proficient in math, basic training gets an “F”.
A SOLUTION, THE MAIN ATTACK
Translated, main attack means the three traditional levels of K-12 education, elementary, middle and high school should not be considered equals when it comes to priorities, funding, resourcing, etc. The main attack has to be K-4 with a properly resourced, lasting, comprehensive foundation. One part of the solution might be that all classes K-4 should be smaller with a more effective teacher/student ratio.
WHEN A STUDENT GETS BEHIND, DEFINE THE WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, WHY and HOW OF ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE?
WHO?
Oversight: We do not need a federal Department of Education. We do not need state Departments of Education.
Local Boards of Education: They are short-term elected officials. They need to be supportive but cannot be counted on to consistently articulate and lead the strategic plan for academic excellence.
Superintendents: They must be selected based on their strong leadership abilities and dedication to long-term strategic planning for academic excellence for every school in their district. Resourcing and leading academic excellence must be their number one priority.
School Principals: they must be strong leaders at the operational level; live and breathe academic excellence every day. Their undisputed priorities are number one a safe and secure environment and number two academic excellence in every classroom every day. They must approve every teacher’s layout of lesson plans for every school semester. Then they must be in the rear of the classrooms part of every school day to assess and if necessary, mentor teachers to perform differently and/or better.
Teachers: Teachers are the first line leaders at the point of execution every school day. Their constant rhythm must be teach/test/teach/test. From weekly testing, immediately identify any student who gets behind and when identified take immediate action.
The U.S. President: Advocate publicly for this academic excellence concept of operations. Give it a name. Talk about it. In 2002 President Bush signed into law the “No Child Left Behind Act.” It was popular, it was a topic of conversation and most everyone was aware of it. It also failed. Why? In the final analysis it was just another big government program costing billion with masses of bureaucrats and regulations just like most of the programs administered by the federal Department of Education since 1979 which has led us to where we are today, knee deep in an education crisis. Call this program, No Child Gets Behind.
President Trump should try to build the same level of awareness that No Child Left Behind had but in its place advocate for No Child Gets Behind that is free, no government oversight and no government regulations. Make No Child Gets Behind a program that totally lives within the 13,253 U.S. school districts.
The NAEP, National Assessment of Education Progress is actually a testing organization buried within the Department of Education. The president should increase their budget to include more testing during the K-4 Main Attack phase.
Governors: They should publicly support this decentralized academic excellence, No Child Gets Behind endeavor. Publicly celebrate the state’s best performing school district. The Governor could host an academic excellence best-practices web site to spread the best thinking to all of the state’s school districts.
Unions: They are a bigger part of the problem than the solution. You can count on it, they will raise hell about teachers having to spend time doing more testing. National education unions should have zero input or influence on education policy and practices.
The Academic Excellence Team: At the point of execution, the academic excellence team, consisting of the parents, teacher and student, must be in continuous communications with respect to academic excellence and particularly with respect to a student that is getting behind in their proficiency level.
That was WHO should be involved, now:
WHAT SHOULD TAKE PLACE?
For every project or operation there is a center of gravity. Center of gravity can be a person, place and/or circumstance that is central to success or could cause failure. Centers of gravity must be identified by the leaders before the beginning of every phase of an operation, resourced and tracked continuously.
Testing is the center of gravity for academic excellence and, as pointed out above, relying on End of Grade testing is grossly insufficient.
Make every Thursday quiz day throughout the entire school. That is, test the material that was covered over the previous few days. Short simple questions with short simple answers; the test can be administered in only a few minutes and graded quickly. Jimmy failed the quiz and the immediate assumption must be that he is behind.
At the dinner table every Wednesday parents should be asking Jimmy and Susan, “are you ready for the quiz tomorrow?”
Weekly quizzes will be reinforced with regular 6-week testing followed by issuing individual report cards that must be returned with a parent signature.
The school Principal must ensure that a catch-up model is in-place and operational at all times.
Jimmy is behind. First, the teacher will activate the academic excellence team; that is, get the parents involved. Inform then that Jimmy will have extensive homework for the weekend that must be signed by the parents before Jimmy returns to class the following Monday morning. If necessary, continue sending homework home every day for the following week. Again, all returned homework must be signed by the parents.
The second part of the Principal’s catch-up model is a team of volunteer tutors who are available for after-school mentoring of students whose parents are unable, and/or unwilling to help their child through the homework which is tailored to get the student who is behind back on track quickly.
RESOURCING THIS SOLUTION
Billions of dollars? No. More bureaucrats for oversight? No. More regulations? No.
What it will take is stronger leadership, concise standards, ingenuity, a national consensus for change and less or no education union interference.
WHEN should all this take place?
Now. President Trump should meet with all of the Governors for a session specifically on education. Explain all of the above to them in detail.
Then he should address the nation specifically on the subject of education. Make it clear to the American public that the 13,253 school district Superintendents must lead the effort locally, must innovate, must change, must seek out and implement best practices.
President Trump should explain that the habitual failed solution of throwing billions of dollars, bureaucrats and regulations at a national crisis is not how his government is going to operate. He has faith in the American people to solve the problem at their level.
WHERE should this take place?
Obviously, in every public and private school in America.
WHY are we doing this?
Education results in America are unbecoming of our great nation and are degrading the work force.
HOW are we going to do it?
With American leadership, intuition, grit and determination, just as we have solved every other great crisis throughout our history.
BOTTOM LINE:
Some of you are saying, so Covault you believe all we have to do is begin giving quizzes on Thursday and the education crisis will be solved.
My response is threefold:
One, nothing the governments, county to federal, are doing is working.
Two, it’s not just giving quizzes. It’s about giving quizzes in an organizational environment that is totally committed, from the student/parent/teacher team to the Superintendent, local Board of Education and to the local community, to an uncompromising all-encompassing culture of academic excellence.
Three, if you have a better idea that also does not cost anything, I’m all ears.
A final thought. We are fortunate to have J.D. Vance as our Vice President. Intelligent, likeable, articulate, great background, great family etc. etc., he has the potential to be one of the greatest VPs in our history and be perfectly positioned to follow President Trump in 2028. But he should not languish as VP. He needs President Trump to delegate some of the most important issues and problems to him. Regaining academic excellence throughout America could be one of those issues. If President chooses to address the American citizens on the education crisis, it would be the perfect time to introduce J.D. Vance as the education czar. It is another good reason to eliminate the Dept of Education from the Executive Branch.
Motivate, don’t regulate. Decentralized execution is the center of gravity for achieving academic excellence again.
“Education is the wellspring from which a nation ascends … or the quagmire into which it sinks. Education is everything.” Michael Russell