“A recent study on military readiness found that 75 percent of U.S. citizens between the ages of seventeen and twenty-four are not qualified to join the military because they are physically unfit, have criminal records, or have inadequate levels of education.” —U.S. Education Reform and National Security
BY KEVIN POLICARPO, RBTUS
As the U.S. confronts economic inequalities in an increasingly competitive world, elementary and secondary schools are failing to provide its students the necessary skills they need to succeed.
This failure and the consequences that they pose greatly impact younger Americans and places the economic future of the United States in doubt.
SETBACKS FROM THE PANDEMIC
The outbreak of Covid-19 left all sectors of society mere shambles of what they were previously. Of particular note was the effects on education. According to an NYTimes article posted on September 1st, National test results showed “… the pandemic’s devastating effects on American schoolchildren, with the performance of 9-year-olds in math and reading dropping to the levels from two decades ago.”[1] According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the 9-year-olds lost ground in math, and scores in reading fell by the largest margin in more than 30 years.[2]
The decline of educational scores spanned across students of all races and incomes. The hardest hit was the lowest percentile of students which dropped by 12 points in mathematics alone. White students lost 5 points and Black students lost 13 points, which widened the achievement gap between both groups.
The declines in the test scores mean “… while many 9-year-olds can demonstrate partial understanding of what they are reading, fewer can infer a character’s feelings from what they have read. In math, students may know simple arithmetic facts, but fewer can add fractions with common denominators.
The setbacks could have powerful consequences for a generation of children who must move beyond basics in elementary school to thrive later on.”[3]
Susanna Loeb, director of the Annenberg Institute at Brown University, stated the following about the educational setbacks:
“Student test scores, even starting in first, second and third grade, are really quite predictive of their success later in school, and their educational trajectories overall…”[4]
She adds that the lower-achieving students are the biggest concern, as their poor scores could lead them completely disengaging from schoolwork and making them unlikely to graduate from high school or attend college.
The NAEP is seen as the gold standard in educational testing. Its tests are standardized across all states and are more reliable than other tests of its type.
Since the test was first administered in the early 1970s, scores in reading and math were on the rise or held steady. This trend of growth and stability continued into the mid-2000s. However, over the previous decade, “… student scores had leveled off rather than gained, while gaps widened between low- and high-performing students.”[5] Once the pandemic hit, schools across the country closed down as students sat at home, learning about their subjects through online learning.
UNDERSTANDING THE DECLINE
The pandemic has gravely impacted children’s education across the U.S. Average scores for 4th and 8th graders fell, with 8th grade mathematics scores decreasing in 49 out of 50 states.[6]
In an NYTimes article titled, “Pandemic Learning Loss”, the report noted a number of factors that have caused the decline in educational progress.
One of the factors that has been scrutinized has been extended use of remote learning. There is a growing correlation between overuse online classes and declining grades. In 2021, researchers from Ohio discovered “… that districts that stayed fully remote during the 2020-21 school year experienced declines up to three times greater than those of districts that mostly taught students in person.”[7]
However, while some subjects such as 4th-grade mathematics did experience declining scores in relation to remote learning, others such as reading were relatively stable. In an analysis of thousands of school districts in 29 states, researchers at Harvard and Stanford Universities discovered that poverty played a greater role in the overall decline. An example of this is the math test scores from Silicon Valley’s Cupertino Union school district compared to Merced City. Students in the wealthier Cupertino district increased their average scores in mathematics whereas students in the poorer Merced City school districts fell behind in their scores.
In addition to the overall decline in student achievement, the gap between the highest performing students and lowest performing students in the U.S. has widened. An example of this gap is that the national average reading score for fourth-graders fell by three points. This loss was mainly due to the average reading score of students in the bottom 10th percentile decreasing by six points.
According to recent studies by the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA), “…students at the bottom of their classes both experienced sharper setbacks at the start of the pandemic and showed less improvement last school year.”[8] While the pandemic has affected all students across the U.S., those that were struggling to perform in school have fared the worst and will need the most help to recover in the future.
TEACHER SHORTAGE
In the city of Mesa, Arizona, Westwood High School is dealing with a shortage of math teachers. Westwood principal Christopher Gilmore noted that he never started a school year with so many positions for math open.
Westwood is one of multiple public schools that have opened their doors with fewer teachers than they hoped for. According to a national survey published by Education Week:
“… nearly three-fourths of principals and district officials said this summer that the number of teaching applicants was not enough to fill their open positions.”[9]
Some school districts are desperately searching for teachers while others have no such shortage. The search for teachers “… is driven by a complicated interplay of demand and supply in a tight job market. Salary matters, and so does location: Well-paying suburban schools can usually attract more candidates.”[10]
Desiree Carver-Thomas, an analyst from the Learning Policy Institute noted that the pandemic turmoil is expected to worsen old inequalities:
“It’s complex, and it does go back before the pandemic… Schools serving more students of color and students from low-income families bear the brunt of teacher shortages, oftentimes.”[11]
Various states such as New Mexico, Alabama and Florida have been addressing or pre-empt the teacher shortages by rising teacher salaries. Other states have loosened certification requirements. In addition, some rural school districts are cutting whole school days from their calendars.
According to associate professor Paul Thompson of Oregon State University, the number of schools across the country that used a four-day school week model went from 257 schools in 1999 to over 1,600 schools in 2019.[12] It isn’t clear how a four-day school week (which has shorter weeks and longer school days) affects learning, as while young students and their families “… may benefit from the flexibility of a three-day weekend, some research suggests that student achievement can suffer if the total number of instructional hours significantly drops.”[13]
Kim Anderson, executive director of the National Education Association, argues that while the teacher shortages in multiple districts are a great concern, the overall situation isn’t all bad. She said that her organization was making progress in addressing the teacher shortage “… adding that increased funding from districts, as well as the American Rescue Plan, passed by Congress in March 2021, were helping to turn the tide.”[14] One example of increased funding for teachers is in Virginia. Prince William County Public Schools district, “… offers more than $53,000 to new teachers with bachelor’s degrees. Teachers with experience or graduate degrees can make tens of thousands more.”[15]
Administrators in school districts have been on the lookout for any potential talent, particularly those with degrees in science, math, special education and multiple languages.
Michelle Colbert, a human resources employee in Prince William County noted the following:
“When you go to a college fair, and you see one math candidate, then it’s like every person in the room is making their way to that candidate.”[16]
Some teacher vacancies in some school districts, according to Richard Ingersoll from the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania, are attributed to the creation of new positions. These new positions can skew the numbers of those districts.
However, the teachers in the lowest paying school districts have been greatly impacted by the pandemic. Brent Maddin from Arizona State University, states: “If we’re serious about recruiting people into the profession, and retaining people in the profession, in addition to things like compensation we need to be focused on the working conditions…”[17]
Dr. Maddin is working with people such as Mr. Gilmore to implement a new teaching model where educators with different skills work together to educate larger classes of students. This program, according to Mr. Gilmore, “… allows student teachers — potential future applicants — to gain experience at the school, and it may also help experienced educators feel less isolated in the classroom.
‘I think the pandemic just brought exhaustion to an already stressed field,’ Mr. Gilmore said. ‘And when we bring that joy of teaching back, the students will have the joy of learning.’”[18]
U.S. EDUCATION REFORM REPORT
Back in 2012, the already alarming declines in the U.S. education system prompted the Council on Foreign Relations to launch an independent task force. The goal of the Task Force was to draw attention to the problems facing America’s K-12 schools as well as the link between public education and national security.
According to the results of the 2009 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) which measures the performance of 15-year-olds in subjects such as math, reading, and science:
“U.S. students rank fourteenth in reading, twenty-fifth in math, and seventeenth in science among students in industrial countries.”[19]
In the same PISA test, a number of European countries, such as Germany, Luxembourg and Hungary outperformed the United States in mathematics.
In addition, 2009 marked the first time that Chinese students took part in the exam. The results of the exam showed that the Chinese students outperformed U.S. students in reading, science and math.
In surveys and interviews, most employers state that the skills that are in high demand are ones that should have been taught in school 50-100 years ago. These skills include speaking and writing persuasively and clearly, problem solving, critical thinking, and being able to work effectively either independently or as part of a team.
In the past decade, various education and business groups have set up frameworks for what students need to learn in order to succeed in the modern global economy. These frameworks combined “… a mix of ‘old-fashioned’ skills and knowledge, such as numeracy and literacy, with ‘twenty-first-century’ skills, such as using digital tools to research and solve problems.”[20]
This deficiency in learning vital skills for young Americans is also harmful in regards to national defense. The U.S. needs a powerful, robust military to safeguard its national security.
According to a report on U.S. military readiness: ” A recent study on military readiness found that 75 percent of U.S. citizens between the ages of seventeen and twenty-four are not qualified to join the military because they are physically unfit, have criminal records, or have inadequate levels of education.”[21]
The lack of academic preparation is concerning as 30% of high school graduates who are eligible to apply for the military score too low on the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery to be officially recruited: “30 percent of high school graduates who do graduate but do not know enough math, science, and English to perform well on the mandatory Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery.” [22] In addition, the lack of multilingual speakers would be harmful for U.S. forces operating in foreign nations as they have to interact with the local populations in order to accomplish their missions.
The educational deficiencies in U.S. schools have put U.S. defense and intelligence agencies under serious pressure. An example of this pressure is that multiple U.S. generals state that too many recruits cannot read the training manuals required for the more sophisticated equipment.
According to a former head of the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command:
“… the lack of fully qualified young people was ‘an imminent and menacing threat to our national security.’”[23]
The failure of U.S. K-12 schools to prepare young Americans with the skills and knowledge that will allow them to operate in the nation’s economy and national security puts America’s “… economic growth and competitiveness, physical security, information security, and national character at risk.”[24]
The result is outsourcing.
U.S. companies struggle to find talent within U.S. borders and have to outsource to find workers. Because of this talent shortage, the U.S. military lacks trained technicians, the U.S. State Department is left without diplomats fluent in key languages, and “… persistent achievement gaps are placing the American Dream out of reach for millions of Americans.”[25]
The Task Force has three key recommendations to fix this deficiency:
“– Implement educational expectations in subjects vital to protecting national security. The states should expand the Common Core State Standards, ensuring that students are learning the skills and knowledge necessary to safeguard the country’s national security. Science, technology, and foreign languages are essential—as are creative problem-solving skills and civic awareness. It is essential that necessary resources accompany these enhanced standards to fuel successful implementation…
– Make structural changes to provide students with good choices. States and districts should stop locking disadvantaged students into failing schools without any options; this is bad for the students and bad for the United States as a whole. Enhanced choice and competition, in an environment of equitable resource allocation, will fuel the innovation necessary to transform results.
– Launch a ‘national security readiness audit’ to hold schools and policymakers accountable for results and to raise public awareness. At the heart of this recommendation is the creation of more meaningful assessments and simulations of student learning and, then, a coordinated, national effort to create targets and repercussions tied to the Common Core. A high-publicity public awareness campaign linked to the audit will engage the American people.”[26]
CONCLUSION
The outbreak of the pandemic affected every facet of society, putting a grinding halt to many lives on Earth. The negative impacts to education have degraded the academic potential current generations of students could achieve. The gap between high- and low-income families, the harmful effects of extended online schooling, and the divide between high and low performing students paint a very bleak portrait of the future workforce of the U.S. economy. While efforts to correct this downward trend have been proposed, it will take time and support for them to have the impact necessary to correct the situation. The U.S. must reform the education system, or they will fall behind their biggest competitors in the development of new innovations to drive the global economy in the future.
FOOTNOTES
[1] Sarah Mervosh, The Pandemic Erased Two Decades of Progress in Math and Reading, Published September 1st, 2022, nytimes.com, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/01/us/national-test-scores-math-reading-pandemic.html
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Sarah Mervosh, Pandemic Learning Loss, Published November 28 2022, nytimes.com, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/28/briefing/pandemic-learning-loss.html
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Jacey Fortin, Eliza Fawcett, How Bad Is the Teacher Shortage? Depends Where You Live., Published August 29 2022, nytimes.com, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/29/us/schools-teacher-shortages.html
[10] Ibid.
[11] Ibid.
[12] Ibid.
[13] Ibid.
[14] Ibid.
[15] Ibid.
[16] Ibid.
[17] Ibid.
[18] Ibid.
[19] Joel Klein & Condoleezza Rice, Chairs & Julia Levy, Project Director U.S. Education Reform and National Security, Published March 2012, files.ethz.ch, https://www.files.ethz.ch/isn/146210/TFR68_Education_National_Security.pdf p.23
[20] Ibid. p.42
[21] Ibid. p.3
[22] Ibid. p.4
[23] Ibid. p.10
[24] Ibid. p.44
[25] Ibid. p.44
[26] Ibid. pp.44-45