Tweet
What the decline in academic achievement is all about
report card.png
report card.png
Your fourth grader might not know how to read, but at least he knows what the “gender unicorn” is.
Student test scores tracked by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as the nation’s report card, released this week show an abysmal drop in academic performance across all 50 states. Over the past two years, the report found, fourth grade and eighth grade students’ mathematical proficiency suffered the largest decline ever recorded. Just 26% of eighth graders are now able to perform math competently.
Pandemic school closures were certainly a factor in this decline, though even states that reopened quickly weren’t spared. Nevertheless, the data do show a statistically significant correlation between long closures and poor test scores. For example, eighth grade students in states that returned to in-person learning quickly performed better in mathematics than their peers in states that remained locked down.
But the decline in academic achievement began well before the pandemic reached the United States. If anything, school closures exacerbated the failures within the education system that already existed. Those failures include a shift away from meritocratic standards of achievement, such as the 50% rule used in Washington, D.C., that prohibits teachers from assigning students a grade lower than 50%, and the introduction of woke curricula, including critical race theory and radical gender ideology.
The latter problem is the most widely talked about and with good reason: It represents a deliberate decision on the part of educators to replace traditional subjects with ideological objectives. Hence, why it is likely that the average elementary school student has, at some point, been exposed to the “gender unicorn,” a graphic that teaches children about “gender fluidity” or the idea that one can be a gender different than one's sex. But can those same elementary students pass a math exam? According to the NAEP’s scores, probably not.
Some might say all of this is the result of distorted priorities. But it's more than that: It's part of a concerted effort to turn our schools into a political machine that, instead of producing intelligent and capable young adults, churns out students who cannot read, write, add, subtract, or, most importantly, think for themselves.
Student test scores tracked by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as the nation’s report card, released this week show an abysmal drop in academic performance across all 50 states. Over the past two years, the report found, fourth grade and eighth grade students’ mathematical proficiency suffered the largest decline ever recorded. Just 26% of eighth graders are now able to perform math competently.
Pandemic school closures were certainly a factor in this decline, though even states that reopened quickly weren’t spared. Nevertheless, the data do show a statistically significant correlation between long closures and poor test scores. For example, eighth grade students in states that returned to in-person learning quickly performed better in mathematics than their peers in states that remained locked down.
But the decline in academic achievement began well before the pandemic reached the United States. If anything, school closures exacerbated the failures within the education system that already existed. Those failures include a shift away from meritocratic standards of achievement, such as the 50% rule used in Washington, D.C., that prohibits teachers from assigning students a grade lower than 50%, and the introduction of woke curricula, including critical race theory and radical gender ideology.
The latter problem is the most widely talked about and with good reason: It represents a deliberate decision on the part of educators to replace traditional subjects with ideological objectives. Hence, why it is likely that the average elementary school student has, at some point, been exposed to the “gender unicorn,” a graphic that teaches children about “gender fluidity” or the idea that one can be a gender different than one's sex. But can those same elementary students pass a math exam? According to the NAEP’s scores, probably not.
Some might say all of this is the result of distorted priorities. But it's more than that: It's part of a concerted effort to turn our schools into a political machine that, instead of producing intelligent and capable young adults, churns out students who cannot read, write, add, subtract, or, most importantly, think for themselves.
Comment