America’s children are getting dumber

OPINION:

The latest National Assessment of Educational Progress scores just dropped, and let’s not sugarcoat it: Our children are getting dumber.

They can barely read and aren’t very good at math, and it keeps getting worse. Instead of sounding the alarm, too many so-called leaders in the system are shrugging their shoulders and cashing their checks. It’s unacceptable.

For a decade now, we have watched the erosion of accountability and the gradual decline of student achievement with little thought about how those two things are connected. Remember No Child Left Behind? Love it or hate it, at least, schools knew they were expected to deliver results, there was transparency around student outcomes, and there was a mechanism to do something when students were not learning.

Admittedly, No Child Left Behind had flaws. In trying to correct some of the more punitive aspects, states were given waivers that loosened up some of the accountability constraints. Then came the Every Student Succeeds Act in December 2015, which gutted accountability and handed out free passes like candy.

Fast-forward 10 years, and here we are. Our children are objectively less smart, our teachers are leaving the profession in droves, and the system has been allowed to drift into toothless mediocrity. Add a pandemic to the mix, and we’ve left an entire generation underprepared for the future.

What’s even more shocking? This collapse isn’t hitting only the predictable populations of children from low-income families or other historically underserved groups. For the first time, even affluent, suburban children — the ones who used to be the “safe bet” in the system — are also losing ground at alarming rates. That should terrify everyone. The rot has finally reached the entire tree. When deregulation and complacency become the norm, no child is safe from harm.

Here’s the truth no one wants to say out loud: Too many adults in charge don’t want to do the hard work. They have managed to wiggle out of accountability, water down standards, and keep telling families their children are doing well. Meanwhile, the level called “proficiency” on annual statewide assessments is nowhere near the basic level set by the federal government.

Education debates are focused on all the wrong things: politics, rhetoric and upholding a system that is not working. While the adults bicker and grandstand, our children fall further behind.

The reauthorization of the ironically named Every Student Succeeds Act is overdue. This is our chance to right the ship. If we don’t learn from the past decade of mistakes, we’ll keep producing graduates who can’t pass a basic math test, much less compete in a global economy. We need higher standards, not lower ones.

We also need more accountability. We must demand rigor from our schools and the adults who lead them. If teachers and administrators need more support, let’s make sure they have it. This work is hard, but ultimately, if they can’t or won’t get the job done, they shouldn’t be in the classroom — or in charge of it. Too much is at stake.

Let’s be clear: It is possible. Every child can learn; we’ve seen it. There are outliers and bright spots that show we can educate students with disabilities, students of every race, students living in poverty, those who are learning English and those in every corner of this country. We know the methods, the tools, the strategies. We’ve seen great public schools of all types — charter schools, magnets, dual enrollment, International Baccalaureate and traditional district-run public schools — prove it again and again.

What’s missing isn’t the know-how; it’s the will.

Instead of doubling down on what is clearly not working, we need to scale and replicate every model that serves children well. That means more and better choices for families, no matter their ZIP code. It means getting out of our own way and focusing on what’s best for students, parents and communities, not what’s easiest for bureaucrats.

We’ve let things slide for far too long, and the results are in. Our children are failing because the adults failed first. The only question now is: Do we care enough to fix it, or will we keep pretending mediocrity is good enough while the next generation sinks deeper into failure?

I, for one, am done pretending.

• Debbie Veney is the founder and CEO of Agency (agencyworks.org) and a public education advocate.