Johnny can't read. Johnny can't count. Johnny can't reason.
Johnny is an unemployable bum.
"The Nation's Report Card," AKA the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NEAP), was released on Tuesday, and, quite simply, the state of learning by America's 12th graders has never been worse.
“Students are taking their next steps in life with fewer skills and less knowledge in core academics than their predecessors a decade ago,” said Lesley Muldoon, executive director of the National Center for Education Statistics, the group that oversees the NEAP. “This is happening at a time when rapid advancements in technology and society demand more of future workers and citizens, not less.”
"Twelfth-graders’ average math score was the worst since the current test began in 2005, and reading was below any point since that assessment started in 1992," reported the Wall Street Journal.
The percentage of students judged "proficient" in math and reading skills dropped by two percentage points between 2019 and 2024, to 35% in reading and 22% in math.
"Scores for our lowest-performing students are at historic lows, continuing declines that began more than a decade ago. My predecessor warned of this trend and her predecessor warned of this trend as well, and now I am warning you about this trend," said Matthew Soldner, acting director of the Institute of Education Sciences (ES). ES is a research arm of the Department of Education. "These results should galvanize all of us to take concerted, focused action to accelerate student learning."
Scores for younger kids (grades 4-8) aren't much better. Eighth-graders had been steadily improving in science since 2009, but the latest report shows scores dropping below 2019 levels, erasing the gains made.
Is this a "national emergency"?
"I do believe it is," Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said. "We are spending a ton of money on education. We've spent $3 trillion since the Department of Education was established, only to see scores continuing to decline. And that is just a trend we have to stop, and I think the money is not being spent where it needs to be spent, and that's in the states."
The 12th-grade scores come with an important asterisk. It is possible that progress is being obscured by rising high-school graduation rates, which could mean that more lower-performing students are taking the exams. It also is unclear whether there has been any recovery in the time since these tests were administered, more than a year and a half ago.
In reading, two-thirds of seniors could determine the purpose of a persuasive essay, but only one in five was able to draw a conclusion from such an essay, supported by the text.
In math, 60% of students deduced the population of an area using information on size and density, while just under half correctly turned a real-world scenario into an algebraic expression.
Yes, we could improve our educational system by improving the quality of teaching. That's not a panacea. We've always had bad or uninvolved teachers populating our schools.
An educational establishment that seeks to indoctrinate and propagandize rather than encourage learning by developing intelligent, challenging curricula is a far larger problem than bad teachers. A lack of discipline, toleration of mediocrity, and smug self-righteousness toward parents have done more damage and created more impediments to learning than any union.
A culture that has devalued education as much as we have deserves whatever these half-educated, phone-addicted kids end up costing us.
Help PJ Media continue to tell the truth about the Trump administration's accomplishments as we continue to usher in the Golden Era of America. Join PJ Media VIP and use promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your membership.