US test scores hit damning new lows

Knight

Knight

Well-known Member
US test scores hit damning new lows in math, reading since COVID school closures, ‘nation’s report card’ shows.

The writing’s on the wall — if you can read it.

Sobering national test results show more high school seniors are struggling with math and reading than at any point in recent decades, with Education Secretary Linda McMahon calling out a “devastating trend” Tuesday.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) — commonly referred to as the Nation’s Report Card — showed just 35% of high school seniors were proficient in reading, the lowest score since the assessment began in 1992.

US test scores hit damning new lows in math, reading since COVID school closures, ‘nation’s report card’ shows

U.S. Department of Education (.gov)
aaec › about-the-us-department-of-education
ED's 4,400 employees and $68 billion budget are dedicated to: Establishing policies on federal financial aid for education, and distributing as well as ...

Their Mission Statement.

About ED
Overview and Mission Statement
ED's mission is to promote student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access.

ED was created in 1980 by combining offices from several federal agencies. ED's 4,400 employees and $68 billion budget are dedicated to:

Establishing policies on federal financial aid for education, and distributing as well as monitoring those funds.
Collecting data on America's schools and disseminating research.
Focusing national attention on key educational issues.
Prohibiting discrimination and ensuring equal access to education.
Office of Elementary and Secondary Education

IMO they are failing in their mission.
 

Even before covid the US was starting to lag other countries in test scores. Could be a lot of variables but too many schools let the kids skip or avoid what should be the basics no matter how bad they might be at it.

If one doesn't have to work to improve the results will be the same. I don't know if it's putting students on a track too soon or too many teachers can't teach. I never had good math teachers until college, in high school they would just make you do extra problems a few chapters back. College teachers could trouble shoot what a student was doing wrong.
 
Haven't students been back in class for 3 years after school closures due to Covid? How long does it take to catch up? Sorry, but I won't buy into the politics of the headline.

In actuality, perhaps this is due to the shortage of teachers and kids being allowed to be on their phones 24/7?

Perhaps the parents have some responsibility in this as well? From what I've seen every time I've visited a public place the parents are also on their phones and seem to have no interest in what their kids are doing. And before someone mentions mothers also holding down jobs, I live adjacent to an area where mothers don't work, have 2 blue-eyed blonde haired kids, go to Orange Theory and drive huge SUVs to haul 2 kids around. They are some of the most ill-behaved kids I've seen, and the mothers just go on in their coffee clutch and ignore it. Some send their kids to the mall with their nannies to look after them so they don't have to. IMO they are the worst offenders. Okay, I'll get off my soapbox.

Again, I think teacher shortages have a lot to do with this.

2025 Update: Latest National Scan Shows Teacher Shortages Persist
 

At least part of the lower USA student test score issue is also the one, those discussing the subject are least likely to address because it puts a light on politically sensitive ethnic and immigrant issues.

Google AI:

In the 2022–23 school year, about 26% of children in the U.S. had at least one immigrant parent, and the vast majority of these children were U.S. citizens. While around 1 in 4 children have an immigrant parent, only a fraction are non-citizens. The remaining students are U.S.-born citizens from immigrant families, or they are immigrants themselves, but most children in immigrant-origin families are U.S. citizens.

Over 18 million U.S. children under 18 had at least one immigrant parent in 2023, representing 26% of all U.S. children. Citizenship Status: Most children of immigrants are U.S. citizens. Among children of immigrants in 2022–23, 64.2% were U.S. citizens with at least one U.S.-citizen parent. Another 25.5% were U.S. citizens with only noncitizen parents. A smaller percentage, 10.3% or more, were noncitizens.

https://cis.org/Report/US-Immigrant-Performance-International-Tests

First-generation immigrants score consistently lower than the native-born in the United States. For example, on the PISA science test, Americans who are foreign-born would rank 33rd among the 36 participating OECD countries, while native-born Americans would rank 16th.
Second-generation immigrants score generally around the same level as the native-born as a whole. However, the average hides a disparity between immigrant groups. The scores of Asian Americans (a rough proxy for higher-skill immigrants and their children) are usually among the best in the OECD, but the scores of second-generation Hispanics (a rough proxy for the children of lower-skill immigrants) still lag behind.
To illustrate that disparity, the United States as a whole ranks eighth among 27 participating OECD countries on the TIMSS math test for fourth-graders. But U.S. Asians would have the second-highest score in the OECD, while the children of Hispanic immigrants would rank 17th.
Hispanic-Americans who are in the third-plus generation continue to score below average. For example, they would rank 22nd among OECD countries on the PIAAC literacy test — essentially the same score as second-generation Hispanics, and 15 places below the U.S.-born as a whole.
These results are a reminder that skills differ among immigrants, and that the differences persist to some degree over multiple generations. Continuing our current immigration policy, which accepts a large share of adults with low levels of education, is likely to further strain the U.S. school system and add to the challenge of educating children from disadvantaged backgrounds.
 
The thing that I can’t wrap my head around is the large difference of quality education between suburban schools, inner city schools and rural schools.

Years ago when public schools were funded with local property tax dollars it was easy to understand those differences but today so much funding comes from State and Federal sources that the quality should be as consistent as a McDonald’s hamburger in all areas of the country.

IMO we spend too much time, and money, looking for excuses and not enough time looking for ways to improve the system.

Maybe it’s time to scrap the traditional public middle and high schools, along with the bloated bureaucracy, and give parents a tuition credit that allows them to select a privately run school that will prepare young people for a solid future in a competitive job market.

It might require a boarding school model to level the playing field for students but that might not be a bad thing if it helps young people break a negative cycle associated with their current socioeconomic situation.
 
I'm not surprised. I know young people and teachers who can barely read and write and know nothing about critical thinking. Even college graduates can barely function and are being fired from jobs or retrained.
 

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