LOSING FOCUS

What’s Happening in Our Schools

The Data

All 50 states showed major declines in reading and math scores in the past two years.  Math scores were awful among eighth graders; 38% were below a “basic” level meaning marginal abilities.  Though the declines varied, all states showed drops in achievement.

LA country surprisingly showed less decline than most, but that’s primarily because their students’ achievement had always been poor, with fewer than 50% reading and doing math at grade level.

What Happened?

The blame was put on the school closures.  While many of us have found success working from home, not every child can manage it.  Not only is the technology a challenge, the school days were shorter and there was less help available.  Sitting in a classroom, you can ask a question and get unstuck quickly.  If you have to save up your questions, you fall behind. 

In most studies I read, kids had just a few hours a day of schooling and no PE.  While I remember working on my own in school quite a bit, there was always a teacher around to help you.  This wasn’t true the past few years.  Internet could be flaky, and many kids, especially the poorer ones, had no one home to help them. 

While no thinks they want to work together on projects, there is powerful learning and a chance to socialize involved.  That’s why schools insist on it.  But during lockdown, kids couldn’t connect in person. We’ve all had to try to “collaborate” in Google forums and other online platforms, but it’s not the same as being in a room with others.  School is where you learn to do this, but not recently.

Teacher’s unions held out as long as possible, working shorter hours, not commuting and really not doing the job.  I’m sure there were many great teachers who didn’t agree with the unions, but you can’t show up at school and just teach as you want to.  So, yes, Covid was a disaster for children.

The Bigger Story

If you’re a Boomer, you probably have some memory of how you spent your school day in grammar school.  We had recess and PE, might alternate a music class with art, but the rest of the day was focused on hard-core learning.  Reading, writing and arithmetic held our focus much of the time, even coming into play with geography, civics and the like. 

Instead of that focus, schools are now filling the hours with anti-racism, sexuality and other morality plays that rob time from the critical learning kids need.  A lot of this kind of “schooling” began before Covid, but got more intense as teachers figured that parents weren’t watching what was happening online.  The challenge of supporting kids with their schoolwork while having to work themselves, deal with challenges filling the cupboards and more led to less communication about what was happening in the schools.

But clues emerged.  A standard question over dinner is “what happened in school today?”  And for the first time, parents realized they could watch some of what was happening in school.  They didn’t like what they saw.  Now, elections will be decided over what should be the focus in school and more parents are lining up to become school board members or otherwise have deeper involvement in what is taught in school.  There are also better options for some, including a variety of alternative schools, home-schooling and learning pods. Sadly, many of these are not available to students whose parents have little money.  Except in one state…

The Arizona Miracle

Governor Ducey has broadened the choices parents and kids can make regarding schooling with Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESAs).  Any family can opt for this and get 90% of the funding that would have gone to the school the child attended.  This money can be used for tuition/fees at private school, online learning programs, educational therapy, tutoring, curriculum, testing fees, etc.  This is better than a voucher as it can be used to cover home-schooling costs, pods and special ed. 

The name is brilliant.  It now empowers parents to opt for education of their choice.  They can go to a public school, if they choose, but they can apply for any school, not just the one their child might be pushed into because of their home address.  It also allows them to find schools that resonate with their values and allow parents to control the messaging on morality.

Competition Works
Many have dropped out of the public school system over the past few years because of the mishandled online learning. But the game is not over.  Public schools can still survive and thrive if they become emboldened by the competition and step up their game.  It happens in the real world all the time.  A company has a so-so product but the next company to compete pushes both to do better.  We wouldn’t have an iPhone if the original cell phone had no competition. 

Some parents may really like the progressive schooling and there will be places that suit them.  But we may see a lot less DIE (diversity, inclusion and equity) training, less sexualization and the elimination of pressure to change sexes in schools as parents take their money elsewhere.

Time for every state to adopt Arizona’s policy.  The unions will scream, but it’s time they were eliminated anyway.  They don’t serve the needs of the children and their families.  They only serve to keep bad teachers and teaching in place and scold us for not paying teachers a year’s salary for working ¾’s of a year.  I have had some great teachers over the years, but that’s not due to the unions.  And if public schools can’t “make the grade,” there will be plenty of competition to give kids the education they need.

California - You've Been Fooled