What Is Happening in America's Education System?

            Families, communities, and nations are stronger when children and youth receive the right type of education. The liberals in our school systems are putting children at risk in their preparation for life. One example is a program or system for learning called Common Core.

The Department of Education recently released its 2019 National Assessment of Educational Progress report, and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said that the results are “devastating.” She suggested that “Every American family needs to open The Nation’s Report Card this year and think about what it means for their child and for our country’s future.”

Common Core came onto the national scene years ago, and it has produced terrible results. DeVos claimed that “This country is in a student achievement crisis, and over the past decade it has continued to worsen, especially for our most vulnerable students.” She said that the reading assessment shows that fourth and eighth graders who took the test failed to do as well on this test as on the previous test. In fact, student scores this year were barely better than those of 1992. Reading is an essential skill to succeed in school, but students are not learning to read as they should.

The reading scores are terrible, and the mathematics scores are worse. Fourth graders are doing much better than those in the 1990’s, but their score this year was one point above the previous score. This year’s score for eighth graders was below the score from two year ago.

There is a link between the implementation of Common Core and the terrible grades. Common Core standards were implemented by most states by 2015 – four years ago. Is it just coincidence that the scores began decreasing about the time that Common Core was implemented? I do not believe in coincidences, and studies have linked Common Core to the declining test scores as well as poor academic performance of students. 

DeVos said, “This must be America’s wake-up call…. We cannot abide these poor results any longer. We can neither excuse them away nor simply throw more money at the problem.”

If American students are to compete academically with international students, the performances of the schools must improve greatly. 

            There is no comparison between the scores of Chinese students and American students in math, science, and reading. American students are ranked 21 spots behind that of Chinese students. If our nation is to remain the leader of the world, the rising generation must receive the type of education that they need to be the leaders of our nation. Programs like Common Core must be expelled, and good programs adopted. The rising generation must receive adequate education before they can help their families, communities, and nation to grow stronger.