LOST YEAR

When I say lost year, I mean lost in terms of education.  Most parents and teachers would agree that the first years of a child’s education: i.e., pre-K through fifth (5) grade, are extremely important relative to teaching and learning the “basics”.  From sixth (6^th) grade to possibly tenth (10^th) grade, a student is learning how to learn.  Eleventh (11^th) and twelfth (12^th) grade a student, if taught properly, should be able to learn non-STEM subject matter on their own.   STEM subjects are difficult and generally require at some point in the learning process a teacher, either in or out of the classroom.  This is certainly true for mathematics. 

I know this sounds nuts but seventy-seven million (77,000,000) Americans do not have adequate Internet connection at home.  Only two-thirds of the people who live in the country’s bottom income bracket can access the Internet from home and one-half of those do so from a mobile cell phone.  This is according to the publication Free Press, a nonprofit advocacy organization that focuses on policymaking for a “free and open” Internet.  While one-quarter of white people lack wired “broadband”, the problem disproportionately affects the Black, Latino, and Indigenous people, one-third or more do not have access.  With that being the case, can you imagine the difficulty with some student working from home when an Internet connection is needed?  This is just what happened in 2020, our “COVID” year.  So many kids got behind; therefore, in my opinion, many students lost an entire year of learning.

We may say that is the case for students in every country to some degree.  2020 was tough year with two hundred nineteen million (219,000,000) cases and four million five hundred and fifty-five (4,550,000) deaths worldwide. 

Let’s take a look at how students in the United States compare with the rest of the world as far as progress.  It’s not really a nice picture in some instances.  One of the biggest cross-national tests is the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA).  Every three years the PISA measures reading ability, math and science literacy and other key skills among fifteen (15)-year-olds in dozens of developed and developing countries. The most recent PISA results, from 2015, placed the U.S. an unimpressive thirty-eighth (38th) out of seventy-one (71) countries in math and twenty-forth (24^th) in science. Among the thirty-five (35) members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which sponsors the PISA initiative, the U.S. ranked thirtieth (30^th) in math and nineteenth (19^th) in science.

Another long-running testing effort is the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a project of the federal Education Department. In the most recent NAEP results, from 2015, average math scores for fourth- and eighth-graders fell for the first time since 1990. A team from Rutgers University is analyzing the NAEP data to try to identify the reasons for the drop in math scores.

The average fourth-grade NAEP math score in 2015 was two hundred and forty (240) on a scale of zero (00 to five hundred (500), the same level as in 2009 and down from two hundred and forty-two (242) in 2013. The average eighth-grade score was two hundred and eighty-two (282) in 2015, compared with two hundred and eighty-five (285) in 2013; that score was the lowest since 2007. (The NAEP has only tested 12th-graders in math four times since 2005; their 2015 average score of one hundred and fifty-two (152) on a zero to three hundred (0-to-300) scale was one point lower than in 2013 and 2009.) 

Looked at another way, the 2015 NAEP rated forty percent (40%) of fourth-graders, thirty-three percent (33%) of eighth-graders and twenty-five percent (25%) of 12th-graders as “proficient” or “advanced” in math. While far fewer fourth- and eighth-graders now rate at “below basic,” the lowest performance level (18% and 29%, respectively, versus 50% and 48% in 1990), improvement in the top levels appears to have stalled out. (Among 12th-graders, 38% scored at the lowest performance level in math, a point lower than in 2005.)  In my opinion, this is a terrible scorecard.  We MUST do better!

If we look at country ratings, we see the following:

As you can see, this is from the PEW Research Center.  To me, this is very discouraging.  Education has become a political football and not an issue, seemingly, worth correcting.  I read a very informative article some days ago that stated our sad lack of preparedness on the part of graduating seniors has become a national security issue.  Please note, the figures above are not for the college and university students.  The United States has long been the top receiving country for international students, who historically have been drawn by the high quality of U.S. higher education, its value on the international labor market, and access to job opportunities in the United States after graduation. About one-point one (1.1) million international students were enrolled in U.S. institutions in school year (SY) 2019-20. This marked a decrease of almost twenty thousand (20,000) international students from the year before, following a decade of consistent growth. Among the key factors for this decline were the rising cost of U.S. higher education, high numbers of student visa delays and denials, a difficult political environment for immigrants under the Trump administration, and expanded opportunities to study in other countries.   The COVID-19 pandemic has further aggravated these dynamics. Closures and limited access to U.S. embassies and consulates, travel restrictions, and personal safety considerations have complicated visa issuance and travel plans of international students. The Trump administration initially attempted to bar students from entering or remaining in the United States if their schools offered only online courses, although the order was quickly rescinded. Still, the move contributed to confusion and frustration for U.S. colleges and universities and their international students. At the start of the fall 2020 academic semester, the total number of international students enrolled in U.S. schools, including those physically present in the United States and studying online from abroad, decreased by 16 percent from the previous year. One in five of these students was studying online from another country. The number of new international students fell by forty-three (43) percent, in part because some chose to defer their studies.  Make no mistake about it, international students will be back after COVID, if COVID is ever controlled.  We have some of the best universities in the world.  Unfortunately, many American students can not do the work due to very poor preparation. 

As always, I welcome your comments.