Although the Nation’s Report Card (NAEP) results won’t be made public until early 2025, state assessments are already indicating they will serve up yet another disappointment. The Epoch Times previewed the likely results on December 2, announcing that “most states have released their annual report card summaries for the 2023-2024 academic year,” and that the numbers are deficient. For example, New York’s summary shows “the average reading/English language arts proficiency rate among public-school students in third through eighth grade was 46 percent, a 2 percent drop from the year prior.” New York students’ math scores improved slightly by the same 2 percent, still a dismal result. California students in the same grades achieved “less than a 1 percent performance increase in one year, still below 2018-2019 scores.” The Times reported that the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA), a nonprofit K-12 assessment and research organization, “works with state education departments and school districts across the country to develop state tests, administer supplemental tests to measure progress within one academic year, and identify areas in which teachers can improve instruction.” The NWEA determined that, for the school year 2023-24, public education “has not improved since the COVID-19 pandemic,” and this despite the billions in taxpayer dollars poured annually into public schools. NWEA reported that “average reading scores declined by 36 percent and math scores by 18 percent” overall. The largest decline in math scores “was at the fifth-grade level, while middle school ELA scores indicate that most students didn’t have the necessary vocabulary knowledge and decoding skills to read words when they finished elementary school.”

In a similar vein, the results of an international assessment of 650,000 fourth and eighth graders by the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, or TIMSS, shows that American fourth graders had the largest drop in average math scores compared with their peers in 2019, the last time the test was given. The TIMSS assessments began in 1995, and the online education information platform, Chalkbeat, summarized the most recent findings early this month, as did The Sentinel, the non-profit subsidiary and reporting arm of the Kansas Policy Institute. Calling the results “devastating,” The Sentinel reported that, while the best-performing U.S. fourth graders scored approximately the same as those in 2019, the bottom 10 percent “drove U.S. results downward. Their scores dropped by 37 points in math and 22 points in science. The lowest-performing eighth graders saw their scores drop 19 points. One in five American eighth graders scored even lower, indicating they lacked even basic proficiency.” The Sentinel adds that “the gap between high- and low-performing students started to widen before the pandemic for reasons that are unclear.” Calling the declines “sharp” and “steep,” the commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), Peggy Carr, said: “We have countries leapfrogging over us.” (U.S. students scored in the middle of the international pack.) The Sentinel further reported that, while “perhaps not coincidentally, Kansas graduates recorded the lowest [raw] ACT scores and college readiness [indicators] in more than 20 years.”

School officials and politicians in blue states are threatening to defy, and even take action to prevent the Trump Administration from deporting illegal aliens. According to The Midwesterner news, Denver, Colorado, which has experienced “the largest influx” of illegals “on a per capita basis in the country,” enrolled nearly 4,800 undocumented children in its school system within the past two years. The number of illegal students dropped by more than 800 “by the end of the 2023-24 school year,” and another 20 percent failed to enroll for 2024-25, whether due to language barriers, relocation, or simply from boredom or unwillingness attend school, was not explained. What was forthcoming is the notion that “it’s the ‘responsibility’ of public-school officials to shield families in the country illegally from federal immigration officials.” Board member Scott Esserman said: “If you are a student who is undocumented or a family who is undocumented, we will take care of you. That is our responsibility; we’re here to do that.” This same board member didn’t hesitate to shift the responsibility to teachers, saying: “There’s no question, it was overwhelming for a lot of our educators, who are committed to serving every kid who comes in to their classroom, regardless of how many kids are in their classroom, regardless of what their circumstances are.” Evidently, no teachers were asked to respond for the article. Esserman further vowed to prevent ICE agents from entering Denver school buildings, and Denver Mayor Mike Johnston threatened “to leverage Denver police and 50,000 residents stationed at the county line to block federal immigration enforcement.” Johnston likened such a scenario to what he called “the Tiananmen Square moment with the rose and the gun,” which drew fire from Chinese survivors of Chairman Mao’s revolution, including Xi Van Fleet, who fled Communist China in her youth. Officials in other states and cities pledging to defy the Trump deportation plans include Gov. J.B. Pritzker of Illinois, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, and Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs. But Thomas Homan, Trump’s pick for border czar, responded: “If they’re not willing to help, then get the hell out of the way because ICE is going to do their job.” He suggested that “governments who block those efforts will lose federal funding.”

Want to be notified of new Education Reporter content?
Your information will NOT be sold or shared and will ONLY be used to notify you of new content.
Click Here

Return to Home PageEducation Reporter Online - December 2024