Montessori, Dewey, & Aristotle Respond to NAEP decline
By now you know about the disappointing scores on what is widely known as The Nation’s Report Card, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP. Basically, what was called ‘a lost decade‘ a year or two ago has continued.
Here’s a short summary from the NAEP announcement: “Average reading scores for the nation in 2019 were lower for students in both fourth and eighth grade than in 2017, while average mathematics scores were higher by 1 point for fourth graders and lower by 1 point for eighth graders…….In mathematics and reading for both grades, a little more than one-third of students nationally scored at or above the NAEP Proficient level in 2019.”
The responses from the Administration, the center-right, and the left were not surprising. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos labelled it a ‘student achievement crisis’ and issued a call for ‘education freedom’ for parents so they could escape failing schools. See here for her response and here for analysis.
The center-right, basically the ‘School Reform’ advocates who have controlled the public education for 20 years, focused on the smattering of good news in the NAEP report:
Hispanic students had a higher average mathematics score in 2019 compared to 2017.
Fourth grade mathematics scores increased in nine states.
Mississippi showed an increase in grade 4 reading.
Grade 8 reading scores increased in the District of Columbia.
This could be presented another way, of course: Mississippi was the ONLY state CONTINUE READING: Montessori, Dewey, & Aristotle Respond to NAEP decline | The Merrow Report
