Cheating Scandals, Charters and Falling Test Scores: 5 Takeaways From the Year in Education
Five big trends, from stagnant student performance to declining faith in colleges.
There was no shortage of news about American education in 2019. Presidential candidates debated school segregation, college costs and charter schools. Federal courts considered the future of college admissions and sentenced wealthy parents to prison for cheating on behalf of their children.
Here are five of the biggest education stories of the year — and a look ahead to the issues that will drive 2020.
Stagnant Student Performance and Widening Achievement Gaps
The year ended with disappointing results on two big tests of student achievement. The National Assessment of Educational Progress, the gold-standard federal test of fourth and eighth graders across the country, found that only one-third of students were proficient readers, and that student achievement in both reading and math had stalled over the past 10 years.
Separately, according to the Program for International Student Assessment, an international exam, American 15-year olds have been stagnant in both math and reading for two decades.
Perhaps most troubling, on both tests, the gap between low-performing and high-performing students has grown, despite decades of education reforms meant to close those divides.
The results have led to a vociferous debate over what to blame, from subpar reading instruction to poverty to uneven implementation of the Common Core, the decade’s most ambitious school reform effort. Expect that debate to continue in 2020, especially as several cases travel through the federal court system arguing that schools are failing to adequately prepare American CONTINUE READING: Cheating Scandals, Charters and Falling Test Scores: 5 Takeaways From the Year in Education - The New York Times
