While much has been bandied about regarding education this past year, too much information is not just inaccurate, but highly misleading, even off the deep end. It is important for educators to set the record straight for the American public with correct information, even if sobering.

The U.S. has been failing in educational achievement for nearly half a century. More poignantly, we were provided a good dosage of information from then Education Secretary, Terrel Bell, with his release of a devastating report, A Nation at Risk, under President Reagan in 1983. The report boldly highlighted the following state-of-the-art by the second paragraph:  

“If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war. As it stands, we have allowed this to happen to ourselves… We have, in effect, been committing an act of unthinking, unilateral educational disarmament.”

Given that this occurred almost half a decade ago, it’s statements should certainly be chilling today, as it unequivocally stated the country was failing in education with the following sobering conclusion:

“The educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our future as a Nation and a people.”

Though alarming, the good news was that it propelled the educational establishment to become serious about educational standards and competency-based instruction, as over 400 reports by the turn of the century followed on the heels of that report, by analyzing what was going on (or not) at our schools.

Critiques came from a variety of leading scholars and practitioners from multiple educational organizations, universities, and research institutions. In short order, laggard statistics for “students of color” came to be described as the “achievement gap,” as measured by a national report card based on proficiency test scores gathered by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). While the movement was perceived as great progress, the not so good news is that the nation has not progressed anywhere close to what is needed. In fact, the achievement gap, while narrowing for a while, has again widened, declining further since the pandemic. This means we now have a more profound deficit from which to recover than five years ago.

The story gets worse, as US academic rankings in the international PISA tests (reading, science, and math) have remained stagnant at middling levels internationally, basically flatlining when compared to industrialized nation (≈ 35 OECD nations), faring barely above average in reading and science and below average in math among them. But then compared to other developing countries globally, the U.S. has failed to keep up with counterparts that are surpassing their relative standing the past two decades.

Worse, we now have politicians that know little about education declaring what we should teach; and where certain parents carry the water farther by telling teachers how to teach. For example, they are asking for prayer in the schools, classroom postings of the ten commandments, the elimination of culturally competent standards (as if these have been met), book burnings, and even the banning of certain textbooks.

Have we not learned the lessons of history? In the name of education, how do these requisites enhance learning? Is moral education a substitute for competency-based instruction? Is this why our country is falling behind in education? Let’s not get crazy and put accents on wrong syllables or lose the forest for the trees.

Let’s get real and go back to elementary school by putting basic education back into its rightful place.