RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://amgreatness.com/2025/10/08/righting-wrongdoing-in-our-schools/

From personal experience, I can say that the worst part of teaching is when you can’t do your job because students misbehave—hitting each other, talking to a classmate, being disrespectful, and so on.

I was fortunate that Mr. Thomas, my middle school’s guidance counselor and discipline dean in the 1990s, was old school. He was a former Marine drill sergeant, and when misbehaving students were sent to him, he would make them stand facing the front of the room for an hour or two without talking. He also kept the room a few degrees warmer than necessary. This discouraged students from engaging in antisocial behavior when threatened with a visit to Mr. Thomas. However, few schools have ex-military personnel in the counseling office.

At about the same time Mr. Thomas left my school, Restorative Justice—a touchy-feely, new-age fad—had gained momentum and still persists. RJ emphasizes “making the victim and offender whole” and involves “an open discussion of feelings.” RJ arose because black students are far more likely to be suspended than students of other ethnicities. The implication here, of course, is that white teachers and administrators tend to be racist. But the racial bean counters never bother to explain why the racial disparity exists even in schools where black principals and staff predominate.

The Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports regimen was also in force at the time. PBIS aims to create a “framework for creating safe, positive, equitable schools, where every student can feel valued, connected to the school community, and supported by caring adults.”

Additionally, the practitioners claim that by applying “evidence-based practices within a PBIS framework, schools promote students’ academic, social, emotional, and behavioral success, work with families to develop locally meaningful and culturally relevant outcomes, and use data to make informed decisions that enhance overall effectiveness.”

Over the years, I have monitored school discipline issues and can confidently state that these trends have made no difference whatsoever. In fact, they have been counterproductive.

Surveys consistently show that student behavior has declined over the past decade, with school violence and overall classroom disorder now reaching record levels.

https://www.city-journal.org/article/new-york-charter-public-schools-funding

Earlier this month, more than 15,000 families from 200 charter schools across New York City marched on the Brooklyn Bridge to support charters. They asked, among other things, that the state lift its cap on the number of charter schools; that charters get equitable funding; and that charters be allowed to share space in existing public school facilities.

The families assembled represented the more than 150,000 New York students currently attending charter schools, as well as the many more on waiting lists. One of their chants—“Stop the no! Let charters grow!”—highlights how New York State has maintained a cap of 460 charter schools since 2015.

Elected officials often explain their reluctance to lift the cap by citing the persistent argument that charter schools take resources away from New York City public district schools. In 2023, State Senator Jabari Brisport, for example, opposed lifting the cap in exactly those terms: “Every time another (charter) opens, the funding gets shifted there,” he said. “And then the first thing that our public schools cut when they lose their funding is after-school and extracurriculars.” State Senator Cordell Cleare added, “This takes away from the public school students. It shows them inequity, it shows disparities, and it sends a message that we’ve given up on traditional public schools.”

The problem with this view is that the pie of public school dollars isn’t fixed—it keeps growing. Charters now enroll 15 percent of the city’s student population. Yet, this expansion has not negatively affected the New York City Department of Education (DOE) budget. Data from the city’s Independent Budget Office show that the DOE budget exceeded $20 billion in 1999 ($22 billion in inflation adjusted 2022 dollars), when the state’s first charter opened. Since then, despite significant enrollment declines, the DOE budget swelled to nearly $40 billion as of 2024—of which, only $3.17 billion constitutes charter school “tuition.”

Some officials, including Andrew Pallotta, president of New York State United Teachers, are recognizing this budget reality. As of early 2023, he had opposed lifting the charter cap in order to “limit the financial burden on the public school district.” This year, he shifted the focus of his opposition, attacking the “corporate charter school industry” and arguing that “many charters operate without meaningful public input or accountability to taxpayers.”

Some public schools do struggle with reduced budgets due to enrollment loss. But the DOE could address these challenges by reallocating its vast budget more effectively. The district continues to operate many small, financially unsustainable schools that should be closed or consolidated. Doing so would free up resources for the remaining schools, improving educational quality for more students rather than propping up low-enrollment, underperforming institutions. The DOE should also reconsider the need for 32 school districts, which range in size from 4,000 to 39,000 students. Merging the smallest districts and reinvesting the savings could better support schools serving the highest-need populations.

Parents are leaving these schools for charters because they are dissatisfied—not for lack of funding. Polling from EdTrust New York shows that 51 percent of voters and 50 percent of parents believe that the education system is on the wrong track.

https://amgreatness.com/2025/09/27/the-blind-leading-the-dumb-and-the-hateful/

About three decades ago, when I was part of the Washington research team of a now-defunct brokerage house, I worked (with my then-boss) on a report about the state of the American education system. The results—unsurprisingly—were not good. The system was in disarray, with towns, cities, and even the federal government spending more and more tax dollars on education every year and getting worse and worse results. The educational and political establishments had convinced the American people that the problem with education was that they simply weren’t spending enough money on it and that, if they did, the people who broke the system in the first place could fix it and, by extension, could fix the country as well. Unfortunately, the data showed definitively that this was untrue.

Based on our research, we concluded that something more obvious—and more uncomfortable—than funding was the real root of the problem with American education. It was obvious because… well… it just was. It made perfect sense. It was uncomfortable because it hit close to home. We knew that what we had learned would likely be taken as insulting or, at the very least, overly provocative by a number of our clients and other readers, including friends and even family. My mom was a teacher. We both had friends who were teachers or whose spouses and/or kids were teachers. Like almost everyone, we had fond memories of that one (or more) special teacher who, when we were kids, helped us in some unique way or influenced us profoundly. Teachers are, for good reason, heroic figures in much of American history. And yet, everything we read and heard and studied indicated that teachers were an enormous part of the problem with American education.

To be clear, the main culprits in our story were teachers’ colleges, not individual teachers. Still, the colleges were a problem because they were churning out inferior products, which, of course, meant that many of the teachers in the American education system were not up to the job—the absolutely imperative job of preparing the next generations of Americans for intellectual and professional life.

In our report, titled “The Dumb Leading the Blind,” we noted the difficult truth that the nation’s education schools had largely become a dumping ground for college students who couldn’t hack it in any other degree program. That wasn’t—and isn’t—to say that all students who wanted to be teachers were dumb. Far from it. Most were smart and earnest and dedicated and resembled the heroic teachers of American lore. At the same time, however, what they were being taught was mostly nonsense: bland, simplistic, often trite twaddle that was disguised and legitimized as “educational theory.” Ed. School curricula were so preposterous and so lacking in academic rigor that almost anyone could—and did—pass without much effort. A multi-decades-long effort by educational “reformers” to shift the focus of teacher instruction away from subject matter and to cognitive theory and epistemology had meaningfully dumbed down the curricula. In turn, students who failed out of other colleges ended up earning degrees in ed. schools because it was shockingly easy to do so. Meanwhile, smart and earnest students were denied a proper education by their instructors, who taught down to the lowest common denominator.

All of this, we argued, suggested that American K-12 education would, in the long run, grow even worse, even more expensive, and even more controversial. And that could only bode ill for the nation as a whole.

https://amgreatness.com/2025/09/17/the-latest-naep-disgrace/

Every time National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores are released, it’s bad news for American students. Headlines in newspapers and websites repeat the same sad story, and the results for the “nation’s report card” released on September 9 were typical. A Wall Street Journal headline stated, “Twelfth-Grade Math and Reading Scores in U.S. Hit New Low.” The online K-12 Dive reported, “5 takeaways from another round of disappointing NAEP results,” and the NH Journal noted, “Worst-Ever NAEP Test Results a Five Alarm Fire for Public Schools.”

Indeed, the results of the latest tests conducted in spring 2024 were dismal, showing that only 22% of high school seniors are proficient or higher in math, a decrease from 24% in 2019. Additionally, only 35% of high school seniors are proficient in reading—the lowest score since NAEP began in 1969—down from 37% in 2019. Also, a record-high percentage scored at “below basic” levels in both math and reading compared to all previous assessments.

And just for good measure, the eighth-grade science test results were also released, and they were no better. The percentage of students scoring at the proficient level fell to 29%, down from 33%, and the average score returned to levels last seen in 2009, when a new version of the test was introduced.

Performance declined in all three science categories—physical, life, and earth and space sciences. Fewer than half of students can identify the main component of living cells, compared to 55% in 2019, and the percentage of students who can identify a characteristic of mammals dropped from 72% to 68%.

It’s not just the decline in skills that is concerning. The percentage of students who say they enjoy science activities fell from 52% to 42%.

Not surprisingly, students’ confidence in the subject has also worsened, with 28% saying they “definitely can do various science-related activities,” down from 34%.

The poor outcome aligns with the 4th- and 8th-grade reading and math scores, which were reported earlier this year. The results from those tests, administered in 2024, were announced in January and showed that 4th-graders continue to fall behind, with reading scores slightly lower, on average, than in 2022 and significantly lower than in 2019. Currently, only about a third of 4th- and 8th-grade students are proficient in reading and math.

https://www.city-journal.org/article/nations-report-card-education-students-math-reading

The 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress—also known as the “Nation’s Report Card”—is now out. It shows 12th-graders’ performance slipping to a record low.

According to the report, one-third of seniors are reading at a below-basic level, and only 35 percent are proficient or above. In math, 45 percent are below basic, with just 22 percent meeting proficiency. The proportion of students at the 10th and 25th percentiles has fallen to historic lows, widening the gap between the highest-and lowest-achieving students and leaving many unprepared for life after high school.

The declines reflect the failures of more than a decade of educational policy—specifically, a retreat from expectations that began under the Common Core Standards and continued under the Every Student Succeeds Act.

Declines have not always been so predictable. Under the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, passed in 2002, results were more stable. Reading scores remained 25 percent below-basic and 37 percent proficient, while math scores remained 33 percent below-basic and about 25 percent proficient. As Roberta Rubel Schaefer recently explained for City Journal, NCLB established rigorous, content-rich curriculum standards and tracked schools and students’ performance through regular testing, encouraging a culture of educational excellence.

After 2013, as states adopted the Common Core Standards and later, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) took effect in 2016, progress declined. Proficiency remained stagnant, while the number of students reading and doing basic math below the basic level increased.

https://amgreatness.com/2025/09/12/schools-are-in-hooky-hell/

It’s early September, and children should be back at school, right?

Well, many aren’t. With data from 44 states and Washington, DC, the American Enterprise Institute’s (AEI) director of education policy, Nat Malkus, discloses that the chronic absenteeism rate—students missing more than 10% of school days each year—was an alarming 23.5% in 2024.

Malkus notes that the surge in absenteeism affects districts of all sizes, racial backgrounds, and income levels, but the data does reveal significant differences by race and ethnicity, with 39% of Black students, 36% of Hispanic students, 24% of white students, and 15% of Asian students chronically absent.

Additionally, while students from both low- and high-income families often miss school, the highest rates occur in low-income districts, where 30% of students are chronically absent. Still, the rate has gone up even in low-poverty areas, increasing from about 10% to over 15%.

High-achieving districts have also been affected by the new normal. Over 15% of students in the top third at those schools are chronically absent, compared to 10% before the pandemic.

States vary significantly in the number of student absences. While Alabama, New Jersey, and Virginia have a 15% rate, Alaska’s is 43%, Oregon’s is 34%, and Michigan’s is 30%.

The problem is particularly egregious in our big cities. According to a recent report, in Los Angeles, where over 32% of students were chronically absent in the 2023-2024 school year, 34 elementary schools have fewer than 200 students, and 29 use less than half of the building.

Even worse, in Chicago, the chronic absentee rate is 41%. The city’s dwindling enrollment has left about 150 schools half-empty, while 47 operate at less than one-third capacity. One Chicago high school had just 33 students last year.

No matter. The district’s spending of taxpayer dollars appears to be unaffected. On August 28, Chicago Public Schools approved a $10.2 billion budget, and at the same time, it is facing a $743 million deficit. Before the budget was approved, three major credit rating agencies each rated CPS General Obligation Bonds as “non-investment grade speculative,” also known as “junk bonds.”

What are education leaders doing to stem the tide of student flight?

https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2025/10/the-southern-surge-in-education/

These four states have a lot to teach the country about teaching

It’s been a grim stretch for America’s schools. Reading and math achievement are in a decade-long swoon. This year’s National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) yielded the worst fourth-grade reading outcomes in 20 years, with 40 percent of students scoring below basic proficiency. For eighth-graders, reading scores hit a historic low — with 33 percent below basic. Meanwhile, chronic absenteeism is way up, as are grade inflation and misbehavior.

At this point, the nation’s most popular K–12 reform is the push to let families opt out and choose new schools. There is, however, one notable good-news story when it comes to school performance that hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves: A handful of red states are making notable gains — and putting their big-spending peers to shame. Their success has come to be called the Southern surge.

On the new NAEP (better known as the Nation’s Report Card), just two states, Alabama and Louisiana, had math or reading scores higher than what they were in 2019, pre-Covid. When researchers at the left-leaning Urban Institute adjusted 2025 NAEP results based on state demographics, Mississippi fourth-graders topped the country in math and reading. Louisiana’s fourth-graders led the nation in reading growth for the past two NAEP cycles and rank fifth nationwide for math growth. In fact, the two states were in the top four in every category. These accomplishments have taken many by surprise, perhaps because of a habit of imagining the South as a cultural backwater.

The Education Recovery Scorecard, a Harvard-Stanford research collaboration, tracks how well states are making up academic ground lost after 2019. The most recent results offer an eye-popping portrait of the Southern surge: Alabama was first in math recovery and third in reading recovery; Louisiana was second and first, Mississippi sixth and fourth, and Tennessee third and ninth. Chad Aldeman, a respected education analyst and old Obama hand, makes clear the extent of the “Mississippi miracle,” noting that Mississippi’s black students “rank third nationally, and its low-income kids outperform those in every other state.” Mississippi is the “only state to see gains across all performance levels over the last decade. Its average went up, but so did the scores of its highest and lowest performers.”

What’s driving these results? A commitment to basic skills, especially through phonics-based early-literacy instruction, and rigorous classroom materials.