‘These results are sobering’: US high-school seniors’ reading and math scores plummet | US education

According to the new national data released last week, the average reading and mathematics scores of the last classes of American high school senior classes fell to the lowest levels in 2024.

Results, National Education Progress Evaluation (NaEP)12. For grade students, average reading scores were 10 points lower than the first time the test was applied in 1992 and the mathematics evaluation has started to be the lowest levels of mathematics scores since 2005.

. testThe National Education Statistics Center (NCES), a part of the US Department of Education (NCES), was evaluated by about 24,300 reading and 23,000 eighth grade students between January and March last year.

In the report, 35% of the elderly found NaEP’s “competent” level in reading and 22% were at this level or above in mathematics.

In addition, 45% of 12th grade students remained below NaEP’s “basic” level in mathematics and an increase of five points since 2019. In the reading, 32% of the students scored under the basic level, which was an increase of two points from 2019.

“These results are being sober,” said the deputy commissioner Matthew Soldner. “The decline in the total scores coincides with significant decreases in success among our lowest performance students, and a declining tendency continues before Covid Pandememi.

“Among the high school elderly of our nation, we now see a greater percentage below NaEP basic success in the field of mathematics and reading than the previous evaluations.”

A permanent effect In the report, the present pandem Was it chronic absenteeism. In the report, approximately one -third of the 12th grade students found that three or more schools were missing per month before the test, and in 2019, 25%.

“Students spend less time to learn,” Harvard said, Eğitim Students. “And when they are present, teachers are less efficient because teachers constantly revitalize the materials.”

Robert Balfanz, a professor at John Hopkins University, Faculty of Education, said that easy access to online information and use of online assignments can lead some students to request their participation in their personal school.

Balfanz, “In their minds, parents, ‘Look, all my homework online, even if I am not at school,’ they say.

However, even though Covid pandemi and school closures have great effects on learning, experts Academic decline started before 2020.

Eric Hanushek, an educational economist, said, “disturbing truth, American students have lost significant space for more than decade,” he said. It’s an opinion last week. “My pande did not break American education – already broken.”

Kane said that the decline between low successful students started around 2015 and continued.

“It’s not just a epidemic, Kane said Kane. “We must be disturbing for everyone and find a solution.”

Experts one Potential Factors Increased screen time and smartphone use, decreasing student participation and test -based accountability, including the return of the absenteeism that can contribute to the decline Ending the action of staying behind in 2015.

Carol Jago, an English teacher and literacy expert for a long time in UCLA, Associated Press Last week, students read less books today and spent less time with longer texts.

In order to be a good reader, you must have the durability that will remain on the page, even if it is difficult to go, ”Jago said. “You have to build these muscles and do not build these muscles in children.”

Balfanz, students’ daily lives in short form and visual media constantly exposure to the academic focus can make more difficult, he added.

He said that a potential solution could be to add more special reading time to school days and restrict smartphones in the classrooms.

Kane recorded this academic decreases it looks Other countries, This proposes a wider global tendency that may be linked to increasing screen use.

Some US states already Laws passed Restricting the use of telephone in schools. Kane believes that there should be a national effort to evaluate the influence and effectiveness of these policies, and to see if it needs to be applied in more areas.

Role of smartphones and social media in academic performance Came this week During a Senate hearing about NaEP results.

Martin West, Vice Chairman of the National Evaluation Board, Supervising politics for NaEP– He told the deputies The rise of “smartphones and social media platforms targeting youth” is an area that needs to investigate.

“I believe that there is a direct evidence that there is a causal connection between smartphones and learning, but I believe that the youth mental health difficulties of this technology are both distraction and deterrent to learning, both within and out of schools,” he said.

Rebecca Winthrop, a man at the Brookings Institute, expressed That student discrimination worsened by the pandemi and strengthened by social media. He approved actions such as smartphone bans, higher academic expectations and adopting more interesting teaching styles.

NaEP results also reigned the debate with US Education Secretary Linda McMahon about the role of the federal government in education. Mean last week The course from the results is “open ..

“Success is not about how much money we spend, who controls the money and where this money is deposited,” he said. “Therefore, President Trump and I are determined to return the control of education to the states so that every school and students can renew their unique needs.”

Representative Tim Walberg is a republican chairman of the Assembly Education Committee, accepted And iz We can strengthen the parents and local communities by returning education to the states and let each child gain the necessary skills to succeed, ”he said.

However, the democratic representative Bobby Scott returned, don’t write NaEP’s results “strengthening urgent need for sustainable federal investment in academic recovery and equality of education”.

“Now, regardless of the post code, it is not time to withdraw from our responsibility to offer every child the opportunity to succeed,” he added.

Balfanz believes that “some collective efforts at the national level için need to support states and regions in the implementation of proven solutions. “Determine targets, goals and strategies” and helped to create capacity at the local level so that they can achieve them.

Kane said that states acknowledged that “should take a more aggressive role to help reversed these tendencies”, but the federal government should prioritize a partnership with states with a harmonious, coordinated effort to answer two questions: to find effective ways of reducing absenteeism and to measure the impact of mobile phone bans ”.

“Something fundamental in US schools was broken, Kane Kane warned. “And we need to fix it.”