The older students get, the lower their performance

There is an old adage that a recession is akin to lowering the level in a lake. At lower levels the stumps that had been covered by the higher lake level begin to show. In fact they become quite dangerous. This recession is no different. As our economy sinks to new lows, stumps (weaknesses) begin to show. The interesting thing about this analogy is the stumps were always there. We just ignored them because they posed no immediate threat at the higher water level.

One of those stumps is our education system. Thomas Friedman points this out in a recent editorial he wrote, entitled ‘Educational Gaps Must Close If Nation Is to Reverse Decline”. In the 1950’s and 1960’s the United States dominated the world’s K-12 education system. It was during this period that America’s economic domination grew. Since the 1970’s we began to lose significant ground to other industrialized countries. That is also the time we began to use public education as a means of social engineering rather than solely focused on learning, but that is a column for another day.

In a 2006 international student assessment, the U.S. ranked 25th out of 30 in math and 24th out of 30 in science, on par with the Slovak Republic and Portugal. These are hardly our international competitors. We are far behind the likes of the UK, Germany, France and Korea.

The real puzzle here is that in the early years of elementary education our children are at the top of the international rankings. According to McKinsey, one of the report’s authors, “the longer American children are in the school, the worse they perform compared to their international peers.” The study concluded that there are millions of kids [and parents] in modern suburban schools [and right here in Troup County] “who don’t realize how far behind they are”. The author concluded they are being prepared for a $12 an hour job - not the $40 or $50 an hour.”

You may say that this is a broad-based international study; it is not relevant to our school system. Unfortunately, Troup County schools are not immune to this distressing trend. This pattern of declining performance holds true right here and it is evidenced by the Troup County Schools’ Balanced Score Card which can be found at http://www.troup.org/images/stories/dashboard.pdf.

A Balanced Score Card is a strategic planning and management system that is used to align business activities to the vision and strategy of the organization, improve internal and external communications, and monitor organization performance against strategic goals. Our system’s scorecard points to numerous areas of progress, including a consistent trend of more and more students functioning at the CRCT grade level (minimum standards). This is a significant accomplishment and validates that the system is meeting the minimum standards set by the state. That is no small achievement and is worthy of recognition.

However, the score card also validates the ominous trend that, just like the nation as a whole, our school system is failing to meet the needs at the higher end of the educational spectrum. The 3-year average of CRCT test scores show that starting with first grade fewer and fewer students exceed the state minimums. The scorecard shows that 36 percent of first graders exceed the reading standards. By 8th grade only 14 percent exceed the reading standards. The same pattern holds for the math scores. 34 percent of first graders exceed math standards. By the 8th grade this number drops to 17 percent. Based on these scores it appears we are driving our children to the middle. That means while we are pulling some children up from the bottom, we are also pushing some kids from the top down.

There are signs of hope from the Scorecard. The number of Advanced Placement tests administered continues to increase. This demonstrates a commitment by the school system to challenge the students who desire to perform above the average. This is a great start but the scorecard also shows that the number of students achieving a 3 or above is only 32 percent and that is too low. There is much work that needs to be done to fulfill the promise of the AP program.

This negative trend is well documented. Now we need to do something to reverse it right here in our community. I am convinced that the only way that is going to happen is if the adults in the community decide to make it a priority. The school system has it hands full and needs the impetus and support of the parents to drive the change we need. Education is real time. The time to act is now.