Education, Free Enterprise, and American Prosperity
The United States has enjoyed decades of relative prosperity, thanks in large part to the quality of our schools. But our campuses are now leaving too many children behind, while some countries are better developing their talent. We need to speak the truth about our children’s progress and potential so adults can advocate and act on their behalf.
Anne Wicks speaks on education policy at the Bush Center Forum on Leadership.
Why do CEOs obsess over talent management? In Good to Great, the iconic business book published in 2001, author Jim Collins identified a surprising finding. The companies that transitioned from good to great began their ascent by deliberately getting the right people on the team – and the wrong people off. Only then could that committed, talented team to work together to win, to become a great enterprise.
In other words, an organization is only as good as its people.
Now, picture the United States of America. It, too, is an organization of sorts. Our democratic republic, built upon the ideals of equality, liberty, and freedom, has enjoyed decades of relative prosperity. It is not a coincidence that the United States, from 1950 to 1990, had the most highly educated population in the world.
The combination of America’s education firepower and our system of free enterprise created a heady mix of innovation and productivity. But the talent side of our equation is waning. Other countries are now catching up (or passing us) in education attainment, and we are still leaving far too many young Americans behind in our public K-12 system.
We need to start obsessing about America’s talent management too if we want our country’s prosperity to continue – and to become more inclusive. We need young people to have genuine choices about their futures.
The combination of America’s education firepower and our system of free enterprise created a heady mix of innovation and productivity. But Other countries are now catching up (or passing us) in education attainment, and we are still leaving far too many young Americans behind in our public K-12 system.
National Assessment of Educational Progress Reading Scores. (NAEP)
Recent scores from the 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), commonly known as the Nation’s Report Card, showed the biggest drops in reading and math scores ever recorded as the pandemic’s disruptions compounded pre-existing gaps and opened new ones. Our most vulnerable children – those already behind in 2019 – suffered some of the deepest losses. COVID-19 stole time for learning from our young people, leaving many unprepared for the next steps.
Now, 68% of fourth graders are not on grade level in reading, and 65% are not on track in math. That is about 2.6 million nine- and ten-year-olds. Imagine the ideas, the leadership, and productivity held within the hearts and minds of those 2.6 million children – assets that would enrich our culture, strengthen our economy, and bolster our democracy. Students will carry the burden of those gaps with them for years without action. Our country will too.
Pretending learning loss and persistent gaps will just work out over time lets the grown-ups off the hook – and young people left holding the bag.
Redemption is possible, but it requires something from each of us. It is not just the responsibility of our system of schools to attempt to rectify these gaps, and quite frankly, the system is not equipped to handle this task alone. We were not educating all children well before the pandemic, particularly children living in poverty and children of color. We all have a vested interest in the success of our nation’s children.
Success requires that we continue to hold high standards for what children can learn and do. This is not a time to lower expectations. It is a time to say true things about what our children know and can do so that adults can advocate and act on their behalf.
Pretending learning loss and persistent gaps will just work out over time lets the grown-ups off the hook – and young people left holding the bag. Keeping standards high and comparable assessments in place is the responsible thing to do.
Serving all students well requires strengthening our current school system, but it also requires that we continue to expand school options that meet the full needs of children and their families. Many charter schools, parochial schools, magnet schools, and others provide options that are better fits for some families.
National Assessment of Educational Progress Math Scores. (NAEP)
In the most recent 2022 NAEP scores, for example, Catholic schools outperformed other models relative to the 2019 scores. We should celebrate that success and learn from it. We also need robust out-of-school time providers who can enhance and build upon what schools deliver – while keeping students safe in those critical late afternoon hours between school and home. More school models – and choices for families – strengthen the entire system.
We also must invest in the teachers who educate our children and the principals who lead our campuses. Teaching all children well is important and sophisticated work. Teachers and principals need rigorous research-based preparation and on-going professional support. They need strong discernment to parse student performance data and to design effective, responsive instruction. They should be paid fair professional wages with opportunities for genuine advancement.
And it requires teaching reading and math well, the building blocks of access higher order ideas and knowledge. That seems obvious. But current student performance in reading and math on NAEP and state tests demonstrate, with gut-wrenching clarity, how many children are not learning as expected.
Parents and educators must demand strong instruction and high-quality curriculum. A national movement to eradicate schools of the debunked and ineffective balanced literacy approach to teaching reading – and to replace it with a research-based science of reading approach – is a great start. We need a similar effort in math.
We must keep the main thing the main thing (there is a reason Stephen Covey sold more than 25 million books touting this kind of common-sense treasure). Distractions abound in education, from culture wars in school board meetings to attempts to add meaningless input measures to education accountability systems. Adults must stay focused on whether children are being prepared academically to succeed in their next step. That is the main thing, and children need us to protect their interests while they are young.
Success requires that we continue to hold high standards for what children can learn and do. This is not a time to lower expectations. It is a time to say true things about what our children know and can do so that adults can advocate and act on their behalf.
Finally, success requires the unshakable belief that all children can learn and succeed, and the fortitude to commit to these ideals over and over, every day. America, at its best, is a combination of people, empowered by freedom and education, who lead, create, and serve. And that powerful mix creates a nation of prosperity and peace. It is worth fighting for and committing to that vision for America.
