Enjoy the last days of summer, kids. Pretty soon, like about the time you memorize your locker combination, your parents are going to be smacked in the face with new evidence that your school, if it's like most, isn't giving you the education you need.
They're not going to be happy. But, kids, don't let your folks blame the teachers or the principal, or even the school board or the governor. They're to blame, and we're all to blame — you too, kids — for the state of our public schools.
What parents soon will notice are the new scores from last year's standardized tests. They revealed that less than one-third of New York's students in third through eighth grade are proficient in math and English language arts. School-by-school results were released last week, but kids' individual scores won't be divulged until school starts.
Anyway, students aren't the only ones who don't pay much attention to school during summer break. You've got to figure it's going to be plenty hot during September school board meetings, and not from the screwy weather we're getting used to.
In 10 Capital Region schools, there were tests that every student failed. Even in what are considered our most academically challenging school districts, in better-off suburbs, about one-third of the students failed tests. Obviously, these tests aren't graded on a curve.
A year ago, the results showed that 55 percent of New York students passed the English language arts test, and 65 percent were proficient in math. The latest pass rate was 31 percent for both. It isn't that schools are performing worse; it's that the state is raising the bar, as it makes the transition to what's known as the Common Core, a set of standards for kindergarten through grade 12 that has as its goal a sharp improvement in public education.
New York is one of 45 states (and the District of Columbia) that have adopted the Common Core. It's not a curriculum, exactly, as much as it is a statement of what students ought to be able to do at particular grade levels. That is, it doesn't tell school districts how to teach kids — in this country, that's a local decision — but it lets you know what a kid must be able to do to avoid falling behind.
For example, here's one of the elements that the Common Core says an eighth grader ought be able to do:
"Analyze how a modern work of fiction draws on themes, patterns of events, or character types from myths, traditional stories, or religious works such as the Bible, including describing how the material is rendered new."
It's not surprising if only one-third of eighth graders can measure up to that sort of standard. But here's the thing: We should expect no less of them.
Business leaders strongly support the Common Core, as do professional educators. They both understand that one of the reasons America's economy is flagging is because we no longer have the world's best schools. If other nations outpace us intellectually, our national security is at risk.
If you're worried that schools already cost too much, and we can't afford to pour more money into them, then consider how expensive it is for workplaces and colleges to train high school graduates who haven't gotten the skills they need to succeed. Those costs are passed along to us as consumers.
We need a different workforce than we did a decade ago, with greater skills. State Education Commissioner John King notes that if we could add a single percentage point to New York's college completion rate, we could boost the state's economy by $17.5 billion a year.
Before we even get to that, though, King suggests that it's time to re-examine the school calendar and schedule — ready for a longer school day, kids? — and to invest more in education for 3- and 4-year-olds. Making either idea a reality would carry a hefty price tag. Global competition is not for the faint of heart, nor the stingy of wallet when school budgets are on the ballot.
There is a growing push back against the higher standards, King notes, from "a number of political forces in the background." From the left, there is resistance to testing in schools; the right is raising the specter of educational decisions imposed from outside the community.
Neither critique is really fair. As instruction aligns with the standards, tests won't loom as the hurdle they were last year. And it's disingenuous to conflate educational standards, which we have a national interest in raising, with curriculum, which remains a local option.
But make no mistake, the Common Core, as it is implemented gradually over the next few years, will demand more of kids. They will need to read more at home, and study science and social studies more in elementary school. They will have to do more math. They will have to write a lot more, and a lot better.
"The standards reflect the reality of what we need to compete in the 21st century," King says.
Get ready to work harder in school, kids. And parents: Get ready to support them.