August 30, 2022
When talking with folks who have lived in America for many years, one thing is a common topic: the many crises we see today.
We are very divided, politically. Our news media is infected with many organizations that have abandoned neutrality in reporting. While our military may still be highly effective, recent new ideas within its leadership are weakening it. And education in grades K-12 and at the college level is seriously troubled.
On the topic of education, that observation does not mean that there are no good schools or no great teachers, only that the system is damaged and getting worse. Some evidence of that follows.
The Program for International Student Assessment tests 15-year-old students around the world every three years, and is administered by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). In 2018, the U.S. placed 25th out of nearly 80 nations for average scores in mathematics, science and reading.
Number one China averaged 578, while the U.S. averaged 495, only a few points above the overall average score of 489. The top five average scores belong to China, Singapore, Macao, Hong Kong, and Estonia.
The U.S. scored 478 in math, below the OECD average. In science, the United States scored at 502, above the average score. In reading, the U.S. scored 497, slightly higher than the average.
If there is any good news in these ominous figures, it is only that the scores have not fallen further from where the country ought to be in recent years. Scores have remained fairly stable in math since 2003, and science since 2006.
While China — America’s number-one economic and military threat — teaches young people calculus and quantum physics, many American K-12 schools and colleges are more concerned with students’ chosen pronouns, gender issues, creating equity and diversity, and pushing the historically false Critical Race Theory.
Changes to the curriculum and classroom activities for our youngest and most vulnerable learners are often made without the public’s knowledge, or without the consent of parents. Parents are people who pay taxes that fund public education, and are responsible for properly raising their children. Yet, when they attend school board meetings to question or complain about the activities in their children’s schools, their frustration and anger is labeled as “domestic terrorism” by U.S. Attorney General, Merrick Garland.
Things at the post-secondary level are also gummed up. Diversity and equity issues, and the drive to raise enrollment push true education matters to the back. Many colleges and universities offer courses of study that may satisfy the desires of students, but do not provide learning in subjects with which one can make a living. This is likely a factor in the current situation where President Joe Biden wants to relieve some former students of $10,000-to-$20,000 of their college loan debt.
Recognizing the problems in colleges today, on the first day with university status, Bluefield State University President Robin Capehart outlined to faculty and staff some of the problems the school faces. Citing a book published by social scientists Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa titled “Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses,” Capehart noted the following findings of a trend that is moving away from students’ focusing on learning, and instead toward getting a degree in the quickest and easiest way.
They say that many college students: were underprepared for college work; lacked academic commitment; were more focused on the nonacademic aspects of college life; and had become adept at the “art of college management,” which is the ability to navigate through their college work with the least time and effort, relegating learning to a matter of happenstance.
For their part, the institutions had become so dependent upon enrollment that they enable the students’ ambitions for an easy time by sacrificing academic rigor, by promoting social and other nonacademic aspects of college life, and investing in amenities that would further enable enrollment gains, Arum and Roska wrote.
Capehart told the audience that Bluefield State has two choices: “You can give them what they want — or you can help them see what they need.”
He then listed five attributes that focus on learning: the need for students who want to learn; a rigorous curriculum; engaging instruction; effective and efficient delivery of support services; and last, but not least, accountability from an external source. This transition will be difficult, he said.
How many of the nation’s institutions of higher learning need to re-structure their academic environment as Bluefield State is doing? How many of them will do it, or even understand that they need to?
America faces substantial challenges from other nations in military strength and other critical areas. How is the country going to regain its high position in the world, or even maintain the lesser position in holds today, if we don’t stop this foolishness, focus on the basics, and once again strive for excellence in education, the military, government, business, science, medicine and the other critical areas?
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