Student choice offers promising educational model
America’s students are falling behind in the most basic skills of reading and math needed to be successful in life to obtain the needed employable skills to get that first job and or continue with post-secondary education.
In 2022, the National Center for Education Statistics conducted a special administration of the National Assessment of Educational Progress long-term trend reading and mathematics assessments for age 9 students to examine student achievement during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Average scores for age 9 students in 2022 declined 5 points in reading and 7 points in mathematics compared to 2020. This is the largest average score decline in reading since 1990, and the first ever score decline in mathematics. Students who graduated high school performed worse on the ACT standardized test on average than any previous class for the past 30 years.
To address these failing trends in student achievement, the public education system is focusing on “equity.” Equity is where everyone receives what they need to be on equal footing with others. Our K-12 schools are doing a tragic disservice to students by championing a notion of equity aimed at forcing equal outcome instead of equal opportunity. In past decades, it was taken for granted that students should be allowed to pursue reaching their full potential, and that high expectations were foundational to students’ achieving their potential and making everyone’s American Dream a reality.
Schools and parents need to require the highest possible expectations for all students with the educational system providing personalized learning and advancement based on demonstrated subject mastery rather than grade-level seat time. These expectations will prepare each student for success in life with a viable career, regardless of their socioeconomic status. It is no time to lower the bar. Instead, we should aim to ensure all students reach their unique potential.
Today’s students will step into a world full of opportunities for new-collar jobs; the Institute for the Future estimates that up to 85% of these jobs do not even exist yet. Student choice — the process of allowing every family to choose the K-12 educational options that best fit their children — lets all kids access customized education to obtain employable skills.
Across the U.S., parents are already starting to re-imagine how schools might function in the future. Last year, 63% of U.S. parents considered finding a new or different school for their child. Where education fits just aren’t working, families are turning to microschools, online schools and other innovations. These new or expanding student choices are allowing families to find educational pathways that tap into their children’s interests and equip them with transferable skills for the future.
These new approaches to the education system are heartening for the future of a skilled workforce as well as for equitable opportunity for families and their students. Every child is unique. One child may thrive at their STEM-focused magnet school, another may study construction in a career-technical charter school, and another may explore software-building at a microschool. Student choice can simultaneously honor children’s uniquenesses and equip students for new-collar opportunities.
As education breaks free from classroom borders, public school districts have a new opportunity to invite community participation and ask for community feedback. Here in Virginia, the New Horizons Regional Education Centers (NHREC) are an outstanding learning partnership, where employers, public school leaders, legislators and families are working together to provide career and technical education options for students within the school districts. The largest of nine regional centers in the commonwealth of Virginia, NHREC has become a benchmark for community partnership.
Through it, educators and families are discovering students are being offered educational choices to pursue career initiatives valued by employers while providing an equitable gateway for each student to achieve their career goals and dreams.