OPINION:
Student test scores in math and reading have been steadily declining since 2013, well before COVID-19. The pandemic only exacerbated the loss, a new analysis by researchers at Stanford, Harvard and Dartmouth shows.
This reversal ended two decades of progress. The primary reason? A shifting cultural consensus that test-based accountability hinders a child’s academic progress.
Critics argued that standardized testing caused severe mental stress for children and produced inequitable outcomes across different student groups. When George W. Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” act was introduced, its framework focused heavily on closing these demographic achievement gaps through strict testing metrics.
Not surprisingly, it was during the dismantling of these accountability systems that the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research and its research partners began to see the learning decline.
Standardized testing is still highly debated in this country, but before it was ditched by school districts, it identified learning gaps, objectively measured academic progress, and held students accountable for their own academic success.
The second explanation for this “learning recession” given by researchers should not shock any parent: the rise of social media use. Almost every student today is assigned a Chromebook by their public school and tasked with completing assignments on it. All have an artificial intelligence tutor there to help them, lessening the demands on the teachers but also proving a distraction in the classroom.
Fifty-four percent of students ages 13 to 17 said they had used a chatbot such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Microsoft’s Copilot for tasks such as researching school assignments or solving math problems, Pew said in a report this year. That was up from only 13% in 2023.
Students are also using AI to cut corners — or, as some would say, cheat. Forty-four percent of teenagers acknowledged using AI for “some” or “a little” of their schoolwork, with 10% using chatbots for all or most of their schoolwork.
Cellphones are also a hindrance. Studies have found that schools that ban them on campus experience reduced classroom distraction and happier teachers. Some schools have reported higher test scores and attendance since the bans went into effect.
As of this month, two-thirds of U.S. states have enacted laws restricting cellphone use in K-12 schools, and more should follow suit. Ditching the Chromebooks also would be a bonus, as teenagers spend, on average, seven to nine hours a day in front of their screens.
Today, eighth-grade reading scores on national assessments are at their lowest point since 1990. Eighth-grade math scores are at their lowest levels in two decades, with only 28% of U.S. students scoring proficient or above.
It is clear that our nation’s classrooms are failing our students. Bringing back standardized testing and banning all devices in the schools could be the path to getting us, as a nation, back on track.
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