America’s Education Emergency by Michael R. Strain
There is scandalously little political appetite to take the steps needed to help students get back on track.
Newly released test scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress this month show a dramatic reduction in nine-year-olds’ math and reading abilities. Math scores were lower in 2022 than in 2020 – the first-ever decline in the NAEP’s five-decade history – and reading scores were down by the largest amount in over three decades. Moreover, this year’s math and reading test scores were both below their 2004 level. The pandemic erased two decades of progress.
Math test scores for students performing at the 10th percentile fell by four times more than did scores for students at the 90th percentile. For reading, the lowest-performing students’ scores dropped by five times as much as the highest-performing test takers.
My rough calculations using Bureau of Labor Statistics data suggest that losing a year of schooling will reduce the typical high-school-educated worker’s earnings by at least $40,000 per decade.
For some students, the effects could be even larger. A study published by the Brookings Institution this spring finds that the pandemic led to a 16% decline in high-school graduates attending two-year colleges and a 6% decline in four-year college enrollment. Prior to the pandemic, typical households headed by a college graduate earned roughly twice as much as those headed by earners who didn’t hold a four-year degree.