William Brangham:

As the school year is coming to a close, a new analysis shines yet another harsh spotlight on what's being called a learning recession for America's students.

And it's a problem that started long before the pandemic. That's according to the latest National Education Scorecard, which is an annual deep dive into data about kids in grades K-12. The findings of this report are sobering. Children had a steady decline in math and reading scores beginning all the way back to 2013, which happens to be when smartphones and social media really took off.

Compared to a decade ago, math scores today are down in 70 percent of school districts. Reading scores are down in 83 percent. Scores have climbed a bit since 2022, but nowhere close to making up all the lost ground. In fact, eighth grade reading scores are now at their lowest level since 1990.

I spoke recently with Thomas Kane. He's one of the authors of the scorecard and a professor at Harvard University. I started by asking him, what stood out most about this latest report?

Thomas Kane, Harvard University:

So the pandemic was just the mudslide that followed seven years of steady erosion in student achievement.

It was as if -- when Congress dismantled test-based accountability at the end of the No Child Left Behind Act, it was as if they turned off the smoke alarms just at the time when social media was setting fire to students' learning time outside of school.

William Brangham:

There are lots of known issues about K-12 education in America, but what problems are most pronounced, in your view, that contribute to this really grim report?

Thomas Kane:

So when I tell my kids that we used to be able to smoke on airplanes, they're incredulous.

(Laughter)

Thomas Kane:

And I think when they tell their kids 20 years from now that we allowed unfettered access to cell phones inside schools and outside of schools, I think their kids are going to have the same reaction.

William Brangham:

Really, it's that profound?

Thomas Kane:

But it's not just about cell phone bans.

So, actually, the early evidence on the effect of cell phone bans is that they are having modest effects on student achievement.

William Brangham:

Right.

Thomas Kane:

The -- what that implies is that the mechanism by which social media are slowing student achievement gains, it's not just through distracting kids in class. It's about how they're using time outside of school. It's about sleep disruption. It's about missing homework. It's about just doing less reading in general.

And the states that are turning things around are turning things around by focusing on early literacy and encouraging, requiring more reading inside a school to counteract the fact that kids are doing less reading outside of school.

William Brangham:

It's so interesting you bring that up. We know, as you were mentioning, some states have been able to turn this around, Mississippi being one of them.

My colleague talked earlier with Dr. Lance Evans. He's the superintendent of the schools in Mississippi. Here's how he said they approach reading and math.

Lance Evans, Mississippi Superintendent of Education: We have an array of coaches. So we have literacy coaches. We have math coaches. We have literacy coaches in special education. We have leadership coaches. We have data coaches.

Let's just use the literacy coaches as a continued example, because the same methodology is used for our math coaches as our literacy coaches. What we do is, we hire some number of coaches. At this case, we have got about 85 of them. Our literacy coaches are typically in our schools, some two days a week, some three days a week. It just kind of depends on the proximity.

But it's not a thing where they're in there like once a month. I mean, this is they are working hand in hand with teachers, with administrators.

William Brangham:

That is a lot of coaches augmenting what teachers are doing. How replicable is something like that?

Thomas Kane:

So the key, that is, to the Mississippi system is not just the coaches. It's that the adults in the system are being held accountable for student results.

William Brangham:

The adults meaning the parents or the administrators?

Thomas Kane:

It's the administrators. It's the school district leaders. It's even the state leaders.

Honestly, I think one of the challenges we face since the end of the No Child Left Behind Act is that we're not holding our leaders accountable to the results. It's not just teachers and students that are being held accountable when we publish students' results.

It's the school district leaders. It's the governors. It's the state legislators. They're all being held responsible for trying to help students catch up.

William Brangham:

There were also declines shown in both wealthier districts and what we'd call poorer districts, implying that money isn't the sole issue either.

Thomas Kane:

So it's clearly money is not the sole issue. It's part of the issue, honestly. So the literacy coaches cost money. The math coaches cost money. Some are learning in high-dosage tutoring or another couple of strategies that districts have been using.

But it's about focusing on student outcomes and being honest with people about where students stand. One of the striking things, William, is that we only sort of woke up to what's been happening recently.

This is a decline that started more than a decade ago. And, honestly, the reason why it sort of slipped under the radar screen all this time is because we weren't holding folks accountable for student results. And that, honestly, I think is going to be the first step, is when states and governors and state legislatures say, hey, look, this is -- we're going to be held accountable for what's happening with our students' achievement.

And we're going to expect local leaders to be accountable too.

William Brangham:

You mentioned earlier that us getting away from testing might have been one of the contributing factors here. But a lot of people look at the testing regimen and the teaching for the tests, that that wasn't great either.

What do you say to those people?

Thomas Kane:

So we looked at what happened prior to 2013, prior to the recent declines. A lot of people don't realize, prior to 2013, there was a two great equivalent increase in fourth grade and eighth grade math achievement since 1990.

And the states that saw the biggest improvement during that time period, if you looked at the folks born in those states, they had higher earnings, higher educational attainment, lower teen motherhood, lower arrest rates.

William Brangham:

Across-the-board benefits.

Thomas Kane:

So it's not just test scores. Test scores are a leading indicator to future outcomes. It's not the only thing that matters, but test scores clearly matter.

William Brangham:

Does this suggest other solutions? Does your report help schools say here are some other things that we could be doing?

Thomas Kane:

So one of the key things, probably the lowest-hanging fruit, is trying to lower student absenteeism. Absenteeism is not the cause of the decline, but it is one of the things that is slowing the recovery.

William Brangham:

How bad is it?

Thomas Kane:

So about 25 percent of students still are missing -- are chronically absent, so missing 10 percent of...

William Brangham:

A quarter of kids?

Thomas Kane:

Yes, so missing 10 percent of the school year or more.

William Brangham:

Wow.

Thomas Kane:

And that's up from before the pandemic.

And so one of the first things that we can do is just try to get that back down at least to the pre-pandemic levels.

William Brangham:

Tom Kane, Harvard University, thank you so much for being here.

Thomas Kane:

Thank you.