Biden’s Education Agenda A Disappointment

The Biden administration released their most recent K-12 legislative agenda. It focuses on absenteeism, tutoring, and extended learning. According to an EducationWeek online news story last week,

“The Biden administration wants states and school districts to increase student attendance, adopt high-dosage tutoring, and expand summer and after-school learning as part of a new agenda for reversing declines in student achievement.”

The announced [last week] the administration’s new ‘Improving Student Achievement Agenda’ at a White House event with governors and state education leaders.”

…

“’These three strategies have one central goal: giving students more time and more support to succeed,’ Cardona said.”

“The Biden administration hasn’t had an aggressive K-12 policy agenda in its first three years, as national tests have shown student achievement declining during the pandemic. Cardona told Education Week in October 2023 that the administration ‘chose intentionally not to create a magic strategy’ on K-12 education in favor of promoting state- and district-level solutions.”

“That approach has differed from the more aggressive and specific Race to the Top grant competitions of the Obama years and the No Child Left Behind Act from George W. Bush’s presidency. For his part, [Donald] Trump has said in his campaign that he would penalize districts that teach about critical race theory and gender identity – a common plank for conservative politicians – and give parents the power to elect principals.”

“The student achievement agenda announced [last week] doesn’t veer from the Biden administration’s previous direction on K-12 policy.”

“Rather than creating a large competitive grant program or pursuing a comprehensive law, the agenda will use accountability measures established in the Every Student Succeeds Act, reporting requirements, smaller grants, and technical assistance to encourage states to adopt strategies proven to help student achievement.”

“’There must be equal parts of support and accountability to get the best for our children,’ Cardona said. ‘We must get back to pre-pandemic levels quickly, but also let’s be clear: The bare minimum that we aspire to is to get back to what it was in 2019. 2019 wasn’t anything to write home about. Our kids deserve better.’”

“In a fact sheet published [last week,] the White House outlined actions it plans to take to encourage high-dosage tutoring and increase summer and after-school learning.”

“The Education Department plans to expand its monitoring of state using its existing authority under federal law as they implement strategies included in the Improving Student Achievement Agenda. For example, the department will examine whether states with high-dosage tutoring programs are implementing them effectively and provide guidance on improving programs when needed.”

“The department will also encourage states to identify local school districts with the greatest pandemic achievement gaps and direct additional school improvement resources to those districts for high-dosage tutoring and summer and after-school programs.”

“It will highlight states with strong programs by publishing statistics on students receiving tutoring over the spring and into next fall; participation in summer learning and enrichment; and how much time students have spent in extended school day and after-school programs.”

“By publishing the data on states with successful programs, the department hopes to encourage more states to adopt those strategies.”

“The department also plans to create new grant programs in 2024, depending on the availability of federal funding, that would prioritize efforts to increase student attendance, engagement, and academic achievement. The grant money could be sued to fund high-dosage tutoring, after-school and extended learning, math and literacy coaching for educators, more rigorous coursework, expanded community resources and partnerships to meet student and family needs, and strategies for re-engaging students.”

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It’s hard to imagine a more underwhelming national education agenda than the one just presented by President Joe Biden.

Getting kids back into schools that were already failing them.

Tutoring.

And summer school and after-school programming.

That’s it?

That’s it.

The problem with America when it comes to educating our young citizenry (and the problem with other sectors like health care, housing, food policy, climate change, and the list goes on and on) is that we no longer know how to dream big and deliver on those dreams.

So let me take a stab at a national BHAG – a big, hairy, audacious goal.

For all of those kids who are behind in the reading, writing, and problem-solving abilities, or for those children stuck in “sucky schools,” let’s provide them and their families money and support to create an individual learning plan, hire a well-trained learning coach to help them execute on their personalized plan, and allow those learners to work within a cohort of peers, whether it be in a school space or not.

The personalized learning plan has a great chance at engaging a young person much better than sending them back to these places called school. The individual learners has an investment in a learning plan they helped create.

A personalized learning plan could involve tutoring, but maybe not. You see that’s the beauty of an individual learning plan – it’s created for the individual and only that individual.

The same goes for the use of time, which the Biden administration’s focus on summer school and after-school programming addresses. If the learner needs more time, that time can be built into their learning plan. If not, the young learner can benefit from rest and relaxation.

You can’t help but be disappointed with President Biden’s latest education agenda. It’s like our national government has given up on our kids, especially those who are black, brown, and poor – the ones that need a change in learning the most.

Til tomorrow. SVB