Friday News Roundup

It’s Friday! And it’s warming up here in Iowa. Time for the News Roundup.

Standards Gap: Why So Many Students Score Proficient on State Tests But Not on NAEP (The 74)

Why are state standardized test scores so much higher than scores on NAEP, or our Nation’s Report Card?

The 74 reported this week that,

“One of the most striking features of the troubling results from the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress is the much lower percentage of student scoring proficient on NAEP than on many states’ own 2024 standardized exams.”

…

“The gaps were at least 15 percentage points in three-quarters of the states. In some, they were even greater.”

…

“Perhaps more than any other factor, it’s lower state standards.”

“To achieve proficiency on the national assessment, students must show ‘solid academic performance and competency over challenging subject matter.’ That’s where Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and the District of Columbia set their proficiency bar. But most states’ fall short of that benchmark, landing with in the range of NAEP’s lower ‘basic’ standard, which requires students to demonstrate only ‘partial mastery of fundamental knowledge and skills.’ In Virginia – which has introduced new academic standards – and Iowa, the bar for reading falls below even that.”

…

When I worked in Texas, I learned that politicians and educational decision-makers didn’t like low test scores. They were hard to explain to the public. So, most states developed low standards and low cut scores on their standardized tests so that it appeared their kids were doing better than they were.

But NAEP doesn’t lie. And our truth right now is that we aren’t very good when it comes to reading and math performance – as a nation.

Trump Administration Slashes Millions in Teacher-Training Grants (EducationWeek)

It’s immoral and unethical to tear apart our current system of teaching and learning without replacing it with a new system of learning. This seems to be what the Trump administration is doing based upon its current practices in public education and other sectors.

EducationWeek reported this week that,

“As part of a broader push to eliminate programs associated with diversity, equity, and inclusion, the U.S. Education Department has eliminated two major teacher-training programs.”

“The cuts include two of the department’s largest discretionary programs for professional development: the $70 million-a-year Teacher Quality Partnerships program and the $80 million-a-year Supporting Effective Educator Development, or SEED grants.”

…

“The TQP grants support partnerships between school districts and nonprofits or colleges and universities to expand teacher preparation and recruitment. These grants underlie many of the nation’s teacher-residency programs, which typically support teacher-candidates to receive hands-on classroom training for a year. The SEED grants include those purposes as well as in-service professional development for teachers and principals, and alternative programs for entering the profession.”

Interactive: Data From 9,500 Districts Finds Even More Staff and Fewer Students (The 74)

According to The 74 this week,

“Public schools added 121,000 employees last year, even as they served 110,000 fewer students.”

“This is a continuation of recent trends. In per-student terms, public schools have hit new all-time staffing highs in each of the last three years.”

These are unsustainable practices for our current K-12 system. More and more school districts will bankrupt themselves because of these practices.

Maybe instead of cutting teacher development budgets, the Trump administration can help school districts understand that they can’t continue to hire more adults when their student enrollment numbers are becoming smaller.

But then, that would probably take something like a U.S. Department of Education to help school districts figure that out.

That’s the News Roundup for this Friday. Enjoy your weekend. It’s going to be 50 degrees in Iowa next week! Another post Monday. Til then. SVB