Teaching

“Record drops in teen math and reading scores.” “National Math, Reading Scores Hit Historic Lows.” “Test Scores Flashing Red!” The headlines roll in weekly, each more alarming than the last. In February, twenty-six schools in Baltimore failed to bring a single student up to the most basic math requirements. The same month, sixty-seven schools in Illinois couldn’t produce a single proficient reader. We’ve reached a national education crisis, and its roots run deeper than many are willing to admit. The pressing question is: why can’t America produce proficient students? But perhaps a more crucial question is: why can’t America produce proficient teachers?

Another school year has begun. It's another year that I’m grateful to have left public education. From the outside, it doesn’t make much sense for me to have left. I had a good reputation in my district among staff, students, and administration. The pay at public schools is markedly better. And being a private school teacher makes you something of an outcast among teacher colleagues — never quite “one of us.” I did not leave because of the standard accusation — that I couldn’t “handle it.” In many ways, my private school jobs have been far more difficult than my public school one.

From the beginning of the lockdown in March, it became clear that children were going to have a very different experience depending on where they are educated. Many private schools and some of the best public schools immediately made arrangements for teaching to continue online, uninterrupted. For many other children, it has been a case of only being set the odd homework assignment.The quality in educational experience during the lockdown is going to have a very large impact on attainment. A rapid evidence assessment by the Education Endowment Foundation, a British think tank, has attempted to put a figure of just how the attainment gap could grow if children are kept out of the classroom until September.