WASHINGTON (April 26, 2008) – As we mark the 25th anniversary of “A Nation at Risk,” the spotlight is shining everywhere except where it is most needed. We need a clear-eyed accounting of the progress our schools and students have made over the past 25 years, and we need an honest assessment of the unfinished work required to protect the prospects of our young people and our nation into the future.
Instead of purposeful evaluation and planning, one group of commentators is furiously debating whether the Commission got it right when it claimed that the "tide of mediocrity" was getting “higher” back in 1983, as opposed to merely “high.” Meanwhile, another group argues that without fully and finally eliminating all of the outside-of-school challenges in children's lives, better schools won't make much of a difference.
These arguments distract us from attending to what we can and should do right now for our schools and for the students they serve. Yes, too many of our students are growing up under unconscionable conditions. And yes, we must commit ourselves and our nation to ensuring that no American child suffers under the burdens of poverty or racism. But we cannot allow gross inequities outside our schools to excuse gross inequities within our schools because the facts suggest that poor children and children of color can and do learn more when their schools are better.
Our schools now serve children with a more challenging array of needs than ever before. Yet virtually every group of those children—white, black, Latino, Asian, poor, rich—is achieving at higher levels in most subjects at most grade levels today than they were 25 years ago. In some cases, the achievement gaps which have plagued this country throughout our history are beginning to narrow. That’s solid evidence that strong and committed educators, unwilling to buy into the myths about what some kids can’t do, can make big differences for students, even in the face of daunting outside-of-school circumstances.
But while we’re doing better, it’s still not good enough. The rest of the world is outpacing us. Despite our gains, U.S. high school students now rank in the bottom quarter among industrialized nations in mathematics and in the bottom half in science. Our students are fleeing the very disciplines that are the foundation of the knowledge economy.
Even at the college level, where we’ve led the world for so long, our young adults have dropped to ninth place in attainment of associate’s and bachelor’s degrees. The gaps in college-going between black and Latino students and their white peers are wider now than they were 30 years ago. And for the first time in our history, American young adults are less likely to earn college degrees than are their parents.
We can’t afford to be distracted by other issues or satisfied with our progress. We can’t afford to do business as usual. We can’t afford to continue to ignore the fact that, in the great majority of cases, our schools continue to stack the deck against the success of low-income and students of color.
As Americans we know that education is the best route out of poverty and the surest weapon against racism. But instead of organizing our schools according to our values and the needs of our society, we undermine our most vulnerable students, giving them less of everything that makes for academic success—strong teachers, challenging courses, up-to-date textbooks, functional science labs and college scholarships.
Yes, our students have to work harder. As parents we need to work harder, too, instilling in our children the importance of persistence and effort. But we must also face the reality that schooling in America is out of sync with our long-held national values as well as with the urgent demands of the 21st century.
We strongly reaffirm the Commission’s original call for higher standards, and the efforts since that time to codify those standards and put them to work in American classrooms.
Those standards, however, must be for all students. As a country, we need all students to achieve at the highest levels. After all, poor and “minority” students together now comprise about half of our young people.
The Commission got it right when it said that “the twin goals of equity and high-quality schooling have profound and practical meaning for our economy and society, and we cannot permit one to yield to the other either in principle or practice.”
But in 25 years, our country hasn’t gotten this part right. Not even close.
Citizens’ Commission on Civil Rights
The Education Trust
League of United Latin American Citizens
Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF)
National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) Educational Fund
National Council of La Raza
Southeast Asia Resource Action Center
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