Reaching Struggling Learners
Reaching Struggling Learners
# 89: The Crisis in Education: Confronting the Failure and Forging a Path to Reform
Are our schools equipped to prepare the next generation for the future? Today's episode confronts a harrowing crisis in education, with stark realities that can no longer be ignored. As I share my grave concerns, you'll discover how a staggering number of students are failing to meet basic reading and math benchmarks, and why the reduction of subjects like art and music is suffocating the joy of learning. The pressure-cooker environment that teachers endure has led to an unacceptable turnover rate, signaling a system on the brink of collapse. You'll learn why reinforcing a robust Tier 1 curriculum and foundational skills, such as phonics, is not just necessary but critical in preventing an academic avalanche.
This conversation is a rallying cry for change, a commitment to not only spotlight the issues but to actively seek solutions. Together, we acknowledge the multifaceted failure of our education system—a system that has let down teachers, students, administrators, and parents alike. It's clear that transformative approaches are essential to mend what's broken. Join me as we embark on a mission to revitalize education, beginning with a promise that our next episode will tackle the first major area in need of repair. If you care about the future of our children and the health of our educational institutions, this is the journey we must undertake together.
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Links Mentioned in the Show:
https://teachingstrugglinglearners.com
So it is absolutely no secret that schools right now are not performing well. I mean, honestly, they haven't been performing well in a long time. But over the last several years they really appear to have taken an absolute nosedive on how our scores are coming out and everything. I mean our reading and math scores are really low, really, really low. We won't talk about science, and it's pretty abysmal when you're looking at the data. Let's be honest. We have cut so many specials. I mean kids are getting at the most art once a week. I mean, come on now. The music, maybe once a week if they're lucky, right. So I mean specials and all that. The extra stuff is just gone. They're spending the vast majority of their day doing reading and math and again I mentioned, our scores are really low and the kids are frustrated. They are spending all their time on subjects that are really, really hard for them and frustrating for them. And if they're lucky, they're getting a little bit at the elementary level, maybe 15-20 minutes a day of science and social studies, like I mean, come on, guys, that's pretty bad right. I couldn't imagine going to school like that. That would just no wonder our students are not motivated. And then we talk about the struggling students and the services for them. I mean it's not great. It's not great. And this isn't even talking about a specific school. This is not insider information. These are reading, you know, facebook posts to parents, parents, guys are aware that things are not going well and I mean everybody knows it hits the nightly news once a week that teachers and administrators are leaving in droves. We cannot keep up. Keep these people, because I mean they're being abused. They're being abused from students, are being abused from teachers, are being abused by administrators. Parents are getting real frustrated. It's bad that. I mean it's toxic, it's a toxic environment and something really needs to change Because the reality is at this point, the schools are failing all of us, not just the students.
Speaker 1:Hi, I'm Jessica Curtis of Teaching Struggling Learners. I'm a boy mom and a veteran teacher. You're listening to the Reaching Struggling Learners podcast, where we talk all about helping students succeed academically, socially and behaviorally. Thank you so much for tuning in. So I have been working for years to, through this business and through you know, my work in the classroom, focusing myself on teaching teachers how to, how to progress, monitor and how to provide interventions and things for struggling students.
Speaker 1:And I, man, it's too much, it's too much for these teachers and I realize that the majority of you guys listening are teachers and and I mean it's too much, it's too much the, the latest naep data, which is, you know, an american-based, you know, standardized test, you know, but it's the national scores for the united states it says about only about 30 percent, about 30% of kids can read or do math on grade level at 4th, 8th and 10th grade. Guys, 30% of students can read or do math on grade level. That means 70% can't. Guys, that's not that, that that's, that's not, that's not good. I mean, let's be honest, if a student can't read or can't do math on grade level, that's what I would consider a struggling student. So at this point in our education system, um, you know, the majority of the students that are hit are in the classrooms. They're struggling, they are struggling students and no wonder teachers are overwhelmed, no wonder they're leaving in droves.
Speaker 1:Because I mean, how? How do you teach chemistry? How do you teach chemistry? How do you teach biology? How do you teach American history or anything at the middle or high school level? How do you teach those subjects to kids who can't read? How do you teach those subjects? How do you teach Algebra 1 to children who don't know their multiplication facts? That's not something that's possible.
Speaker 1:I don't care how much you differentiate your instruction, if the children can't write a sentence, they can't write the word because they can't spell the word, because they can't spell the word, because they can't write an English paper. I mean, it's just the things that the students are just completely unable to do by the time they hit middle and high school. I don't know how those teachers are functioning. I really don't. And the reality is, at every level I'll say second grade up teachers are overwhelmed with the sheer number of kids who can't do basic skills, who just cannot. And no, you know what I will say kindergarten and first grade, because the behaviors at those levels are really really rough, really rough, and I'll count that at those levels that's a basic skill that you know to go to the restroom by yourself and that you don't need. You know special instructions to use the toilet properly and things like that. But the reality is teachers are completely overwhelmed by the sheer number of kids who can't do basic skills. And the reality is I'm going to take out the behavior side for the moment and just talk academics, because that's really the realm where you know we live and breathe, as the fundamental problem is obviously a tier one problem.
Speaker 1:Obviously, if you're an MTSS person, you know tier one is what everybody gets. It's your everyday curriculum, it's common core, it's no child left behind, it's all those shenanigans, it's academics, it's the baseline that everybody should be getting. That level is completely failing the majority of our students and by failing all of our students we're failing everybody else right along the way. Right now we're setting kids up to fail later in school life because we're not providing teachers with quality-based curriculum, we're not teaching the kids their phonics skills. If you don't teach them phonics, guess what they're not going to be able to spell and it just snowballs. It snowballs from there. If you don't teach the kids, if you don't work on addition fluency, guess what? Their subtraction is really hard and multiplication is even, even harder and it just gets worse from there. It snowballs because we they don't have that basics foundation, we don't have a good quality tier one curriculum and if we don't teach the kids how to read in first, second, third grade, guess what they're not going to be able to read magically in high school. Thank you, no Child Left Behind it, just snowballs.
Speaker 1:And yeah, I'm getting pretty worked up about this because this is ridiculous 30% of our students who are graduating high school are able to read at a 10th grade level. Is that something to be proud of? I don't think so. The fact that we have teachers at the middle and high school level who are having to put word boxes up on their boards with words like because, because the kids can't spell those words, because the kids can't spell those words, that students are taking more than an hour to write a single paragraph with poor grammar and punctuation, and we won't even talk about spelling that they can't. It's. This is guys. This is ridiculous. Our students are smarter than this, but they're not given the access. Again, the majority of the students hitting middle and high school at this point are struggling learners and I guess the part that it kills me that the students are missing out so much.
Speaker 1:But the other side to this is the people that are being blamed for this are the teachers, but they're the ones that are being set up to fail. They get bad or non-existent curriculum. I've kind of joked about it in the past, you know where. Yeah, you know, you got half the curriculum and you got to share it with your grade level. I've joked about it, but no, that's reality. That's not right. Teachers don't have resources. They're going out and they're spending their own money on things like TPT or what whatever. They're buying their own glue, they're buying all this stuff and teachers aren't paid enough anyway and they're completely overwhelmed. They're not supported. They're again.
Speaker 1:How many times have you seen the, the meme about the? The kid that you know got sent to the office for poor behavior and the kid comes back 30 minutes later with a starburst and a teddy bear. Like seriously, that's not supporting your teachers. That's not supporting your teachers. So no wonder teachers are leaving in droves. No wonder we can't keep good teachers. We can't. And hats off to the teachers who are sticking it out right now but are sitting there going.
Speaker 1:I don't know how much longer I can take this. I mean, bless you. Bless you because we need you. I hope you stick it out and I'm going to do my best to change things and I'm actually changing my focus. I'm shifting my focus on here, because you know what things need to change and it can't just be putting everything on the teachers. It can't be, and so I am changing my focus here to talk about what we can do as teachers, as administrators, as parents, working together to fix a broken system, because it is broken. When 70% of our students aren't aren't able to read or do math on grade level, we won't talk about writing. Then the system is broken. It has been broken for a while, but it's time to start stepping up and I'm going to do my part. I am going to give steps and give, give some, some ideas to help make a difference, things that teachers can do, that parents can do, that administrators can do, and that's what that's what I'm going to be doing.
Speaker 1:Business wide, all this, but really sharing here on this podcast what can we do to help turn this ship around?
Speaker 1:Because our teachers deserve better, our administrators deserve better, our parents deserve better, but, most importantly, our students deserve better, because the reality is right now the schools are truly failing everyone.
Speaker 1:There is not a group that I can think of. I mean maybe the curriculum companies, but that's about it. I don't really care about them the actual people who are involved in this. I cannot think of a single group that's benefiting from the current situation in schools and that needs to change, because the reality is everyone our students, our teachers, our parents, our administrators all of those people who are their lives are wrapped up in a good education system, a need for a good education system. We're failing them, and so that's what we're going to do here. We're going to change our focus and I hope that you will join me on this absolutely wild ride to see what we can do together to help fix a very broken system. I will see you next week with my first installment on one of the first things, the major areas that we need to turn around and fix, and I hope you stick around.