Rigor—More Tests

Lead U.S. students rank 31st in math and 24th in science among 71 advanced industrialized nations, according to the Programme for International Student Assessment. Statisitics Meanwhile, Finnish students rank 6th in both fields (Desilver). Our achievement gap is not due to lack of rigor. U.S. high school students on average do one to two hours of homework per night, while Finnish students rarely do any. U.S. students take yearly standardized tests from third grade onward, while Finnish students take only one test at the end of high school, graded by teachers instead of computers, with questions such as "In what sense are happiness, a good life, and well-being ethical concepts?" (Jackson). Beginning Paragraph So, what is going on? Why is the more rigorous system producing less rigorous results? Why does the United States spend 40 percent more than the average industrialized nation per student but scores only in the middle of the pack ("What Country")? Perhaps the U.S. penchant for rigor, testing, and spending is not the solution to our education woes but is, instead, the problem. As the old saying goes, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over but expecting different results." Opinion Statement The U.S. determination to double-down on rigor in education despite its lackluster results has caused multiple problems for students, teachers, and parents, and it's time for a real solution.

Topic Sentences Like most things in U.S. society, the fascination with rigor arises from the desire to beat the competition. Our weaponization of math and science began in 1939, when Albert Einstein wrote a letter urging President Roosevelt to fund a scientific program to create an atomic bomb before Hitler could. History of Problem Roosevelt reluctantly set up a commission with a paltry $6,000 budget ("Einstein-Szilard"). Six years and many millions of dollars later, the Manhattan Project delivered two bombs that ended World War II. After beating the Axis Powers, the U.S. recruited former Nazi rocket scientists to beat the Soviets in the Cold War. By 1969, the U.S. had won the Space Race with men on the moon, and by 1989, the U.S. had won the Nuclear Arms Race with the fall of the Soviet Union. Without another superpower to beat, U.S. interest in science, technology, math, and engineering (STEM) slowly waned.

By 2002, responding to sagging test scores, the bipartisan No Child Left Behind Act established a new regime of rigor, standards, accountability, and funding for schools in the United States (Klein). The network of locally controlled school districts became part of an educational-industrial complex driven from the federal level by billions of dollars. And when taxpayers lay out that much money, they want test scores that show they are getting what they paid for. Middle Paragraphs Schools that made "Adequate Yearly Progress" received federal funds, and those that didn't, didn't. Despite all the rigor and accountability, the No Child Left Behind Act continued to leave many children behind. In 2010, the Common Core State Standards and the high-stakes tests based on them put a fresh face on rigor. In 2015, the Every Student Succeeds Act gave the old regime a new acronym but strangely produced little improvement ("Every"). Why? The very real gains in science and technology during the Space Race were not replicated by the similarly named but entirely different Race to the Top. Why?

Analysis of Problem Perhaps we have pushed rigor too far. Even before the last two decades of accountability, U.S. schools followed a factory model, with desks in rows filled with interchangeable students who punched in and out of class, received inputs, provided outputs, experienced ongoing evaluation, and, most importantly, produced. For more than a century, Western schools used the same organizational structures as the engines of industry that made these nations into economic powerhouses. Let's not forget, however, that industrial productivity often came at a high price: abusive labor practices, vast income inequality, family disintegration, pollution, crime, and social unrest. A century of trust-busting, unions, child-labor laws, environmental protections, and other correctives curbed these abuses in industry. It is now illegal for people under 16 years old to work more than eight hours a day for pay ("I Am"). Interestingly, it is now encouraged for those same people to attend school for eight hours and do more than two hours of homework a day—for free.

Not surprisingly, further increases to educational rigor only cause more students to be left behind. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, 73 percent of 17 year olds have homework assigned each night, 13 percent of students spend more than two hours on it, 49 percent spend less than two hours, and 11 percent do not do the assignments at all (Loveless). Increasing homework load will not result in more time spent by those who do not do homework. Instead, it will increase the time spent by those who already work hard on it. A study by the Brookings Institute shows that low-income students do a third less homework than others, and the homework gap is even more pronounced between high-achieving and low-achieving ethnic groups (Hansen). Increasing homework rigor only causes overload for high performers and gives low performers even more reason to disengage.

Pivot to Solution The factory model may work well for industries that produce products, but schools aren't factories, and students aren't products. They are people.

Argument for Solution Which brings us back to Finland. Remember that question from the single end-of-school, high-stakes test in Finland: "In what sense are happiness, a good life, and well-being ethical concepts?" That question treats students as people instead of products. Not only does it focus on the happiness of the learner, but it also asks the learner to do far more than regurgitate facts and figures. It requires the person to think across disciplines, to think holistically, even (gasp) philosophically about ethics and life in general. Remember, also, that students educated as people instead of products not only can take on such a daunting question but can also outperform other students in math and science.

Finland succeeds with less homework, less class time, more student autonomy, and a focus on the child instead of the standards. While the United States relies on the "stick" to flog students into performance, Finland relies on the "carrot" to show students how education empowers them. That analogy brings us back to the tremendous success of U.S. STEM during the Space Race. National heroes like John Glenn soared around the world and arrived home to ticker-tape parades. School children watched Neil Armstrong take the first steps on the moon. A whole generation of students aspired to become science officers like Mr. Spock from Star Trek. Everyone expected to have a flying car by the turn of the millennium. Those cultural aspirations were far more powerful than any battery of tests or set of rigorous standards for producing high achievers in math and science.

Ending Paragraph So, what is the solution to lagging performance in U.S. schools? Two decades of increased rigor and federal spending have proven incapable of moving the needle on achievement. We can no longer tell students, teachers, and parents that "The daily beatings will continue until morale improves." Instead of focusing education on products such as test scores and homework assignments, we must focus education on the learners themselves. And, yes, that means addressing happiness, a good life, and ethics along the way. We must stop treating students as products and start seeing them as people with families and communities, hopes and dreams. If we shift from the factory model of education to a student-centered model, not only will we have happier, smarter, and more well-adjusted learners, but we'll also have better mathematicians, scientists, readers, writers, and thinkers.

Works-Cited Entries Works Cited

Desilver, Drew. "U.S. Students’ Academic Achievement Still Lags That of Their Peers in Many Other Countries." FactTank, Pew Research Center, 15 Feb. 2017, http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/02/15/u-s-students-internationally-math-science/.

"The Einstein-Szilard Letter —1939." AtomicHeritage.org, Atomic Heritage Foundation, 18 Jul. 2017, https://www.atomicheritage.org/history/einstein-szilard-letter-1939.

"Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)." Ed.gov, U.S. Department of Education, 5 Jun. 2018, https://www.ed.gov/essa.

Hansen, Michael and Diana Quintero. "Analyzing ‘the Homework Gap’ Among High School Students." Brown Center Chalkboard, Brookings, 10 Aug. 2017. https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2017/08/10/analyzing-the-homework-gap-among-high-school-students/.

"I Am 14 or 15." Youth Rules!, U.S. Department of Labor, 5 Jun. 2018, https://www.youthrules.gov/know-the-limits/14-15.htm.

Jackson, Abby. "4 Reasons Finland's Schools Are Better." Business Insider, Business Insider, 3 Apr. 2015, http://www.businessinsider.com/4-things-finlands-schools-do-better-than-america-2015-4.

Klein, Alyson. "No Child Left Behind: An Overview." Edweek.org, Education Week, 5 Jun. 2018, https://www.edweek.org/ew/section/multimedia/no-child-left-behind-overview-definition-summary.html.

Loveless, Tom. "Homework in America." 2014 Brown Center Report on Education in America, 8 Mar. 2014, https://www.brookings.edu/research/homework-in-america/.

"What Country Spends the Most on Education?" Investopedia, Investopedia, 9 Feb. 2015, https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/020915/what-country-spends-most-education.asp.