Boston: We must get serious about educating our most vulnerable [ Dallas Morning News ]

A row of cubbies hold backpacks for children at Little Mustangs Child Learning Academy, Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2024, in Richardson, Texas. (Elías Valverde II/The Dallas Morning News via AP)(Elías Valverde II / ASSOCIATED PRESS)

We must get serious about educating our most vulnerable

Nation’s report card shows disappointing trends for Texas and Dallas.

In his famous address on June 11, 1963, President John F. Kennedy made it clear to the American people that turning away from Jim Crow and providing civil rights for all was no longer a political issue. It was a moral issue.

Today’s education crisis has become more than a political issue. Like civil rights, the failure of our public schools to provide a satisfactory educational system that gives schoolchildren the capacity to read and do math proficiently has become a moral issue.

Do we care enough about our kids and our future to put our political differences and adult interests aside?

Though Texas made significant academic gains from the late 1990s to 2011, we’ve seen steady declines in the 13 years since. More and more of the most disadvantaged students are achieving at levels rated “below basic,” both in Texas and in Dallas, and thus they’ll be less able in the future to attract good-paying jobs.

We’re taught, in the Christian tradition, to care for the marginalized. “Truly, I tell you whatever you did for the least of these …, you did for me,” Jesus said.

We’re taught in the Jewish tradition, in the spirit of the great sage Maimonides, that the highest level of righteous giving is to enable a person to get a job and be able to be self-sufficient.

Just as we could no longer turn our face away from the immorality of Jim Crow, we can no longer turn our face away from declining educational achievement of our disadvantaged youth that will doom them to less opportunity in life.

Measuring Decline

While virtually all measures show decline in Texas, as well as in Dallas, let’s focus on eighth-grade math and fourth-grade reading results to illustrate the terrible nature of the loss. Math proficiency in eighth grade may be the best single predictor of how students will do in high school math and science courses as many prepare to be ready for STEM-related jobs. In Texas, from 2000 to 2011, Black students made gains of 27 points on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). This was extraordinarily good news over a decade ago, but that was then and this is now.

Today’s tragic news: Black students lost ground in each of the next six eighth-grade NAEP math administrations, and 60% of them are now below basic in their math skills.

Among Hispanic eighth-grade schoolchildren, over half are now below basic in math. We can see the warning signs in fourth-grade reading results, too. Reading at this grade is highly predictive of the capacity of students to be able to learn throughout their K-12 years and beyond.

Sadly, Texas fourth-grade reading results have fallen steadily over the past decade.

As for Dallas Independent School District, there’s also major regression over the past decade. In 2013, 56% of Black students in the fourth grade were below basic in reading. Now 71% are. The numbers for Hispanic students are slightly better but stagnant.

In eighth-grade math, in DISD, 48% of Blacks and 30% of Hispanics were below basic in 2013. Today, 66% of Black students and 52% of Hispanic students are below basic.

It should be noted that there was a ray of hope in the DISD data. There was slight improvement for Black students in fourth-grade math. The percent below basic improved from 38 in 2019 to 32 last year.

What chance does a person who is below basic in reading and math skills have of getting a good-paying job in our economy? The words ring in our consciences: “Whatever you did for the least of these …” The highest level is to help others be self-sufficient.

Moving forward

The vital questions now arise: What can we do about the problem, and what will it take to succeed?

Here are four inputs that are proved to move the achievement needle: rigorous accountability; effective teachers; research-proven curricula and instruction, especially around reading; and more funding for all of the above.

While there has been some positive effort to utilize these strategies, there has not been a consistent, effective and systemic implementation of all these strategies in the state or in DISD.

Most troubling, there’s been a serious lowering of standards and evisceration of accountability at the state level, beginning exactly when achievement began to drop, early in the 2010s.

If we’re to reverse this terrible trend, we must restore strong accountability and get more committed to full-bore implementation of all these proven strategies.

The good news is that the current commissioner of education is supportive. But he’s been impeded by special interests who’ve, for example, opposed his recent efforts to strengthen accountability by upping the ante on use of the A-F evaluation/improvement system for campuses. The naysayers have postponed any strong accountability by tying up his A-F plan in the courts.

Perhaps no single goal is more important than getting young people to reading proficiency. Whatever a report card says, or any test, there’s no better way for a parent to know whether a child can read than to have the child read to the parent — whether from a book, a newspaper or simple instructions on how to use an appliance.

If the child can read proficiently to you, great. If not, there’s a problem. And it’s a problem that merits your immediate attention. Let your school, your school board member, your superintendent or your state representative know you’re not satisfied.

It takes all of us

But, as much as this is a concern for parents, the situation calls out to all of us. Faith leaders, business owners and community groups — this is your fight, too. The workforce of tomorrow is in crisis today. Will we step up, or stand by?

The national assessment says we have a massive problem. After making significant progress in the 1990s and the 2000s to get our kids to higher levels of achievement, we’ve lost ground badly in the last decade. As we’ve shown, vast numbers of students are now achieving at below basic rates.

How many more years of decline can we afford? When does the decline become irrecoverable?
Just as the citizenry responded to Presidents Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson decades ago, let’s all see the moral issue in these educational setbacks, resist the pull of special interests and act to make gains again.

We must do better. After the next NAEP administration two years from now, let’s not be moaning about results, but rather celebrating on the way to fulfilling our kids’ dreams, and ours.

Talmage Boston is a Dallas lawyer who has authored five history books and written op-eds and book reviews for The Dallas Morning News for over 30 years. His latest book, How the Best Did It: Leadership Lessons from Our Top Presidents, was released April 2024. He is a Dallas Morning News contributing columnist.

Sandy Kress was senior adviser on education to President George W. Bush and a former Dallas ISD trustee.

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