Kansas children need all those invested in their education rowing the same direction
Test scores show Kansas students are falling behind. This is almost solely due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Topeka Capital-Journal’s Rafael Garcia reports Kansas dropping to some of its lowest scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Students on this year’s version of the National Assessment of Educational Progress showed steep, “appalling and unacceptable” declines in learning rates, according to data released Monday by the National Assessment Governing Board.
Kansas was in a majority of states to show declines in reading and math.
There’s no point in playing the blame game here. No one person is at fault. Nevertheless, we need to circle the wagons and get this fixed for our children. They are the future of Kansas. We need to invest in them now while corrective actions can be made. It’s going to take investment from all sectors of the state, but it's certainly necessary.
"It's going to take us a few years to turn this around," said Kansas education commissioner Randy Watson. "Every state is in it. We don't like it, but we've got to respond pretty aggressively."
So what can we do?
For starters, we need parents, educators and the community to pitch in. We need adults to show our young students that education is important. Math, science, reading and the arts can open doors to them that they never dreamed of. That can be as simple as taking an interest in our students’ education. Ask them about their day, recognize when they might be struggling and help out. Encourage them to try their best.
We need to give educators the time and support they need to do their jobs. This means adequately funded school systems, access to programming and curriculum that can help redirect these children and administrators, school board members and legislators who understand teachers need to be able to tailor lessons to children — not children to ideals.
We need less griping about what’s in the library and more encouragement to get children to the library. Teachers want to help children learn. We need as few roadblocks to that endgame as possible.
We need parents who are involved and supportive. That means advocating for their child and supporting the teachers trying to help their students learn.
We need the community to invest in our schools. That can mean employers being more understanding when their workers need time off to deal with school matters. That can mean sponsoring opportunities for educational enrichment.
We can do this, but we have to all be on the same team. The future of Kansas depends on it.
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas children need those invested in their education working as one
