WHAT WE NEED TO IMPROVE EDUCATIONAL RESULTS

Posted October 29th, 2023

It should be no surprise that tests administered last year by the National Assembly of Educational Progress (NAEP), which is also known as “the Nations’ Report Card”, revealed that children across the country have severely lost ground in Reading and Math skills during pandemic lockdowns and remote learning. In fact, nationwide only 31% of 8^th graders scored ‘Proficient’ in Reading, according to American News, (Oct.24^th.) “I want to be very clear, the results of ‘the nations’ report card’ are appalling and unacceptable”, said Miguel Cardona, the U.S.A. Secretary of Education.” The fact that 70% of 8^th graders are “Not Proficient” in Reading is a huge problem. According to Cardona, our students’ success, country’s strength, and status in the world are at stake. He said “it’s a new day, we need new thinking, and we need to do this together.” So, here’s my two cents on what we need:

We DO NOT need massive amounts of more ESSER money. The Feds distributed $190 Billion in the last 3 years which did not solve the problem.

We DO NOT need to raise the minimum threshold scores students need to pass MCAS Exams and other high-stakes tests required for high school graduation.

We DO NOT need more Pedagogical Research to discover effective ways to teach and learn because that rock-solid research was done 80 years ago.

We DO NOT need more expensive Special Education Services. Those costs have sky-rocketed from 0-33% of school budgets in the last 50 years.

We DO NOT need more high paid Administrators who are not familiar with proven SQ3R-based teaching and learning strategies.

We DO NOT need more Public, Private or Charter schools that cost tens of millions of dollars to build and will not solve the problem.

We DO NOT need more untrained teachers and School Choice programs.

We DO NOT need longer school days and summer school programs that use the same old teaching methods and strategies.

What we DO need is what Secretary Cardona stated in his recent Visions Report, “It’s a new day and we need new thinking and we need to do this together.” In my view, to raise academic performance levels, create level playing fields, close educational gaps and provide greater equity we need to quickly equip our teachers and students with SQ3R-based teaching and learning knowledge and strategies. This can be accomplished in a ½ day of training. Everything else we need we already have. Since 1942, SQ3R has been considered to be the most effective learning strategy ever developed. Yet, few schools are using it and that’s the problem. We’ve added computer technology and ‘whole brain’ memory techniques to bring SQ3R up into the 21^st Century. Neither of those technologies existed in 1942. This training is the solution we need. To learn more, please visit our website and contact me: http://www.21stcenturystudyskills.com/

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