Public Schools Are Doing Quite Well ; Remarkable Progress Made in Educating Diverse Student Population

By Lionel S. Lewis

Shortly before the United States marked the fifth anniversary of the No Child Left Behind Act — the highly publicized legislation designed to compel the public schools and their teachers to do a much better job teaching basic facts and transmitting societal norms and values — the government published the 126th edition of the Statistical Abstract of the United States, a 999-page portrait of the American people.

Although a number of tables in the Statistical Abstract clearly show that the public schools have been doing an uncommonly good job, it is widely believed that the schools are inadequate. For example, in November 2006, the president of the prestigious Woodrow Wilson Foundation announced a new effort “to build capacity in the teacher corps by offering a new signature fellowship — a Rhodes Scholarship [program] for teachers.”

The following month, the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce, a panel that included two former education secretaries, two former labor secretaries and a governor, called for the need to rethink American schooling from top to bottom. If far- reaching redesign does not occur, the commission warned, “the American standard of living will steadily fall.”

And the following month, a coalition of community groups recommended that the New York City Department of Education develop “a Marshall Plan” for middle-grade schools. The New York City Schools chancellor referred to the failure of school systems as “the shame of our nation.”

What has particularly caught the attention of the critics of the schools is that average SAT verbal scores have fallen significantly in recent years. Between 1967 and 2005, they dropped from 543 to 508, while math scores barely increased, from 516 to 520. Yet the percent of test-takers with scores in the upper reaches in both the verbal and math sections increased between 1990 and 2005, while the percent of those with very low scores decreased. The ACT scores for college-bound students moved up very slightly between 1970 and 2005, from 19.9 to 20.9.

Some standardized test score averages have fallen, of course, because a larger percentage of high school students than four decades ago, not just those planning to attend competitive colleges, are presently taking these tests.

What the Statistical Abstract shows is that, at any given time, the public elementary and secondary schools enroll close to 20 percent of the American population, and 95 percent of those between 5 and 17 years of age. What other institution must provide a place for such a great and diverse number of individuals?

To be sure, there are other large-scale government enterprises, for example, 40 million Americans receive Social Security or railroad retirement benefits, and the U.S. Postal Service has more than 140 million delivery points, but these are hardly the same thing.

We can see from the first graphic that between 1970 and 2003, there was appreciable growth in public school enrollment. This was in large part due to providing more places for the mushrooming number of younger students. Average daily attendance also greatly increased.

Because students not only come from all social classes, races and religious backgrounds, but also have a wide range of interests, abilities and experiences, this creates a problem for the schools on whom to talk to and what to teach. Between the 1980 and 2000 U.S. censuses, the foreign-born population doubled, from 14 million to more than 31 million, a significant number of them without a high school education and not fluent in English. In 2004, 18.9 percent of children in the United States spoke a language other than English at home. In 1979, it was only 8.5 percent.

Just as important, as was the case in 1980, between 11 million and 12 million children now live in households at or below the poverty level. Such facts give rise to additional demands on the schools.

Among other things, the social and economic diversity of students means that some are at a learning disadvantage when they first enter school. For decades, the schools have been expected, but have been unable, to eliminate this disadvantage. Still, to meet the challenges of diversity, schools offer not only different study tracks, but have greatly increased the number of internship (work- study) and accelerated programs. They are also offering a greater variety of courses. In 2000-2001, 39 percent of school districts had schools or programs for at-risk students. Many have mandatory summer school and widespread tutoring programs for those falling behind.

The right-hand graphic shows that in spite of seemingly intractable social and economic facts — not only economic inequality and immigration, but wars and depressions — during the last 50 years the United States has continued to move steadily to become a nation where all adults have at least a high school education.

In 1960, 41.1 percent of adult Americans were high school graduates or more. By 2005, that number had more than doubled. For blacks, the figure quadrupled; for Hispanics, it almost doubled between 1970 and 2005. Moreover, the United States keeps more of its students in school longer than most European countries including Germany, France and the United Kingdom.

Moreover, in recent years, the public schools have been sending a greater proportion of their graduates to college. In 1970, 51.7 percent of high school completers were enrolled in college; by 2004, the percent was 66.7. College freshmen with an average grade in high school of A- to A+ increased from 19.6 percent in 1970 to 46.6 percent in 2005, perhaps simply a reflection of grade inflation, but perhaps also a reflection of more learning.

Clearly, the public schools have produced considerable educational equality. This has not been translated into more economic equality, which the schools could not possibly do. In fact, there has been growing economic inequality in America in recent years.

Although more money does not necessarily mean more quality, the public schools appear to be healthy economically. Indeed, since the end of the Eisenhower years, the public has been relatively generous in supporting them. Between 1960 and 2004, the expenditures for public elementary and secondary schools significantly increased by roughly $100 billion (in deflated dollars) a decade, from $95 to $475 billion. In constant (2004) dollars, the revenue per student increased from $5,605 in 1980 to $9,407 in 2004.

There were 2,211,000 public school classroom teachers in 1980 with an average annual salary of $15,970. By 2004, both of those numbers markedly increased — to 3,044,000 and $46,752, respectively. Teachers are now not only solidly middle class, they are also well prepared. Not only are all college graduates, but close to half have earned a degree beyond a bachelor’s.

The fact that the number of teachers has been growing faster than the number of students, means, of course, that the student-teacher ratio has decreased, classes have gotten noticeably smaller — from an average of 22.3 in 1970 to 15.9 in 2003. The 2003 figure is lower than that for private schools, a number that has actually increased in the last two decades.

Finally, from 1975 to 2004, the percent of students who dropped out of high school in a single year decreased from 5.8 percent to 4.4 percent, and the percent of the population between ages 18 and 24 who did not complete high school (and were not enrolled) also decreased — from 15.6 percent to 12.1 percent.

The Statistical Abstract also reports that:

*In 2005, the schools had to provide breakfast for 9.4 million of their poorest students, and free or reduced-price lunch for 29.6 million.

*In 2004, 11.1 percent of students between ages 12 and 17 reported “binge use” of alcohol at least once a month, while 10.6 percent reported current use of illicit drugs.

*In 2002, there were more than 1.6 million cases disposed by juvenile courts.

*In 2004, more than half of the 23 million Americans receiving food stamps were under 18 years of age.

*In 2005, almost 45 percent of 16- to 19-year-olds were in the labor force.

There are clearly numerous burdens or distractions in the lives of a great many students that keep them from their studies and learning, from learning basic facts and absorbing societal norms and values. In light of this, the achievements of the public schools and their teachers seem remarkable.

The public schools have been slow in complying with the requirements set forth by the No Child Left Behind Act, and it is too soon to assess if its sticks and carrots can work to improve them.

The schools have been doing quite well, and they probably couldn’t “do a much better job” no matter how many more resources were made available.

In short, a principal goal of the No Child Left Behind Act of “improving teacher quality” would appear not to be a pressing problem, because a basic premise that too many teachers are incompetent and underqualified is clearly a slander.

Lionel S. Lewis is a professor emeritus at the University at Buffalo.

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