Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education is foundational for fostering the economic vitality and the innovations needed to secure our nation’s future. STEM education is also essential for creating the large and robust workforce needed to build out the physical and technological infrastructure the US needs, especially considering the seemingly endless demand for AI and AI data centers.
Unfortunately, American students’ performance on STEM-focused standardized tests provides no evidence that the nation is laying the foundation for the needed workforce of today and tomorrow. Rather, our failing K–12 school system is excluding millions of students from the competent education they need to flourish.
The most recent indicator of failure was on September 9, when the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) released 2024 science scores for eighth graders and math scores for 12th graders.
Let’s begin with the eighth-grade science scores, specifically the “below basic” category. Students in this category do not meet even minimum (“basic”) standards in the subject tested. The 2024 data, broken down by subgroup, are alarming:
- Thirty-eight percent of American eighth graders fell below basic in science, compared to 33 percent in 2019 and 32 percent in 2015.
- Fifty-two percent of eighth-grade Hispanic students, who represent around 30 percent of all American students, scored below basic, compared to 47 percent in 2019 and 48 percent in 2015.
- Sixty percent of black students, comprising about 15 percent of American students, scored below basic, compared to 58 percent in 2019 and 59 percent in 2015.
- Nearly two-thirds of students with disabilities, also around 15 percent of our student population, scored below basic, roughly the same share as in 2019 and 2015.
In short, eight-grade science scores are declining for every major subgroup.
Results from 2024 12th-grade math test are equally dismal:
- Forty-five percent of all American 12th graders were below basic in math, up from 40 percent in 2019 and 38 percent in 2015.
- Sixty-one percent of Hispanic 12th graders scored below basic, compared to 54 percent in 2019 and 53 percent in 2015.
- Seventy percent of black 12th graders scored below basic, compared to 66 percent in 2019 and 64 percent in 2015.
- Three-quarters of students with disabilities scored below basic, the same percentage as in 2019 but slightly lower than the 77 percent in 2015.
As the US grows more diverse and requires more STEM skills of our high-school graduates, these data should be ringing louder and louder alarm bells. If the mostly downward trends of these numbers continue, then perhaps most Americans will not have the skills necessary to participate in a tech-based economy. This will be a disaster for the US economy, for our national security, and most importantly, for our students, especially for those who have already been left behind.
Observers will be tempted to blame the pandemic for these scores. But as is clear from the data, far too many students were scoring below basic on these tests well before the pandemic. As Rick Hanushek observed recently: “the uncomfortable truth is that American students have been significantly losing ground for more than a decade. The pandemic didn’t break American education; it was already broken.”
If we’re serious about educating students to their fullest potential, we can’t simply return to the pre-pandemic status quo. Something drastic needs to change in our system of education.
One silver lining: The Trump administration is pushing to return education to the states, where it constitutionally belongs and where experimentation at the local level can identify programs and policies that work. When these best practices are discovered, the administration can elevate them and provide resources to help other states implement the same programs, modified to fit local contexts. While this approach likely won’t be the silver bullet that fixes US education, it’s certainly a start. Perhaps it will help us break out of the decade-long slide in student performance.
Reprinted with permission from AEI by Mark Schneider.
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.
The teachers need to start teaching the subjects and quit wasting lesson time on woke indoctrination.
Well, I guess we can ignore all these awful statistics and be proud to know that 5-year-olds know about 62 sexes and how to pleasure themselves. All of this courtesy of AFT, NEA, and the DIMM party!
“American Students’ STEM Aptitude Is at an All-Time Low”
What this tells us is that the Left is succeeding. For at least half a century, the Left has controlled our educational system, which they have turned into nothing more than a left-wing indoctrination factory. If you doubt that, just take a look at what has been going on at our colleges and universities for a good number of years. The students who graduate can’t read or write or do math, but they sure are good little brainwashed Leftists.
Yet everyday, practically, we see Randi Weingarten on TV spouting HER BS about what a great job her teachers and THEIR UNIONS are doing for the country. To hear her tell it, TRUMP is he cause of it all, closing all the schools during COVID. Her group just KNEW they belonged in the classrooms and NOT on foreign vacations, sending pictures of their beaches and drinks, while getting their pay, seniority and benefits, while the kids were adrift for the better part of 2 years! Yeah, tell me again how this is the fault of the USA.
The last 6 of my 31 years teaching math were at a stem school, and it was delightful for the first 5 of those 6 years. Then the gates on the border were opened, and discipline was halted because too many students were on the path to prison; consequently the school went down the drain. That last year, when I got my rosters, I noticed that 65% of my students were in at least one special ed. category. (I have made many special ed. students succeed in math.) I found out when the new school year started, that another 10% were unable to communicate in English. I got to thinking that I was 68 years old, everything was paid for, and I had money in the bank, I mentioned this to a friendly administrator, he replied, “We need you a lot more than you need us.” I pondered his words for a couple of weeks. So I waited until the end of the semester, tendered my resignation notice, and retired. I stopped by there a couple of weeks ago, and there was just 1 teacher still there from 3 years prior.
The quality of teachers is below an acceptable standard. Bad teachers keeping their jobs because teacher unions only care about collecting dues and whatever the left pays them to ruin the country by ruining students.
The Left does not want to raise intelligent, thinking kids. They want easily led and easily manipulated people who will believe what they say without critiquing it and who do what they are told by the Left elite. We see this already happening — every day.
The reason for this failure is really quite simple. The Libtard School Boards, Libtard Teachers Unions, and (unfortunately) many of the teachers (the Libtard ones) are all concerned more about a student’s “self-esteem” rather than providing a rigorous education to teach our youth to “think critically.” What value does self-esteem have if the student is only qualified to flip burgers at McDonalds for a lifetime career after he/she so-call “graduates?”
STEM testing. Whatever testing- results in teachers teaching to the test. Kids learn how to pass the test, not lean anything about the subject matter. The kids look up answers for daily work. Example-nephew- 1 semester of Spanish- I said “ ¿como esta? He had no clue.
the 3 R’s worked well for generations. Then we got Dept of Education. Downhill since
Praying it’s not to late to raise our education standard for future generation in order to compete with world!
Public school teach to the lowest common denominator; instead of trying to raise the standards for the poorer students, they drag the good students down. I taught for 11 years until I couldn’t take it anymore. The Unions hold sway over curricula and protect the bad teachers via tenure which is a lifetime job promise after only 3 years in the classroom and maybe 3 observations for the Schoo’s principal or Vice Principal, once a year for an hour or two each year. If businesses kept their worst workers and didn’t pay attention to what they were doing on the job and then promised them a lifelong position, we’d be a very failed country, but that is how the educational system is run. Once tenured, it is impossible to fire a teacher unless something terrible happens. I am all for “tracking students” as was done in the old days before political correctness and “everybody is a winner” became the by-words. If students as placed together in classes with other students of the same ability, the curricula could be tailored to their needs and the best students could excel while the poorest could get needed attention (but of course, we wouldn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings…) Also, get rid of tenure and make teaching positions At Will Hires so there is no problem terminating a bad teacher. So many teachers just coast after getting tenure and are still teaching from 10+ year old lesson plans. And third, do NOT allow the unions to influence publishers who provide the books used in classrooms across the country. The districts should be able to write and teach their own curricula. Hopefully turning the schools back to the states will help fix all three of these issues.
This article is solid proof of the Total Failure of the American School System since it has been taken over by the Democrats. It is past time for a housecleaning! Remove the Liberals currently in charge and give the whole system a total cleanup. Stop trying to destroy the moral fiber of today’s children & return to the original purpose of schooling. We need to hear more from parents, more personal involvement in the schools and the decisions made by school boards. Actually they (School Boards) need a good shakeup! Parents have allowed Liberal Socialists to take over Education. The statistics very definitely show the downhill track they follow! Save your children’s minds! Stand up for their rights!
Don’t blame all this on the schools, teachers, Democrats, etc. It starts with the parents not encouraging their children to do good, the parents not being there for the children, and the parents (or a guardian/relative/friend) not communicating with their children on a daily basis to see what’s on their minds and how their lives are going. What I see when I travel, go to breakfast, lunch, or dinner, the children AND THE PARENT/S are all stuck with their noses in their own phones. No one is speaking. Stop buying those phones, learn to communicate verbally, be a part of the child’s growing up and teachings. And I’m Republican, just observe lots going on around me.
I think eliminate the teacher unions would be 100% effective.
didn’t need a $million(s) study for this article which adds nothing to what we’ve lived through, known eyes wide open.
We need to end deference towards religion, all religions, and put our kids’ noses to the STEM grindstone. How can anyone take us seriously while we preach that some wizard created the universe. That’s not science, that’s magic, and any kid exposed to such ludicrous dreams will be less likely to advance in the real world. It’s time to leave the 14th century behind and get real.
I believe you can blame a lot of this problem on TENURE……In what other profession can you do good work for 2 years and gain permanent employment for the rest of your career?
I worked in a school district (K-8th grades) in the payroll office for almost 25 years. I was always surprised at how sloppy some of the teachers dressed and it always made me wonder if that’s how they approached their jobs too. I was told once by one of our Hispanic employees that the children who did not speak English when they started school here still could not speak it well when they reached the 8th grade. She said that bilingual classes they did not speak or teach English. That told me why they would not allow my gifted daughter to take a bilingual class. They really didn’t have one
I work every day as a sub here in a Texas school district. I know the teachers here are trying their best. Not all kids are proficient in Science. Technology, Engineering or Math. There should be alternative career choices for those who still need to make money and must support a family… Of course, all students should learn the basics so they can balance a checkbook or follow a recipe but not all can be expected to become a brain surgeon or a rocket scientist. If that’s what it takes, then fewer and fewer will be able to afford a middle class lifestyle in the future… and that may trigger more civil unrest and turmoil…
My guess is that most teachers would love to get rid of the unions and their Stranglehold on policy in education. Education in the USA has been on a downward spiral for well more than a decade, more like 40 years. I encourage every parent I meet to do school choice or homeschool. It would be hard to find another Institution more culpable in the downfall of the United States than our public education system.
Well, honestly, what did you expect? We told our students for years that they coiuld have lucrative careers in STEM if they went to college to study it, learn skills, that they could get a good job after graduation and earning a degree. Especially in computer technology, what happened? We brought in low-wage foreigners and gave them the STEM jobs, while our American students went without and were forced into doing something else with a degree (and a lot of college debt) that turned out to be worthless! Why study it if it won’t help you get what you need and want?
Stem Cell Anemia!
I wish they would have included Asian students in the calculations.