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.