Despite nearly 30 years of improvements in U.S. children’s overall quality of life, their basic academic skills have barely budged, according to research led by a Duke University sociologist.
The “educational flatline,” as measured by scores on math and reading exams, defies researchers’ expectations, because other quality-of-life measures, such as safety and family income, have improved steadily since 1975.
More recently, even areas that had worsened in the 1970s and 1980s, such as rates of teen suicide, have improved dramatically, so researchers had expected that education improvements would soon follow. They didn’t.
2006 Child Well-Being Results.
The Educational Flatline, Causes and Results:The Education Flatline: Causes and Solutions
- The Education Flatline: Overview , by Ron Haskins and Isabel Sawhill
- A Short History of School Reform , by David T. Gordon
- The Role of PreK-3 in Improving School Achievement , by Gene Maeroff
- Charter Schools and No Child Left Behind: An Oncoming Collision? , by Bruno Manno and Martin West
- The Case for National Curriculum, National Standards, and National Tests , by Diane Ravitch
- If Wishes Were Horses: The Reality behind Teacher Quality Findings , by Kate Walsh