The National Parents Union Says NAEP Scores Call for Urgency and Immediate Action

October 24, 2022—Boston, MA—It’s time to start treating this situation like the national emergency it truly is. We aren’t interested in playing the blame game or listening to people pass the buck around whose fault it is that the nation’s children are in this mess. It’s time for the grown-ups to stop pointing fingers and start taking responsibility — instead of continuing to watch them slide further into the education abyss.

This moment calls for urgency and immediate action — and a deep acknowledgement of the education crisis we are in — so we can finally begin to tackle the greatest challenge of our time with the true urgency that has been lacking over the last two years.

This is a challenge that will have long lasting and far reaching effects on our families, our communities, our workforce and our nation as a whole if we allow an entire generation of children to fall through the cracks. And the fact of the matter is — we have the knowledge, tools and resources to make it happen, if we are willing to get over our political turf wars and start putting our children first.

Billions of dollars have flooded into the nation’s education system with the expectation that this unprecedented challenge facing our students would be addressed with urgency — but instead nearly two-thirds of the money has still yet to be spent with upwards of $120 billion dollars still left on the table. Today’s NAEP scores are universally horrific for our children, reaching every part of the country regardless of political affiliation, COVID-19 school reopening timelines or geography.

We are calling for the following to address this unprecedented emergency for our nation’s children:

• Regular communication to parents about student progress: Parents should receive quarterly updates on their students’ progress monitoring assessment data. We can’t wait months to figure out whether we’re doing enough – and parents need more frequent information to ensure we’re doing enough.
• Federal Action: We need leadership and guidance from the United States Department of Education to provide states and districts with best practices, innovative approaches and critical resources to help those struggling to find scalable solutions that can be deployed immediately into the nation’s classrooms.
• State Action: Support, intervention and accountability for chronically underperforming schools and districts and those who are failing to address this crisis with urgency.
• Professional Development: We need to support high-quality instruction and curriculum in every classroom.
• Tutoring: Access to free, high-quality tutoring programs for students who need it – using the data and information we have about our children for outreach to families who need to opt-in.
• Extended Learning Opportunities: It’s clear that MORE time in the classroom is the key to stopping learning loss and turning things around. Access to free, high-quality learning enrichment that extends beyond a 7 hour school day.

Thankfully, we have this data so we can take immediate action to begin to address this crisis. Right now, generations of American children’s future is at stake. We need to see efforts at all levels to ensure that we see measurable, meaningful results as we recover from this moment.