A 100% GUARANTEED PLAN FOR BETTER EDUCATION IN AMERICA
A new study examines the relationship between increased educational spending and student achievement over the past 50 years. Adjusted for inflation
Last Updated: 03/13/2025 - Scott Winstead
Introductory Note – The essay below was published at two different times in two different school districts for secondary schools. Each time school principals asked for permission to print the Bill of Responsibilities. Some statistics have been updated for 2025.
According to the most recent numbers from NAEP, the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
Around 40 percent of 4th graders are working below the NAEP Basic level in reading, the largest percentage since 2002. About a third of 8th graders nationwide are failing to hit the NAEP Basic benchmark in reading — the largest percentage ever. The math and reading performance of 13-year-olds in the United States has hit the lowest level in decades.
Achievement declined across lines of race, class and geography. But in math, especially, vulnerable children — including Black, Native American and low-income students — experienced bigger drops.
These appalling numbers are nothing new. In a 1998 survey of academic achievement in 23 industrial countries, American students ranked 21st.
In addition:
· American students ranked dead last in a nine-country comparison of algebra and calculous scores among the top five percent of each countries high school seniors.
· Two thirds of high school juniors can’t identify the half century in which the Civil War took place.
· One third of high school juniors didn’t know that Columbus discovered America before 1750.
· Only 11 percent of high school graduates could accurately restate in writing the main point of a newspaper article.
In 1998, our students couldn’t read, write, remember or reason. These numbers are twenty-seven years old as f 2025. According to NAEP, American education continues to be mired in mediocrity.
Over the decades, educators experimented and innovated. The Open Classroom, Workshop Way, Outcome-based Education, the Waldorf School, The Model Schools Plan (I was involved with this four-year program that failed by year three), Whole Language, Block Scheduling (still used and abused today), Mathland, Magnet Schools, Cooperative Learning and Talented and Gifted programs.
A magnet STEM school program around 2010 promised to teach science, technology, engineering and math by having fun. Sixth grader, Ellie Walton reported that her first day of class “is the most fun I’ve ever had in school
In 2010, in another iteration of this article, I wrote,
Ash Mahajan, associate dean of the college of engineering and Information Services at DeVry University said, “The (STEM) school’s approach will be, just don’t talk about gravity – shoot off a darn rocket and see it at work.” The trouble is that once that darn rocket has landed, the real work begins – learning formulas, the laws of physics, studying, doing dozens of practice problems. All of which, as you probably figured out, is no fun at all.
So, where are we now?
The results after half century of failed experiments and tens of billions of dollars spent, nothing has changed! Scores are dismal. Something is wrong.
Consequently, I have my own plan.
I GUARANTEE results
I guarantee grades will be better, students will learn more, and America will rise up from the international basement of educational achievement.
The best part, it’s free.
Doesn’t cost a dime.
Guaranteed.
It doesn’t have a fancy name. No professional flow charts will stagger you with its brilliance. A $500,000 grant did not fund the plan.
But it will work. Here it is. It’s radical, It’s different. It’s daring. It’s
HARD WORK
In order to learn, students must exert effort. The assorted programs emerged in the past thirty years (Now, 55 years) have had their points. Scattered among them are genuine gems, methods that are creative, effective, interesting and well-received by students. But the most important element is hard work: not fun, not games, not movies, not busywork.
Many students have no idea of what it means to be a student. They think coming to class is all it takes.
It takes effort. Study: Concentration. Time. Sweat. Will power. Energy. Determination. Consistency. Unless our schools insist on it, children will not work on learning. And they will not learn. And they will fail. Or they will be given a free ride to the next grade with the understanding there are no consequences.
Injecting a note from 2025 - Of course not all students have will power, brain power, determination, and so on. Taking into account “individual differences” was something of a traditional, common sense educational mantra when I went to school, and has been fully in place early in the last century.
A recent survey (1998) asked high school students in the United States and Japan to rank factors contributing to success in school. Seventy-two percent of the Japanese listed hard work first, compared to only twenty-seven percent of the Americans.
On the wall of every secondary classroom in America should be a
STUDENTS’ BILL OF RESPONSIBILITIES
· I will always bring required material to class
· I will always pay attention in class
· I will never misbehave or disrupt the class
· I will treat my teachers and classmates with respect.
· I will do my homework as best I can.
· I will take notes and maintain an organized notebook for each class,
· I will study for tests.
· I will memorize when necessary. I will practice. I will read. I will reread. I will write. I will rewrite.
· I understand that learning requires effort, and I will expend all the effort necessary to learn as much as I can.
· I realize that if I do not do my work, I may fail, and either be left back a grade or be required to repeat the subject.
Of course, it seems utterly ridiculous. They’re not going to do it, are they? No, not at first, but if this was the prevailing philosophy of the school system, of every school administrator, and every teacher, they would. If it was part of the system’s culture, they would.
Our schools do not demand hard work. Sometimes they award failure. As a result, American students score dismally compared to the rest of the industrialized world.
Colin Powell, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, rose up from the streets of the Bronx. How did he do it? “I work hard,” he said. “I put in long hours. I don’t get distracted from the task at hand.”
You want education? Then demand effort.
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Teachers and administrators loved the Students’ Bill of Responsibilities. Some printed posters.
HOWEVER - Something vitally important was missing. Here it is.
TEACHERS’ BILL OF RESPONSIBILITES
· I will write a detailed lesson plan for every class.
· I will teach the curriculum at an even pace and not spend class time on unrelated tangents
· I will assign and grade homework several times a week
· I will never use class time for homework. It should be done at home.
· I will never use class time for busywork that has little or no learning value.
· I will use all of the class time to teach, discuss, answer questions and so on.
· I will keep careful records of all student work and test grades.
· I will honor parent’s requests for private meetings about work and behavior.
· I will give regular tests and quizzes and return the graded test as quickly as possible.
· I will maintain order and discipline at all times.
· I will not allow misbehaving students to interfere with the education of the others.
· I will not tolerate students bullying, using bad language, rudeness, mocking or any other types of intimidation. And I will treat the students in the same manner.
· I will create a classroom atmosphere in which student feels safe. My duty is to insure it.
AFTERWORD
I base all this on thirty years of teaching high school, most of which as department chairman, fifteen years as an adjunct professor at Regis University, as a supervisor of student teachers at the University Northern Colorado, as an Assessment Coordinator for NAEP, and much more.
BOTTOM LINE
Something is tragically wrong with American education. We have nothing to show for the billions of dollars spent and for the hundreds of failed experimental programs. What have we done wrong? There must be a reason for this half century slide.
Past education essays helps to explain the slide
(4) READING, WRITING, GRAMMAR AND SPELLING: EMPOWERING KIDS TO BE ILLITERATE
control, right click, open link in new window
https://fredsinger.substack.com/p/reading-writing-grammar-and-spelling