Tom Greene is the National Legislative Director for ExcelinEd in Action. In this role, he manages the organization’s advocacy team and works with leaders and lawmakers from across the states to promote student-centered solutions.
Transformative—and sometimes controversial—education policies continue to make headlines. From lowering the bar for student performance to addressing declining math scores and enacting phone bans—there’s no better time than during national Mathematics and Statistics Awareness Month to take a deeper look into the data behind education’s hottest topics and the reasons why they’re trending in legislatures across the country.
In this post, I hope to make the case for lawmakers to take charge and use these startling statistics to improve K-12 education for students in their states.
Giving schools and districts an A-F grade based on their students’ performance might sound harsh to some, but there’s so much more to consider. In short, you can’t act on what you don’t know.
The purpose of a school accountability system is to spur school improvement and increase student outcomes by providing transparent, objective information to parents, educators and the public about school effectiveness. A, B, C, D and F school grading recognizes success and exposes challenges in a way that everyone can understand.
And A-F school grading is an effective accountability tool, because it’s a rigorous model that uses valid and reliable indicators based on student learning outcomes. This levels the playing field statewide with consistent and accurate analyses. What it boils down to is this: Schools that face accountability under an A-F system feel pressure to improve.
In 2024, lawmakers in some states, including Arizona, Florida and Tennessee, have attempted to roll back high standards and complicate A-F school accountability policies that are proven to work. It takes vigilance, conviction and strong advocacy to safeguard A-F measures from legislative attacks.
The following statistics should light lawmakers’ fire to pass, strengthen and protect A-F accountability measures in their states:
State lawmakers should feel confident setting and holding schools accountable to high expectations for student performance, graduation rates and college and career readiness. Students and educators can and do rise to the challenge.
There’s no good way to sugarcoat this: U.S. students are performing terribly in math.
It should go without saying that success in mathematics education correlates with increased college and career options, higher future income and improved later-life outcomes.
There are no quick fixes. A comprehensive K-8 mathematics strategy includes daily math
instruction with high-quality content and instructional materials aligned to state standards focusing on:
Several states are heeding the call to address math policy. Arkansas, Florida, Indiana and West Virginia have taken incremental steps, although none yet have passed a comprehensive plan.
If readers take anything away regarding the urgent need for good math policy, let it be these shocking statistics from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
In December 2023, the OECD’s latest Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) math exam results revealed a concerning decline in the performance of U.S. teenagers, ranking our nation 28th out of 37 participating countries. The United States continues to lag behind global competitors.
If PISA results weren’t a big enough shock to the system, our students also performed poorly on the 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as the Nation’s Report Card.
Notably, education policy experts say A-F accountability measures—when implemented alongside comprehensive K-8 math policy—lead to improved student results. Lawmakers should consider coupling these two policies together and also include early literacy policies to optimize academic results.
Be sure to listen to Episode 5 of ExcelinEd in Action’s Statehouse Spotlights podcast for a much deeper dive into the math crisis in America. We hope to see many more states tackling this issue in 2025.
The nation is not doing a whole lot better with reading than it is math.
That said, several states have made incredible strides thanks to comprehensive early literacy policies that ensure students receive high-quality instruction rooted in the science of reading. These policies also support students with reading difficulties as early as possible, catching them before they fall behind.
A comprehensive early literacy policy should include evidence-based strategies in four key areas:
Early literacy policy is one that has enjoyed bipartisan support across the states in recent legislative sessions. If a state hasn’t been ready to tackle early literacy yet, there’s no better time than now to start.
Here are some statistics that can compel every state lawmaker to make improving early literacy a top education priority:
We aren’t doomed, though. Florida and Mississippi have led the nation with their comprehensive early literacy results, and other states should look to their policies as exemplars worth replicating.
Career and technical education (CTE) allows students to build a strong academic foundation while also developing technical skills and gaining valuable, real-world experiences. CTE programs at the K-12 and postsecondary levels offer students all types of hands-on learning opportunities, from advanced manufacturing to automotive to health care. The list goes on.
The goal of these programs is not just for students to build skills, but also to earn the degrees, licenses, certifications and credentials that are valued by employers in higher-wage, in-demand careers.
All states offer CTE programs, but very few have the data and statistics to say which programs are actually leading students to good-paying careers in their communities—and which programs may be leading students to low-wage, dead end jobs. Compiling this information requires integrating K-12, postsecondary and labor market data to tell an accurate, cohesive story.
That’s where return on investment (ROI) analysis policies come into play.
An ROI analysis for CTE programs helps policymakers determine whether CTE programs are preparing learners for higher skill, higher wage, in demand careers; whether all learners have access to these programs; and whether participants are successful post-graduation.
ROI policies are all about gathering, analyzing and reporting statistics, not only to inform students and families but also to continually improve CTE offerings.
A few statistics that should inspire state lawmakers to dig into their own data come from Indiana—a state that has been leading with college and career pathways innovation.
That’s concerning. In response, Indiana is redesigning high school and creating one-of-a-kind programs that enable students to gain real-world work experience that leads to credentials, which ultimately will help them gain employment after graduating.
We hope to see more states take Indiana’s lead to understand and find the right solutions to optimize their programs so students are prepared for the workforce with meaningful skills and experience.
By now, nearly every lawmaker has heard about school choice. It’s a complex policy area, but for the sake of brevity, we’re going to focus on the program type that is the most empowering for families. Education scholarship accounts (ESAs) are state-supervised spending accounts that families can use to purchase various approved educational services they choose for an eligible child. Unlike vouchers, ESAs are not just for tuition at a private school.
Based on decades of positive results, there’s been a fairly recent trend by states to expand their ESAs—and their other private education choice programs—to be available universally to all K-12 students.
Here are a few statistics to inspire policymakers to go big with education choice, especially education scholarship accounts:
The data are clear. There’s demand and support among school parents for robust education options. Empowering families to choose the best fit for their children’s needs is the right thing to do, and it’s politically possible in so many states, as we’ve seen in Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, West Virginia and many more.
Teachers have been shouting from the rooftops for a while now that students are more distracted in their classrooms than ever before. To make matters worse, studies show today’s students grapple more than any generation before them with anxiety, depression and shorter attention spans.
Experts like Dr. Jonathan Haidt believe these troubling trends are likely to be a direct result of children’s smartphone use. After all, the intentional design of online platforms and constant notifications disrupt classrooms and hinder academic focus.
The following statistics emphasize why it’s so important to students’ academic outcomes that legislators focus on solutions to smartphone use in classrooms:
But all is not lost. When students’ cell phone use is restricted in school, data show student productivity and engagement improve.
Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Virginia, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee have all considered bills during the 2024 legislative session that would restrict students’ use of smartphones in classrooms. More states are likely to follow suit.
We hope these statistics will be the fuel that propels lawmakers to take decisive action in crafting policies that transform the education system and deliver tangible, life-changing results for students.
