30 Ideas for Fixing U.S. Schools, Ranked by Experts
Math and reading scores are in a decade-long slump. We asked three dozen experts: What could turn things around?
By Sarah Mervosh, Francesca Paris, and Claire Cain Miller
U.S. schools are facing a daunting problem. Students simply can’t read or do math as well as they used to.
Student test scores have declined over the last decade, in an academic slump that started before the pandemic and has continued since. Compared with 2015, reading scores are down in 83 percent of districts, and math declines are nearly as pervasive.
But improving student achievement is notoriously difficult. Do schools need more money? Better teachers? More standardized testing? Less?
What could actually help turn things around?
We asked 37 top academics and researchers who study education to rate a range of ideas for both effectiveness and cost, on a scale of 1 to 7.