A Speeding Train to Nowhere

Consequences of a One Dimensional school system

In an era where education is touted as the great equalizer, two recent stories have left me deeply unsettled. These stories, emerging from opposite ends of the country, expose a troubling reality in our education system.

These two stories are separated by geography and ideology. They expose a disturbing reality where students are being shuffled through the system without ever truly mastering the fundamental skills they need to succeed. While this may seem hyperbolic the recently released NAEP underscores the message about student readiness.

In Connecticut, a young woman named Aleysha Ortiz sued her former school district after graduating high school with honors, despite being unable to read or write. In Tennessee, a former student known as “William A.” is suing the Clarksville Montgomery County School System (CMCSS) after graduating with a 3.4 GPA in 2024, despite being functionally illiterate. There are three aspects of these stories that coincide with other troubling patterns in education.

First, we see the well-documented phenomenon of students, neurodivergent in particular, slipping through the cracks in our education system. Both Aleysha and William managed to graduate with good grades despite lacking fundamental skills schools are charged with providing.

Second, as the analysis of recent NAEP scores can attest, we are experiencing a crisis in literacy, again particular with students who are already struggling. This makes William’s case particularly striking because he was already facing an uphill battle. He was diagnosed with dyslexia, dysgraphia, ADHD, and autism, yet his reading abilities remained severely impaired throughout his schooling.

These NAEP results, coupled with the stories of Aleysha and William, highlight a deeper issue in our system: the emphasis on speed and pace over actual learning. Our schools have become like speeding trains, rushing students through curricula without ensuring they’ve truly mastered the material. How is this responsive to neuro divergent students? Research supports practices like spaced repetition, which require more time for students to absorb the material and our current system operates in direct contravention to enacting a policy like this. 

This hasty one-dimensional approach to education prioritizes test scores and graduation rates over genuine understanding and skill development. Students are moved along a predetermined track, regardless of whether they’ve grasped the fundamental concepts needed for success. The result is a system that produces students like William and Aleysha. 

I would be remiss if I didn’t say that it is crucial to understand that privatization is not the answer to these problems. While some argue that private schools offer the solution, they are not bound by the same legal requirements as public schools and that is imperative. Instead, we need to focus on reforming our public education system to better serve all students, regardless of their learning differences or challenges.

The fix for our educational woes lies in reimagining how we approach teaching and learning. We need to shift to a more flexible, student-centered approach that values mastery over speed. This means:

1. Implementing varied learning strategies with the time required for sound implementation
2. Providing additional resources for special education and early intervention
3. Rethinking assessment methods to focus on skill mastery rather than standardized test scores
4. Investing in teacher training to better identify and address learning challenges
5. Providing more variety in the ways students can demonstrate mastery

By addressing these issues within our public education system, we can create an environment where students like Aleysha and William receive the support they need to truly succeed, rather than being rushed through a system that fails to prepare them for the future.

Lastly, public schools do not receive the requisite level of support relative to their mandated obligation. The federal government has never fulfilled its own requirements relative to funding for special education. This places an immense burden on school districts creating systemic suboptimal conditions for education with the exceptions of upper middle class districts that are able to find ways to offset the federal government’s inadequacy with property taxes and donations.

These cases are not just individual tragedies; they’re canaries in the coal mine. They signal a systemic failure in our education system to ensure that every student, regardless of learning differences, acquires the fundamental skills needed for success in life. As we grapple with these issues, we must ask ourselves: How many more students are silently struggling? How can we reform our education system to catch these issues earlier? And most importantly, how can we ensure that a high school diploma truly represents a mastery of basic skills? 

We have managed to create a society of compounded advantage and disadvantage and we should be troubled because that is an immoral system. Change is upon us whether we like it or not and maybe we should take the opportunity to upset this dynamic and create a system that speaks to our rhetoric and ideals. For the Aleysha and Williams unknown, they deserve better.