As the conversation to shorten workdays from 5 to 4 days continues, some experts have pointed out that the same process can be implemented in the education system, as excessive absences, low grades, and low engagement affect kids nationwide.
“One of the positive things that came out of the pandemic is that everybody wanted to get back to school, then we saw chronic absenteeism rates reach record levels,” said Louis Freedberg, former editor of EdSource and current executive producer of education reform podcast Sparking Equity, at a Friday, April 4 American Community Media briefing.
“This reinforced that our current learning opportunities are lackluster for young people to get up every morning and want to go to school,” he added.
In the 2021-22 school year, 30 percent of U.S. students; nearly 14.7 million — were chronically absent, compared with 16 percent in 2019, before the pandemic; in 2022-2023, 27.9 percent were chronically absent.
“Keeping kids engaged in school presents a crisis for all forms of education,” said Freedberg.
“The notion that we should shoehorn learning into these six-hour daily bites doesn’t work for all kids.”
The 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the “nation’s report card”, also saw that for the first time, a third of eighth-grade students scored below “basic” in reading levels, being 5 points lower on average compared to 2019; math scores were 8 points lower compared to 2019.
“Many other skills may be more important for how students succeed in the workplace and life after they graduate, like critical thinking, being able to work collaboratively or independently, being able to stick with a task,” Freeberg continued, adding that many states are now “figuring out how to measure these durable skills.”
California ranks 32 in overall public school rankings but 42 in K-12 performance. California ranks second in quality education available in the USA, leaving people to ponder the disparity in the education system, according to Worldppopualtionreveiw. com.
“Even school district superintendents often turn over every two years,” Anne Stanton, president of the Linked Learning Alliance (LLA). “It’s about who owns this vision of engaging youth. If it’s owned by students, families, communities, employers, you can’t break it down, no matter who the leadership is.”
In California alone, the San Francisco-based LLA is implementing work-based learning initiatives in 80 school districts and 250 schools serving 330,000 youth statewide thanks to $500 million that the state legislature invested in Golden State Pathways, a college and career readiness program.
Across its total 977 school districts, California has approximately 5,496,271 students.
“High school is not the end game,” said Stanton. “In the very recent past, we had a very bifurcated 50’s model where students were sorted into vocational or college tracks, but young people at this period in their lives, as their brains are continuing to develop, can contribute in so many ways, and in our country, we think a lot less of what a 16-year-old can do than we should.”
“We’d like to get 600,000 young people in California having these experiences,” said Stanton. “But for young people to apply their academic learning in the real world requires a deeper engagement in that social contact by the employers providing these opportunities.”