# 89: The Crisis in Education: Confronting the Failure and Forging a Path to Reform

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Are our schools equipped to prepare the next generation for the future? Today's episode confronts a harrowing crisis in education, with stark realities that can no longer be ignored. As I share my grave concerns, you'll discover how a staggering number of students are failing to meet basic reading and math benchmarks, and why the reduction of subjects like art and music is suffocating the joy of learning. The pressure-cooker environment that teachers endure has led to an unacceptable turnover rate, signaling a system on the brink of collapse. You'll learn why reinforcing a robust Tier 1 curriculum and foundational skills, such as phonics, is not just necessary but critical in preventing an academic avalanche.

This conversation is a rallying cry for change, a commitment to not only spotlight the issues but to actively seek solutions. Together, we acknowledge the multifaceted failure of our education system—a system that has let down teachers, students, administrators, and parents alike. It's clear that transformative approaches are essential to mend what's broken. Join me as we embark on a mission to revitalize education, beginning with a promise that our next episode will tackle the first major area in need of repair. If you care about the future of our children and the health of our educational institutions, this is the journey we must undertake together.

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Links Mentioned in the Show:

https://teachingstrugglinglearners.com 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
So it is absolutely no secret that schools right now
are not performing well.
I mean, honestly, they haven'tbeen performing well in a long
time.
But over the last several yearsthey really appear to have
taken an absolute nosedive onhow our scores are coming out
and everything.

(00:22):
I mean our reading and mathscores are really low, really,
really low.
We won't talk about science,and it's pretty abysmal when
you're looking at the data.
Let's be honest.
We have cut so many specials.
I mean kids are getting at themost art once a week.

(00:44):
I mean, come on now.
The music, maybe once a week ifthey're lucky, right.
So I mean specials and all that.
The extra stuff is just gone.
They're spending the vastmajority of their day doing
reading and math and again Imentioned, our scores are really
low and the kids are frustrated.

(01:05):
They are spending all theirtime on subjects that are really
, really hard for them andfrustrating for them.
And if they're lucky, they'regetting a little bit at the
elementary level, maybe 15-20minutes a day of science and
social studies, like I mean,come on, guys, that's pretty bad
right.
I couldn't imagine going toschool like that.

(01:27):
That would just no wonder ourstudents are not motivated.
And then we talk about thestruggling students and the
services for them.
I mean it's not great.
It's not great.
And this isn't even talkingabout a specific school.
This is not insider information.
These are reading, you know,facebook posts to parents,

(01:51):
parents, guys are aware thatthings are not going well and I
mean everybody knows it hits thenightly news once a week that
teachers and administrators areleaving in droves.
We cannot keep up.
Keep these people, because Imean they're being abused.
They're being abused fromstudents, are being abused from

(02:13):
teachers, are being abused byadministrators.
Parents are getting realfrustrated.
It's bad that.
I mean it's toxic, it's a toxicenvironment and something
really needs to change Becausethe reality is at this point,
the schools are failing all ofus, not just the students.

(02:41):
Hi, I'm Jessica Curtis ofTeaching Struggling Learners.
I'm a boy mom and a veteranteacher.
You're listening to theReaching Struggling Learners
podcast, where we talk all abouthelping students succeed
academically, socially andbehaviorally.
Thank you so much for tuning in.
So I have been working foryears to, through this business

(03:18):
and through you know, my work inthe classroom, focusing myself
on teaching teachers how to, howto progress, monitor and how to
provide interventions andthings for struggling students.
And I, man, it's too much, it'stoo much for these teachers and

(03:39):
I realize that the majority ofyou guys listening are teachers
and and I mean it's too much,it's too much the, the latest
naep data, which is, you know,an american-based, you know,
standardized test, you know, butit's the national scores for
the united states it says aboutonly about 30 percent, about 30%

(04:02):
of kids can read or do math ongrade level at 4th, 8th and 10th
grade.
Guys, 30% of students can reador do math on grade level.
That means 70% can't.
Guys, that's not that, thatthat's, that's not, that's not

(04:26):
good.
I mean, let's be honest, if astudent can't read or can't do
math on grade level, that's whatI would consider a struggling
student.
So at this point in oureducation system, um, you know,
the majority of the studentsthat are hit are in the

(04:46):
classrooms.
They're struggling, they arestruggling students and no
wonder teachers are overwhelmed,no wonder they're leaving in
droves.
Because I mean, how?
How do you teach chemistry?
How do you teach chemistry?
How do you teach biology?
How do you teach Americanhistory or anything at the

(05:08):
middle or high school level?
How do you teach those subjectsto kids who can't read?
How do you teach those subjects?
How do you teach Algebra 1 tochildren who don't know their
multiplication facts?
That's not something that'spossible.

(05:29):
I don't care how much youdifferentiate your instruction,
if the children can't write asentence, they can't write the
word because they can't spellthe word, because they can't
spell the word, because theycan't write an English paper.

(05:51):
I mean, it's just the thingsthat the students are just
completely unable to do by thetime they hit middle and high
school.
I don't know how those teachersare functioning.
I really don't.
And the reality is, at everylevel I'll say second grade up

(06:12):
teachers are overwhelmed withthe sheer number of kids who
can't do basic skills, who justcannot.
And no, you know what I willsay kindergarten and first grade
, because the behaviors at thoselevels are really really rough,
really rough, and I'll countthat at those levels that's a

(06:33):
basic skill that you know to goto the restroom by yourself and
that you don't need.
You know special instructionsto use the toilet properly and
things like that.
But the reality is teachers arecompletely overwhelmed by the
sheer number of kids who can'tdo basic skills.
And the reality is I'm going totake out the behavior side for

(06:57):
the moment and just talkacademics, because that's really
the realm where you know welive and breathe, as the
fundamental problem is obviouslya tier one problem.
Obviously, if you're an MTSSperson, you know tier one is
what everybody gets.
It's your everyday curriculum,it's common core, it's no child

(07:21):
left behind, it's all thoseshenanigans, it's academics,
it's the baseline that everybodyshould be getting.
That level is completelyfailing the majority of our
students and by failing all ofour students we're failing
everybody else right along theway.

(07:41):
Right now we're setting kids upto fail later in school life
because we're not providingteachers with quality-based
curriculum, we're not teachingthe kids their phonics skills.
If you don't teach them phonics, guess what they're not going

(08:02):
to be able to spell and it justsnowballs.
It snowballs from there.
If you don't teach the kids, ifyou don't work on addition
fluency, guess what?
Their subtraction is reallyhard and multiplication is even,
even harder and it just getsworse from there.
It snowballs because we theydon't have that basics

(08:26):
foundation, we don't have a goodquality tier one curriculum and
if we don't teach the kids howto read in first, second, third
grade, guess what they're notgoing to be able to read
magically in high school.
Thank you, no Child Left Behindit, just snowballs.
And yeah, I'm getting prettyworked up about this because

(08:48):
this is ridiculous 30% of ourstudents who are graduating high
school are able to read at a10th grade level.
Is that something to be proudof?
I don't think so.
The fact that we have teachersat the middle and high school
level who are having to put wordboxes up on their boards with

(09:11):
words like because, because thekids can't spell those words,
because the kids can't spellthose words, that students are
taking more than an hour towrite a single paragraph with
poor grammar and punctuation,and we won't even talk about
spelling that they can't.

(09:31):
It's.
This is guys.
This is ridiculous.
Our students are smarter thanthis, but they're not given the
access.
Again, the majority of thestudents hitting middle and high
school at this point arestruggling learners and I guess

(09:53):
the part that it kills me thatthe students are missing out so
much.
But the other side to this isthe people that are being blamed
for this are the teachers, butthey're the ones that are being
set up to fail.
They get bad or non-existentcurriculum.
I've kind of joked about it inthe past, you know where.

(10:14):
Yeah, you know, you got halfthe curriculum and you got to
share it with your grade level.
I've joked about it, but no,that's reality.
That's not right.
Teachers don't have resources.
They're going out and they'respending their own money on
things like TPT or what whatever.
They're buying their own glue,they're buying all this stuff

(10:37):
and teachers aren't paid enoughanyway and they're completely
overwhelmed.
They're not supported.
They're again.
How many times have you seen the, the meme about the?
The kid that you know got sentto the office for poor behavior
and the kid comes back 30minutes later with a starburst
and a teddy bear.
Like seriously, that's notsupporting your teachers.

(10:58):
That's not supporting yourteachers.
So no wonder teachers areleaving in droves.
No wonder we can't keep goodteachers.
We can't.
And hats off to the teacherswho are sticking it out right
now but are sitting there going.
I don't know how much longer Ican take this.

(11:20):
I mean, bless you.
Bless you because we need you.
I hope you stick it out and I'mgoing to do my best to change
things and I'm actually changingmy focus.
I'm shifting my focus on here,because you know what things
need to change and it can't justbe putting everything on the

(11:44):
teachers.
It can't be, and so I amchanging my focus here to talk
about what we can do as teachers, as administrators, as parents,
working together to fix abroken system, because it is
broken.

(12:04):
When 70% of our students aren'taren't able to read or do math
on grade level, we won't talkabout writing.
Then the system is broken.
It has been broken for a while,but it's time to start stepping
up and I'm going to do my part.
I am going to give steps andgive, give some, some ideas to

(12:31):
help make a difference, thingsthat teachers can do, that
parents can do, thatadministrators can do, and
that's what that's what I'mgoing to be doing.
Business wide, all this, butreally sharing here on this
podcast what can we do to helpturn this ship around?

(12:58):
Because our teachers deservebetter, our administrators
deserve better, our parentsdeserve better, but, most
importantly, our studentsdeserve better, because the
reality is right now the schoolsare truly failing everyone.
There is not a group that I canthink of.

(13:19):
I mean maybe the curriculumcompanies, but that's about it.
I don't really care about themthe actual people who are
involved in this.
I cannot think of a singlegroup that's benefiting from the
current situation in schoolsand that needs to change,

(13:42):
because the reality is everyoneour students, our teachers, our
parents, our administrators allof those people who are their
lives are wrapped up in a goodeducation system, a need for a
good education system.
We're failing them, and sothat's what we're going to do

(14:03):
here.
We're going to change our focusand I hope that you will join
me on this absolutely wild rideto see what we can do together
to help fix a very broken system.
I will see you next week withmy first installment on one of

(14:24):
the first things, the majorareas that we need to turn
around and fix, and I hope youstick around.