The United States must make âa national commitment to make up for our childrenâs unfinished learning,â asserts TC alumnus , President and CEO of The Education Trust and former U.S. Secretary of Education.
Speaking as part of a New York Times Magazine roundtable in print, King (Ed.D. â08, M.A. â97), called for âa nationwide focus on tutoringâ and âadditional counselors and mental-health services,â adding that âbecause of the failure of the federal administration to respond appropriately to the pandemic, and the failure of Congress to act, we are heading into a fall that is going to cause kids to lose even more ground academically.â
John B. King, Jr. Ed.D. â08, M.A. â97 (Image: Department of Education/Public Domain)
In a panel moderated by magazine staff writer Emily Brazelon, King was joined by Susana Cordova, Superintendent of Denver Public Schools; magazine staff writer (and 2020 TC Convocation speaker) Nikole Hannah-Jones, awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary this year for her leadership of the °ŐŸ±łŸ±đČőâ 1619 Project; sociologist Pedro Noguera, Dean of the Rossier School of Education at the University of Southern California; and Shana V. White, a computer science teacher at a public middle school in Atlanta.
[Read a story on Kingâs conversation with Provost Stephanie Rowley at TCâs virtual New Student Orientation earlier this month.]
Citing projections that Latinx and African-American students will miss up to 10 months of schooling if fully remote learning continues through January 2021, King, who earned his doctorate in within the and his masterâs degree in the within the , sketched out the consequences for a first grader still learning to read: âSo that child missed three or four months of school last spring, and now isâŠin a district thatâs going to offer fully remote instruction or a hybrid of remote and in-person. The child is still likely not going to get the regular support around learning to read that he or she needs. Iâm really worried about where that child is going to be two years out, three years out, 10 years out.â
Because of the failure of the federal administration to respond appropriately to the pandemic, and the failure of Congress to act, we are heading into a fall that is going to cause kids to lose even more ground academically.
âJohn King
Equally alarming, King said, is the potential long-term social and emotional impact on children who have been isolated from their teachers and peers, or who are in homes where thereâs been trauma from COVID-19 or trauma from the economic crisis. There are kids affected by violence or addiction or abuse whoâve been without the supportive relationships they have at school.â
There have been bright spots in how individual districts and schools have responded to the pandemic, King said, but they have not been leveraged. âThe federal Department of Education should be lifting up those best practices,â he said. âIn the absence of federal leadership, states should be doing that.
Ultimately, King, a former history teacher, framed the challenges posed by the pandemic as âa choice between the Hoover path and the F.D.R. path.
The Hoover path is the continued dismantling of public-sector responsibilities. Itâs cutting resources for schools, doing less, hoping for less. In contrast, the F.D.R. approach would recognize how deeply interconnected we all are and make our investments accordingly.
âJohn King
âThe Hoover path is the continued dismantling of public-sector responsibilities. Itâs cutting resources for schools, doing less, hoping for less. In contrast, the F.D.R. approach would recognize how deeply interconnected we all are and make our investments accordinglyâ â including âa major additional investment in K-12 education not only to address the consequences of COVID-19 but to remedy the many inequities, especially for students of color and students from low-income backgrounds, that existed before the pandemic.
âWe have the resources,â King concluded. âThe question is, Do we have the will?â