[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-seo-587154-105":3,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":81,"doc-detail-587154-en":131},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"ok",{"site_id":7,"language":8,"slug":9,"title":10,"keywords":11,"description":12,"schema_data":13,"social_meta":74,"head_meta":76,"extra_data":78,"updated_unix":80},105,"en","a-new-compact-for-educational-excellence","A New Compact for Educational Excellence","","Examining recent NAEP “Nation’s Report Card” reading and math results, this brief argues that U.S. public schools have stalled and declined sharply since 2019, widening achievement gaps despite prior federal pandemic relief. It connects falling scores with persistently low parent and public satisfaction and with political disengagement from evidence-based education reform. The document proposes a new compact with families through a renewed focus on academic rigor, expanded school choice within public education, reduced bureaucratic inertia, and accountable, autonomous school models.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & Report",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/a-new-compact-for-educational-excellence/587154/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/a-new-compact-for-educational-excellence/587154.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"Fahsai","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-12","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":55},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",18,{"@type":57,"mainEntity":58},"FAQPage",[59,65,69],{"name":60,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":62},"What do recent NAEP results show about U.S. reading and math performance?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"Reading achievement has stagnated and then fallen since 2019 for most students, and math shows stagnation followed by significant declines, especially among the lowest performers. The results also indicate a widening gap between top and bottom performers.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"How does the document describe public attitudes toward public schools?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"It cites polling showing education satisfaction remains among the lowest in the century, with many parents and the broader public reporting dissatisfaction. It also notes that mood about public schools worsened further around the January 2025 NAEP release.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"What solution does the document propose for educational improvement?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"It calls for a reform blueprint creating a “new compact” with parents, centered on refocusing public schools on core academic missions, restoring rigor and merit, expanding learner opportunity, improving achievement gaps, and moving toward autonomous, accountable public school models.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":75,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":77,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":79,"site_id":7},587154,1792070548,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":83},"success",[84,88,92,96,101,106,111,115,120,123,127],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":85,"show_sort_weight":86,"slug":87},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":89,"show_sort_weight":90,"slug":91},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":93,"show_sort_weight":94,"slug":95},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":97,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":98,"show_sort_weight":99,"slug":100},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":102,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":103,"show_sort_weight":104,"slug":105},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":107,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":108,"show_sort_weight":109,"slug":110},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":112,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":113,"slug":114},8,30,"research-report",{"id":116,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":117,"show_sort_weight":118,"slug":119},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":118,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":121,"show_sort_weight":118,"slug":122},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":124,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":125,"show_sort_weight":124,"slug":126},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":128,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":129,"show_sort_weight":97,"slug":130},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":132},{"doc_id":79,"user_id":133,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":134,"doc_module":4,"category_id":112,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":135,"file_id":136,"file_url":137,"file_type":138,"file_size":139,"view_count":55,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":55,"language":140,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145,"preview_page_count":4},549768702563,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/8000c4aa63b76e948b?x-image-process=image/resize,m_fixed,w_180,h_180&k=1786536092046926083","A New Compact for Educational Excellence  \nRACHEL CANTER  \nPROGRESSIVE POLICY INSTITUTE  \nSEPTEMBER 2025  \n @ppi |  @progressivepolicyinstitute |  /progressive-policy-institute  \nA NEW COMPACT FOR EDUCATIONAL EXCELLENCE  \nA New Compact for Educational Excellence  \nRACHEL CANTER  \nSEPTEMBER 2025  \nINTRODUCTION  \nAmerica’s public school students are drowning.  \nAfter nearly three decades of slow but steady increases in reading achievement, the scores of our fourth and eighth graders stagnated after 2015 and have fallen precipitously since 2019 for all but the highest performers.1  \nThoughthe pandemic caused immediate and severe learning loss, reading scores have continued toerode even as the country passed the fifth anniversary of the COVID-19 shutdown. Nationally, as of 2024, fourth and eighth graders are back to where they started at the advent of the reading assessment.2  \nIn simple terms, the share of fourth graders falling below the “basic” level of literacy has risen to 40% .3 Fewer than one-third of U.S. eighth graders can read at grade level.4 The picture is similarly bleak in math — stagnation just prior to the pandemic, followed by significant declines since, with the deepest drops among the lowest-performing students.5 The results in all grades and subjects show a widening gap between the highest and lowest performers, all while test scores remain below pre-pandemic levels,6 despite the Biden administration’s infusion of $190 billion in federal pandemic relief.7  \nThese results from the National Assessment for Education Progress (NAEP), also known as the Nation’s Report Card, spawned alarming headlines upon their release in January 2025: “American Children’s Reading Skills Reach New Lows,” blasted the New York Times;8 “Kids’ Reading and Math Skills Are Worsening, New Test Scores Reveal. What’s Going On?” USA Today fretted.9 The dire data posed no mystery to the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board, which summed up the situation bluntly:  \n“America’s Schools Keep Flunking.”10  \nAmerican parents share the conclusion of the Journal’s ed board about the state of public schooling. August 2024 public opinion polling from Gallup shows satisfaction with education remains among the lowest it has been this century, with three in ten parents somewhat or completely dissatisfied with their child’s education and more than half of the wider public feeling the same.11  \nA NEW COMPACT FOR EDUCATIONAL EXCELLENCE  \nA January 2025 Gallup survey about the general mood of the nation from two weeks before the recent NAEP release shows even lower satisfaction with public schools, with seven in ten respondents reporting dissatisfaction.12  \nDespite this crisis, the consensus that policymakers and advocates reached in the early 2000s about the importance and urgency of improving educational outcomes has long since disintegrated, torn apart by the social controversies that now dominate education rather than ideas about how to improve teaching and learning. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is attempting to eviscerate, if not shut down, the U.S. Department of Education and to redirect federal education spending from public to private schools.  \nDemocrats opened the door to these attacks by abandoning the Clinton-Obama legacy of school reform and lining up behind teachers’ unions defending the K-12 status quo. As a result, they’ve forfeited their party’s historical advantage on educational issues. But if Democrats can no longer claim the mantle of the party of education, neither can Republicans, who have abdicated responsibility for the majority of the nation’s schoolchildren by focusing on private school choice to the exclusion of nearly everything else.13 Ninety percent of American children attend public schools, and yet neither party is speaking to them or their families.14  \nThe consequences for the country and our children of continued inaction are severe.“Looking at this data, it’s clear that we’re in enormous risk of losing an entire ge","cbCaiaoRgCawySWF","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiaoRgCawySWF","pdf",1924389,"English","# Introduction\n## NAEP findings and widening gaps\n## Public and parent dissatisfaction\n## Political obstacles to reform\n# A new compact and core principles\n## Vision for academic success and citizenship\n## Family voice and choice within public schools","[{\"question\":\"What do recent NAEP results show about U.S. reading and math performance?\",\"answer\":\"Reading achievement has stagnated and then fallen since 2019 for most students, and math shows stagnation followed by significant declines, especially among the lowest performers. The results also indicate a widening gap between top and bottom performers.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the document describe public attitudes toward public schools?\",\"answer\":\"It cites polling showing education satisfaction remains among the lowest in the century, with many parents and the broader public reporting dissatisfaction. It also notes that mood about public schools worsened further around the January 2025 NAEP release.\"},{\"question\":\"What solution does the document propose for educational improvement?\",\"answer\":\"It calls for a reform blueprint creating a “new compact” with parents, centered on refocusing public schools on core academic missions, restoring rigor and merit, expanding learner opportunity, improving achievement gaps, and moving toward autonomous, accountable public school models.\"}]","A New Compact for Educational Excellence | PDF",1792060851,45]