“Progress” Masks Failures

Originally published by The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Celebrating Philadelphia schools’ post-pandemic progress misses the larger story.

Yes, students have made gains—and hardworking teachers, parents, and students deserve credit. But Philadelphia students remain 2.46 grade levels behind the pre-pandemic national average. Only 33 percent are proficient in reading, and just 25 percent in math.

That’s not a success story. It is a crisis.

If a hospital healed only a quarter of its patients, few would celebrate, because other hospitals healed even fewer. We would demand answers and better options immediately. Yet, in education, we too often accept failure as progress because the comparison group is somehow even worse.

Read more at The Philadelphia Inquirer.