Pandemic worsens Texas’ poor school performance – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

Texas does a lot of good things, including job creation, the economy, and low taxes.

North Texas is one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the country, with people flocking for good jobs and quality of life – but not necessarily when it comes to making sure their children receive a quality education.

While the state ranks at the top of many surveys regarding affordability and the best places to live, when it comes to educating children and how they do in school, Texas scores fail. are nothing to brag about. In a recent US News and World Report survey, Texas ranked 34th in education.

The addition of barriers to education caused by the pandemic has frustrated educators at ISD Dallas, who have strong feelings about helping students move forward.

“I think before going forward it’s important to step back and look back,” said Barefoot Judge Sanders Law Magnet, math professor Yonathan Tadesse.

“I’ve been on several commissions on the reinvention of education,” said ISD Dallas Superintendent Michael Hinojosa. “I would always leave these bands frustrated, one band was from 2006 to 2008 and nothing really happened.”

How can a state so focused on its victories not tackle one of the most important things to secure its future?

NBC 5 went to the man in charge of education for Texas, former ISD Dallas administrator, Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath.

“We still only have 18% of our kids when we graduated who have a level ready to take freshman courses at the college level, according to the SAT,” he said.

Less than two-thirds of Texas students can pass a freshman course.

“Believe it or not, this number is better than it’s ever been,” Morath said. “When I talk to people of a certain age and they say, ‘Why can’t it be like it was when I was a kid.’ And we conveniently forget that the adult literacy rate in this country, let’s say in the 60s and 70s was much lower than it is today “

Texas has a long history of low scores that are slowly improving.

“We haven’t improved the system fast enough for our children, and that has been the real challenge,” he said.

Morath said the slow rise over the past 30 years has ebbed thanks to the pandemic. He said he is back to what he was 10 years ago.

Part of his plan is to listen to the teachers and they say we have a lot of work to do outside of the classroom.

“Even before Covid, we had a mental health epidemic,” Tadesse said.