The educators I’ve interviewed teach different subjects to different age groups in different geographic areas, but when the topic of student performance arises, their experiences are universally and depressingly the same: the students who enter their classrooms are largely academically behind, unprepared, and unmotivated.

The data backs up their empirical evidence.

In September, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) showed stark and sobering declines in kids’ performance and abilities in math and reading. Only 22% of 12th graders scored at or above the “proficient” level in math, and only 35% demonstrated reading proficiency.

Those are the lowest scores in both areas in two decades, and the weakest in reading proficiency performance since the test first began in 1992.

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