Applauding what's implied

USA Today carried a story with the following headline:

New analysis of math, reading scores 'very disconcerting'

The article mentioned that over the last decade the scores in US population centers have declined, but that the new scores are rock bottom enough to be disastrous - lower than ever.  Educators are so worried that they wanted to give these miserable results their due misery, so they changed the way the percentages were reported.  In all of Detroit, the article said, only 120 African American students would be considered proficient.  They presented results in the same way for several major cities, the number of students in a city who would be proficient.  Another example is that only 40 Hispanic students would score proficient or better in all of Atlanta.

That should get people's attention all right.  Yes it should... but for a very different reason.

The scores are not lying, of course.  But, they are telling us that reading and math (the way it is taught, at least, with discrete skills) are not relevant any longer.  Of course, educators don't want to hear that.  Reading and math (the way it is taught) are definitely in peril.  Educators ignored the reasons for the decline, and scrambling to fix scores now is futile.   Reading and math (the way it is taught) scores are irretrievably in peril.  Why?  Reading is dying.   A decline has happened over the last ten years because there was a war with technology, and technology won.  Visual presentation has replaced it.  Math taught as a series discrete skills is dying.  Operations are not the end game any longer.  An environment for those skills has replaced them.  The new environments are algorithms, coding, and math syntax.

I'm sure there will be other articles of gloom and doom to follow this one.  They will decry the poor scores.  They will try to use the smoke and mirrors of how the poor and minority children are way behind.  They will continue reporting on tests that measure reading and discrete math skills.  But, if those in charge of education were to test the skills for the new world, the world people really wake up in every day, they might see an increase in scores for disciplines that actually count, disciplines that are the building blocks of the world now, and increasingly, the coming world.  Test basic computer programming.  Test video presentation of ideas.  Test the construction of meaningful algorithms.  See if those scores show proficiency.  Tout the increase of web page organization and use.  Applaud the widespread use of photo presentation that yield interpretation of real world events.

Reading and math skills are not going to improve.  But, who cares!  Let's be done with measuring skills from the 20th century.  Let's construct tests that measure what students are really learning, what they absolutely should learn to survive in a global economy.  I think people would be proud of the results, not "disconcerted" with them.