Federal

Bush ‘Education Recession’ Charge Hits Nerve

By Joetta L. Sack — October 04, 2000 4 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Gov. George W. Bush of Texas touched a nerve last week when he said the nation was in an “education recession,” setting off a debate on the interpretation of national test data and prompting a sharp response from the secretary of education.

Under the Clinton-Gore administration, the GOP presidential nominee contended, National Assessment of Educational Progress scores in reading, mathematics, and science have stagnated or declined. And achievement gaps between rich and poor, and minority and white, students have risen, he said.

In three days of stumping through hotly contested Western states, Gov. Bush repeatedly told audiences that “America is in the midst of an education recession,” and his campaign released a new television advertisement featuring the statement.

In no time, Democrats went on the offensive. In the past eight years, they said, SAT and NAEP reading scores actually have increased, and students have begun taking more math and science classes. “Under Bush, all 50 states would face an education recession,” declared the campaign of Mr. Bush’s opponent, Vice President Al Gore.

Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley—a staunch supporter of Mr. Gore—released a strongly worded retort to Gov. Bush, who had used a quote from the secretary in sounding his “recession” theme.

According to the Department of Education and news reports, Gov. Bush told supporters at an Oregon elementary school on Sept. 25 that “just the other day, the secretary of education announced Gore’s new ‘three R’s’ for American education— relationships, resilience, and readiness ...

“That sounds nice, but what happened to reading?” Gov. Bush asked.

A day later, Mr. Riley issued his unusually blunt statement.

“The next time Gov. Bush lifts a quote from a speech of mine it would be good for him to read the entire speech before he jumps to a conclusion about who has been working harder to improve reading,” Mr. Riley said. “Gov. Bush’s accusation that we have taken reading out of the three R’s is wrong and misleading; he should know better.”

Interpreting Data

Gov. Bush’s decision to link his remarks to NAEP data raised questions in the testing community last week. Experts said the data can be hard to interpret, particularly given the changing demographics of student populations.

A Bush campaign staff member said last Thursday that the campaign had extensively analyzed NAEP and other test data and reports before the governor made his claims. The Bush staff concluded that test scores were improving in the 1970s and 1980s, but became stagnant in the past decade.

“We perceive that as a recession, because anything that halts progress is a recession,” said the aide, who did not want to be quoted by name.

But Daniel M. Koretz, a senior social scientist with the RAND Corp., based in Santa Monica, Calif., argued that Mr. Bush had misrepresented the NAEP results. “The term ‘recession’ implies that things are getting worse, and it seems to me very hard to make the case that there’s any recession going on,” he said. “The main pattern you see in the data is slow, inconsistent improvement. ... But even a flat trend is good news because the population is getting so diverse.”

Wilmer S. Cody, a member of the NAEP governing board and a former state schools chief in Kentucky, agreed. “The term ‘education recession’ appears to be inappropriate, given the recent improvements in NAEP,” he said. “I would be the first and loudest to say that we need major improvements in education, but progress is being made [in NAEP scores].”

The percentage of 4th graders deemed “proficient” in reading on NAEP did, in fact, rise from 27 percent in 1994 to 29 percent in 1998, according to results released this past spring. Vice President Gore and other Democrats touted those scores as a sign of improvement.

But a 1999 compilation of test scores by NAEP officials showed little, if any, improvement over the nearly 30-year histories of the math, reading, and science exams. And the gap between black and white students’ scores has widened over the past 12 years, while the results for Hispanic students were mixed, according to the report. (“Gap Widens Between Black and White Students on NAEP,” Sept. 6, 2000.)

Nina Shokraii Rees, the senior education policy analyst for the Heritage Foundation and an education adviser to the Bush campaign, said Clinton administration officials opened themselves up to criticism when they publicized last year’s NAEP reading scores as indications of the success of their initiatives.

“The bottom line is, last year the Clinton-Gore administration claimed credit for the slight increase in reading scores,” she said. The declines in some scores and widening of the achievement gap are well-documented, she added. “This is not something that was made up by a campaign,” she said.

Mr. Koretz said that the persistence of the achievement gap cannot be tied to specific federal policies or the Clinton administration. “The improvement stopped a long time ago, not in the last few years,” he said. “If you’re going to point fingers, you’d have to go back to [former Presidents] Ronald Reagan or George Bush.”

Mr. Cody, meanwhile, said that state policies appear to make more of an impact than federal programs. “I would be doubtful that any one federal policy would have an effect over any short term,” he said.

Related Tags:

Events

Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Privacy & Security Webinar
Navigating Cybersecurity: Securing District Documents and Data
Learn how K-12 districts are addressing the challenges of maintaining a secure tech environment, managing documents and data, automating critical processes, and doing it all with limited resources.
Content provided by Softdocs

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Federal Opinion Student Literacy Rates Are Concerning. How Can We Turn This Around?
The ranking Republican senator on the education committee wants to hear from educators and families about making improvements.
6 min read
Image shows a multi-tailed arrow hitting the bullseye of a target.
DigitalVision Vectors/Getty
Federal Biden Calls for Teacher Pay Raises, Expanded Pre-K in State of the Union
President Joe Biden highlighted a number of his education priorities in a high-stakes speech as he seeks a second term.
5 min read
President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the Capitol on March 7, 2024, in Washington.
President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the Capitol on March 7, 2024, in Washington.
Shawn Thew/Pool via AP
Federal Low-Performing Schools Are Left to Languish by Districts and States, Watchdog Finds
Fewer than half of district plans for improving struggling schools meet bare minimum requirements.
11 min read
A group of silhouettes looks across a grid with a public school on the other side.
Vanessa Solis/Education Week via Canva
Federal Biden Admin. Says New K-12 Agenda Tackles Absenteeism, Tutoring, Extended Learning
The White House unveiled a set of K-12 priorities at the start of an election year.
4 min read
U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona participates in a roundtable discussion with students from Dartmouth College on Jan. 10, 2024, on the school's campus, in Hanover, N.H.
U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona participates in a roundtable discussion with students from Dartmouth College on Jan. 10, 2024, on the school's campus, in Hanover, N.H.
Steven Senne/AP