The Achievement Trap

By Barbara Klein, John D. McNeil, & Lynn A. Stout

Perhaps now is a good time to ask this question: What are schools supposed to do for our children? As learning specialists, we see an alarming trend: Our education system increasingly is focusing not on developing children’s aptitude for learning—their ability to absorb new information quickly and solve problems creatively—but on their academic achievements —their mastery of particular subjects and skills as proven by performance on standardized tests.

To see why this is dangerous, let’s think about why we send children to school in the first place. “Getting an education” once meant helping children become cultured individuals and thoughtful citizens. In today’s world of economic anxiety, global competition, and an unraveling social safety net, many believe education’s main function is to help kids land high-paying jobs. Yet even if this is our goal, we’re going about it the wrong way.

Employers in an information economy want a workforce that can read, write, and do simple mathematics, and our schools should teach these basic skills to as many children as possible during the K-12 years. But basic skills are not enough. The modern workplace is a fluid environment where technology, market conditions, and production processes shift rapidly. Employers need workers with learning aptitude : the ability to process new information quickly...