Opinion: The Pandemic Was a Sputnik Moment for Rethinking American Education. We Blew It
In March 2020, resilience, innovation and adaptability became urgent priorities, backed by billions in federal funding. It was a Sputnik moment for American education.
We blew it.
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We failed to take advantage of the moment. Instead of embracing lasting change, most school systems rushed back to 'normal' — as if normal had ever been good enough.
The results are horrifying. Student achievement is in free fall. Fewer than one-third of students scored proficient in reading and math, according to the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress. These declines predated the pandemic but were exacerbated by prolonged school closures.
Given these realities, can policymakers still pretend the traditional education model works? A system designed over a century ago to train students for farm and factory labor is woefully inadequate for today's needs. It cannot deliver the personalized learning students require in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.
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This outdated system relies on one-size-fits-all solutions while assuming teachers can somehow provide differentiated support for every student. It rests on an increasingly fragile social contract: that students will attend school daily, that marginalized families will trust and wait for better service,and that schools are the sole places for learning. The pandemic shattered these assumptions.
The U.S. must rethink education. On this, the fifth anniversary of the start of the pandemic, the Center on Reinventing Public Education has launched Phoenix Rising, a forum for exploring bold, new ideas. Phoenix Rising looks back on the root causes of the disastrous pandemic response and articulates a vision for a more nimble, personalized, joyful and evidence-based public education system. Five years after the pandemic began, we reflect on the failures and propose a path forward.
Our research identifies key failures in the pandemic response and recovery:
Schools lacked incentives, autonomy and capacity to deliver the personalized instruction needed to accelerate learning.
States and the federal government provided little leadership, leaving districts to fend for themselves.
Politics, not science, dictated too many decisions.
Federal aid was distributed without clear expectations or accountability, offering only temporary relief.
The consequences are clear: declining test scores, wildly varied student needs within classrooms, disruptive behavior, chronic absenteeism and increasing mental health challenges for both students and teachers. Parents remain unaware of the full extent of learning loss, and public trust in education is eroding.
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Rather than blame educators or school districts, we at CRPE diagnose a deeper problem: The education delivery system is fundamentally overmatched by its challenges. It cannot deliver the outcomes today's students need.
We propose a future-ready system that prioritizes:
Providing flexible, personalized learning pathways: Schools should act as portfolio managers, offering students personalized learning options rather than delivering all the instruction and support themselves. Core academics would remain in assigned schools, but students could use public dollars for apprenticeships, enrichment programs, tutoring and mental health support.
Breaking down barriers in schools: Schools must dismantle rigid structures that limit student potential. Advanced coursework should be more accessible. Universal design for learning and individualized pathways to college and careers should be the norm, not the exception.
Preparing students for the future: Success after high school requires more than career pathways, internships or college applications. Schools must emphasize durable skills like critical thinking, communication and leadership. By high school, students should be immersed in career exploration and have universal access to early college.
Rethinking teacher roles and instruction: New schooling models should encourage team-based teaching. Evidence-based instructional practices must become standard. Research-based methods for reading, writing, math and behavior regulation should be integrated into teacher preparation and school support structures.
Forty years ago, CRPE advocated for a portfolio system of governance, where school boards diversified their offerings — traditional public schools, magnets and charters — while focusing on core services like funding and accountability.
Managing personalized pathways requires going further. It demands not just new governance structures, but also transformed instruction and student support.
States and localities must unlock funding, teacher assignments and student intervention strategies to enable innovative approaches. They should empower new governing bodies, whether independent boards, mayors or state-appointed leaders, to integrate ideas from outside the traditional district framework.
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This transformation required bold action. Simply calling for more patience, more money and less regulation is not enough. Schools need sustained state leadership. With the federal government pulling back from education oversight, states must step up. Empty declarations of emergency won't suffice. Top-down mandates won't work.
Students can and will learn if given the chance — but only if educators rethink how they learn. That means transforming classroom instruction, teacher roles, technology use and more. States must reallocate federal funding flexibly, revamp laws to incentivize innovation and create new opportunities for experimentation beyond the traditional system.
Above all, the next wave of education reform must look forward, not backward. American schools cannot afford to cling to outdated structures out of a misguided allegiance to the past.
Policymakers must empower schools to embrace new ideas, act on evidence and be bolder in pursuing better outcomes.
Students' futures — and the country's economic and social prosperity — depend on it.
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