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C H A P T E R
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©2021 by Solution Tree Press. All rights reserved.
From Achievement to Engagement: Two Ages of Educational Change
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ince the turn of the millennium, there have been countless books and articles about inadequate student achievement and falling standards.4 How many times have we heard about wide achievement gaps, worrisome test results, and students getting left behind? Too many of our school systems have been all about racing to the top, beating the competition, and being best in class.
An equally important but frequently overlooked problem is the lack of student engagement. It’s not a trivial matter. According to a 2018 Gallup survey report, only 47 percent of U.S. students are engaged with school, with just over a quarter “not engaged” and the remainder “actively disengaged.”5 Around half the students surveyed by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD)—one of the leading organizations for school administrators in the United States—say that they are bored every day.6 The numbers fluctuate across ages and disciplines, but a lot of students report that they have no idea why they are learning what their teachers ask them to learn. For them, school is a long, tedious ordeal. As they move from elementary school to high school, students become more and more disengaged. The Gallup survey results show that “engagement is strong at the end of elementary school, with nearly three-quarters of fifth-graders (74%) reporting high levels of engagement,” but other surveys, Gallup points out, show steep
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