Focus on expectations in post-COVID schools

We should not be surprised that employers aren’t hiring or retaining Gen Zs. Many GenZs were in high school or college when COVID’s remote “non-learning” hit. GenZs experienced a huge breakdown in expectations led by our schools. Many teachers and administrators allowed students to skip assignments, dispensed with deadlines for homework and otherwise sent the message that work and results don’t matter.

Some schools went so far as to grant 50% credit toward passing, even if the student did no required work. Chronic absenteeism shot up and is just starting to recover. And this does not even address the damage done to social and communication skills.

We hurt our kids. We need to learn from our mistakes. I do not know if GenZ is “employable” or not. I do know we need to double down on expectations for those still in our school systems. The Education Establishment needs to: (1) publicize its expectations, including details on what is passing performance (i.e., not just 60%). Test scores are helpful, but they are backward looking; (2) elected school boards and teachers unions need to be consistently vocal on both expectations and results; (3) media need to report these in a consistent and factual manner (e.g., a quarterly report to the audiences).

This is not about affixing blame. This is about saving the kids and our society. The stakes cannot be higher.

Maureen McAllister

Wayne