In Wednesday’s Butler Eagle, we ran an article about ACT scores dropping to the lowest point they’ve been at in more than 30 years, with the pandemic being cited as a top contributor to the decline. The Class of 2022’s average ACT composite score was 19.8 out of 36, marking the first time since 1991 that the average score was below 20.

What’s more, the scores, made public in a report, show 42% of ACT-tested graduates in the Class of 2022 met none of the benchmarks across the subject board, which are indicators of how well students are expected to perform in corresponding college courses.

We’ve recently contemplated the weight of modern education on younger students, who are experiencing worldwide discord in vital developmental years. This shows that the lens must be trained on the older students as well.

It’s up to the people closest to them — parents, teachers, administrators, guidance counselors, etc. — to do everything they can to lighten the load in their own ways. Though, even then, that power is limited.

People who write curricula and set state standards desperately need to walk a day in students’ shoes. The pressure placed upon those nearing graduation is nothing short of crushing, and those around them often have no choice but to watch it happen.

Someone declares new benchmarks are to be met during tests, and then people act shocked when learners who are just returning to a natural school setting aren’t displaying skills that correlate with data collected in the last 10 years.

Those that lay down the law in the education sector have a duty to students to display some kind of flexibility, especially in the wake of recent events.

We aren’t saying academic classes should be a joke just because we’ve all made it through something traumatic, however, teachers should be permitted to teach in a mix of traditional and modern, old and new, however students can best learn a concept, to help them through their grade school years.

It will improve beloved statistics, as well as student mental health.

– CM