Education can unite us; that’s needed now more than ever 

As a Democrat from Massachusetts and a Republican from Mississippi, you may assume it’s hard to find common ground. But we share a deep commitment to ensuring all children get the great education they deserve. 

That’s guided our work on the board overseeing the Nation’s Report Card. As our terms draw to a close, we’ve been reflecting on lessons learned. First, we hope others see the value in this kind of service—on the National Assessment Governing Board and other governmental and public sector boards. In our experience, this hasn’t been bureaucracy as usual or rubber-stamping red tape. Our contributions — and the contributions of the board as a collective — matter. A lot.  

Second, we need to come together—even when that’s hard—when kids’ lives and well-being are on the line. 

We felt this acutely when Haley was chairing the Governing Board and Alice was leading a committee outlining the content and skills for test questions that U.S. students would take on an updated National Assessment of Educational Progress reading assessment. 

How to teach and test reading has long been—and continues to be—a topic of intense debate, and the dedicated members of our board weren’t immune from such strife, arguing over the role background knowledge plays in reading and how it should shape the assessment. But, eventually, by actively listening to one another and seeking out compromise, we reached consensus and adopted a sound reading framework that will provide us with vital information about student progress in this most fundamental subject. 

That wasn’t the only time during our board tenure when we had to take a collective deep breath and work through strongly held views and make critical decisions. That was essential when we dealt with the issue of whether we could assess students amidst remote and hybrid schooling due to COVID-19—topics that inherently sparked debate. NAEP is administered in reading and math every other year to fourth- and eighth-graders. After looking at the issue carefully as a group, the board decided to delay testing in those subjects and in U.S. History and civics. It was clearly the right decision given what was possible at the time but that doesn’t mean it was easy.   

Ideally, government would always operate in this way—working through differences to solve problems, in the best manner possible, with the best information available. But we live in the real world and know that’s not always possible. Despite the latest headlines, however, more often than not, education can be an issue that unites rather than divides people. We’ve seen it repeatedly. 

In recent years, for example, Congress has come together around unprecedented pandemic-relief funding for schools and helped establish and improve meaningful accountability systems in K-12 systems aimed at ensuring all students are held to high expectations and supported in meeting them. And in Massachusetts, Mississippi, and many other states, legislators have worked across the aisle to ensure instruction is tied to high standards and aligned assessments.  

The need for adults to put aside differences for the sake of our kids has never been greater. The latest NAEP scores, along with other measures of student progress, show achievement is way down from pre-pandemic levels and academic recovery efforts have stalled. Math declines are particularly devastating, which threatens students’ course-taking patterns and college and career planning. Scores in other subjects tested on the Nation’s Report Card, such as civics and U.S. history, are also shockingly low. Just 13 percent of eighth graders reached the NAEP Proficient level in U.S. history. We need to respond to this crisis with the urgency it deserves. 

Responding appropriately requires us to think about how to support teachers too. We continue to see educators leaving the profession at alarmingly high rates. NAEP survey data released last year reveal many educators lack confidence on how to address student learning gaps. We need to help them help our kids. 

We share love and admiration for educators who’ve touched our lives. They include a high school math teacher who showed Haley and a class full of teens in Yazoo City, Miss., that they could excel at the highest levels in Advanced Algebra and a teacher in Wellesley, Mass., who inspired Alice’s daughter to become a high school English teacher herself. When we keep educators like them in mind, along with the needs of kids, it becomes vastly easier to work together for the greater good. 

We’ll bring what we’ve learned on the board to other aspects of our lives, and we hope new candidates will step up to serve. In doing so, we hope they bring their knowledge, passion, and a willingness to set differences aside so this and future generations of students can reach their full potential.  

Haley Barbour served as Mississippi governor from 2004-2012. Alice Peisch has served a Massachusetts state representative since 2003. Both were appointed to the National Assessment Governing Board, which sets policies for the “Nation’s Report Card.” Gov. Barbour’s service ends Sept. 30; Rep. Peisch’s term ends Sept. 2024. The board is currently seeking new nominees.