“These data should be a wake-up call for us.”

When news broke in early September that U.S. 9-year-olds’ academic achievement scores have dropped to their lowest level in thirty years, NBC News’ LX channel reached out to Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona and Partnership Superintendent Kathleen Porter-Magee for their reaction. In addition to identifying the clear call to action that recent NAEP scores give, Secretary Cardona also noted that “the money is there for us to do better, to strengthen and support our educators…it is on us now to act with the money and the urgency to make sure that our kids and families get what they need.”

Kathleen named two essential components of any response to the crisis: “What we need to do right now is bring intentionality and focus to our work.”

“It’s not about trying doing everything all at once,” she notes. “It’s about choosing really carefully what you do, and then doing those things really, really well.”

For more on the focuses Kathleen suggests, see the full interview here: