Rochester Public Schools -

By Kent Pekel, Ed.D.

The pandemic was a major setback for student learning, but it was not the beginning of the problem. Research by Stanford University’s Sean Reardon and his colleagues shows that student achievement in the United States began declining around 2013, years before COVID-19 disrupted our schools.

By spring 2025, average achievement in grades 3–8 remained nearly half a grade level below 2019 levels in both reading and mathematics. International assessments reveal a similar challenge: Between 2018 and 2022, average scores on the global PISA test fell sharply in both subjects.

Why were students losing ground even before the pandemic? Reardon and his colleagues suggest that two changes may have contributed. One was the retreat from test-based accountability: policies requiring schools to meet academic targets or face consequences such as replacing a principal or restructuring a school. The other was the rise of social media, which may have distracted students from their studies and weakened their ability to concentrate on challenging material. These are possible explanations, not established causes. But they raise important questions about how we hold schools responsible for learning and help young people develop the sustained attention that learning requires.

We do not have to know the exact causes of declining student achievement to take responsibility for improving it here in Rochester. Our schools also experienced significant declines in reading and mathematics before and during the pandemic. Since 2022, however, we have reversed that downward trend and made incremental gains in both subjects. That is progress, but we are by no means satisfied with where we stand.

On October 20, the Rochester School Board unanimously approved RPS 2030, a strategic plan designed to help our district move in a different direction. Developed through more than a year of community input, data analysis and research, the plan sets measurable goals for reading, mathematics, attendance, graduation and postsecondary enrollment. Its 13 change projects identify what we will do differently to achieve those goals over the next four years.

One of those projects takes a measured approach to screen time and artificial intelligence. At a time when some school districts are banning or sharply restricting particular digital tools, RPS will first carefully study how these technologies are being used in our schools. We will then implement strategies that take advantage of the benefits of technologies such as AI and social media while mitigating their potential harms. Our starting point is neither that more technology is always better nor that less is always better. It is that we need to make thoughtful decisions about when digital tools support students’ learning and development—and when they get in the way.

Alongside that work, we will strengthen the foundations of learning in reading and mathematics. In reading, we will build on the evidence-based curricula and supports already in place while expanding opportunities for students reading at or above grade level. In mathematics, we will adopt new research-based curricula, provide teachers with professional development on effective instruction, and identify and support students who are struggling.

Students cannot benefit fully from those improvements when they are absent, so we will continue our work to improve attendance. Part of that effort is making schools places where students want to be. We will strengthen developmental relationships—connections with adults and peers that challenge students to strive and support them to thrive. That includes expanding opportunities for older students to support younger students. When a fifth grader reads with a kindergartner or an eleventh grader helps a ninth grader adjust to high school, one student receives guidance while the other develops valuable life and leadership skills.

We will also reshape the high school experience around the knowledge and skills students will need after graduation. That includes increasing the number and diversity of students who complete high-quality advanced courses offering college credit. New career pathways in our three comprehensive high schools will connect sequences of courses with experiences beyond the classroom such as internships, preparing students for college or jobs that pay a living wage. These pathways will offer multiple entry and exit points, enabling students to develop deep skills in an area of interest without closing other doors to opportunity.

Opening those doors is one way public schools help advance a long-standing American aspiration: that each generation will have the opportunity to build a better life than the one before it. Yet research on economic mobility shows how much harder that aspiration has become to achieve. Harvard economist Raj Chetty and his colleagues found that about 90% of Americans born in 1940 had higher household incomes at age 30 than their parents had at the same age. For those born in the 1980s, the share fell to about 50%, after adjusting for inflation. Schools cannot single-handedly reverse the economic forces behind that decline. But we have a profound responsibility to equip young people with the knowledge, skills and relationships they need to pursue opportunity.

Too many strategic plans end up sitting on shelves, which can make developing them seem like an exercise that doesn't really matter. But the fact that many strategic plans sit on shelves does not diminish the value of strategic planning. It underscores the importance of putting those plans into action. To paraphrase the Cheshire Cat in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, if you don’t know where you are headed, any road will do.

Any road will not do for Rochester’s children. They need a road that builds strong foundations in reading and mathematics while challenging them to discover how much they can achieve. It must connect them with people who support their growth, help them use new technologies wisely, and provide experiences that turn emerging interests into possibilities for college and careers. Above all, it must prepare them not simply to graduate, but to build fulfilling lives in an economy and society that will continue to change.

That is the road RPS 2030 charts for our schools. Adopting the plan establishes our direction; it does not get us to our destination. I invite you to read the plan on the Rochester Public Schools website and help us bring it to life. Our responsibility now—in our classrooms and across our community—is to turn the commitments on its pages into opportunities in our children’s lives.