As students returned from the Coronavirus crisis, the critical question became “What grade are they in?” Were they passed with their age group without actually learning? Were they retained, allowing the school-to-prison pipeline process to begin? Or did they sit in summer school while politicians pretended they were catching up? The lessons from the pandemic were clear. Not only does the system not work for them anymore, the system has not worked for Black and Brown students—as well as White students in Appalachia—for the last 200 years.

In addition to structural changes, the reality is that high stakes standardized testing drives the curriculum into a narrow scope of education when the need is to educate children beyond the classroom into the world of today. A Failed System: Pandemic-Related Solutions to a 200-Year-Old Education Crisis presents solutions designed to develop a system of education that places all children on an even playing field. The current system has no solutions to the structural problem and shows no interest in taking students beyond the big test. It is time to replace education’s failed system—students must be prepared to think!