Not too long ago, I had to go to the DMV for a new drivers license. I had to wait in line for a while, and I spent the time flipping through my phone, texting friends, and scrolling through social media.
Physically, I was in the DMV, but my brain was miles away.
Now, imagine getting dragged to the DMV six hours a day, five days a week, 10 months out of the year. Sounds brutal, right?
Yet, according to new data from Gallup and the Walton Family Foundation, that’s pretty much how millions of teenagers view school: A place they’re required to be so that they can sit through six hours of boredom, day after day.
More than half of Gen Z K-12 students who responded to a recent national survey said they did not “enjoy” going to school. Additionally, 41% of students said that they do not agree that they learned anything interesting in the past week.
Is it any wonder that students today are performing worse today on just about every measure of academic achievement than at any point in the last decade?
Learning requires active focus and effort, and students must see value in what they are learning. When these pieces are missing, our brains tune out, attention drops, and boredom sets in.
More than half of Gen Z K-12 students who responded to a recent national survey said they did not “enjoy” going to school. Additionally, 41% of students said that they do not agree that they learned anything interesting in the past week.
How Did Schools Get So Out of Step?
So often policymakers and adults see the current generation of teens as lazy, coddled, or suffering from attention spans ruined by smart phones, video games and social media. But I don’t see a generation of kids ruined by tech. Rather, I see an education system that is badly out of step with their modern life:
- 49% of students said they don’t think that school gives them the opportunity to do what they do best every day.
- 40% report feeling unprepared for their future.
- 37% say their teachers fail to make their schoolwork feel important.
Students who feel disconnected and disengaged from school stop putting in the effort. Disengaged students are five times less likely to look forward to school and they are far less likely to feel prepared for their working lives, according to the Gallup survey.
Disengaged students are five times less likely to look forward to school and they are far less likely to feel prepared for their working lives, according to the Gallup survey.
Demand and Connect Real-World Relevance
There’s a long line of research showing that student engagement surges when kids see a clear connection between coursework and their future career or college goals. Students who participate in career-oriented classes or have timely conversations about their future plans and goals with teachers or counselors report feeling drastically more prepared and motivated to do well in school.
As it happens, Career Connected Learning (CTE) is having a bit of a moment. CTE enrollment jumped 10% nationally from 2023 to 2024. At the same time, policymakers have awoken to the need for more CTE opportunities. Across the U.S., legislatures in 40 states have passed more than 150 bills that would support career readiness and durable skills.
That’s great. But it’s not enough. Alternative assessments like portfolio exams would allow students to engage in continuous, project-based learning. This approach has been shown to foster ownership and autonomy, while also promoting metacognition.
A great example of project-based learning is a sociology teacher in Tennessee who centered his class around investigating cold case murders. His students obtained and reviewed the real case files, interviewed family members and built timelines in order to develop profiles of the likely killers. It wasn’t just schoolwork – his students have actually solved six cold case murders in this way.
Alternative assessments like portfolio exams would allow students to engage in continuous, project-based learning. This approach has been shown to foster ownership and autonomy, while also promoting metacognition.
To truly scale these different learning opportunities, the field needs to invest more in research and development. A recent report from the Alliance for Learning Innovation highlights the “relevance gap” between what’s taught in classrooms and the real-world skills students need to succeed in the modern workforce. So while students and parents might be chomping at the bit for more CTE or project-based opportunities – and policymakers are trying to pave the way – educators don’t have a lot of evidence showing which models or programs work best and why.
If school boards, states and the federal government all prioritized education R&D, schools could learn which career-connected approaches deliver the best results, which ones boost student engagement and which ones can be retired. In this way, researchers can give educators proven techniques and approaches that will reignite student interest by showing them how their classwork relates to their career goals while simultaneously helping to address the skills gap.
Leverage Adaptive EdTech for Personalized Learning
Students can also become disengaged with school because traditional instruction moves at a speed that is suitable for the average student – the kid exactly in the middle of the bell curve. As a result, advanced students or those who take their learning seriously can get bored because the classroom feels too slow. And for those students who have fallen behind or work more slowly, even a measured classroom pace can feel fast and overwhelming. As a result, a lot of kids are left either bored or feeling lost.
Cognitive science shows that real learning happens in the “zone of proximal development” – right at the edge of a student’s current ability when the work is not too hard, but not easy either. In this “zone” the brain has to work to generate the mental sweat that makes learning stick.
Learning platforms can be helpful tools to keep students in the sweet spot for learning. Their ability to help teachers adapt the material quickly to any student’s ability level makes every teacher’s goal of “differentiation” much more achievable. Further, many learning platforms are effective at “gamifying” learning which has shown – under the right circumstances – to produce “measurable improvements in memory retention and focus” with some students.
Another intriguing opportunity is to invest in developers who are building learning tools that will allow students to be more “in charge” of their own learning. While there are a plethora of ed tech tools that develop the skills that drive student agency – such as curiosity and critical thinking – few platforms truly enable learners to set the direction of their own work. Investment in these types of platforms could offer easier ways for students to control the pace of their own learning.
Cognitive science shows that real learning happens in the “zone of proximal development” – right at the edge of a student’s current ability when the work is not too hard, but not easy either. In this “zone” the brain has to work to generate the mental sweat that makes learning stick.
Changing the Channel
If we want young people to care about their education, the system needs to offer them something more than classes that seem meaningless in buildings where they feel like a number. By championing career-connected coursework and supporting personalized learning technology, schools can become places where students actually want to be. And that could unlock learning in ways the country hasn’t seen in a generation.
This column first appeared in Forbes.
