Are Schools Lowering Their Expectations for Today’s Students?
How UDL Can Be Our North Star to Rigor
Are American schools sinking back into "the soft bigotry of low expectations?"
President George W. Bush famously used that phrase to introduce his sweeping public education overhaul, No Child Left Behind (NCLB), in 2002.
The bill had many flaws, but it did align schools more closely with state curricula and check student performance student-by-student. Low-performing students got the intervention they needed because if they didn't, the school would lose status and funding.
Do American schools need to revisit their expectations for students? And is there a way to do that successfully with the learners of 2025?
Let’s unpack this problem a bit.
Anecdotally, I have had teachers tell me students turn in work alongside comments such as, “I didn’t work that hard on this because I was tired.”
Similarly, my friends with teenagers say many high schoolers have no interest in getting a driver’s license because it’s easier to have their parents drive them around.
Are we turning into a nation of wimps who are afraid of hard work, perseverance, and getting up after we fall down?
The Evidence: Declining IQ Scores and Increasing Screen Time
This feeling of a general "slide" in both expectations and performance goes beyond the anecdotal frustration you hear from classroom teachers—it's backed by concerning trends in academic and cognitive data.
A Decline in Cognitive Skills: Recent research suggests a subtle but significant shift in cognitive ability. A 2023 study analyzing U.S. IQ test scores indicated a recent decline, reversing decades of the "Flynn effect" (the long-term rise in IQ scores) in America, as reported by Forbes. This suggests a widening gap in the foundational intellectual skills needed for complex problem-solving.
The Dawn of the Post-Literate Society: Perhaps the most urgent crisis is the "slide toward illiteracy." The rise of short-form, screen-based media is ushering in what some are calling "The Dawn of the Post-Literate Society" in a piece by James Marriott. Studies cited in his article show a dramatic decline in reading for pleasure, which correlates with a drop in international PISA scores. Why is this a crisis? Because engagement with long, complex, written text—the very act of sustained reading—is essential for developing the capacity for complex, rational, and abstract thinking. Without it, discourse risks collapsing into simpler, more emotional, "oral" habits of thought, posing a profound challenge to civic life and intellectual rigor.
The Cost of Screen Time on Focus and Resilience: This decline is compounded by the neurological toll of constant digital engagement. Research indicates that frequent, non-educational screen time can impair executive functions in children, specifically affecting cognitive flexibility, working memory, and inhibitory control (the ability to ignore distractions and sustain attention). The constant dopamine reward loop of screens may be eroding the very qualities—patience, sustained effort, and the capacity for delayed gratification—that underpin perseverance and resilience in the classroom. When work feels hard, the conditioned reflex is to seek the easy stimulation of a screen, mirroring the "I didn't work that hard because I was tired" excuse.
The Culture of Complacency: As Idrees Cahloon observes in The Atlantic, a culture of low expectations may be the underlying cause. When we reduce cognitive load, simplify the curriculum, or accept lower-quality work, we deny students the opportunity to build the very skills that are in decline. Is educational decline a product of low expectations—and in what ways can we consciously reverse it?
The Solution: Rigor Through Flexible Design
If the problem is a decline in the mental musculature for hard work and deep thought, the solution is not simply to "be harder" or "demand more" without changing our approach. The solution is intentional, inclusive rigor. We must design our classrooms to make challenging work both accessible and inescapable.
This is where the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework becomes our greatest tool.
UDL is a research-based framework that operates on the premise of "tight goals, flexible means." It does not compromise on high standards or rigor. Instead, UDL anticipates learner variability from the start, removing barriers before instruction even begins.
Instead of lowering expectations, UDL allows us to elevate expectations for every student by providing multiple pathways to meet them.
How Leaders Can Champion UDL for a Return to Rigor
As a leader, your role is to ensure your teachers have the tools to maintain a high bar for all students. UDL provides the blueprint for this work:
Embrace the "Why": Multiple Means of Engagement
The Problem: Students lack perseverance and intrinsic motivation ("I didn't work that hard because I was tired").
The UDL Solution: UDL asks us to offer choice and autonomy. A rigorous assignment on the American Revolution could allow students to choose which primary documents to analyze or to connect the material to a personal interest (e.g., analyzing the economics of the era vs. the social upheaval). Rigor is maintained through the learning objective (analysis of primary sources), but perseverance is boosted by relevance and choice. This is how we cultivate students who are Purposeful and Motivated Learners.
Ensure the "What": Multiple Means of Representation
The Problem: The complex thinking needed for literacy is fading.
The UDL Solution: Complex content (the what of learning) must be represented in multiple ways. Don't rely on text alone. Provide diagrams, videos, audio summaries, and opportunities for discussion alongside the challenging text. This scaffolding isn't watering down the rigor; it’s building the conceptual bridge so students can successfully engage with the complexity, strengthening their critical thinking muscles over time. This develops students who are Resourceful and Knowledgeable.
Insist on the "How": Multiple Means of Action and Expression
The Problem: Students prefer the easy route and fear failure.
The UDL Solution: Let students demonstrate their mastery in varied ways. If the goal is to analyze a concept (a high-rigor cognitive task), let a student who struggles with formal essay writing prove their analysis through an oral defense, a structured presentation, or a video essay. The rigor of the goal remains firm (the student must prove their analysis); the means are flexible (oral vs. written). This shifts the focus from compliance and format to deep understanding, making high-level work more attainable and encouraging students to take on bigger challenges. This fosters students who are Strategic and Goal-Directed.
If we’re indeed in an age of cognitive and literacy decline, we cannot simply lament the past. We must design a more intentional, rigorous, and accessible future.
UDL isn't a tool for lowering the bar; it's an educator’s blueprint for ensuring every student has a way to reach it. It’s our chance as educators to return students to the deep joy of learning challenging content and making connections to broaden and deepen understanding of the world.
