What were we doing right, education-wise, in the 80s and 90s?

[Anonymous]

As a literacy teacher I am almost scared to respond but here goes. The problem is that fun and creativity are now valued over mastery of basic skills like phonics and handwriting. Kids in my school were encouraged to write for the sake of writing and what they wrote was not corrected but proudly displayed. Advanced concepts were taught to kids who, in some cases, could not write their own names correctly or read what they had written. I could go on and on...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:According to this article, born between 1978 and 1987 are more literate than people born before and after. What was going right during those times?
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/social-mobility-memos/2016/12/23/the-declining-productivity-of-education/

I read the NAEP report and I’m not sure the headline matches the data. The math/reading scores for all 17 year olds has been pretty much constant from the start of testing.

Reading average in 1970 for 17 year olds was 285, it peaked in 1990 at 290 and it sits at 287 now. For math, the numbers are 304 (71), 308 (99) and 306 now.

From looking at data by racial groups, whites have had basically the same reading scores since the test started, and have had math scores that have improved moderately since the 70s. Blacks and Hispanics have seen their scores rise significantly across all subjects. The majority of the rise was from the 70s to the 90s. Scores remaining the same as the population of historically underperforming groups growing seems to be good news rather than bad.

You can dig deeply into the data here: https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/ndecore/xplore/ltt

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Class of '88. FCPS.

My classmates saw some failed educational experiments; open classrooms AKA pods that were trendy in the late 70s, early 80s, then a scramble to add temporary walls and then later, classrooms.

We had textbooks and workbooks and (I'm old) dittos. We checked out books from the school library to help with our school projects. I learned to use encyclopedias and reference books in second grade.

Spelling tests! Vocabulary tests! Current events drills! Pull down maps in classrooms. Handwriting - printing and cursive. Neatness counted. Flash cards. Math facts. Spelling bees (3x champ here). The Presidential Fitness Award.

Field day was a mini Olympics with (gasp!) 1st/2nd/3rd place ribbons and a winners' stand. It would then be class vs. class.

Student Government and elections. You really did run for office and created a platform and really could get involved.

On the last day of school, our teacher would give us a huge stack of spelling lists, handwriting worksheets, math facts...to take home and work on over the summer. Or, for kids like me, use these to play school.

I had both a visually impaired and a hearing impaired classmate. "Gifted and talented" students were pulled out to meet in one classroom for more challenging work, then they came back to their regular class.

Attended school with some recent immigrants, but they all spoke English, albeit some had accents.

There was a level of formality and professional distance with our teachers. They were mostly mysterious, but each seemed to build class camaraderie. Your class was your unit, your world, dysfunction and cliques and all.

Mostly, our parents stood at a distance and didn't get (hyper) involved. My dad was our ES PTA president and so meetings were at night.

Parents were peripheral. They weren't walking us (or driving us...unthinkable) to school, or meeting us on our walk home.
My mom wrote notes to my teacher if there was a concern. Parents didn't chaperone in-school events, either.

+1

Great post - so true. Hat to sound old, but the world was better in many ways, back then.

Parents limited their helicoptering at school. Even the tiger parents stood their distance from teachers and coaches and were just tiger parents in the confines of their own homes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a literacy teacher I am almost scared to respond but here goes. The problem is that fun and creativity are now valued over mastery of basic skills like phonics and handwriting. Kids in my school were encouraged to write for the sake of writing and what they wrote was not corrected but proudly displayed. Advanced concepts were taught to kids who, in some cases, could not write their own names correctly or read what they had written. I could go on and on...

EXACTLY. As a parent this is infuriating!

But, how can we change this? Who can we complain to?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also, schools don't teach children grammar or how to spell anymore. Those things are FUNDAMENTAL and I don't know how they don't realize it. My husband teaches college students and says they are the worst writers he's ever encountered, and the laziest students (don't want to read their assignments). The young people that I work with are also very poor writers with poor research skills. It's an entire generation lost.

I agree with this. Memorization should still have a place in the school for things like multiplication tables and spelling. My kids go to FCPS and they can't spell at all. It's one of the things we're focusing on now in our homeschooling.

[Anonymous]

We had personal pan pizza's at Pizza Hut as an incentive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We had personal pan pizza's at Pizza Hut as an incentive.

Oh man, I'd forgotten about that! We also had assemblies in my Arlington elementary school where kids would get called up on stage for getting straight As. My kids are in FCPS and this would never fly today.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We had personal pan pizza's at Pizza Hut as an incentive.

My kids get personal pan pizzas from Pizza Hut but they only do carry out now, no more sit down restaurants. And the pizzas aren't as good. My kids like them, which is more important.

https://www.bookitprogram.com/

[Anonymous]

It’s all because of Elmo. Kids used to aspire to be Big Bird, the Elmo came along and they aspired to be 4 year olds.

[Anonymous]

Those years were when there was a massive dip in population and lots of ES were closed down.

When there are fewer kids its easier to educate them.

[Anonymous]

In the 80s we had more gifted programs with race blind test in, they really were accelerated starting in 3rd grade. Parents had little involvement in anything regarding grades or issues with teachers. My parents never would have called the school to request a certain teacher or complain about a grade I received. Definitely learned a lot more hustle. I never took an AP class in my life, went to mediocre schools and a second rate state school. I have an awesome career, make good money, can outwork anyone and am great at problem solving which makes me in demand as a project manager.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We had personal pan pizza's at Pizza Hut as an incentive.

This!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In the 80s we had more gifted programs with race blind test in, they really were accelerated starting in 3rd grade. Parents had little involvement in anything regarding grades or issues with teachers. My parents never would have called the school to request a certain teacher or complain about a grade I received. Definitely learned a lot more hustle. I never took an AP class in my life, went to mediocre schools and a second rate state school. I have an awesome career, make good money, can outwork anyone and am great at problem solving which makes me in demand as a project manager.

This would be my story (in the 70's). Kids had hustle and were responsible for themselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1978

-Phonics
-Grammar
-No test or quiz retakes
-Very rare to ever get an extension on homework. Only if you were really sick.
-Individual desks facing the front of the room. No desks pushed together or group desks.
-Having our own supplies. No shared bins in the middle of group desks.
-Textbooks! Workbooks!
-Parents were not involved. If a teacher complained about us, we would be worried about our parents reaction to US. They wouldn’t defend us to the teachers
-latchkey kid. Made me learn how to manage my time on my own.
-Letter grades in elementary. No wishy washy grading.
-No cell phones and no kid shows on tv other than for a hour or so after school and on Saturday mornings. So we read a lot more books, newspapers and magazines. Also played outside a TON.

This. Young kids walked with their friends to school. Parents did not drop them off or even walk them.

[Anonymous]

Discipline in the classroom. Discipline in the home.

I went to grade school in Bowie, then I went to school in Frederick, then high school on the Eastern Shore.
In no classroom was a student or teacher assaulted in the classroom ever. If a kid could not function in the classroom and master material then they were in special ed. There were a couple of fights in the hallway but they were quickly broken up by the assistant principals.

Classrooms had discipline.