National reading scores are at all time lows

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No amount of intervention will fix low literacy, checked out parents.

I am hopeful now that many schools have actually started teaching kids to read again, many more kids will learn how. Though not all school systems - Fairfax in Virginia just adopted a curriculum that encouraged kids to guess what a word is instead of learning to read it. Appalling.

[Anonymous]

Maybe I should make a separate thread, but my kid has low/average reading and math skills. He is a senior in high school. He has always hated school, has ADHD, and the pandemic distance learning did him in. He hasn't caught up.

He will go to Montgomery College next year, but I wondered if there are any additional supports I could get him, just to ensure a solid foundation in writing. He can read and do math well enough, but he has trouble conveying his thoughts in a clear, logical manner. When he was younger, there were all sorts of programs for kids. And he has had tutors. Is a tutor the way to go for college? Or are there more structured programs out there?

I don't need him to be an award-winning writer. I just want to ensure he's functioning well enough to work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:also closing schools for (in some areas) over 2 years didn't do us any favors.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/studen...4890be737eb4a1&ei=40

Fcking liar.

Schools were not closed for over two years.

[Anonymous]

They need to get screens out of k-8 and bring back real books and textbooks for k-12.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I blame parents giving their children devices before they learn to read

I would love to remove all devices but the teachers keep assigning homework in apps. Get rid of the garbage apps.

I agree there is a little too much dependence on apps (thanks to underfunded & overcrowded schools), but Lexia is a great app.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I blame Tiktok, Youtube, etc. Kids have super short attention spans and want to be fed content with minimal effort. My kid is a 4th grader and usually has to be forced to read. There are just so many other options. When I was a kid, there wasn't a whole lot else to do. And at least when we watched tv, it wasn't presented in infinite 30 second clips.

+1 even as an adult, I now have a short attention span because of the "snippits" I get in emails because there are just too many dam* things to read - documentation after documentation, and that's not even my core job. So, everyone just sends out snippits.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I blame parents giving their children devices before they learn to read

I would love to remove all devices but the teachers keep assigning homework in apps. Get rid of the garbage apps.

I agree there is a little too much dependence on apps (thanks to underfunded & overcrowded schools), but Lexia is a great app.

Lexia is awful. My 6th grader has her 2nd grade sister do her assignments because it's so easy. It goes so so slowly.

At they beginning when they first introduced Lexia they let kids move ahead if they passed a placement test, but now they require kids to do Lexia for their grade level. It's so remedial. A total waste of time.

[Anonymous]

Yes, but scores are also down in math, not just reading. In fact, the decline started in 2018, pre-pandemic. So covid doesn't explain it completely, and neither does the lack of reading books (since math is also down, at about the same rate).

But the timing corresponds perfectly with the point at which most schools completed their redesigns of curriculum to cater to math and reading tests, as a result of NCLB (and later, Race to the Top). It also corresponds to the rise of vouchers and charters, which were part of NCLB.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I blame parents giving their children devices before they learn to read

I would love to remove all devices but the teachers keep assigning homework in apps. Get rid of the garbage apps.

Get all tech out of classrooms until AT LEAST high school (I'd be on board for through 12th!) Kids will not read books when there is a more alluring alternative (tech games). The pull is just too strong for both the student (more "Fun) and the teacher (less "work.") If the school day were slow and boring, with reading, writing and arithmetic - our kids would be MUCH better off.

We have to take back our culture and our schools. Make life REAL again. Do not give your kid a cell phone until AFTER 8th grade. And parents - put your phone away when home also. What kind of example are we setting when we are sitting on the couch on our phones for 3 hrs a night? Watch TV with your kids, let them see YOU read a book. Hard to harp on the kids when we don't do it either.

[Anonymous]

EdTech is an enormous boondoggle. It is a cash cow where the kids lose. Administrations LOVE to spend other ppl's $$$ and have zero accountability. Teacher are left to clean up the mess in the classroom.

Swishy privates will ALL be tech-free within a couple of years. Only the great unwashed will be left with EdTech ruling the roost. Sorry poor people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:EdTech is an enormous boondoggle. It is a cash cow where the kids lose. Administrations LOVE to spend other ppl's $$$ and have zero accountability. Teacher are left to clean up the mess in the classroom.

Swishy privates will ALL be tech-free within a couple of years. Only the great unwashed will be left with EdTech ruling the roost. Sorry poor people.

Meh, our private was all in on Lucy Caulkins back in the day. Being on the forefront of a trend isn’t always better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I blame parents giving their children devices before they learn to read

I would love to remove all devices but the teachers keep assigning homework in apps. Get rid of the garbage apps.

I agree there is a little too much dependence on apps (thanks to underfunded & overcrowded schools), but Lexia is a great app.

Lexia is awful. My 6th grader has her 2nd grade sister do her assignments because it's so easy. It goes so so slowly.

At they beginning when they first introduced Lexia they let kids move ahead if they passed a placement test, but now they require kids to do Lexia for their grade level. It's so remedial. A total waste of time.

Lexia is not awful.

It’s a tool that can either be used effectively or not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, but scores are also down in math, not just reading. In fact, the decline started in 2018, pre-pandemic. So covid doesn't explain it completely, and neither does the lack of reading books (since math is also down, at about the same rate).

But the timing corresponds perfectly with the point at which most schools completed their redesigns of curriculum to cater to math and reading tests, as a result of NCLB (and later, Race to the Top). It also corresponds to the rise of vouchers and charters, which were part of NCLB.

Yup. That’s what happens when schools are forced to teach to the test.

[Anonymous]

Lexia is terrible.

Kids in the 80s and 90s learned grammar, writing and reading without it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I blame parents giving their children devices before they learn to read

I would love to remove all devices but the teachers keep assigning homework in apps. Get rid of the garbage apps.

I agree there is a little too much dependence on apps (thanks to underfunded & overcrowded schools), but Lexia is a great app.

Lexia is awful. My 6th grader has her 2nd grade sister do her assignments because it's so easy. It goes so so slowly.

At they beginning when they first introduced Lexia they let kids move ahead if they passed a placement test, but now they require kids to do Lexia for their grade level. It's so remedial. A total waste of time.

Lexia is not awful.

It’s a tool that can either be used effectively or not.

Yes it is. It moves incredibly slowly. It also has set levels so if a kid needs to work on one skill, but excels at others, they still have to wade through hours and hours of content that is far too easy. And if you click the wrong thing (usually trying to rush and move faster) then you have to sit through asinine recordings to "teach" the missed content. My kids equate Lexia to torture and I agree with them.