The decade-long "learning recession"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The common core curriculum is not great. We have been overseas frequently for work and the private schools with a British curriculum are almost always more rigorous than ones with an American curriculum that typically follows common core.

To add, often the British curriculum is a year ahead of the curriculum in the corresponding grade at the American curriculum schools. They start early, for example reading instruction starts in prek as opposed to starting everyone slow and hyper accelerating later.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's not just smart phones and social media. A lot of these losses are happening among elementary age kids who don't have access to either. But the reliance on Ed Tech to teach math and reading is a big problem. Blaming screens at home doesn't make sense because kids have been watching screens at home for decades, that's not something that started in 2015.

What shifted for kids is they went from mostly using books, paper, and pencil in the classroom to using 1:1 devices and ed tech software. That's true for kids who were get zero screen time at home, and it's true for kids who get hours of screen time at home every day.

Go back to physical books, handwriting, and working out math problems with pencil and paper. Studies show that children retain information better and longer when they learn it from physical media instead of digitally.

Couldn't agree with you more. My child gets maybe one 30 minute show every week and that's it for screen time at home. But at school they have 1-to-1 iPads all day, and in all classes except PE. Child was taught to guess rather than read phonetically at school. Was also taught how to drag boxes across different learning apps, and how to click buttons to take state/natl tests on the iPad. Child is only in 2nd and so far at home we have had to independently teach phonics/ blends, addition/subtraction/multiplication/division, grammar, spelling, and geometrical shapes and area. We have literally had to emphasize practice with pencil and paper at home, because child did not know how to line up numbers to do sums or how to write neatly on the page. Not because of dysgraphia or dyslexia, but because they do it all on screens at school. I have no idea how we are going to supplement science and history. I feel English and Math already take up all of our time. We are planning to supplement with a drawing class over the summer since they just play with the Brushes app on the iPad during art at school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's not just smart phones and social media. A lot of these losses are happening among elementary age kids who don't have access to either. But the reliance on Ed Tech to teach math and reading is a big problem. Blaming screens at home doesn't make sense because kids have been watching screens at home for decades, that's not something that started in 2015.

What shifted for kids is they went from mostly using books, paper, and pencil in the classroom to using 1:1 devices and ed tech software. That's true for kids who were get zero screen time at home, and it's true for kids who get hours of screen time at home every day.

Go back to physical books, handwriting, and working out math problems with pencil and paper. Studies show that children retain information better and longer when they learn it from physical media instead of digitally.

I absolutely agree that edtech has made the problem much, much worse. But you’d be shocked by how many K and 1st grade kids go to bed with an iPad or phone. I’m a teacher and I ask about their bedtime routines.

It would be much easier to get rid of the devices if the school wasn't assigning homework on them. I have strict rules but the kids are always telling me they have to check this or that or do something in some app. I want no screens during the week but the schools undermine me every step of the way.

+1
We wanted to restrict screens at home, but all their HW had to be done online. It was maddening. We could have said, "not screens during the week," except that they had HW every night of the week on the screens!

I do think that individual computers shouldn’t start before middle school and middle school should be a mixture of books and computers. I don’t see the problem of having homework online at home starting in middle school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The common core curriculum is not great. We have been overseas frequently for work and the private schools with a British curriculum are almost always more rigorous than ones with an American curriculum that typically follows common core.

I disagree that the British system is more rigorous. They are different and the British system is not something most Americans would care for.

I’ve read a lot of posts here that their children are no longer reading complete books. I don’t understand that at all. The one change I think is positive is using online programs for subjects like history or geography. You can no longer trust the accuracy of textbooks coming from Texas. McGraw Hill has been accused of whitewashing history, omitting important parts of history, calling slaves “workers” to name a few. They have been made to change errors in their books.

Online, the Library of Congress, Lehrer Institute of History, History.com is a reputable site. High school should absolutely be using personal laptops. The internet has opened worlds of information that wasn’t available decades ago. Elementary school needs to learn the basics, no laptops necessary.

[Anonymous]

Online material is much less fact-checked than paper textbooks, at least in DMV. Buy a paper encyclopedia before encouraging any students to trust the Internet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The common core curriculum is not great. We have been overseas frequently for work and the private schools with a British curriculum are almost always more rigorous than ones with an American curriculum that typically follows common core.

I disagree that the British system is more rigorous. They are different and the British system is not something most Americans would care for.

I’ve read a lot of posts here that their children are no longer reading complete books. I don’t understand that at all. The one change I think is positive is using online programs for subjects like history or geography. You can no longer trust the accuracy of textbooks coming from Texas. McGraw Hill has been accused of whitewashing history, omitting important parts of history, calling slaves “workers” to name a few. They have been made to change errors in their books.

Online, the Library of Congress, Lehrer Institute of History, History.com is a reputable site. High school should absolutely be using personal laptops. The internet has opened worlds of information that wasn’t available decades ago. Elementary school needs to learn the basics, no laptops necessary.

So you think whatever a teacher puts together in her free time to make money on Teachers Pay Teachers is better than a textbook? You know districts...don't have to buy textbooks that don't align with the politics of the majority, right?

And also - class novels aren't textbooks, and usually that's what people are referring to when they talk about not reading full books. My kids are in private with textbooks and trust me they aren't reading the geometry or science book cover to cover. But they are reading The Hobbit or Romeo and Juliet cover to cover.

[Anonymous]

What grade would you expect kids to start reading a classroom chapter book? Mine had reading groups where each kid in a group read the same chapter book but they never finished the book. The next grade the teacher did a whole book for the whole class but she did it as a read aloud where the kids just listened. When do kids read a whole book with pages assigned every night with a book report or something at the end?

[Anonymous]

Agreed, I can't believe kids don't have to read full books anymore, not even in high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What grade would you expect kids to start reading a classroom chapter book? Mine had reading groups where each kid in a group read the same chapter book but they never finished the book. The next grade the teacher did a whole book for the whole class but she did it as a read aloud where the kids just listened. When do kids read a whole book with pages assigned every night with a book report or something at the end?

I don't leave these things to the school anymore. My youngest is reading chapter books at the end of First Grade. What they were teaching versus what she is capable of reading just didn't align. We are working through the Ivy and Bean and she gets a big prize if we can finish book 12 by the end of the summer.

Same with math. Not happy with school math - they have zero differentiation in first grade for kids who are ahead, so we are doing Beast Academy, and we are doing a mixture of online and books. She likes online better because she likes the videos, so this is an example of how technology and Ed Tech can be helpful. I'm blown away by how much mental math she's learned on Level One - she can add and subtract 2-digit numbers in her head, fast. Per their strategy, I haven't even taught her the algorithm yet for carrying and borrowing.

It just takes an hour every evening, and we make it fun. School is for art, PE, recess, socializing, music. One hour of homework is for learning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agreed, I can't believe kids don't have to read full books anymore, not even in high school.

My kid has had to read full books throughout middle school. Reading a full book is really hard for him, though. My fault or letting him have access to so much short form content. He gets through the by going for hikes while listening to the book on Audible.

[Anonymous]

The biggest problem isn't students tuning into tech it's too many parents tuning out on their kid's education and expecting the schools to teach their kid everything, including manners. Too many parents are MIA. You deal with it all, teacher. I'm too busy doing me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agreed, I can't believe kids don't have to read full books anymore, not even in high school.

We finally got some actual books in MCPS in CES, so of course they've got that program in their crosshairs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The biggest problem isn't students tuning into tech it's too many parents tuning out on their kid's education and expecting the schools to teach their kid everything, including manners. Too many parents are MIA. You deal with it all, teacher. I'm too busy doing me.

My kid's K teacher wouldn't even read actual books to the class. Instead she would show animated YouTube videos about books. The massive screen in every classroom is a problem. My kid's behavior dramatically improved after we took away her iPad at home. Teachers should experiment with doing the same in their classrooms to the extent possible. Daily screen time in kindergarten is not necessary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The biggest problem isn't students tuning into tech it's too many parents tuning out on their kid's education and expecting the schools to teach their kid everything, including manners. Too many parents are MIA. You deal with it all, teacher. I'm too busy doing me.

I agree with you that parents have become lax, but it’s better to have parents and the school working together. Before (I’m talking 1990s here), schools offered structure and some minimum of education, and parents watched their kids, made them attend school, and checked their grades and maybe projects. Other parents didn’t do much at all, and either school helped those kids get by or some fell through the cracks. I’m a parent doing this all at home and I feel like I am doing all of it with no school support. I’m having to go against what school is actually telling my child. Lots of kids are closer and closer to falling through the cracks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The common core curriculum is not great. We have been overseas frequently for work and the private schools with a British curriculum are almost always more rigorous than ones with an American curriculum that typically follows common core.

I disagree that the British system is more rigorous. They are different and the British system is not something most Americans would care for.

I’ve read a lot of posts here that their children are no longer reading complete books. I don’t understand that at all. The one change I think is positive is using online programs for subjects like history or geography. You can no longer trust the accuracy of textbooks coming from Texas. McGraw Hill has been accused of whitewashing history, omitting important parts of history, calling slaves “workers” to name a few. They have been made to change errors in their books.

Online, the Library of Congress, Lehrer Institute of History, History.com is a reputable site. High school should absolutely be using personal laptops. The internet has opened worlds of information that wasn’t available decades ago. Elementary school needs to learn the basics, no laptops necessary.

Why do you think it is not as rigorous? The standards are approximately 1 year ahead of American style curriculum.