40% of 4th graders cannot read in 2026
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Anonymous
| The statistics are far worse than this. Reading proficiency for 8th and 12th graders are terrible too, with only around 30-35% kids at or above proficiency levels. Don’t blame Covid. Schools have literally forgotten how to teach the most basic subjects. Schools have abandoned expectations and moved focus from reading, arithmetic, writing, grammar, science and history to various other content they use no business teaching |
Anonymous
I wish I were kidding, but the books my middle schooler is assigned to “read” as part of the curriculum are actually played on audio in the class- because kids either won’t or can’t read them |
Anonymous
DP and in a different district. It’s true. My teen’s 10th grade honors English class syllabus specifically stated students are required to use capitalization and punctuation in all sentences for written or typed papers. WTF. What is going on in schools? |
Anonymous
Any school who removed books for the students to take home and then discuss as a class can’t possibly have very good test results. As for textbooks, I don’t think they should be returned. Texas is removing chapters that explain all about fossil fuels and anything on climate change. They whitewash history textbooks. They can do this because they are a huge buyer of these textbooks. This true for Florida and California too. There are much better options. In 7th grade National Geographic website had an amazing program that gave info on every country in the world. They discussed location, political system, religion, people, type of weather, land, natural resources. At certain points there would be comprehension questions to ensure students got the material. PBS, Smithsonian, all the big names have excellent programs. We can only hope these programs outlive Trump which is iffy. |
Anonymous
I don’t teach English… but I jump into different course classrooms. It’s beyond ridiculous what I see. The other day, being the last day of the quarter, no work was done and no new material was taught. Kids resorted to playing the hangman since phones are banned. This 9th grader spelled EGAL for EAGLE (they were doing animals). Another one that made me truly wonder what the actual facc is happening in the so-called richest county of the USA is when they were doing countries, and in proving hints a kid goes “yeah, this one is in Europe around the Italy area” He was referencing a northern African country. I swear I do NOT want my kids to be this ignorant. |
Anonymous
It’s not working for us because the classroom is chaotic; there’s zero accountability; and way too much personal screen time during the foundational years. I can’t fathom another year in public. And I don’t think private will any better. |
Anonymous
Spelling phonetically usually is related to a learning disability. I posted earlier about these excellent programs that National Geographic produces that our middle school uses to identify each country, continent and type of government. Maybe the schools can try a new approach if the kids are doing so badly that they aren’t clear on continents by high school although to be fair that area is squishy with three continents close together. |
Anonymous
You're right young people shouldn't monitored by a security camera. They should only be on camera when foolinwith their cells, in walmarts and grocery stores, walking down the streets, in the halls....well basically everywhere except for bathrooms and classrooms! Secondly, outbursts are not rare they happen everyday and sometimes with 20%or more not following direction. Why should they anyway. Theres no rules and if their are they are not enforced with consequences so...basically no rules. Thirdly, restorative justice is not compassion. Being a structured adult that makes rules to all to abide fairly is compassion. Tough love. Restorative justice is a way that lets bullies get away Scott free, acknowledge their victims ratted, pretend to be the victim themselves, and go on to carry on bulliying. Cameras need to be there to protect teachers. Duh. We live in America in the 21st century. Schools are dangerous and they also have been know to retaliate on teachers who get hurt by violence. Get the evidence to protect people's lives, careers, and the sacred institution of learning in general. Usually the only people that don't want cameras are administration bc they want to rule with an iron fist and fire great teachers who want structure and safety over fraudulent data acquisition and reporting To your last point, it seems like a racist narrative to insinuate that just because people are minorities or impoverished means that they are incapable of following rules or being able to deal with consequences. Restorative justice is a time suck-teachers don't have time to do koombaya sessions with an extensive curriculum. Also, it opens them up to further admin retaliation when they walk in and you are not doing a lesson but talking BS with the kids about feelings when that's the counselors, therapists, admins, etc job- not teachers. It's weird you have all these objections about safety measures but no objections to the persecutions of teachers by admin. Seems like you are a director, admin, union etc official who gets paid the big bucks for defending the pathetic status quo of illiteracy, no self discipline, and adverse action on teachers carrying out negligent and deranged directives created to make it appear that learning standards are taking place. I think admin does not like cameras or audio equipment in classrooms is because if the public saw what goes on daily there would be incredible outrage calling for the jobs of directors. They would have to go back to teaching...and they know how bad the classrooms are and how bad teaching is without any support. I how this helps. Cameras are not the enemy. The enemy is lack of accountability and transparency to run a system that is based on ladder climbing instead of educating. |
Anonymous
What?? What kind of district / what kind of student demographics? |
Anonymous
| This is the case in Baltimore City schools where they use the Wit and Wisdom curriculum. The books are too difficult for the students to read and so they are read aloud or there is an audiobook. This is true even in MS. |
Anonymous
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So basically high school teachers can be easily blamed and fired because kids are being passed along through the grades without knowing how to read books and addicted to tech with no self discipline because negative consequences are forbidden.
It's so easy to retaliate on any teacher that challenges the apathy and vindictive power hungry plans of an admin who plays games with people's lives. They just have to say, " see they kids are not learning bc of this teacher" it happens all the time and the union supports this without protecting or looking at the facts of cases before teachers are discarded. |
Anonymous
| The problem with cameras is it would shame the schools, the public would be outraged, change of leadership would be demanded and their would be litigation out the wazoo to have footage of chaos in the classroom, fight and disrespect daily etc. the biggest thing keeping cameras out of the classroom is it would protect teacher and students as well as take away the power of admin to use and abuse their staff. |
Anonymous
Yes. The schools needs to use the approach called, “Kids need to write words and read books.” Not another learning app. |
Anonymous
Kids have to read complete books, I don’t know what school systems are not buying books anymore. It’s hard to believe. I wrote about the National Geographic and their amazing geography programs. These are not apps. They don’t use apps. |
Anonymous
Many, many schools kids are not reading full books, and of the ones that are, it’s very few and they are below grade level and or poor quality graphic novels. Kids need to physically write words and read a lot of books. There is no learning program that can take the place of this. Kids aren’t doing this in schools anymore. The kid above is phonetically spelling because he has not had adequate exposure to literature and enough practice in writing. This is what happens. And add on top of that, schools don’t specifically teach grammar and spelling either anymore. Now we have a bunch of kids that cannot spell, write, or read beyond basics. It isn’t a learning disability- it’s an utter failure from education system. |