Anonymous
Post 09/10/2025 07:11     Subject: What explains the decline in reading and math scores ?
Go read the thread on progressive schools.
Anonymous
Post 09/10/2025 07:11     Subject: What explains the decline in reading and math scores ?
Well, in Florida banned woke math textbooks that encourage any type of answer to be more inclusive. With those textbooks no wonder math scores are going down the drain.
Anonymous
Post 09/10/2025 07:01     Subject: What explains the decline in reading and math scores ?
Math and reading are down across the board. Also, if a average parent in this already terrible economy sends their kid to private school and the kid has gaps because they’re so cash strapped they might not get them fixed.
Anonymous
Post 09/09/2025 13:15     Subject: What explains the decline in reading and math scores ?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Lucy Culkin's set back a generation of children when it comes to reading. This is not an understatement. It will take years to reverse this damage.




Didn’t Caulkins type curriculum get popular in the 80: and 90s? That doesn’t explain why kids in high school 30+ years later can’t read.


Not correct. Tons of teachers today have graduated from the Readers and Writers Workshop at Columbia which IS the Lucy Culkins method and it is still touted as a great thing. Such a racket!! It’s terrible and people are pushing back but lots of people are very vested in insisting it works because they spent time and money getting trained in it. My kids just entered high school and most of their lower teachers were trained in it. It’s a now problem, not a former problem.
Anonymous
Post 09/09/2025 12:13     Subject: What explains the decline in reading and math scores ?
The teachers teaching all the woke crap instead of the basics.
Anonymous
Post 09/09/2025 12:02     Subject: What explains the decline in reading and math scores ?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Lucy Culkin's set back a generation of children when it comes to reading. This is not an understatement. It will take years to reverse this damage.




Didn’t Caulkins type curriculum get popular in the 80: and 90s? That doesn’t explain why kids in high school 30+ years later can’t read.


It didn't stop being popular until about 4 years ago though.
Anonymous
Post 09/09/2025 12:01     Subject: What explains the decline in reading and math scores ?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Crappy curriculum. Look at a modern math book and you will see tons of words and brutally no math. For many many children, math requires practice and repetition. Modern math doesn’t build that in and there is this concept of touching on topics and then moving to another and then “spiraling back.” That is a crappy model because for many kids the are barely getting the concept and then the curriculum moves on and they don’t see it again for several months. It’s a crappy model used all over the country in both public and private schools and it’s terrible. Math scores prove it and so do places like Kumon that teach math without all the fluff and with repetition. For reading and writing, the Lucy Culkins model has been a similar spectacular fail. It may work for some but for huge numbers it doesn’t. So the problem is that the teachers are trained to use curriculum that is crappy and they don’t know what else to do. It’s bad curriculum and a refusal by teachers and educators across the board to speak up and acknowledge that this stuff doesn’t work.


Our school uses Saxon and it's tons of rote practice. It's great for calculation. I worry a little about higher order math - prealgebra and beyond.


I grew up doing Saxon through Geometry. It was great and I was decently prepared for the higher level math I did (through differential equations), though there was a transition period in Algebra 2.
Anonymous
Post 09/09/2025 12:01     Subject: What explains the decline in reading and math scores ?
Anonymous wrote:Lucy Culkin's set back a generation of children when it comes to reading. This is not an understatement. It will take years to reverse this damage.




Didn’t Caulkins type curriculum get popular in the 80: and 90s? That doesn’t explain why kids in high school 30+ years later can’t read.
Anonymous
Post 09/09/2025 11:21     Subject: What explains the decline in reading and math scores ?
Lucy Culkin's set back a generation of children when it comes to reading. This is not an understatement. It will take years to reverse this damage.


Anonymous
Post 09/09/2025 10:58     Subject: What explains the decline in reading and math scores ?
Anonymous wrote:Screens and no one reading anymore. Kids and adults can't pay attention for longer than 20 minutes. Look at modern movies and how they move as opposed to older ones.
You need to concentrate for some time to get the math and read complex prose. And then draw some conclusions after thinking and not have it distilled for you in a 140 letter tweet or a short video.


Yes. In our screen-filled, dopamine pushing country, even adults can't stand being bored or alone with their thoughts for a minute. The typical adult isn't even reading 1 book a year.
Anonymous
Post 09/09/2025 10:53     Subject: What explains the decline in reading and math scores ?
Anonymous wrote:Crappy curriculum. Look at a modern math book and you will see tons of words and brutally no math. For many many children, math requires practice and repetition. Modern math doesn’t build that in and there is this concept of touching on topics and then moving to another and then “spiraling back.” That is a crappy model because for many kids the are barely getting the concept and then the curriculum moves on and they don’t see it again for several months. It’s a crappy model used all over the country in both public and private schools and it’s terrible. Math scores prove it and so do places like Kumon that teach math without all the fluff and with repetition. For reading and writing, the Lucy Culkins model has been a similar spectacular fail. It may work for some but for huge numbers it doesn’t. So the problem is that the teachers are trained to use curriculum that is crappy and they don’t know what else to do. It’s bad curriculum and a refusal by teachers and educators across the board to speak up and acknowledge that this stuff doesn’t work.


Our school uses Saxon and it's tons of rote practice. It's great for calculation. I worry a little about higher order math - prealgebra and beyond.
Anonymous
Post 09/09/2025 10:51     Subject: What explains the decline in reading and math scores ?
Screens and no one reading anymore. Kids and adults can't pay attention for longer than 20 minutes. Look at modern movies and how they move as opposed to older ones.
You need to concentrate for some time to get the math and read complex prose. And then draw some conclusions after thinking and not have it distilled for you in a 140 letter tweet or a short video.
Anonymous
Post 09/09/2025 10:49     Subject: What explains the decline in reading and math scores ?
Crappy curriculum. Look at a modern math book and you will see tons of words and brutally no math. For many many children, math requires practice and repetition. Modern math doesn’t build that in and there is this concept of touching on topics and then moving to another and then “spiraling back.” That is a crappy model because for many kids the are barely getting the concept and then the curriculum moves on and they don’t see it again for several months. It’s a crappy model used all over the country in both public and private schools and it’s terrible. Math scores prove it and so do places like Kumon that teach math without all the fluff and with repetition. For reading and writing, the Lucy Culkins model has been a similar spectacular fail. It may work for some but for huge numbers it doesn’t. So the problem is that the teachers are trained to use curriculum that is crappy and they don’t know what else to do. It’s bad curriculum and a refusal by teachers and educators across the board to speak up and acknowledge that this stuff doesn’t work.
Anonymous
Post 09/09/2025 10:41     Subject: What explains the decline in reading and math scores ?
Screens.

Myopic focus on reading and math testing at school beginning as early as 1st grade.

Anonymous
Post 09/09/2025 10:36     Subject: What explains the decline in reading and math scores ?
Recent article from the Wall Street journal on this.

I see in private schools that teachers do not want to “stress out” kids and hence you have several years of elementary and middle school without any grades: “Let the kids be kids”. Part of that culture should be reflected in low scores. What do you think?

https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/test-scores-low-reading-math-naep-d87099b6?gaa_at=eafs&gaa_n=ASWzDAjC-MNSYkkDSYadwU8HfnbtEp0U2As141ZYpdLAZKd8z_5g3ZMBvEiHSA39Vlc%3D&gaa_ts=68c03e2a&gaa_sig=xmvEkpaWGndYOI1uMDtrWDkKlkJyxbQ9plfommSnAe0jalG7pjktTKZTh7GKtla2kobSVv6cu3kIEY_CMiEtlw%3D%3D