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.

It's not tech, it's literally immigration. You can't flood schools with tens of millions of uneducated Third World peasants and not expect all the scores to crash.

Anonymous wrote:It’s the screens. That’s the final answer. No one reads anymore.

This. Kids aren’t reading. Kids aren’t even learn to hand write. Kids aren’t learning grammar or spelling either. All of this ties together to make for terrible literacy. EdTech is also an epic failure and doing no favors for kids that already get too much screen time outside of school. Plus there has been a HUGE push to make reading selections in school “inclusive.” Schools don’t read classics anymore, but rather they intentionally pick books with black, brown, or from some other marginalized group at the main character and with the storyline revolving around that. It’s dumbed down literature that they slap an Newbury award on. Example: my 6th grader in honors English had to read New Kid and whatever the sequel was for their class. It’s a graphic novel with a Lexile level of 320 (basically a 1st-2nd grade vocabulary)On top of that, they didn’t even have to read it! It was played on audio in class. I wish I was joking.

Now compare that to my public middle school experience in the late 90s. We read Treasure Island, Julie of the Wolves, Island of the Blue Dolphin…probably others. And actually read them- as in we would be work with the teacher in smaller groups and have to take turns reading aloud. These books have a Lexile level of 850-1000.

Anonymous wrote:
California bans teaching Algebra in 8th grade and below:

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/10/california-math-framework-algebra/675509/



NYC ends separate GATE classes; adopts an “everyone is gifted!” / inclusive approach:

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/nyc-schools-to-eliminate-controversial-gifted-talented-classes/3313300/

Seattle schools followed NYC.

In theory, “DEI” sounds great. In practice, it means “inclusion” of every academic level of student (including special needs kids, who can often be extremely disruptive) into accelerated-learning classes. But the acceleration comes to a rapid halt when many students can’t keep up, so the class is required to “teach to the lowest denominator.”

A more fair approach is tracking: teach every child according to their individual abilities: accelerated for those who can handle it, General Ed for the vast majority, and special education (required under the ADA) for those who need it.

Add flexibility to move up or down, and tracking is the most fair system, but it requires getting rid of DEI.

+1000

There was great variation in how long some schools were closed--I was teaching in person in 2020, though many parents selected a distance learning option for their children instead.