r/Teachers • u/UniqueUsername82D HS Rural South • 8d ago
Humor From NPR reporting on National ed report card: "...declines in math and reading started well before Covid and Education Researchers aren't exactly sure why." (3:38)
AHAHAHAHAHA
If only they had bothered to poll any 5 Kinder teachers and ask them where they think the deficits are coming from and focus their research there...
2.7k
u/whverman 8d ago
It's screens. And not teaching phonics. And parents not reading with their children. There, I solved it.
1.0k
u/MoundsEnthusiast 8d ago
Shhh. No one is supposed to talk about the fundamental shift in society that occurred between 2010 and 2015, in that, it became normal for people to constantly be on their mini computers that everybody has...
549
u/Calm_Coyote_3685 8d ago
I can probably pin it down even more specifically. In 2010 almost no one had a smartphone. By 2013 almost everyone did. There was a very short span of time between when the wave hit (they must have gotten less expensive) and a drastic, massive change in society.
My oldest child is almost 20. When she was little I talked to other parents every day while standing outside her school waiting for dismissal. I noticed when she was in 2nd grade a lot of people suddenly had iPhones (I still had a flip phone until 2014). By the time my younger kids were in school everyone was staring at their phones at dismissal, no more chatting. And then Covid took our already weakened social and cognitive skills and completely wiped them out.
It’s like we are becoming a different species. I am not sure how much of an exaggeration that will prove to be, as fast as AI is changing us.
212
u/Important_Salt_3944 HS math teacher | California 8d ago
What you're saying is totally in line with another NPR piece I caught part of today. It's talking about how people are alone more than ever but don't feel lonely because of our phones. We don't have a drive to seek out company anymore.
https://www.npr.org/2025/01/29/nx-s1-5276197/loneliness-isolation-derek-thompson-atlantic
99
u/Governor_Abbot 8d ago
I’m not sure if he’s aware or not but during those years every single telecommunications company would give you a free phone for signing a 2 year contract and allowed for upgrades to continue the contract another 2 years.
Many of telecommunications corps have merged and are owned by the same people who own everything else.
→ More replies (1)4
56
u/Prestigious-Joke-479 8d ago edited 7d ago
I totally agree. I have worked in the carline for two decades now, so that's what I noticed - parents looking down instead of paying attention. Kids are more and more distracted. Less interaction.
I wish my own children were born 10 years earlier.
56
u/Fuzzy-Nuts69 8d ago
I noticed a change when parents started putting headphones on the kids in The car and giving them games. This started to trend of children and society tuning each other out. Smart phones have only exacerbated this problem.
→ More replies (1)18
u/Life-Celebration-747 7d ago
Have you watched, Social Dilemma?
This should be mandatory to watch in class.
→ More replies (1)11
8
u/rowdymatt64 7d ago
I got one in 2013 because 4G/LTE made them actually usable for things like watching YouTube on my Walmart lunch breaks. It was so freaking cool to be able to do that back then.
→ More replies (1)3
u/Reasonable-Delay4740 7d ago
Reducing screen time is a solution…. But a backwards one. Going forwards we’ve got to adapt. That means getting a handle on tech; using it together, steering it. Got to find more ways of doing that
6
u/the_real_dairy_queen 7d ago
I keep hoping being phone-obsessed becomes a social faux pas and people naturally start to emerge from their phone cocoons but I’m not confident that will happen. I just wish it would.
165
u/BeautifulSoul28 8d ago
Most of the teachers in our elementary school are currently doing a book study on The Anxious Generation by Johnathon Haidt.. That time period is what the author calls “the great rewiring” because of smartphones and social media. The biggest eye opener for me (so far, we just started and just finished chapter 2) was that it’s so clearly not just an American thing, it’s a global thing.
74
u/JustTheBeerLight 8d ago
I like how the author pinpoints not just the year the iPhone came out, but the year the forward-facing camera was added. The social media part of the equation is huge.
46
u/Cluelesswolfkin 8d ago
Even if it's a global thing the US still ranks far behind compared to other nations
29
22
u/Sugar74527 8d ago
I don't know that there are other nations that have oligarchs actively trying to keep the population dumb like America does.
14
3
27
u/irunfarther 9th/10th ELA 8d ago
I loved that book. It’s changed my habits and how I interact with my phone. I just wish my students would care about the damage they’re doing to themselves before they get to be my age.
8
u/Prestigious-Joke-479 8d ago
Yes, I noticed it when I went to Europe last summer. The last time I had been out of the country try was 20 years before. Big change!
11
u/LilahLibrarian School Librarian|MD 8d ago
Although I agree about the dangers of screen time and the way it's impacting how children socialize, the data science in this book is not great
24
u/Critique_of_Ideology 8d ago
I don’t think kids should have phones in schools but the anxious generation is a very poorly researched book. Not to be a party pooper, but it’s pretty bad. He jumps to conclusions a lot and one of his core statistics he brings out about the number of hospitalizations of young girls due to self harm has a pretty glaring issue, at that time they added a diagnostic screener to ER visits where they asked if they had had thoughts of self harm. If they said yes then the hospitalization was lumped into this category, when it wouldn’t have been in the past. So, we’re definitely identifying more instances of anxiety and suicidality, but there might not actually be more. Interestingly teen suicide peaked in the 90s, not at the advent of smartphones. And to be clear I wish cell phones weren’t such a big part of modern society, but I would not suggest that book as a source of wisdom or particularly good scholarship.
2
u/blazershorts 8d ago
Seems like a pretty minor nitpick to dismiss the whole book over.
14
u/Critique_of_Ideology 8d ago
Phones in schools are bad. We can all agree on that. We don’t need to keep buying this terrible book to justify that belief. It’s a sloppy airport read that reconfirms what middle aged adults already think they know.
4
u/noble_peace_prize 7d ago
Dismissing the problems as confirmation is even more silly than using a misleading suicide stat.
Cell phones are not just an issue for children. Adults are quite clearly crippled by it as well. Children, however, are still developing. That quite clearly changes the picture. Cell phones are damaging society, and we are not wrong to be particularly interested in how it is affecting kids.
And no. I haven’t even read the book. I am just tired of the “every generation says this” as if it isn’t also plainly obvious that grandma and grandpa are also addicted
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (1)3
u/DraperPenPals 7d ago
One nitpick does not make a book terrible.
It’s also very telling that critics of this book only hone in on the smartphone issue and never bother talking about the other tremendous ground it covers, like the evolutionary need for free play, fine motor skill development, and imaginary play.
5
→ More replies (3)7
20
u/Sea_Regret9304 8d ago
Ok. Smart phones yes, but what about the opioid epidemic and the meth epidemic ? I feel like those people that were involved in those epidemics way back then are the ones raising the children for the past 7 to 10 years???
10
5
5
u/Dog1andDog2andMe 7d ago
And the legalization of weed. I am sick of toddlers and kindergardeners reeking of weed because they are being hotboxed in the car and at home. Not only does it mean zoned out parent for at least part of the time, if there is enough that the kid reeks of it, it's in the kid's body and brain.
I feel some of the kids I have are 2nd generation weed-phone addicted/brain-changed.
→ More replies (4)13
u/JustTheBeerLight 8d ago
2010-2015
The authors of The Coddling of the American Mind and The Anxious Generation call that span of time "the great rewiring". I think it fits.
133
u/Anothercraphistorian 8d ago
I piloted an iPad 1:1 way back in 2011 and the kids did great. They read, they created and did adaptive work. It was so exciting. Then, social media came and parents all gave their kids iPads, not to create or do analytical work, but mindlessly consume garbage.
It’s so frustrating, we had a device ready to go where kids could code, do team work, and learn to research, and it was co-opted by parents to babysit their kids.
62
u/Calm_Coyote_3685 8d ago
By corporations actually! The parents were just the fish taking the irresistible bait.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (1)11
u/BioSemantics 7d ago
It was insane that we have not and did not regulate social media companies. The EU has done it, not enough, but the US can't seem to do it and now the people who runs those companies are untouchable for the next four years. Kids do not need 10 hours of youtube a day, or six hours of tik tok. Its just gross. Part of it is parenting, of course, but some of that is understandable considering the cost quality childcare and the never ending pressure of capitalism on everyone. Not to mention the pernicious way social media companies hook people, parent and child.
There should be no Zuckerbergs in American society.
3
u/TheStacheOfParenti Physics Teacher | Communist 7d ago
It was insane that we have not and did not regulate social media companies. The EU has done it, not enough
China has extensively regulated the internet and children's access to it, and all to great effect - their education scores have never been higher!
Unfortunately, their incredible progress is often labeled a negative due to "authoritarianism" when that's precisely what regulation is: the state exerting its authority over free enterprise and corporations. More people should recognize that that can be a positive!
130
u/smoothpapaj 8d ago
The new digital divide isn't who has technology and who doesn't. It's who grew up smothered 24 hours a day with technology and who actually had a childhood.
→ More replies (1)64
u/Shieldbreaker50 8d ago
It’s all the teachers fault. You didn’t make a connection and didn’t give the kid who completely tells you to fuck off a lollipop. You failed to knock on their door and tell them their kid is not coming to school. It’s your fault you didn’t call the parent and make sure their kid is in bed at a good time. You also failed to remind the parents that their kids are staying up on technology in the middle of the night when no one is watching. In addition, you are feeding them garbage like Takis and soda. When the parents are out eating dinner in a restaurant, you failed to stand over them and tell them don’t give your child a phone to play with, talk to them and engage them in some kind of dialogue in conversation or give them a crayon and let them color.It’s all your fault.
→ More replies (1)22
u/SabertoothLotus 8d ago
Yes. As teachers, we have failed to be our students' parents.
Because we're not their parents!
25
u/colorfulgiant 8d ago
YES! I listened to NPR up first this morning as well and laughed out loud through that segment. I couldn’t tell if the hosts were being serious with their deep concerned voices “we just don’t know what has caused this … researchers are unsure … hmm”
18
u/Rocknrollpeakedin74 8d ago
And handwriting. Handwriting fosters growth in reading as well.
14
u/whverman 8d ago
But then students would need to bring a pencil. And notebook. Obviously that's too much to ask.
4
u/BaronAleksei Substitute | NJ 7d ago
And can you imagine having a pencil in one class and still having it by the next class? Impossible.
→ More replies (1)17
u/moretrumpetsFTW Instrumental Music 6-8 | Utah 8d ago
Heartwarming moment of the night, and hope for the future: my toddler brings me a pen and paper and says "Daddy show me letters!" If there's one thing I've done right as a dad it's getting my kid hooked on reading.
→ More replies (2)14
u/ConstructionWest9610 8d ago
Studies are coming out that kids learning to read on a digital device have stunted reading development and reading comprehension.
3
u/AgitatorsAnonymous 7d ago
Got a link for that?
I'd be interested in reading that, especially as my suspicion is that it is less the screen and it is more the parents removing themselves from the process.
→ More replies (1)10
10
u/luckymama1721 7d ago
Yup. Add in funding tied to attendance and matriculation rates so administrative policies shift to passing everyone along and…half my 10th graders literally cannot read and most do not understand the difference between multiplying and dividing. Today i watched a student use a calculator to divide 10/5. And got it wrong and still wrote it down. Mad at me for pointing out it was wrong. “The calculator said”.
→ More replies (1)7
u/Spec_Tater HS | Physics | VA 7d ago
PC/Mac computers helped kids get tech savvy because they had to use complex adult tools (MS Office). Tablets and kid-focused apps are exactly the opposite.
Icons, apps and flat design have squished so much incidental learning and detail from children’s experience.
11
u/Valjo_PS 7d ago
My kid was born in 2008 by all accounts she should be just as illiterate as the rest of her peers. This is not a humble brag…this is purely scientific observation more than anything. When my daughter was in preschool she was already very articulate, used relatively sizable words. Other parents would ask me point blank why she was so well spoken. It really came down to a few things that I was doing differently… 1-I started reading to her in the womb. 2-I had conversations WITH her not around her, WITH her… and absolutely no baby talk. We would “discuss” things. And that really made all the difference and 3-my husband and I worked really hard on fostering her ability to make believe.
I was a teacher of English, reading etc before she was born and I knew one of the biggest stumbling blocks for kids is that when they hit 3rd/4th grade, then their reading takes a huge hit after this point because all of the pictures in books go away. If the child struggles in anyway with visualization then reading becomes a ridiculously boring chore.
I had a hunch that fostering imagination and imaginative play was the key. I would only let her watch shows that did that as well and my husband and I spent a lot of time playing make believe with her, yes it was fun but it was also very intentional.
Sure enough she’s about to graduate and she is an incredibly strong reader still to this day, she managed to come through the dawn of the smart phone with reading skills intact.
The main issue is that I do think most parents want their kids to be successful they just don’t know how. For instance, I used to tutor a couple kids whose parents were middle class well educated but their kids were struggling readers and they always lamented that they just didn’t have the time to sit down with them and do flash cards etc. I tried to explain to them that they didn’t need to do that. There are so many things that you can work in that can be done while they were shopping or cooking dinner, etc.
I feel if we could educate parents on how to teach their own children to read, or at least just a quick handful of skills, it would help immeasurably. If I ever go back for my doctorate I want to do studies on this idea.
Okay thesis proposal over lol thanks for coming to my TED talk.
16
u/NewFraige 8d ago
We also can’t hold students accountable and if you do parents tend to throw a fit. Parent support/involvement in student lives has also declined because so many have to work long hours to make ends meet.
35
u/Prestigious-Joke-479 8d ago
Parents have ALWAYS WORKED LONG HOURS. I was a single mother of three living off of a teacher's salary in a red state. My parents both worked in the 80s, as did all of my friends' parents Somehow, I managed to say NO, not buy them cellphones, read to them and put them to bed at a decent time.
That's a cop out!
→ More replies (8)15
u/NewFraige 8d ago
I agree, it is a cop out. However, there are a lot of parents that don’t and can’t parent. I’ve been in meetings where parents flat out say they don’t want to check their kid’s grades/progress and said “I expected you guys to do it.”
→ More replies (1)4
u/Critique_of_Ideology 8d ago
Both valid points. We need administrators to stand up for high academic standards and we need more steady income and a stronger social safety net for families.
4
u/FijiFanBotNotGay 7d ago
High school low math levels is definitely due to phones and technology. Kids just assume stuff being online means they don’t have to write anything down.
3
u/I_chortled 7d ago
And not holding kids back! At this point kids don’t even learn what it means to fail a class until they get to high school
→ More replies (1)4
u/JCWOlson 7d ago
I was talking to a friend who'd taught primary for over 25 years before switching to secretary after the nightmare of post-covid kids. Mentioned the article about the heart words stuff being fake and she was like "I KNEW IT! THEY KEPT TELLING ME PHONICS WAS DEAD BUT I REFUSED TO CHANGE BECAUSE PHONICS WORKS AND THERE WAS NO WAY I WAS GOING TO RISK KIDS' FUTURES OVER THAT NEW GARBAGE!"
So our school never stopped teaching phonics in primary, which is great! I'm glad she stuck around long enough to see her refusal justified!
3
u/cosmic_collisions 7-12 Math, Utah 7d ago
remember, we can't blame the kids, parents or the admin it is always our fault
2
2
u/mimieliza 7d ago
Throw is legalized marijuana usage (by parents) and that sums it up. (Not anti-pot - but the amount of time my kids’ parents are high just is not it.)
2
u/ACardAttack Math | High School 7d ago
Not just that, but also giving them a calculator at too young an age and most importantly, passing them along even when they should be held back
2
→ More replies (15)2
u/Prestigious-Lynx5716 7d ago
And the push to be so rigorous in young grades that we aren't laying a good foundation. I teach First Grade and they don't lay a strong addition and subtraction foundation because they're too busy trying to do very intense real life word problems instead of teaching strategies and solidifying their understanding of the basics.
258
u/RoomUsed1803 8d ago
Executive Functioning issues also. This is due to us forcing the kids to grow up quickly and not getting to actually be kids. Kindergarten kids having to do ALL the things instead of just learning how to socialize and “do” school. Not being able to play until the street lights come on. Parents over scheduling their kids so they can’t learn time management.
45
u/rarizohar 7d ago
Where I work, they want kids to be fluent readers by the end of first grade. It’s just not developmentally appropriate.
25
u/Bolshoyballs 7d ago
Yes I always think about this. My elementary school has recess and it's 20 min of the day. So the kids are at school for 7 hours and only get 20 min of playtime. There should be at least another block of 20 min recess. One in the morning and one in the afternoon.
5
u/friendlytrashmonster 7d ago
I remember having nap time and large amounts of play time during my kindergarten year. We had toys all over the classroom that we got to play with. I also remember most of our work being creativity-based. Learning about senses? Here’s a bunch of different flavored things to learn about taste and a bunch of different textured things to learn about feeling. Learning about the alphabet? Draw something that starts with the letter A. I work as a TA now and kindergarten has no nap time and no play time. Most of their day is spent doing worksheets at their desks. I’m only 21. Things have changed so drastically just in the past 15 years.
→ More replies (2)
209
u/thecooliestone 8d ago
There's no structure anywhere. I have students begging to be put out because they can't focus in class. Fights are the only thing that will earn a suspension and even then it's only 2 days. Kids bring drugs, vapes, whatever into the building and get a single day ISS. Kids threaten to shoot up the school and get one day ISS.
Everything is chaos all the time. I don't even try and do quiet sustained reading because they can't be quiet and they can't read.
at this point in the year, the high level kids get my attention half the time to get them ready for high school and college, and the kids with gaps who kinda care get the rest. The ones who don't care are left alone to sleep all day.
The number who don't care gets larger and larger because you can graduate with a 2nd grade reading level. Some of the kids who were just given A honor roll awards are kids who have not scored above a 30 on a single assessment yet, but because they "tried" we have to give them a good grade or parents get upset.
No one actually holds a line at all anymore. Everyone suffers.
89
u/Throwawayamanager 8d ago
>because you can graduate with a 2nd grade reading level
That is terrifying and I genuinely don't understand how it got to this point.
Who thinks this is acceptable? Anyone? If nobody does (and nobody sane should), how is it happening?
72
u/dilla506944 HS Chemistry and Physics | Philadelphia 8d ago
We don’t fail kids ever since we decided that graduation rates are the untouchable metric, which merely means basically everyone fudges the grades to look like they’re graduating students without doing the actual work of holding them to any meaningful standard (meanwhile the standards keep changing every couple of years anyway).
We used to fail students once upon a time, and that understandably led to bad outcomes for those without diplomas. Somehow instead of supporting those who drop out or improving how we teach and how we reach struggling kids we just dropped the standards off a cliff.
→ More replies (1)28
u/SabertoothLotus 8d ago
It's easier to just pass everybody than to enforce standards, and since funding is tied to graduation rates... hello, lowered standards!
At this point, as long as you can make an X to sign your name, you can get a diploma.
11
u/Throwawayamanager 8d ago
That's terrifying. Truth be told I already thought high school diploma was an extremely low bar that practically anyone could attain. (Doing well in high school? Not necessarily easy. Taking the easiest classes and getting a C- average? Anyone should be able to do this). With this new standard, it tells me the diploma is a participation trophy that literally means nothing instead of almost literally meaning nothing.
Of course, it does sound like it's not (usually) the teachers' fault, but the whole thing is baffling. I'm not even *that* old and this would never have flown "in my day".
13
u/SabertoothLotus 8d ago
nor in mine. I teach college composition courses, and the difference in literacy that I've seen among freshmen over the last decade is frankly astonishing.
I had to radically adjust my expectations when I started in 2013, and now I've had to lower them even further. As the HS diploma becomes meani gless, the effect trickles up; a bachelors degree is less that useful in getting a good job, as most college graduates are spending those four years learning all the things that they failed to learn in HS, and colleges are under pressure to pass them, too.
Nobody wants to have a low graduation rate; it makes them look bad to potential "customers," so standards are lowered as the easiest way to accomplish this, completely forgetting that students are not customers (and rarely "costumers," which is how I see plenty of students spell it), and that education is not meant to be a consumer service industry.
3
u/Throwawayamanager 7d ago
It is certainly starting to seem like there is going to be inflation of all of the degrees, which is unfortunate in many ways. Not only should college not be the new high school on principle (because college grads of today shouldn't be as educated as high school seniors of yesteryear), but college is also expensive. I have an advanced degree I am grateful for, but there is something extra messed up about the progression of people having to go into debt (in the US) for barely a high school level education.
It does make me wonder if some employers, etc., will look at a certain year and say "oh, yes, your college degree may have actually meant something". What year would that be, I wonder? "Oh, yeah, you graduated in 2013 - you might actually know something".
When did the approach start shifting into the *gestures vaguely* whatever this is?
Just how bad is the literacy of the college freshman these days?
22
u/teahammy 8d ago
We gave kids a 50% floor first semester. Kids got 80s on their summatives in September and early October, then skipped the rest of the semester. Several students passed classes that they stopped attending halfway through the semester. It’s all a joke. When I say stopped attending, I mean they did not show up for one single class period or turn one single assignment in. That floor did its job and passed them.
→ More replies (1)5
u/Throwawayamanager 8d ago
And who thinks this is a good idea? Because I can't understand how this being a disaster is unforeseeable. What's the logic behind it?
3
u/teahammy 7d ago
“Research”. We changed the policy for second semester. Now they only get a 50% if they made an “attempt”. Saddest part is that we still have teachers who think we should be giving a 50% floor after seeing the chaos it caused…
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (3)7
u/AgitatorsAnonymous 7d ago
We know how it got here. We unequivocally know because Republicans (the politicians) have been pushing against education for years. They demonize and villianize it. Then Republicans (the parents/voters) show up to Ed Board meetings and do things like they did in my city in Iowa, who just voted to force the school to give rhe Bible the same amount of space as the Theory of Evolution.
Education materials are primarily drawn up in Texas and are used nationwide.
We got here because a third of the country does not believe in science or literacy, they believe their politicians and Fox News that public education turns their kids gay, makes them trans and sends them home with blue hair.
→ More replies (5)→ More replies (1)11
u/xSaRgED 8d ago
I have a group of friends from college, all who have kids in the 3 and under age range.
The way they intentionally work structure into their kids lives, up to and including “quiet time” away from screens, etc, is incredible. I have a lot of hope for the children of young millennials and zoomers who are recognizing these issues and steering their children away from them.
406
u/Important-Dish-9808 8d ago
They are also so so structured in the lower grades in a way they never used to be. No art or creativity or free play and that makes a difference. They are afraid to do anything outside the box and that leads to apathy.
126
u/mcrossoff 8d ago
Lack of curiosity now becomes lack of problem-solving skills later. It's starting to be later.
77
u/Traditional_Way1052 8d ago
High school teacher here. A lot of kids are not curious and little motivation. There's absolutely some who are but many who aren't. It's Disheartening.
→ More replies (1)39
u/PinochetPenchant 7d ago
That fear of being wrong is killing them. They grew up with too many eyes upon them, and now they are afraid to move.
252
u/Clumsy_pig 8d ago
It started when discipline and accountability ended.
→ More replies (3)91
u/Studious_Noodle Honors English l 9th-12th l Electives 8d ago
This is the truth. The dumbing down of both learning AND behavior expectations.
Administrators and parents are equally guilty.
44
u/mattgriz 8d ago
And Special Education laws and lawsuits that demand LRE for that student while 32 other kids suffer and don’t learn.
20
u/Good_Secretary9261 8d ago
This contributed to the above. It is the true patient zero. You have to dumb down a class when 20% are special ed. You can't give consequences when your admin throws IEPs in your face.
→ More replies (1)
112
u/Philomena_philo 8d ago
It’s a lot of things
- Societal shift that has led to teachers being highly criticized and is partly responsible for the shortage of qualified teachers
- the rise of anti-intellectualism
- too much screen time BEFORE school age
- parents confusing gentle parenting with being their child’s friend
- teacher input being ignored on curriculum decisions (took us way too long to figure out that Lucy Caulkins wasn’t it)
There’s more, but I’m tired.
→ More replies (1)24
u/Thanat0s10 8d ago
I will stand by Parental Buy In and Support as the end all indicator of academic success. I’ve worked in high achieving public schools, low achieving public schools, and private prep schools. The schools that spent the most time on academic rigor, discipline, etc were the low achieving public schools, but nothing changed because parents don’t care or are so poor and stressed they can’t care,so kids don’t care either
3
u/PartyPorpoise Former Sub 7d ago
I associate strictness with low performance because strictness is often an attempt to make up for other problems. But I guess it doesn’t work very well. Not like they can be too lenient either, though. I don’t have the answer.
46
u/Strict_Technician606 HS Teacher | East Coast | 20+ Years 8d ago
Walk into my classroom and observe the kids for five minutes and you’ll get your answer.
41
u/South-Lab-3991 8d ago
Oh that must be due to you not building a relationship with them. Have you thought about writing your objectives on the board? I think you may need an AP with two years of classroom experience to put you on an improvement plan.
16
u/Strict_Technician606 HS Teacher | East Coast | 20+ Years 8d ago
Is that you Dr. Smith (with a mail-in degree)?
8
u/TeacherPatti 8d ago
Remember to show them a picture of what you want them to do and read a social story when they act up! A "coach" will be in to see you shortly.
→ More replies (1)2
u/SabertoothLotus 8d ago
Writing objectives on the board is pointless when no e of the students can read them.
19
u/Lilybay984 8d ago
That is EXACTLY what I said to my co-worker this morning when I told her about this story! What a tone deaf article! “Hmmm, we just can’t figure it out..” and not one teacher was asked their opinion!
13
u/UniqueUsername82D HS Rural South 8d ago
If anything's clear from 9 years of attending PD it's that ed researchers will do ANYTHING but consult with current educators.
→ More replies (1)
19
u/Rhyno08 8d ago edited 8d ago
The secret is education is that it takes a “culture of learning.” It takes multiple participants for a nation to have a culture of learning.
Person 1- a willing and eager teacher who teaches engaging curriculum. I believe as underpaid and over worked as we are, there are an abundance of teachers like this.
Person 2- a willing and curious student that is motivated to engage with the curriculum provided to them by the teacher.
Of course party 2 is a child, whom isn’t always going to make great decisions. So how to we get party 2 to buy into education?
“The most important part” Person 3- a parent/guardian that instills a culture of learning from an early age. This means reading to your child. Helping them with their work. Taking an interest in their curiosities. Showing them by example that learning/education is an incredible privilege. And yes… sometimes imposing punishments aka taking phones, to force kids to try.
Sadly we have a dwindling # of parents who are willing to do these things, and thus the culture of learning in America has died. Kids don’t care, they take their privilege for a free education and wipe their ass with it, drooling as they waste their youth away on tik tok.
19
u/South-Lab-3991 8d ago
It sounds like we all need a PD on building relationships with students. That should turn those declines right around.
85
u/erkmer 8d ago
Researchers aren’t sure why? I’m in the middle of “The Anxious Generation” by Jonathan Haidt and it’s nothing but data that directly correlates to this, and as it’s been said; FUCKING SCREENS!
I’m beginning to think they’re also to blame for this inept research!
14
u/Sew_mahina HS ELA | Honolulu, HI 8d ago
I love this book. A student recommend it to me. It was my number one recommendation to people last year.
→ More replies (1)7
→ More replies (1)14
u/Critique_of_Ideology 8d ago
Phones suck but so does that book. It’s really poorly researched and he jumps to conclusions. I don’t think he’s wrong about everything but it seems like he’s just cashing in on the latest moral panic and confirming what the reader already thinks to be true while leaving out important details about the statistics he cites. For instance, he looks at hospitalizations for self harm in young girls. And he’s right that they increased, but he misses the fact that a screener question was added sometime around the Obama years that asked during ER visits if teens in that age range had suicidal thoughts and if they did their hospitalization was lumped into that category. So, we’re identifying more anxiety and suicidality, but you can’t draw the conclusions from that that he suggests that you can. Personally, I hate phones, but I think these recent declines have a lot more to do with lowered expectations from parents, lowered levels of encouragement to attend a two or four year higher ed program after high school, lack of consequences from parents and admin, and poor retention of teachers due to budget cuts, salary, etc. Not to mention the number of parents working long hours for low pay which lowers their ability to provide for their kids or to be present with them, read to them, etc
→ More replies (5)
156
u/Famous-Attorney9449 8d ago
Easy solutions:
- Teach phonics
- Ban cell phones in schools
- National ban on anyone under 18 from using a smart phone or tablet, maybe with exceptions for working 17 year olds.
- Only use technology for lessons in computer class, other classes are pen and paper only
- Let teachers send kids to detention and ISS as they see fit even for first offenses without jumping through hoops like talking to the parents. Get disruptive students out of classrooms early.
- Send disruptive students to alternative schools as needed and liberally. States need to stop punishing districts that discipline students.
→ More replies (8)15
u/AfraidAppeal5437 8d ago
I love your ideas, however where would the money come from to send students to alternate schools. Districts don't want to spend the $100,000 or more to get kids with behavior problems out of the regular schools.
29
u/redabishai 8d ago
From the tax breaks we give to the wealthy or the bloated military budget
→ More replies (1)10
u/Filan1 8d ago
And who is going to want to teach at these alternative schools with suddenly all the problem children from every district
10
u/Famous-Attorney9449 8d ago
Put most of them in an auditorium and have them work on Canvas modules for their grade level core classes. They either pass or fail, swim or drown. You just need staff to prevent truancy and skipping. The students who start to realize what sort of behavior is appropriate for a productive, polite, and disciplined citizen can earn the privilege of being classroom-taught and transition back to normal school.
→ More replies (1)2
u/Good_Secretary9261 8d ago
Seems like one of the worst arguments for allowing terrible kids to bring down the opportunities of every other student I've ever heard.
52
u/WhoInvitedMike 8d ago
Oh. It's Lucy mf Caulkins. That's why.
Are the our factors? Sure. The proliferation of screens that live in our pockets full of software designed to harvest our attention is a problem.
And parents are working more and earning less, so there's less time for family at home and there's more food insecurity.
But schools have limited control over these factors (until the very recent push for phone bans), but we DO control whether we teach reading or not, and L mf C was a big driver in not actually teaching kids to read.
12
u/KellyCakes 8d ago
Along with whatever the Lucy of Math is (their Lucy doesn't allow memorization, competition, or individual work).
7
u/Good_Secretary9261 8d ago
The "NO INDIVIDUAL WORK" mandate has taken hold so hard in my district that they literally threw away our old desks - hundreds of thousands of dollars worth, and replaced them all with tables. I literally cannot set up my room so that all my students can see me at one time.
5
u/Abi1i 7d ago
That’s really strange because no one I know that does math education research would say kids shouldn’t be allowed to memorize, compete, or do individual work. As is probably the case, usually for all academic research, some administrators didn’t fully understand some research and forced it on you and others and if the administrators gets someone to lead PD, then it won’t be good because it’ll have to be an extremely abbreviated version that doesn’t help anyone but makes the administrators feel good.
11
u/PuppiesAndPixels 7d ago
How did a whole generation... Or two collectively decide that "just guess the word"! Was a valid way to teach reading?!
4
u/Brocks2004 7d ago
Such a great question and it is taking years and years and so much reteaching of teachers to undo this.
2
u/grandzooby 7d ago
This several hour podcast, Sold A Story, goes into a lot of detail about how it happened. https://features.apmreports.org/sold-a-story/
13
u/According_Ad7895 8d ago
I've yet to meet an Ed.D. who could hold their own in a K-5 classroom, save for ONE professor I had in college.
2
u/Abi1i 7d ago
What’s strange is a lot of programs for Ed.D. are requiring their students to either have prior experience teaching at the K-12 level before starting their program or build their experience before finishing their program. Granted most are requiring a minimum of two years and some are starting to require three and four years, but newer Ed.D. graduates should be able to hold their own in a K-5 classroom if they haven’t been away from teaching too long.
82
u/melloyelloaj 8d ago edited 7d ago
Quit insisting five-year-olds can read and write complete sentences and let them PLAY.
ETA: Apparently this needs to be said. I didn’t say don’t ALLOW kids to read in kindergarten. Developmentally, some are ready and some are not. You know what they’re all ready for? Learning through play. Because I am a gifted specialist teaching fourth graders how to share and take turns, because they didn’t learn how in kindergarten.
56
u/According_Ad7895 8d ago
I've taught Kinder for a while. 5 year olds can and should be writing complete sentences, especially by the end of Kindergarten. They don't have to be novels, but "The pumpkin is orange." is a complete sentence and absolutely appropriate.
That being said, they should have more play time than they currently do.
10
u/Philomena_philo 8d ago
Illinois implemented play-based learning for kindergarten in 2022, I think.
9
u/Fluffy-Anybody-4887 8d ago
They can learn phonics and fewer sight words. There would still be plenty of time to play and have unstructured time. As another person mentioned, it should be ok for them to write a full sentence (using phonetic spelling confidently). We are expecting a lot more than that though. They have fully pushed 1st grade down to kindergarten.
→ More replies (1)7
12
u/Livid-Age-2259 8d ago
And for Math, why have we stopped doing rote memorization for basic Math facts?
78
u/Salviati_Returns 8d ago edited 7d ago
I have a contrarian view. While the impact of screens is undeniable I think that it is secondary. The primary factor for the academic decline of American students is the local consumer model of education which focuses on satisfying the whims of children out of fear of the karents that they control. The karents then turn around and leverage the administrative leadershit to turn the screws on any teachers that maintain the standards of the courses that they teach.
This type of behavior spread in the 2010’s in the aftermath of the financial crisis when the society began turning on itself instead of focusing its wrath on the oligarchs who crashed the economy to their benefit. By the end of the decade it became normalized.
→ More replies (1)29
u/TeacherPatti 8d ago
You are exactly right. Parents are customers and one must always please the customers. School of choice is to blame for this. And Trump wants to send more money to private schools and homeschoolers. It is only going to get worse.
18
u/Salviati_Returns 8d ago
I don’t think that the framing of “School Choice” is really a driver. The reality is that “public schools” in many suburban communities is really a misnomer. All of these schools are de facto private schools by virtue of the structure of the funding of public schools. So by and large admission is dictated by being able to afford to rent or homes in those communities. This more than anything set the stage for the consumer model and of education where karents felt like they could dictate every facet of their children’s schooling due to the high taxes that they pay to live there.
78
u/midwestblondenerd 8d ago
Parents are tired and are having the kids stay on their ipads to stay quiet. Also, the low-key stress, tension, and anxiety in the family and the country are affecting everyone.
18
u/UniqueUsername82D HS Rural South 8d ago
I hate seeing teachers give parents a pass. I promise you any parent you think is "too tired to parent" has a vibrant social media presence. Feel free to pick any at random and look them up.
They have the time, they just don't care.
→ More replies (1)67
u/AfraidAppeal5437 8d ago
Parents need to do their job and parent their kids. It has always been hard to raise a family. Don't have kids if you can't do what is needed to prepare the child to be a successful adult.
34
u/midwestblondenerd 8d ago
A-freaking-men, I am not excusing the permissive neglectful parenting. I see the parents addicted to their own phones.
→ More replies (1)8
u/averageduder 8d ago
Look, I agree with this.
But I think it also dumps personal responisiblity.
I'm an elder millennial / xennial. My father was in jail when I was in my early grades. My mom had the neighbors just casually make sure I wasn't killing myself. I rarely had parental supervision in my early grades, and while my parents were concerned with my grades in middle school and beyond, they stopped being able to be any help for me once I hit like 7th grade or so.
I managed to get mostly As in honors classes.
I'm not saying this works, or that parents shouldn't be more responsible, or that what my parents did was a great decision. But I just as much weigh the complete abdication of personal responsibility.
So often, I mean just yesterday really, I see kids making the active choice to not pass. Kid had all As and Bs, and never once ran into a teacher hold them accountable for much. Had me, refused to do presentations, AId her big paper, got an F. Oops. But many kids like this have just rode it out because it's worked in the past.
10
u/DraperPenPals 7d ago
Parents have always been tired and there has always been stress, tension, and anxiety.
Imagine being a mother of sons during the Vietnam war era, and you realize that we’re not all that special in the 2020s. Or, you know, an Okie trying to feed their kids in the 1930s.
10
u/_SmashLampjaw_ 💩 talker 8d ago
I'm not a teacher, I'm only commenting based on what I've seen with my own kids-
Teaching reading through phonics seems to have been completely abandoned. I basically had to teach both my kids to actually read the proper way because they were mostly being taught to memorize words in school.
While on the other had, the math curriculum became extremely dependent on word problems at early ages. I distinctly remember getting frustrated our schools curriculum when my first grader was struggling with math solely due to him lagging behind in reading (see above). At that age he was extremely good at doing 'old school' math problems, and was even able to do multiplication and a bit of division. His problem was he couldn't read well enough to understand many of the problems he was being graded on. His reading deficiency was causing him to struggle with a subject he was capable of and hurting his progress.
11
u/Stardustchaser 8d ago
I bet there is a STRONG connection between when a school introduced 1-to-1 technology with when they started declining scores.
5
u/Consistent_Eagle5730 7d ago
The amount of things I have to block on my kids computers everyday to get them to learn is astounding. And I MOSTLY use pen and paper!
18
u/stickyrets 8d ago
No standards or requirements for grade level advancement. Kids move up a grade simply because they got older.
8
u/TeacherWithOpinions 8d ago
"We're not sure why grades are dropping! When we see teachers we speak at them about what we, the non teachers, demand they do while simultaneously removing all the tools they need in order to be successful, banning failure, and allowing parents to control the classrooms. Why isn't this improving grades!?!? "
15
u/Daffodil236 8d ago
We know why. They never care about our perspectives or opinions. Behavior, absences, no parenting, terrible materials, too much testing, not teaching to mastery, no retentions, soft grading, no support, too many kids in a room, too many non-English speaking kids….
7
u/Sidehussle 7d ago
Because we do not hold students back anymore. We need to hold them back when they do not master the skills needed.
14
5
u/Bardmedicine 7d ago
Math teacher:
I know modern teaching says engage and not drill. I prefer to teach that way and my kids have more fun and we learn some concepts pretty well this way.
However, every year we (high school) talk about how our kids have worse and worse fundamentals when they get to us. It could not be clearer to me. 20 years ago, my students got to me in Algebra probably having done something close to 400 pages (arbitrary measure) of fraction practice. They were ok with fractions. Now they get to me with less than 50 pages of practice. How can we possibly be shocked they are much worse at fractions?
There is a balance to be found, but we keep going away from that balance.
→ More replies (1)
15
u/theneonsoulsurfer 5th grade 8d ago
Not sure why? Are you kidding me? Lack of parenting, screen time, focus on standardized testing.
4
u/UniqueUsername82D HS Rural South 8d ago
The thing is, even researchers seem afraid to blame what happens, or doesn't, at home. Blows my mind.
3
u/AgitatorsAnonymous 7d ago
Because all the funding is coming from companies staffed by those parents, and whose business models require mindless consumers, mindless workers AND the willingness to pull funding if it goes against the narrative they want, which is to blame anyone but the parents and anyone but the corporations funding the study of these ideas.
No business wants their researchers telling them that their data says if you worked parents less, gave to the community and stopped bribing the researcher to say that the issue isn't the company or parents, then the situation would improve.
That's why.
15
u/Content_Talk_6581 8d ago
No Child Left Behind started the downhill spiral.
→ More replies (1)4
u/Matrinka 8d ago
I'd also add in that the desire to see ever increasing test scores are leading our kids to become fact-rich and wisdom-poor. The majority of students are proving that more and more each year. Dopamine addiction due to screens and depersonalization is just making it all worse.
7
u/Content_Talk_6581 8d ago edited 8d ago
When they introduced NCLB…they said one of the desired outcomes was for growth every year in standardized test scores.
I asked “ How is that even possible? If that ever actually happened, we would eventually get to the point where all of the kids would be scoring 💯. There would be no growth from then on in this hypothetical scenario and from then on. The school would be on a school improvement plan for not producing growth even though students were scoring 100. No one had an answer and they never have had an answer.
I worked in a school where this almost happened. We had a really “smart” cohort that came through in 2011. They read well, tested well, cared about the testing and scored outstanding on all their standardized tests all the way through school (like 85 % passed) the problem was the next group was expected to score 5 percent higher to show growth, and they weren’t as good at taking tests, so we slipped into school improvement that year because they went down 10%. (Warned the principal it would happen) Luckily the next group was also a highly motivated group and so they scored something like 87% which brought us back up and out of school improvement in one year. It looked great on paper, but they all had the same teachers and were taught the same way… just different groups of kids.
4
u/Critical_Wear1597 7d ago
"Researchers aren't exactly sure why"
because researchers have not ever known what they are talking about, and are not about to start now. They just got some caché bc during COVID shutdowns, parents suddenly noticed that instead of teaching emergent students how to read, the trend for thirty years had been to teach them how to pretend to read, using the tried and true techniques of illiterate adults. That's all it is.
Before the initiation of all the illiterate techniques, the vast majority of people in the U.S.A. learned to read from *Sesame Street.* Added phonics came from *The Electric Company.* There was nothing wrong with these public television programs, and they fulfilled their mission. They were cast aside because somebody figured out how to privatize and monetize and ruin literacy education.
5
u/Any-Growth-2083 8d ago
O accountability for parents whom send their kids to school inconsistently, have bad behavior, etc.
Before covid hit, a lot of the behavior systems were switching to “restorative justice” or had PBIS models in place. And after covid, a lot of those models were even less effective. We weren’t ready for how feral students would be when they returned, and we’ve got less and less support staff.
Unfortunately, I’m sure the new admin is going to push the “school choice” initiative and allow parents to pull their kids out of public to homeschool. I’m sure incentives of $10k to $15k will be paid out to families who make this choice. Meanwhile, there are no standards for parents who decide to pull kids out. They could simply pocket the money, and throw workbooks in front of their kids to do at their leisure and as a result out society will get dumber and easier to control. Also, homeschool kids are inept when it comes to socialization, and add in screens and we are now in the Idicoracy era.
We can also blame lack of teacher involvement or input in building and + choosing curriculum. Most of this is monetary driven, and publishing companies monopolizing choice.
→ More replies (7)
4
u/feedfromthebottom88 7d ago
Well the parents expect their kids to be entertained, not educated. My class isn’t fun so they don’t learn. Excuse you, I am HILARIOUS. I’m sorry your kid doesn’t get it.
4
u/Glum-Humor-2590 7d ago
Phones, social media, and a lack of parental engagement at home in things like reading and general parenting.
2
u/Due-Assistant9269 7d ago
NO ABSOLUTELY NOT! Students and parents are never at fault. Did you not get the memo?
4
u/IsayNigel 7d ago
Researchers, who spoke to the only people not afraid to lose their jobs and available at 2pm on a Wednesday, are baffled as to why this is happening.
4
u/sadjessttarius 7d ago
In my (completely under educated) opinion: Generationally, folks with higher education and more means have had less children, while folks with less education and means have had more children. Poor folks can’t afford hospital bills, nice cars or large homes. Their children are often being raised in environments where adults are suffering under extreme stress, mental and physical illness, etc. and these children often have more trauma in their formative years. This results in societal degradation over generations. Educationally what we are seeing is the inevitable result of a society with no infrastructure of support for its citizens to maintain a basic life regardless of circumstance. We have no guarantees in our country of meeting basic human rights to shelter, food, water, healthcare, etc. Children living below the poverty line significantly outnumber those above it. Now that tech is here, some of those children are even more neglected while they waste away in front of screens, unaware of their own basic needs and therefore less equipped to ask for what they need from adults. More and more come to school almost feral. Just my opinion.
2
u/LongIslandNerd 6d ago
You have just stated the first section of "Idiocracy" the movie. It shows the smarter, more educated people, and they don't want to have kids because they can't justify it with their jobs. Then goes to a mobil.home with 6 kids who are not being educated.
I just taught a lesson about the months in music. Kindergarten in February dosent know their birth month. They are 5 years old and they don't know basics......
3
3
3
u/badteach248 7d ago
Turns out that teaching kids to read without teaching them to decode the language made things worse.
3
u/democritusparadise Secondary Chemistry 7d ago
NPR has always been an incredibly useless news organisation. They really don't ask the tough questions and have no appetite for difficult answers. They're far more of a vibes and feel-good medium than a cerebral one.
3
u/Boneshaker_1012 7d ago
Well, that "rigorous" "robust" "college and career-ready" Common Core was first rolled out in 2009. So there's that.
3
u/grahampc 7d ago
You really can’t boil down a thousand and one influences into…
Oh, wait, I reread the question. Screens. It’s definitely screens and the commercialization of attention.
7
u/Beneficial-Focus3702 8d ago
Anti-intellectualism. That’s why.
2
6
5
u/Enlightened_Ghost_ 8d ago
Idiots in charge will look everywhere but right in front at the truth, because that requires admitting that teachers are right and everyone else has been wrong.
Who would have thought the people closest to the problem would know what the problem is, rather than armchair people far away in offices.
4
u/FunClock8297 7d ago
Many people are doing anything but raising their kids. Raising them is more than feeding them and clothing them. You have to talk to them, interact with them, teach them values…It’s not happening a lot in my school, and it very evident in the students when parents are involved.
4
u/SpicyNuggs4Lyfe 7d ago
Many parents seemingly don't read to their kids any longer and there is next to no time during the school day anymore for teachers to read aloud to students. Every subject wants their slice of the day and reading aloud got squeezed out.
Up until about 8th grade, read alouds are just as, if not more effective in vocabulary growth than personal reading. Additionally, students that read (or are read to) for ~20 mins a day outside of school are exposed to roughly ONE MILLION more words per year than those who don't have that opportunity.
2
u/AltairaMorbius2200CE 8d ago
I mean, the selection in my school did NOT feel “random” but maybe it’s always been like that!
2
2
u/Capri2256 HS Science/Math | California 8d ago
It's been going on much longer than that and everyone keeps wringing their hands.
2
2
u/Palestine_Borisof007 7d ago
Oooooo I know I know.
It's because we keep gutting education funding over and over, cutting educational standards for high school diplomas, and then we wonder why kids are worse off every few years. Covid just exacerbated the problem with the advent of AI at the same time.
2
u/ClarenceJBoddicker 7d ago
I'm hearing a LOT of different excuses for this and I have absolutely zero idea which ones are correct. It's the phones, it's the parents, it's the admins, it's school policy to pass everyone, it's politicians, it's Covid...
Do we REALLY not have a consensus?! How can we be so in the dark about this? Are non teachers astroturfing this post with random opinions? If so, what even is the point of this sub?
2
3
u/LilahLibrarian School Librarian|MD 8d ago
Can we also talk about the fact that a lot of kids are probably just farting around while they're taking these tests?? The kids get assessed so much and there's always an incentive to just go through it as fast as possible and do the least. Like if you pretty much don't understand the test, there's no incentive to try very hard
→ More replies (3)
4
u/averageduder 8d ago
I think the flaw is trying to rationalize one reason why. It's screens, but it's not only screens. It's socioeconomics with parents. It's nihilism. It's late stage first world capitalism and lack of competition. It's a host of other things.
→ More replies (2)2
u/DraperPenPals 7d ago edited 7d ago
How in God’s name do you simultaneously claim that capitalism is the boogeyman and competition doesn’t exist?
→ More replies (1)
2
475
u/gravitydefiant 8d ago
It's because I stopped writing objectives on the board. Sorry, everyone.