The “dumbing down” of American students

https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-how-a-debate-over-the-science-of-math-could-reignite-the-math-wars/

Reading this article, you have to filter out the equity nonsense and read between the lines. Remove the equity agenda at play, and just read the facts pertaining to the lack of education that children are receiving. At the core of the issue, American students are falling further and further behind.

In this article, a question was asked: Donna and Natasha folded 96 paper cranes. Donna folded 25 paper cranes. How many did Natasha fold? I am guessing that most of us know that you take 96-25 and you end up with 71 paper cranes folded by Natasha. Sadly, the majority of the students in this study could not answer that question. “Powell posed that question to children at the end of third grade, when they should have been able to answer it easily. Instead, most couldn’t solve it. One underlined 11 words in the question but didn’t attempt any math. Another jotted down the number 96 and gave up. A few wrote down random numbers that had nothing to do with the problem. More than half the students added the numbers 96 and 25 together. Only two children out of 15 she showed me got the correct answer: 96-25=71. “I could send you hundreds of these,” Powell said. “It’s heartbreaking. How did we let it get to this? These are kids that just get passed from one grade level to the next. You shouldn’t let a kid get to fourth grade if they can’t add 12 plus 13.“

In early 2020, at an academic conference just before the pandemic hit, Powell commiserated with other experts in special education and students who struggle in math. They shared her frustrations about the state of math education in America. A majority of students weren’t mastering the subject, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), a test that tracks academic achievement. The most recent test had shown that 60 percent of fourth graders and 67 percent of eighth graders failed to score at or above the proficient level for their grade.

This was PRIOR to covid. With the shut down of schools, virtual learning, and the hybrid model, kids fell further behind. Several kids are flat out missing from the educational system entirely. We do not know where they are. They withdrew during virtual learning and have never returned to any type of formal education, home-schooling or public education. Increasing numbers of kids are opting out of finishing high school and opting to take the HISET or GED exam instead. Think about this for one moment: among all kids in elementary, middle, and high school right now, only ONE class of kids has had a “normal” educational experience, and that is the current Kindergarten class. Every other grade has had the disruption of masks/stay at home/virtual/plexiglass in front of their faces/screen time learning/etc. Current testing scores have dropped since prior to the pandemic.

The true victims of this pandemic are the kids. We have robbed them of learning, we have focused on a woke agenda rather than learning the basics, and at the end of the day, these kiddos will become adults that will struggle. We will not see a normally educated group of kids for another 12 years, and that is only if we do not have another disruption like we did from 2020-2022. May God forgive us for what we have done here.