About the results on the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress, aka the Nation’s Report Card, the National Assessment Governing Board writes, “National scores are below pre-pandemic 2019 levels in ALL tested grades and subjects.”
Plus, thanks to our collective embrace of computers and smartphones, along with Obama’s 2011 Common Core Standards, our kids can’t read cursive writing or even use it so sign their names.
What’s more:
- Educators across the country say kids are “struggling to direct their own learning, speak up for themselves, and assume responsibility for their education…” Reportedly, once picked up during play, such things now have to be taught in school. Also blamed: helicopter parents, cell phones, and social media. (Remember: Obsession with testing, scores and standards went full tilt with Common Core, turning the children’s garden (kindergarten) into “the new first grade.”
- According to the EdWeek Research Center, 62% of recently surveyed educators say that the average student’s’ ability to make and maintain eye contact has gotten worse vs. 10 years ago; 23% said its “much worse.” Plus, they report that students lack social skills and, because of messaging apps, don’t know how to have face-to-face conversations. All of this further undermines the student-teacher relationship.
- According to a CDC report of responses from kids 12 to 17, between mid-2021 and the end of 2023:
** 34% said they’d been bullied–38.3% of girls and 29.9% of boys.
** 29% said they’d experienced anxiety.
** 28% said they’d experienced depression. - Plus, 63 studies indicate that cannabis use by those 24 and younger has been associated with lower school grades and high school completion. The researchers’ conclusion: “Cannabis use can lead to short-term cognitive impairment, including memory deficits and impaired attention.” Moreover, they found that chronic use among adolescents “was linked to long-term changes in the brain architecture, resulting in impaired information processing and decreased cognitive, memory, and attentive capacity in adulthood.”
One helluva price tag, no?
~ With my thanks, Carol
