As you know, I am running for school board here in DeKalb (runoff on 6/16!) and this piece ties into one of my campaign priorities, which is a focus on middle grade education (4-8). I think a simpler explanation is we have given up on middle schools- how they are structured, teacher working conditions (in metro-ATL, middle school schedules are different than other grades and the only configuration where teachers don’t get duty free lunch) and a lack of rigor, to start. When you look at who becomes superintendents, it is rarely people with middle school backgrounds. In our specific district, we have increasing enrollment in grades K-3 and then huge drops in 4-8, mostly 4 & 6, and then many come back for 9. I don’t have a solution, but we have had successes here with superintendent parent advisory councils that have informed audits and creating one of these councils on middle grade education is my first call to action. Personally, my son just finished 4th grade and I was disappointed, despite loving my school. It was really a continuation of 3rd. He still had 30 minutes of phonics- which was boring- and for his first book report, all the kids had a choice or whether they wrote a report or did a poster or other creative project to summarize the book. None did the written report. Also, we have heavily invested in Amira and I find it to be slop, at least in 4th.
Great piece as always. I see this with my own kids (finishing up 10th grade and 7th grade) in terms of vocabulary, spelling and grammar. Both of them are great readers and luckily continue to read for fun every day. But I am often taken aback by how poor their grammar, spelling and vocabulary are. It seems we stopped teaching this in school for some reason. These skills all seem to require some level of rote memorization, which we seem to have moved away from in education.
Holy crap - thank you for putting these data points together. And yes, right in front of us.
So the best thing that could happen for the tech companies was Covid. They get to continue selling their miracle cures (which look more and more like brain damaging snake oil) and get to blame the pandemic for the learning loss that these products induce.
I’ll challenge your word “effort” and read into it with “focus.” I think kids and teachers are trying hard. Kids have had their dopamine hijacked by devices, and adults (who suffer the same addictions) have that extra hill to climb.
As you know, I am running for school board here in DeKalb (runoff on 6/16!) and this piece ties into one of my campaign priorities, which is a focus on middle grade education (4-8). I think a simpler explanation is we have given up on middle schools- how they are structured, teacher working conditions (in metro-ATL, middle school schedules are different than other grades and the only configuration where teachers don’t get duty free lunch) and a lack of rigor, to start. When you look at who becomes superintendents, it is rarely people with middle school backgrounds. In our specific district, we have increasing enrollment in grades K-3 and then huge drops in 4-8, mostly 4 & 6, and then many come back for 9. I don’t have a solution, but we have had successes here with superintendent parent advisory councils that have informed audits and creating one of these councils on middle grade education is my first call to action. Personally, my son just finished 4th grade and I was disappointed, despite loving my school. It was really a continuation of 3rd. He still had 30 minutes of phonics- which was boring- and for his first book report, all the kids had a choice or whether they wrote a report or did a poster or other creative project to summarize the book. None did the written report. Also, we have heavily invested in Amira and I find it to be slop, at least in 4th.
Great piece as always. I see this with my own kids (finishing up 10th grade and 7th grade) in terms of vocabulary, spelling and grammar. Both of them are great readers and luckily continue to read for fun every day. But I am often taken aback by how poor their grammar, spelling and vocabulary are. It seems we stopped teaching this in school for some reason. These skills all seem to require some level of rote memorization, which we seem to have moved away from in education.
Thoughtful synthesis, Tim Daly! And careful reading of Magnifica Humanitas!
Holy crap - thank you for putting these data points together. And yes, right in front of us.
So the best thing that could happen for the tech companies was Covid. They get to continue selling their miracle cures (which look more and more like brain damaging snake oil) and get to blame the pandemic for the learning loss that these products induce.
I’ll challenge your word “effort” and read into it with “focus.” I think kids and teachers are trying hard. Kids have had their dopamine hijacked by devices, and adults (who suffer the same addictions) have that extra hill to climb.
Yikes!
And right on cue, I came across this one: https://www.chronicle.com/article/my-students-cant-read (paywall, so I literally can’t read it myself)