Thank you for this great article! I think that another core issue is the gap in spending between higher education and early childhood. The latter gets much less attention and resources whereas it is the most critical time in a child's development, largely shaping the rest of their educational journey.
Regardless of educational policies, reading certainly isn't "cool" amongst my middle school students. I have a feeling this isn't so isolated either. Policy can't always fight culture--or touchscreen dopamine machines effectively raising children.
Great discussion Tim. Looking forward to your next post. According to the Anxious Generation, the iPhone is wrecking our children's mental health, I would argue their education as well.
A well written, data-based, and timely post. It left me wondering a lot about the ultimate impact of Race to the Top, which could be said to have hit its peak around 2013 as well. RttT was then followed by an absence (in my view) of any concerted federal education reform agenda at the K-12 level. This interplay between federal reform agenda and state performance is not something I'd considered this way. But will be in the coming days. Thanks again.
Really interesting - great post, Tim. One noticing is the decline you describe coincides with Haidt’s research on social media / wide spread phone use since the same time (around 2012)…While I know this is an oversimplification, we can’t quite measure how far kids’ attention has turned from school in the last 12+ years.
For it to be so broad and extending now for a decade, one begins to think about systemic and cultural impacts - smartphones/social media, family structure, per "Bad Therapy" the growth in psychotherapy for students?
Thank you for this great article! I think that another core issue is the gap in spending between higher education and early childhood. The latter gets much less attention and resources whereas it is the most critical time in a child's development, largely shaping the rest of their educational journey.
Regardless of educational policies, reading certainly isn't "cool" amongst my middle school students. I have a feeling this isn't so isolated either. Policy can't always fight culture--or touchscreen dopamine machines effectively raising children.
Great discussion Tim. Looking forward to your next post. According to the Anxious Generation, the iPhone is wrecking our children's mental health, I would argue their education as well.
A well written, data-based, and timely post. It left me wondering a lot about the ultimate impact of Race to the Top, which could be said to have hit its peak around 2013 as well. RttT was then followed by an absence (in my view) of any concerted federal education reform agenda at the K-12 level. This interplay between federal reform agenda and state performance is not something I'd considered this way. But will be in the coming days. Thanks again.
Really interesting - great post, Tim. One noticing is the decline you describe coincides with Haidt’s research on social media / wide spread phone use since the same time (around 2012)…While I know this is an oversimplification, we can’t quite measure how far kids’ attention has turned from school in the last 12+ years.
For it to be so broad and extending now for a decade, one begins to think about systemic and cultural impacts - smartphones/social media, family structure, per "Bad Therapy" the growth in psychotherapy for students?