My thoughts on why students are behind now

I kept seeing this topic come up on tik tok where teachers were discussing why how students were not reading or doing math up to grade level e.g. a seventh grader reading at a 2nd grade level and while I'm not a teacher I wanted to share some thoughts and also I want to know what you guys think is the problem.

I've seen some people in the comments section of these videos say things like "when I was in third grade I was already writing essays" and this made me think made on my own educational history. My first school was an elementary school in a low income neighborhood in NYC (South Bronx) where basically the entire student body was on free lunch and thinking back, every student that was "exceptional" ended up leaving the school to go to a nearby charter school with better facilities. I was fortunate enough to be recommended to that charter school by my teachers and I ended up going there for middle school.

However, from very early on, as early as the second grade, there were already students who were struggling with math and reading. In the fourth or fifth grade I remember being one of the only students in my class who was reading above grade level. When I was in school the state exam for reading & writing and math were out of 4 with 4 being the highest grade. Even in elementary school there were students getting 2s on the State exams and getting passed to the next grade level anyway.

This is just my hypothesis but I'm guessing that the general population is trending closer to poverty with the cost of living rising exponentially while wages are quite stagnant. Thus problems are generally affected only the most impoverished are beginning to spread to those who might have once been considered "middle class". Cuts to school budgets have probably made things way worse as well. I'm not sure let me know what you guys think. These are just my thoughts. If you teach in a wealthy district have you noticed an increase in student behavioral problems as well?

Submitted October 11, 2023 at 08:38PM by imnevergold https://ift.tt/QAnH5ze