The statistics are sobering and damning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
14% of US college students read at the level of a 10 year old. <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n 15% of US college students cannot do math at more than a 10 year old. <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Professors at Berkeley find 20-30% of students taking early calculus courses turn up displaying \u201csevere preparation deficits\u201d. Instructors are begging for standardized testing as they find they have to reteach middle-school mathematics<\/a> in shocking numbers of college students. UC faculty are now in ‘open revolt’ demanding the return of standardized skills testing<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It’s not just the US, a new “Survey of Adult Skills” conducted across 38 high-income, predominantly affluent Western countries, shows that this trend is spread across all the member states<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All of this is has combined to the disturbing fact that Gen Z is the first generation that is provably less cognitively capable than their parent’s generation<\/a>. Since standardizing and measuring cognitive development since the late 1800s, every generation has outperformed their parents – until now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The reason? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Cognitive neuroscientist studies show the decline coincides highly with the\u00a0introduction of screens in the classroom<\/a>, which started around 2010. Across 80 countries, if you look at the data,\u00a0once countries adopt digital technology widely in schools, performance goes down significantly<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Compounding the issue is that besides just throwing out graduation requirements like Oregon has done<\/a>, standardized testing has been adjusted to accommodate lower expectations and shorter attention spans<\/a>. After misguided attempts to link test scores to teacher engagement and provide accessibility<\/a>, some are now calling the lack of testing the ‘soft bigotry of low expectations’ and even linking calling it a policy that makes racism worse, not better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This isn’t a US problem, it’s a world problem. Countries like Denmark are starting to act decisively<\/a>. Severe limits on computer use, and returns to physical book reading and phonics has created turnarounds like the Mississippi Miracle<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n ‘Modern’ education methods have had their opportunity – and they have now clearly demonstrated they have failed a generation worse than has been done in any time in the last 200 years. That’s astounding.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The statistics are sobering and damning. 14% of US college students read at the level of a 10 year old. 15% of US college students cannot do math at more than a 10 year old. Professors at Berkeley find 20-30% of students taking early calculus courses turn up displaying \u201csevere preparation deficits\u201d. Instructors are begging for standardized testing as they find they have to reteach middle-school mathematics in shocking numbers of college students. UC faculty are now in ‘open revolt’…<\/p>\n