Are are American students struggling with math?

Take a look at the two stories below and then add them to the schools in Chicago and Baltimore where not one student in certain classes is proficient in math and try to figure out why that is.

The usual responses as to why this is happening are teachers who just want to move meat from one grade to another, students who don't give a sh!t, and parents who also don't give a sh!t. Suggested solutions to the problem often include charter schools which the left fights tooth and nail, dumbing things down due to inequities, and of course more money, although I don't know how more money fixes the above mentioned problems unless my below suggestion is implemented.

Personally, I don't have cure-all solution, but what I would do is stop wasting valuable classroom time on non essentials like CRT and gender studies and spend more time on math studies. Kids who fail should be required to attend summer school to learn what they missed during the regular year, and if they fail that then they have to repeat the grade they were just in - that's how they did it when I went to school. After that, if money is available, I'd spend it on one on one tutoring either after school or on weekends. The last thing I would do is lower the standards so even if a kid passes s/he still doesn't know basic math.

Any ideas on what's causing the math problems today's students have and solutions for it?

 

This feels more like a CRT is the devil than Hey Let's fix math threads. You can begin by letting teachers teach instead of creating a system which punishes teachers if their students don't pass. Do away with standardized testing. Let them adapt the curriculum to the abilities of the students they have in front of them.

 

"Are are American students struggling with math?"'

and other subjects?

poorer areas have always struggled in school, this is not unusual, though not sure how to solve it

 

Do away with standardized testing? Has Singapore, China, Estonia, Slovenia or any other country on the planet done away with standardized testing? It's hard to imagine a nuttier idea than that. If there is no way to track student performance and compare them across the country, and the world, it sounds like you really want to give up on math and just hand out participation trophies.

 

Yeah, I stumbled when I was trying to think of a title and I never check my titles before creating threads. It's a bad habit I need to overcome. I also forget to use commas when they're needed. So goes life when typing on a iPad.

 

When we have math scores like this, then anything that isn't an essential fundamental should take a back seat.

 

It probably started before covid, but, yes, ALL students affected by the covid years have serious challenges in academics, as well as study habits. In my Chemistry program and in my class, I have seen the declines personally, and calculus remains the biggest challenge. I am not sure what the solution is to this problem.

 

How do we know the difference between things we should copy from other countries, and which ones we shouldn't?

Maybe standardized testing is more effective in countries where everyone has access to government funded health care.

 

me too, lol, I make many mistakes in my old age, comes out right in the brain, but the fingers have a mind of their own, and I often hit submit before double checking

 

The solution just might be brute force; make the kids keep taking the class until they pass, otherwise they don’t graduate.

 

We had been using standardized testing for generations. It was considered the way to find and advance bright students from poor and impoverished backgrounds. Your comment seems to indicate that you feel it's exactly the opposite. I have no idea why standardized testing would be more effective in countries with government health care. I'm sorry but that just sounds nuts.

If there were actual semi intelligent arguments against standardized testing maybe I would listen to them, but to me the fact that we're even having such a dumb argument shows why we can't provide a good education system and why it will continue to get worse no matter how many billions we pour into it.

 

You don't understand why students would perform better in country's that have better healthcare?

 

So take away any monitoring or quality control and hope for the best?

 

What nonsense. Teach the subject, test the student, lather, rinse, repeat.

 

Probably not.

 

So unhealthy kids perform just as well as healthy kids, cool.

 

But which is the cause and which is the effect is debatable. Some of each I suppose.

 

Doesn't follow, not all poor kids are sick nor are all rich kids healthy.

 

Another knock on blacks?
Oh yes, CRT.

 

If one is poor and can't buy a book, what is the cause and what is the effect?

To me, poor is the cause.
Not being able to buy the book is the effect of poor education.

 

Schools provide the books.

 

Has nothing to do with sick or healthy.
But hungry or not hungry, or similar!

 

And they need money to buy books.

 

Is there any evidence that standardized testing improves the education that kids get?

That's the only relevant question. The burden should be on the people claiming that standardized testing improves education.

 

As long as they can count to 72 to account for all 72 genders then they shouldn't need anymore math.