I said most. But I forgot about reading comprehension
Comprehension levels are down because teachers don’t get paid enough to stress the importance of reading comprehension.
Reading Comp scores are way down due to the BS reading programs being taught. My son is in 4th grade, he’s in the gifted program, straight A student and reads on a 6th grade level. He already has his AR points for the entire year with an average score of 99 (read a book and take a test). He however struggles with the one page short story with questions that they give every week. I have multiple degrees and I have to go back and reread the paragraph multiple times to get those answers correct. His best friend is even smarter and has issues as well. The questions and “correct” answers are utter bull chit. I’ve been griping at the school for 2 years about the format. The teachers are even fed up with it and have started giving extra credit questions.
Both my sons are strong readers. But the limitations to their learning (IMO) is that their classrooms have so many non-english speakers or at least it isn't their 1st. My younger son has 7 of 18 in his class that english isn't their 1st language and 2 of the kids couldn't speak a bit of it. I am highly sensitive to this because my father learned english in 1st grade and only spoke german at home (my mom didn't know my grandfather could speak english for years). But it does make it difficult for both the non-english speakers and the kids that aren't challenged because of the time spent on the barrier.
