I feel like plucking some low-hanging fruit today, and so let’s take a look at Common Core. I’ve written of it before, how it ignores science, how it’s just another excuse to inject more indoctrination into our schools, and how by changing the approach to how mathematics is learned, will further separate the children from their parents, since the latter won’t have a clue how to help their kids with homework using the convoluted new methods.

Predicting the failure of Common Core is about as easy as predicting Epstein’s “suicide” in prison, but now we get to see how well the “new ways of knowing” methods of Common Core are working, but it’s now been 4 years since this idiotic idea was proposed–enough time for a kid go through all of high school, using Common Core as preparation for college.

My own eyeballs tell me something’s gone wrong. Even though the endless cancer treatments make it impossible for me to teach a real class, I still do much free tutoring for the department. The advanced students fresh out of high school can no longer handle fractions unless they have a calculator to do it for them, and the non-advanced students can’t handle fractions even with a calculator. This is just one example of how Common Core has gone a full step lower–before Common Core, the advanced students could add fractions without $50 of electronics to help, for example. And of course, as soon as a kind of fraction pops up which the calculator can’t handle, it’s mental lockdown time for the students. Even arithmetic like “15 divided by 5” has the “A” students needing a calculator now.

But that’s my own eyeballs. How about something less anecdotal?

First Common Core High School Grads Worst-Prepared For College In 15 Years

I remind the gentle reader that the whole reason Common Core was slammed down the throats of our kids was because it was going to help them prepare for college, the ultimate goal (or so we’re told repeatedly) of our public school system.

Further, the class of 2019, the first to experience all four high school years under Common Core, is the worst-prepared for college in 15 years, according to a new report.

While the above might lead the casual reader to think that things were way better 15 years ago, there’s a factor here which causes confusion: how well a student is prepared is determined by “standardized” tests. Every decade or so, the standards on those tests are lowered, or at least dramatically changed. Anyone who compares tests of today to tests of, say, a century ago can quickly see something has gone horribly wrong in our education system, as it’s very clear the capabilities of our young humans have dropped off very sharply–top students of today would horribly the older tests.

And so comparing student performance on tests of today to even a mere 15 years ago just isn’t an “apples to apples” comparison. Still, just looking at the last few years of steady drops tells the tale. The people pushing Common Core needn’t worry much, as I’m sure those standardized tests will change soon, so that Common Core will look better.

The gentle reader’s grandchildren, assuming they’ll even be capable of reading, will absolutely marvel at material that kids today could do, but I digress.

“Students in the U.S. made significant progress in math and reading achievement on NAEP from 1990 until 2015, when the first major dip in achievement scores occurred,” reported U.S. News and World Report. Perhaps not coincidentally, 2015 is the year states were required by the Obama administration to have fully phased in Common Core.

I can’t answer in detail about the NAEP test, but much like with Epstein’s “suicide,” I predict with confidence that it’ll be changed soon and scores will start heading up again.

As Common Core was moving into schools, 69 percent of school principals said they also thought it would improve student achievement. All of these “experts” were wrong, wrong, wrong.

The article lists many of those experts, but much like with the principals listed above, none of the “experts” actually teach human beings. All the experts who teach human beings (which strike me as the ones you should ask about matters involving teaching human beings) that I’m aware of, including myself, determined Common Core would fail, and it’s not difficult to specifically identify why (as I discussed in four connected posts).

It’s so weird how the people accept lies being poured into their ears, even when those lies harm their children. Granted, I shouldn’t throw stones, considering how many lies of cancer doctors I’ve accepted.

On the same day the NAEP results were released, the college testing organization ACT released a report showing that the high school class of 2019’s college preparedness in English and math is at seniors’ lowest levels in 15 years. These students are the first to have completed all four high school years under Common Core.

Looks like they’ll have to change the ACT, too. I should point out, it isn’t just high school where we’re seeing disaster, it’s throughout the system. Again, no surprise, and I again remind we were promised that Common Core would really improve things.

“Readiness levels in English, reading, math, and science have all decreased since 2015, with English and math seeing the largest decline,” the report noted. Student achievement declined on ACT’s measures among U.S. students of all races except for Asian-Americans, whose achievement increased.

It’s an interesting result about the Asians, but I suspect there’s a reason for this. Recall that one of the main goals for Common Core was to make it impossible, or at least very difficult, for the parents to help their children. Without this help, children will struggle. But the Asians? Children of new immigrants especially have been unable to go to their parents for help, because the parents came from a radically different system already. So their scores weren’t going to be as negatively impacted as the “non Asian” students, and the improvement isn’t all that much, really.

It is thus still the case, as it was when the Coleman Report was released 53 years ago, that U.S. public schools do not lift children above the conditions of their home lives.

I cite the above to again reinforce the point: if the children can’t get help from their parents, they will not get help from the schools. We’ve known this for at least half a century, and still our government works tirelessly to separate the kids from parents at every opportunity.

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