if my school district's standards have really gone massively downhill since I was a kid
Most likely, yes. When reviewing a school's "alignment" to common core standards, many have found that the curriculum was being dumbed down in the process... the kids were learning to develop a smaller academic toolkit than kids used to learn:
- If a topic moved UP to a higher grade, the curriculum was being dumbed down.
- If a topic disappeared (such as phonics
*,
cursive,
roman numerals), the curriculum was being dumbed down.
- If a topic moved DOWN to a lower grade, it was
possible that the curriculum was becoming more rigorous... however this depends in part on the assessment measures and "teaching to the test." Kids may now be considered "proficient" or even "advanced" while demonstrating much less knowledge than in the past.
It may be wise to stockpile good books while the opportunity still exists to do so.
*Note:
Phonics is included as part of Common Core, however some schools have dropped phonics. Some of these schools dropped phonics specifically when aligning to common core.
