America’s amazing technological achievements, such as SpaceX’s recent rescue of stranded astronauts, mask the death spiral of math learning in the U.S., which has reached an ignominious low with Harvard’s decision to offer remedial math.
On the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress math exam, 73 percent of eighth graders nationwide taking the test failed to score at the proficient level.
Shockingly, a significant majority of non-economically-disadvantaged middle class and more affluent eighth graders — 60 percent — failed to perform proficiently on the math exam.
Much of the reason for the poor performance of American students is because of the failed progressive math teaching methods and curricula pushed on schools by the national Common Core math standards, which were adopted by most states in the early 2010s. (RELATED: A ‘Sputnik Moment’ for America’s Schools)
Under Common Core’s math…
