IQ scores in the US have dropped for the first time in nearly 100 years, according to new research published in the journal Intelligence, and the biggest drops come in age groups who were educated in the Common Core program.
The researchers set out to find evidence that each generation is smarter than the previous, known as the ‘Flynn effect’ — but they found the opposite. For the first time in 100 years, young people are getting dumber.
Scientists from the University of Oregon and Northwestern looked at nearly 400,000 online IQ tests done between 2006 and 2018.
While they did not give the exact drop, the researchers said the biggest decrease was in people aged 18-22 who received their education under Bill Gates and Barack Obama’s Common Core educational protocol.
It may be that the results ‘indicate a change of quality or content of education and test-taking skills within’, they wrote in the conclusion.
An international study by the Pioneer Institute backs them up.
The study reveals huge drops in math and reading scores since Common Core was fully enacted in 2013. This was after decades of consistent growth in both categories.
“Breaking with decades of slow improvement, U.S. reading and math scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and other assessments have seen historic declines since most states implemented national Common Core English and math curriculum standards six years ago,” a statement on the Pioneer Institute’s website read.
“While Common Core was promoted as improving the international competitiveness of U.S. students in math, our international standing has remained low while the skills of average and lower performing American students have dropped in reading,” it said.
How bad have things become? Only 10 percent of eighth-grade American students now score at an “advanced” level in math, according to the international study.
Parents and teachers across the nation have been urging schools to dump the toxic Common Core curriculum, arguing that it deliberately dumbs down children and creates unnecessary and complicated methods for working out relatively simple problems.
Past research suggested another reason for the decline in intelligence could be technology’s increasing dominance over our daily lives, shortening our attention spans and making us less inclined to think deeply.
