Are the students in your school getting dumber?

I know the title sounds pretty arrogant, but hear me out. I'm a novice teacher who started in 2019-2020. I've been teaching the same subjects since then, typically 10th and 11th grades, with most of the classes being honors. Now, I've been a teacher for four years, so I'm still pretty new. <br><br>As a new teacher, I had a hard time finding my footing. I was a terrible teacher and I know I messed up a lot in those early days, including being too easy on kids who didn't do work. But I've grown a lot since then, and even though there's a lot of issues I still need to work on, I'm getting better. I get much higher reviews from students than I used to, and my department chairs have noticed a significant improvement, too.<br><br>I'm concerned, though, that my students have gotten progressively *dumber* since I started. My 2019-2020 classes, on the whole, were much better than my 2022-2023 classes. I have many more kids now who seem to barely be able to function. Don't get me wrong, I have some frisbees, too, but there's just so many more kids now who don't seem like they can do very basic things. They can't read, they can't spell, they can't do math, they can't write, they can't answer simple questions. They seem to have a hard time completing simple tasks, like following instructions or completing a rubric (I almost always give them a rubric so the assignment is as clear as possible). They tend to to be really, really forgetful. How do you get to high school and not know how to read? I don't remember seeing this in middle school (I student taught in 7th-8th grade), so it's not like this is entirely the fault of the elementary schools or middle schools. And I'm not alone in thinking this. Many of my coworkers are saying the same thing, some of whom have been teaching for Over 20 years. I've also read articles about this, talking about how there's been a decline in test scores, GPAs, etc. since Covid. <br><br>Shouldn't I, as a new teacher, be the one getting better, while the kids stay the same? Why do I feel like my students are getting progressively dumber?