The Core Knowledge Blog

Question: We don’t think our daughter, Nadia, is learning very much even though she has good grades. She is in sixth grade and still reads aloud haltingly. Her writing doesn’t seem to have progressed. She can’t name 20 of the 50 states. No one at school seems worried because she’s “above grade level.” This doesn’t add up for me. Should I be worried?

Answer: You’ve put your finger on one of the paradoxes of today’s test-driven school-improvement movement.

In the era of No Child Left Behind, students whose scores show “proficiency” are often left to themselves. These students can sail through elementary testing and arrive in middle and high school with just enough “content knowledge” to pass the tests but not enough to do well in the rigorous courses you might expect them to take.

They haven’t stretched their abilities because there’s little incentive for teachers to require them to.

This is a pervasive problem, says New York City elementary educator Robert Pondiscio.

… Consider what to do at home.

… The series of Core Knowledge books, “What Your Sixth Grader Needs to Know” (Delta, 2007), edited by E.D. Hirsch Jr., are a valuable resource for parents concerned that their kids are simply not learning enough, says Pondiscio.

“Hirsch believes that there is a shared body of knowledge that’s important for everyone in our culturally diverse country to have as a foundation for higher learning.”

Read the complete article