The Core Knowledge Blog

Our weekly roundup of the week’s most important news, information and blog posts about curriculum, teaching, education policy and other items of interest to the Core Knowledge community.

Best of the Blogs

Is Fatalism the Alternative to Romanticism? at the Gadfly
“We should all hope that the collapse of educational romanticism, if indeed it occurs, doesn’t lead us to abandon the belief that just about all our children could and should be learning a heckuva lot more than they’re learning today,” writes Checker Finn. “And it’s the responsibility of grown-ups to make that happen, not to abandon the ship.”

Charter Schools are Great — But Not Why You Think at The Quick and the Ed
“Charters allow organizations and individuals other than the government to run public schools,” notes Kevin Carey. “Even if that’s all they did, that’s way more than enough.”

An Unlikely Pair Finds Common Ground on NCLB at NCLB: Act II
“You wouldn’t expect Charles Murray and Richard Rothstein to agree on anything,” writes David Hoff. But they agree on one thing: “NCLB is bad policy.”

Who Slipped a Mickey in John Merrow’s Kool-Aid? at Eduwonkette
EW has issues with Merrow’s Wall Street Journal Op-Ed (see below).

Teaching, Content and Curriculum

A Lesson About Copycats The Washington Post
Despite a bold yellow warning declaring “Original Work Only,” two winners of this year’s KidsPost poetry contest plagiarized the work of Shel Silverstein and Louis Phillips. The more embarrassing fact is that the plagiarism slipped by the Post’s editors.

Experts Discuss Myths about Latino Kids National Public Radio
New census data shows that about a quarter of children younger than five in the U.S. are of Hispanic decent. Pedro Noguera, professor of education at New York University; and Jeffrey Passel, from the Pew Hispanic Center, discuss the rising number of Latino children and what it means for America.

Pastor Raises Questions about Learning Styles National Public Radio
Reverend Jeremiah Wright made the claim last week that black and white kids have very different learning styles. Education professors Pedro Noguera and Janice Hall discuss Wright’s statement and the research underway to determine how children’s backgrounds can affect the way they learn.

Reading First is the largest concerted reading intervention program in the history of the civilized world ednews.org
Reading guru Reid Lyon cautions we must be “very careful in drawing conclusions from this study and to be very clear about its limitations in making inferences about the success of the policy and the success of the instructional model emphasize in the model.”

Online Education Cast as ‘Disruptive Innovation’ Education Week
By 2019, half of all high school classes will be taught online, predicts Harvard University business professor Clayton M. Christensen and his co-authors, in a new book.

Manners Are Elementary for One Compton Class, Los Angeles Times
Grade schoolers learned their p’s and q’s, then took them to dinner in Beverly Hills. Their principal hopes the etiquette classes will help them see a world beyond their poor neighborhood.

Education Policy

Student Tests – and Teacher Grades By John Merrow, The Wall Street Journal
Only an idiot would overlook student performance, be it dismal or outstanding, writes the education correspondent for the “NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.” However public education lives in an upside-down universe where student outcomes are not allowed to be connected to teaching.

Teachers Found to Be of Two Minds on Reforms By Scott J. Cech, Education Week
Most public school teachers are unequivocally ambivalent about unions and education reform, and have become more so over the past five years, according to a nationwide survey. Read the complete poll from Education Sector here.

Where Clinton, Obama and McCain Stand on Education By Dana Hawkins-Simons, U.S. News and World Report
The candidates’ positions on No Child Left Behind, merit pay and higher ed affordability.

Schools lose in White House race By Mike Baker, BBC News (U.K.)
Why has education featured so little in the U.S. presidential race? The view from the Mother Country.

Parenting and Homeschooling

I Know What You Did Last Math Class By Jan Hoffman, The New York Times
Programs that let parents track grades in real time are popular but can raise stress.

School’s Hardest Test May Be the Walk Home, The New York Sun
There have been dozens of articles about how hard it is to get your child into an elite New York City private school. This is an article about how hard it is to get the child home.

The Flip-Flop Factor: Why Day Care Kids Don’t Play Outside By Tara Parker-Pope, The New York Times
Outdoor play at day care centers is often stifled because a child arrives wearing flip-flops or without a coat or because teachers don’t feel like going outside.

Eleven children and a degree: Hard work pays off for Carolyn Neese Press-Register (Birmingham, AL)
The mother of 11 took care of the kids and homeschooled her children for 20 years while her husband, Bazil Junior Neese, worked as an evangelist. Last weekend, the 51-year-old mom graduated summa cum laude from the University of South Alabama with a bachelor’s degree in secondary education and history.