The Core Knowledge Blog

A 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.

Core Knowledge

21st Century B.C. Skills
The buzzphrase “21st Century Skills” is yet another way to devalue content. Problem solving, critical thinking and cooperative learning have been with us in this country since we first hunted in groups. 

Poor Speller?  Blame Your G-E-N-E-S
Findings from research into dyslexia suggest a difficulty with spelling could be rooted in your genes and in the way that your brain is wired.

No Cupcake For You!
In California, the tradition of bake sales fto raise money for field trips is disappearing.  State guidelines passed in 2005 limit the calories, fat and sugar content of snacks sold in the state’s schools. 

Best of the Blogs

After the Election, What Will Happen to NCLB? at Bridging Differences
It is a curiosity of our times that the views of the people who are actually supposed to do the work of educating children—the teachers, principals, and superintendents—are dismissed out of hand by NCLB’s defenders as those of self-interested pressure groups who don’t care about children, notes Diane Ravitch.

Whither Pre-Service? at Eduwonk
In just the past few weeks two rigorous studies have called into question different professional growth and training strategies.  

KIPP Moving into Early Education at The Early Ed Watch Blog
KIPP, a network of high-performing charter schools serving low-income, predominantly minority students, will dramatically expand the number of KIPP schools operating pre-k and elementary programs.

What is Rigor?  at Joanne Jacobs
How do you define it? How do you measure it? Is rigor only for college-prep programs or are there rigorous ways to educate students who aren’t college-bound?

Teaching and Curriculum

Election Renews Controversy Over Social-Justice Teaching
Education Week
The movement to address social issues, historical conflicts, and multicultural viewpoints that have not been part of the traditional curriculum has often attracted controversy and derision, writes Kathleen Kennedy Manzo. And proponents of what is often called critical pedagogy are finding themselves on the defensive once again, amid a new round of attacks related to the presidential campaign.

Will 8th Grade Algebra Help All Kids?
The Washington Post
We could take low-performing kids kids out of algebra, but what would they be getting instead, asks Jay Matthews.  “In many schools, the only option would be poorly taught remedial courses of little more use than staying in the cafeteria for a second helping of pizza.”

Brain Research May Produce Results in the Classroom
The Washington Post
Many educators hunger for scientific data to help them structure their lessons, and neuroscience is beginning to offer them broad guidance about what works best.

It’s Friday: Where’s My Bio Teacher?
USA Today
On any given day, about one in 20 teachers is absent from school.  New research calculates that between kindergarten and 12th grade, the typical kid spends the equivalent of two-thirds of a school year being taught by a substitute teacher.

Education Policy

No Dropouts Left Behind: New Rules on Grad Rates
Time
Secretary Margaret Spellings has issued new rules that will force states to adopt a common system to monitor dropouts.

The Election Choice: Education
The Wall Street Journal
Obama says schools need more money, McCain wants more accountability.

Numbers Game
The New York Times
Americans should be deeply alarmed by new data showing that the country is continuing to lose ground educationally to its competitors abroad.

School’s Success Story Gives Way to Doubt
The New York Time
North Carolina has begun a criminal investigation into test scores at Charleston elementary school, once held up as a model of a school turnaround, seeking to determine whether a high number of erasure marks on the tests indicates fraud.

Homeschooling and Parenting

Home school groups seek law changes
Associated Press
North Dakota parents who home school their children want the Legislature to get rid of state laws that require monitoring by a licensed teacher.

So why are fewer parents reading to their children?
The Echo
Just a third of U.K. parents now read aloud to their children every day, with 35 percent of those who don’t saying they have too much else to do, with 30 percent saying they’re too tired.

Kids’ eye problems often emerge in homework battle
The Associated Press
Your 9-year-old’s eyes hurt during homework? Your teen’s a slow reader plagued with headaches? They may have a common yet often missed vision problem: Eyes that don’t turn together properly to read.  Standard vision screenings administered by schools and pediatricians won’t catch it.

Breast-Fed Baby May Mean Better Behaved Child
HealthDay News
Parents of youngsters who were breast-fed as infants were less likely to report that their child had a behavior problem or psychiatric illness during the first five years of life, a new study finds.

Et Alia

Reading Rubbish
The Daily Pennsylvanian
There’s a lot of pressure to read the ‘right’ books, but reading literary garbage is better than not reading at all, argues a Penn sophomore.