[SUMMARY: New test scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress reveal that two-thirds of American kids are effectively illiterate. New policies–and new experts–are needed.] The new National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) figures show that only 35% of our younger students are \”proficient\” in reading, and only slightly more are \”proficient\” in math. That […]

There are parents who sincerely believe, “Phonics didn’t work for my child.” This is an extraordinary assertion, akin to saying, “Exercise didn’t help my kid.” Phonics experts say they routinely teach nearly 100% of children to read, typically in the first grade. Phonics is as close to a sure thing as anything can be in […]

A remarkable spectacle has unfolded over the last few years. The Obama Administration has offered multi-million dollar grants to states to tempt them into adopting a new approach to education called Common Core Curriculum. At this point, more than 40 states have accepted the deal. Prediction: they will regret it. In these tight economic times, […]

Once upon a time, in a country far away, students had to memorize stuff. They knew the names of presidents, states, rivers, inventors, countries, books. Why, they even knew dates! They could recite poetry! They could actually find Alaska on a map. These were rough and ready times, and it was every student for himself, […]

The Most Revealing Education Anecdote Ever, that’s the topic for today’s rant. In researching why American public schools sank into mediocrity, I’ve read about 60 books and hundreds of articles. The writers are always describing juicy conversations and revealing scenes, as quick ways to illustrate what happened to public education. I’ve encountered many great stories […]

This is a story about mad scientists. A true story. In 1932, the Education Establishment forced a new, unproven reading method on American public schools (the method was known at the time as Look-say). The results were disastrous. In 1936, an American doctor named Walter Freeman performed the first prefrontal lobotomy in the U.S. Ten […]

Welcome to the Reading Wars. One of the weirder aspects of this conflict is that some so-called experts say a lot of untrue things, for example, that English is not a phonetic language. Sure, and birds do not fly.

Pundits routinely assert there is a cheating epidemic in American education. A few statistics can confirm the extent of the problem. Researchers at the University of Nebraska surveyed students and found that “89 percent said glancing at someone else\’s answers during a test was cheating, but 87 percent said they\’d done that at least once. […]

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Education in the US remains curiously schizoid. On the one hand, the official experts tell us they know what they’re doing, and public education is getting better and better. At the same time, most statistics tell a different story. All the favored theories and techniques appear to work irresistibly to dumb down the […]

(SUMMARY: Is dyslexia an in-born mental condition? Or merely an excuse that schools use to hide their instructional failures?) SUMMARY: Is dyslexia an in-born mental condition? Or merely an excuse that schools use to hide their instructional failures? jpg, dyslexia? Some experts say “dyslexia” does not exist. It’s a figment. Meanwhile, “dyslexia” organizations stridently claim […]