One of the big disconnects between those close to the research about U.S. student achievement and parents is knowledge about school quality. This blog has quoted Dr. Thomas Korcok explaining that most parents have never been taught how to evaluate school quality, so they often go by feelings and perceptions such as how modern the … Continue reading Researcher: Parents Who Think Their School District Is Good Are Usually Wrong
‘What We Want From Students Is No Longer Their Insight Or Character, But Their Desires’
In the latest Los Angeles Review of Books, writer and philosophy professor Ron Srigley critiques the modern university in ways that also apply to K-12 schooling. He targets today's upside-down structure of education that preferences bureaucracy and PR over students and genuine learning. "If students cannot think, read, or write any longer, it’s because administrators … Continue reading ‘What We Want From Students Is No Longer Their Insight Or Character, But Their Desires’
How To Read (And Understand!) Einstein
This is one of the best examples of classical education I've seen. It is often difficult to find descriptions to clarify classical education's distinction and promise - this one does both. The quotation is a bit lengthy (so is my commentary) but it's worth it. In his excellent book about Christian classical education, co-author Ravi Scott Jain … Continue reading How To Read (And Understand!) Einstein
Cognitive Researchers: ‘Learning Styles’ Like Auditory, Visual, And Kinesthetic Are Bunk
For some time cognitive research has consistently found that the teaching fad of prescribing a variety of "learning styles" to students based on various senses -- visual, auditory, and kinesthetic are the most prominent -- is hogwash. But many teachers are still using these methods, largely because they are instructed to by institutions that should know … Continue reading Cognitive Researchers: ‘Learning Styles’ Like Auditory, Visual, And Kinesthetic Are Bunk
How Bad Math Instruction Makes Kids More Emotional And Less Rational
Barry Garelick is a long-time math instruction analyst and current middle-school math teacher. For years he has done yeoman's work carefully analyzing Common Core math and showing precisely how it affects students, down to the level of individual math problems, approaches, and specific mandates. He recently responded to criticism of some of his work discussing … Continue reading How Bad Math Instruction Makes Kids More Emotional And Less Rational
Latest International Test Scores Show Continued Downward U.S. Trend Following Common Core
The latest international tests cores from the Programme for International Assessment came out last week, and U.S. high school students performed an average of 12 points worse than their peers had in 2012. Alice B. Lloyd at The Weekly Standard reports: PISA tests how well fifteen-year-olds stack up against their global contemporaries. In math American … Continue reading Latest International Test Scores Show Continued Downward U.S. Trend Following Common Core
The Big Box Model Of Education Is Over
This 2012 article by Walter Russell Meade discusses the breakup of the old models of our economy and why we can't go back. If anything, it is even more relevant today than it was in 2012 because it helps dissect the Donald Trump phenomena. To our purpose here, however, some insightful critiques of typical schools. In … Continue reading The Big Box Model Of Education Is Over
How Common Core Directly Promotes Moral Relativism
Here is yet another example of how modern, progressive education puts children on the path to moral relativism at a young age. A philosophy professor writes in The New York Times of his son's encounters with portions of Common Core, the reigning curriculum model for nearly all U.S. public and private schools. When I went to … Continue reading How Common Core Directly Promotes Moral Relativism
Redeemer Classical School 