Joanne Jacobs recently published an article titled, “Georgetown students ‘have trouble staying focused on even a sonnet.’ Jacobs mentions how an article from the Atlantic reported that: “Many students no longer arrive at college — even at highly selective, elite colleges — prepared to read books,” writes Rose Horowitch in The Atlantic. Students tell professors … Read more
Dear Superintendent Nadeau:
I wanted to share an article from Joanne Jacobs: Core Knowledge Students Learn More–A Lot More. As you can see, “Students taught a structured, knowledge-rich curriculum starting in kindergarten earned higher reading, math, and science scores in third through sixth grade, concludes a new study profiled in “Education Next.”
“Bellows Falls Union High School Principal Kelly O’Ryan told the school’s budget committee this week that seven freshmen out of a classroom of 14 students were reading at a first-grade or elementary school level.”
Have you checked to see if your local public school taught the students about Thanksgiving? Did they learn about the first Thanksgiving? Did they learn what happened on the first Thanksgiving? Public schools were closed to celebrate Thanksgiving. Shouldn’t students learn about the first Thanksgiving?
Liberal states and cities with education monopolies have failed kids for decades, but more recently, the problem of illiteracy has gotten more attention than they’d like. Kids can’t read.
Earlier this month, Seven Days ran a remarkable story titled Too Many Vermont Kids Struggle to Read. What Went Wrong — and Can Educators Reverse a Yearslong Slide in Literacy? It’s long. 5000 words, but very much worth the time.
In prior installments of this series, state and national standardized test scores in New Hampshire and Vermont contradict the current narrative that the COVID pandemic shutdown caused children to suffer “learning loss.” Instead, the data reveals that the test scores have been deplorable for more than two decades and that they were in decline well in advance of the pandemic shutdown.
As prior installments of this series have shown, state and national standardized test scores in New Hampshire and Vermont don’t appear to support the current narrative that the COVID pandemic shutdown caused children to suffer “learning loss.” Instead, the data revealed two things: First, that the test scores have been dismal for more than two decades, and second, they were in decline well in advance of the pandemic shutdown.
Many people who testified at the Sept 14 meeting of the state Board of Education against using the PragerU Cash Course as a Learn Everywhere option argued that it would provide a camel’s nose under the tent to conservative ideas that will indoctrinate students.
Can you be at Granite State College this Thursday by 10 AM because your help is needed? The State Board of Education will vote on whether to approve an optional financial literacy course for New Hampshire students, and the opposition is expected to be fierce.
Ian Underwood has a great article on education priorities. He talks about the goals for which schools and their advocates (parents, lawmakers, taxpayers, society) should strive. That if you teach kids to read, they can then learn anything.
Parents, if you haven’t figured it out yet, the status quo in public education has no desire to improve the public schools. If you do not stand up and start demanding accountability from your elected representatives on the School Board, and the administrators hired to run your school district, it will get worse.
The New Hampshire House just advanced a bill that would require college students to pass the civics naturalization test as part of their diploma requirements. A similar bill recently passed the New Hampshire House requiring this of High School students too.
The story from the employers or human resource officers over the past 10 years hasn’t changed. For every ten applicants for an entry-level job, over half cannot pass a simple literacy test.
Money doesn’t cure all ills. MANCHESTER Jim O’Connell now sits on the Board of School Committee. His claim to fame has been his constant call for MORE SPENDING in the schools (see screencap, below). He put out a statement on racism in the Manchester schools so I thought I’d send him a reply: I’m going to … Read more