“It was one of the most powerful visits I’ve ever taken,” says Sheila Briggs, an assistant state superintendent with the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. She is describing a visit last fall to Lake Pontchartrain Elementary School, a low-income school in St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana, about 30 miles northwest of New Orleans. “The ability to hear what the state education agency... Read more
BLOUNTVILLE — Starting in the fall, Sullivan County elementary students in kindergarten through second grade likely will have a new reading program, coming just in time to help meet 2025 Tennessee reading goals for third-graders. Sullivan students in a pilot program this year along with reading have learned about the ancient Mayas and Incas, Sparta and Athens as well as the more contemporary U.S. fight for civil rights. Teachers and administrators are singing the praises of an English language arts program called CKLA, which... Read more
Collage making and animal classification may not seem related, but students at Gause Elementary are learning just the opposite. Combining art, imagination and the new Core Knowledge Language Arts curriculum, the third-graders created unique animals from different vertebrate groups. They were assisted in this process by... Read more
One of the odd features of education policy is that while a plethora of research exists on the effects of systemic reforms (e.g., class size, charter schools, teacher and school accountability mechanisms), on student achievement there is very little data on whether curriculum – what kids are actually being taught – makes a difference. As the Urban Institute's Matthew Chingos notes: "It's as if... Read more
Washington — STANDARDIZED tests are commonly blamed for narrowing the school curriculum to reading and math. That’s one reason Congress is considering changes in the law that could lead states to put less emphasis on test scores. But even if we abolished standardized tests tomorrow, a majority of elementary schools... Read more
New York, NY (2017) U.S. News