This author contends that contemporary issues classes no longer have currency, as standardized test results are the litmus test for education. In many schools, students are isolated from firsthand accounts and formal study of events that textbooks will one day proclaim as defining experiences of their generation. According to Doyle, schools tend…

Today's movement in support of the 99 percent is a reminder that throughout U.S. history, a major engine of change has been grass-roots organizing and solidarity. Major history textbooks, however, downplay the role of ordinary people in shaping events--especially those who formed labor unions and used the strike to assert their rights. One of the…

For at least a half century, education reformers have quipped that 120th Street in New York City, the street that separates Teachers College from the rest of Columbia University, "is the widest street in the world." Underlying this quip is the belief that Columbia's liberal arts faculty members regularly dismiss the child-centered educational…

The language of today's twelfth-grade English texts is simpler than that of seventh-grade texts published prior to 1963. No wonder students' reading comprehension has declined sharply. The author claims that literacy level of secondary students is languishing because the kids are not reading what they need to be reading. In this article, the…

Most of today's reading programs rest on faulty ideas about reading comprehension. The author argues that comprehension is not a general skill; it relies on having relevant vocabulary and knowledge. He explains the need for a fact-filled, knowledge-building curriculum. He suggests that states should adopt a common core curriculum that builds…

Recent "reform" curricula both ignore the absence of supporting data and completely misunderstand the role of problem solving in cognition. If, the argument goes, teachers are not really teaching people mathematics but rather are teaching them some form of general problem solving, then mathematical content can be reduced in importance. According…

When inspectors visit construction sites to assess the quality of work, they do so against the building code, which typically is written out in detail and used to guide work and teach apprentices. When attending physicians supervise interns as they take patients' histories or check their blood pressure, they compare the interns' work with…

For millions of American schoolchildren, taking a test for which they are completely unprepared is like a nightmare from which they cannot wake. It is a trial visited upon them each year when the law requires them to take reading tests with little preparation. Formally preparing for reading tests has become more than just a ritual for schools. It…

While the worst of the Great Recession has passed, it has become clear that persistently high unemployment, coupled with budget woes that stretch from federal to local government, will be a reality for the foreseeable future. Knowing this, Congress, the Obama administration, and constituents across the country are having a serious discussion about…

In the last issue of "American Educator," several scholars argued in favor of a common core curriculum. By common core, they meant that the curriculum should be broadly adopted (enabling improvements in instructional materials, student tests, and teacher training), but also limited (preserving instructional time for districts, schools,…

In this article, the author talks about "Developing Early Literacy," the report of the National Early Literacy Panel. The panel, which consisted of nine experts, was convened by the National Institute for Literacy to synthesize the research on the development of literacy from birth through age 5. Over the eight years of their work, only 190…

As long as there have been public schools, there have been reformers of public schools. All too often, they have insisted on sweeping changes; enamored of their bold, new idea, they haven't considered whether anything established ought to endure. The result? A century of faddish ideas, but little real progress. Among today's most vocal reformers…

This article presents the authors' critique of lessons proposed by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21). The authors initiate a discussion about content that they hope will play out in schoolhouses and statehouses across the country. They take on a different task: they present a handful of lesson ideas from P21 that could enhance studies…

The author is a historian of education and has written often about the educational enthusiasms and fads of the past century. One of her books, titled "Left Back," tells the story of the rise and fall of one fad after another across the 20th century. In brief, what she has found is that in the land of American pedagogy, innovation is frequently…

A growing number of business leaders, politicians, and educators are united around the idea that students need "21st-century skills" to be successful today. It's exciting to believe that one lives in times that are so revolutionary that they demand new and different abilities. But in fact, the skills students need in the 21st century are not new.…