SKrashen:
Support benefits for vets. Don’t support the common core.
Sent to the Santa Monica Daily PressJune 20, 2014There is concern about a US Senate bill (S. 2450) that would expand medical coverage for veterans. The cost will be high, about $50 billion per year.I propose we pay for this important bill by dumping the common core state education standards. The standards will probably cost taxpayers close to $50 billion a year – all common core tests will be gi
Common Core testing: Asking the big questions.
Sent to the Washington Post, June 20, 2014 According to "Field test of Common Core exams went well, officials say," (June 19), the "field-testing" was largely about how students react to online testing and what testing experts call "item-analysis," which means eliminating trickly items. These are low-level aspect of field-testing. There is no indication that the big
JUN 18
The CC$$ in a Taiwan newspaper (& my response)
Sent to the Taiwan News, June 18. America's new common core is a bad solution to a problem that does not exist ("Common core, in 9 year old eyes," June 18). The common core is intended to fix America's "broken schools," but the major problem in education in the US is poverty: The US now ranks 34th in the world out of 35 economically developed countries in child poverty: when r
Encouraging Reading: An Easier Path
Sent to the Guardian, June 17.Some may approve of Sir Michael Wilshaw's plan to fine parents who don't read to their children ("Schools should fine 'bad parents'," says Ofsted chief,” June 17), in light of the overwhelming research showing that read-alouds are beneficial: Children who are read to regularly consistently do better on tests of vocabulary, grammar, and listening comprehensio
JUN 17
Summer reading: A cure for the school-year learning loss
Sent to the South China Morning PostRe: "Encourage your child to read over the summer break," June 17.For many students, the problem is not the "learning loss" that takes place during the summer; it is the loss in literacy development that takes place during the school year. Research consistently shows that we improve in literacy by doing large amounts of interesting reading f
JUN 15
The limits of phonics
Sent to the Guardian (UK).The Guardian's enthusiastic report about the efficacy of phonics ("Phonics education technique shown to have positive impact on literacy,"June 16) is an example of "Cold Fusion" journalistic practice:Presenting research reports to the public before the scientific community has reviewed them. I provide one brief "peer review" here. Neither th
