http://www.pioneerinstitute.org/blog/news/you-think-we-have-problems/ Public Policy Research Tue, 08 May 2012 20:17:19 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 http://www.pioneerinstitute.org/blog/news/you-think-we-have-problems/comment-page-1/#comment-3855 catherine Wed, 06 Jan 2010 17:56:37 +0000 http://www.pioneerinstitute.org/blog/?p=1689#comment-3855 Great post, thank you! Great post, thank you!

]]> http://www.pioneerinstitute.org/blog/news/you-think-we-have-problems/comment-page-1/#comment-3848 Jim Stergios Mon, 04 Jan 2010 21:23:16 +0000 http://www.pioneerinstitute.org/blog/?p=1689#comment-3848 Rob: Thanks for the good question - and truth be told an opportunity to clarify. Because the discussion over the past two months has been on underperforming schools in larger urban districts, I put a bit of a shorthand into the blog post. Statement of fact: Kids in some of our cities are not performing at basic levels in English (and, also, in math). I take that as evidence of insufficient focus on basic literacy. I don't think you'd argue with that, would you? I would not pretend to generalize as to the local curricula in our 300 or so districts. But I would note that district public schools like the one that my daughters attend would do well to drop media literacy and other pretty low-grade academic programs to refocus on reading and math. You'd be surprised by the number of kids in supposedly good schools that don't know how to read as well as many of us would expect. After all, is watching advertisements and TV shows in a classroom as important as reading Jane Austen? Rob:
Thanks for the good question – and truth be told an opportunity to clarify. Because the discussion over the past two months has been on underperforming schools in larger urban districts, I put a bit of a shorthand into the blog post. Statement of fact: Kids in some of our cities are not performing at basic levels in English (and, also, in math). I take that as evidence of insufficient focus on basic literacy. I don’t think you’d argue with that, would you?
I would not pretend to generalize as to the local curricula in our 300 or so districts. But I would note that district public schools like the one that my daughters attend would do well to drop media literacy and other pretty low-grade academic programs to refocus on reading and math. You’d be surprised by the number of kids in supposedly good schools that don’t know how to read as well as many of us would expect.
After all, is watching advertisements and TV shows in a classroom as important as reading Jane Austen?

]]> http://www.pioneerinstitute.org/blog/news/you-think-we-have-problems/comment-page-1/#comment-3839 rob ack Sat, 02 Jan 2010 18:27:57 +0000 http://www.pioneerinstitute.org/blog/?p=1689#comment-3839 Jim- where is your proof that schools have an insufficient focus on basic literacy? If so, please list what should be dropped from curriculum. Jim- where is your proof that schools have an insufficient focus on basic literacy? If so, please list what should be dropped from curriculum.

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