The Core Knowledge Blog

A weekly roundup of the week’s most important news, information and blog posts about curriculum, teaching, education policy and other items of interest to the Core Knowledge community.

Core Knowledge

Obama’s Inauguration and the Limits of Symbolism
It’s bittersweet to think that many students–indeed, many Americans–couldn’t fully appreciate Barack Obama’s inaugural address and the watershed moment in history it represents.  The speech was rich in historical, literary, and biblical references, lending meaning, resonance and emotional weight to his words.  Yet these allusions were unfamiliar to many of those watching. 

Reading War II: Content Knowledge vs. Reading Strategies
If phonics vs. whole language was Round One of the reading wars, the new battle is shaping up to be reading strategies vs. content knowledge, says Dan Willingham. “Most of us think about reading in a way that is fundamentally incorrect. We think of it as transferable, meaning that once you acquire the ability to read, you can read anything,” says Willingham on Britannica Blog. ”But in order to understand what you’re reading, you need to know something about the subject matter.”

Best of the Blogs

Analysis of Education Provisions in the “American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan” at Swift and Change Able
The good news is that the House is set to approve an unprecedented sum of money for federal education programs. If the basic numbers in the deal hold, this will be the largest increase in federal education funds in history. As giddy as some of us may be about the numbers, however, there are some policy issues that should be examined closely as this deal moves forward.

Let’s Put an End to Tappa Tappa Tappa at D-Ed Reckoning 
“Much of what goes on in elementary education is just a bunch of tappa tappa tappa,” writes Ken DeRosa, a reference to an inscrutable dance method taught in an episode of The Simpsons. ”Try reading this non-decodable children’s book. Can’t do it, then try looking at the pictures or the first letter of each word for cues. Still can’t do it, then its time to call in the reading specialist.”

Avoiding The Education Reform Trap at Taking Note (The Century Foundation)
“The marketplace model offers an easy and familiar road map for change,” writes Anthony Shorris, who notes that until there is a comparably simple alternative reform model, the worshipers of the invisible hand will be the loudest and easiest to hear. “It is incumbent on educators across the nation to develop research-based instructional strategies that can credibly offer to address these gaps in what we give our kids.”

Teaching and Curriculum

In Texas, a Line in the Curriculum Revives Evolution Debate
New York Times
The latest round in a long-running battle over how evolution should be taught in Texas schools began in earnest Wednesday as the State Board of Education heard impassioned testimony from scientists and social conservatives on revising the science curriculum.

Cursive, Foiled Again
Boston Globe
Is the handwriting on the wall for cursive writing?  If you predate the computer age, you might remember a school subject called penmanship, which trained your cursive handwriting. It’s still taught, to be sure, but it’s no longer emphasized.

Education Policy

Stimulus gives schools $142B — with strings
USA Today
Public schools stand to be the biggest winners in Congress’ $825 billion economic stimulus plan unveiled last week. Schools are scheduled to receive nearly $142 billion over the next two years.  But tucked into the text of the proposal’s 328 pages are a few surprises.

For Catholic Schools, Crisis and Catharsis
New York Times
Enrollment in the nation’s Catholic schools has steadily dropped by more than half from its peak of five million 40 years ago. But recently, a sense of urgency seems to be gripping many Catholics who suddenly see in the shrinking enrollment a once unimaginable prospect: a country without Catholic schools.

Homeschooling and Parenting

Outrage Over U.K. Homeschool Review
Daily Mail (U.K.)
Parents who educate their children at home could be using it to cover up abuse, neglect and forced marriage, the U.K.’s Children’s Minister claimed, as she ordered a review of how the estimated 55,000 children who are taught at home or have dropped out from school are treated. Her controversial comments immediately provoked fury from home schooling groups who branded them ‘offensive’.

Homeschoolers May Be Ahead of the Technological Curve
EdNews.org
According to a recent poll, 64% of homeschoolers use technology every day in their homeschool.  That same percentage also rated their expertise with technology as “intermediate.”  “One reason that homeschoolers may be so technologically adept,” observes EdNews.org, ”is that many times, home-taught students have individual access to computers, cell phones and  MP3 players for the entire school day.”

Wordplay’s the name of game on new ‘Electric Company’
Boston Globe
Appealing to a super-sophisticated generation of kids is likely to be the biggest challenge for Sesame Workshop, which is producing a new version of the familiar 70s educational program ”The Electric Company” for PBS.  While the message remains the same – language is power – the sounds, visuals, and reference points have been updated for today’s youth, who have already been shaped by pop culture at the tender ages of 7, 8, and 9, the show’s target demographic.

Et Alia

At First, Funny Videos. Now, a Reference Tool
New York Times
The explosion of all types of video content on YouTube and other sites is quickly transforming online video from a medium strictly for entertainment and news into one that is also a reference tool. As a result, video search, on YouTube and across other sites, is rapidly morphing into a new entry point into the Web, one that could rival mainstream search for many types of queries.