From the Facts They Don't Teach You The world spent years pushing screens into classrooms. Tablets replaced textbooks. Digital assignments replaced handwritten notes. Schools were told that the future of education was sitting behind a screen. Now some European countries are starting to reverse course. Sweden, Finland, Norway, France, Italy, and Denmark are all moving away from heavy classroom digitalization and bringing back something many schools thought was disappearing: printed books, handwriting, and traditional reading. And this shift is not happening because of nostalgia. It is happening because researchers have found that writing by hand and reading … [Read more...]
Students can’t read
The crisis of students being unable to read is a measurable, generational collapse in literacy that extends from elementary students lacking phonics to high schoolers who cannot comprehend complex texts. 40% of fourth graders cannot read proficiently, and 32% of twelfth graders scored below Basic on the 2024 NAEP reading assessment, the lowest level since the test began in 1992. Key factors contributing to this decline include: Neurological Impact of Technology: The mere presence of smartphones reduces working memory and fluid intelligence, while reading on screens suppresses comprehension-related neural activity compared to paper reading. Reliance on AI: Early use of … [Read more...]
Mississippi ‘miracle’ catapults 4th-grade reading scores from bottom into top 10 by getting back to phonics
From The Blaze by Joseph MacKinnon Mississippi has a winning approach to childhood literacy that other jurisdictions might want to adopt. In 2013, Mississippi ranked 49th out of the 50 U.S. states in grade four reading achievement on the National Assessment of Educational Progress — the largest continuing national assessment of American students' knowledge and capability in math, reading, science, and writing. In what has repeatedly been dubbed a "miracle," the state made its way up the list — to 29th in 2019 and then 10 spots higher to ninth place nationally for reading scores last year. According to the NAEP, black students in Mississippi ranked third nationally … [Read more...]
Screen vs. Paper: Which One Boosts Reading Comprehension?
Today's article is from Oxford Learning: https://oxfordlearning.com/screen-vs-paper-which-one-boosts-reading-comprehension/ In today’s digital world, reading on screens has become the norm—but is it the best way for students to learn? Neuroscience research suggests that reading comprehension, not just what we read, plays a crucial role in comprehension, retention, and overall academic success. When we swap pages for pixels, we’re changing the way our brains process information. For students, this can make a significant difference in their ability to absorb and retain what they read. The Print Advantage: What Science Says Studies show that reading print books leads to better reading … [Read more...]
The Schools That Are No Longer Teaching Kids to Read Books
The Atlantic published the following piece on MSN. It's a 10-12 minute read Recently, an old friend of mine from elementary school ran a hand over my bookshelf, stopped, and said, “You stole this.” “I did not!” “Yes, you did. You totally stole it from school.” She pulled out my copy of The Once and Future King, and showed me the inside of the front cover. It was stamped: Board of Education, City of New York. Okay, so I stole it. But I had a good reason. I loved that book so much; I couldn’t bear to return it to the school library. My grade-school memories are full of books: bulletin boards that tracked the class read-a-thons, hand-written book reports, summer-reading lists. But a … [Read more...]
Why 65 Percent of Fourth Graders Can’t Really Read
This is a topic and interview that you may find interesting. Do you accept their premise and conclusions? Emily Hanford reveals how America’s educators adopted a flawed system for teaching reading to kids—and, as a result, completely failed them. The article appeared in The Free Press: Why 65 Percent of Fourth Graders Can’t Really Read (thefp.com) Many parents saw America’s public education system crumble under the weight of the pandemic. Stringent policies—including school closures that went on far too long, and ineffective Zoom school for kindergarteners—had devastating effects that we are only just beginning to understand. But, as with so many problems during the pandemic, COVID … [Read more...]
Toddlers – Parents reading from a book vs. interactive tablet
Is there a difference between parents reading to their toddler from a book vs. using an interactive tablet? Apparently there are some studies that say yes. Today we bring you an overview of some recent research for your consideration. We've shared the body. Clicking the link gives you the overview plus a LOT more detail if you want to get into it. The article appeared in the American Journal of Pediatrics in December 2021. OBJECTIVES In some studies, parents and toddlers verbalize less when engaging with a tablet versus a print book. More needs to be known regarding child contributions to specific parent verbalizations. We examined parent-toddler contingent interactions with tablet … [Read more...]
This 1897 Text Gives 3 Clues Why Today’s Students Can’t Write
Do things change over time? Today's article was originally published in November 2015 at Intellectual Takeout by Annie Holmquest. So 6+ years later and has anything changed? Should it have? Why not? What will you do about it? Last week the Nation’s Report Card announced that no more than 40% of America’s 4th and 8th graders are proficient in reading and math. Those are scary numbers, but the numbers for writing are even more frightening: only 27% of American 8th and 12th graders attained proficiency. Why are American students such terrible writers? Several answers to this question dawned on me while reading through an 1897 text by Dr. Edwin Lewis. Entitled A First Book in Writing … [Read more...]
Most High School Seniors Aren’t College Or Career Ready, Says ‘Nation’s Report Card’
From nprEd ..... The latest results of the test known as the Nation's Report Card are in. They cover high school seniors, who took the test in math and reading last year. The numbers are unlikely to give fodder either to educational cheerleaders or alarmists: The average score in both subjects was just one point lower in 2015 compared with the last time the test was given, in 2013. This tiny downtick was statistically significant in mathematics, but not for the reading test. But even though the changes are small, chances are you're going to be hearing about them in a lot of places. Why is this test so widely reported on, widely cited and widely debated? And how does it line up with … [Read more...]
WHAT Students Read Matters More Than You Think
From an article at Intellectualtakeout.org .................. In today’s standards-based education system, the main focus is on teaching skills rather than content. There’s a prevalent idea that it matters less what students read just so long as they are reading. But according to E.D. Hirsch, professor emeritus of education and humanities at the University of Virginia, that’s bull. Some of you may know Hirsch through his famous advocacy of “cultural literacy”—the idea that some amount of “shared, canonical knowledge is inherently necessary to a literate democracy,” and that students in a particular culture should have common exposure to certain texts and concepts. But what you … [Read more...]