EducationNews.org

11.18.09 - Sandra Stotsky - The ed schools' pedagogy adds up to trouble. The statistics on U.S. math performance are grim. American eighth-graders ranked 25th out of 30 countries in mathematics achievement on the 2006 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA),

By Sandra Stotsky - June 26, 2009 - Although knowledge of the subjects they teach is the chief characteristic of effective teachers, knowledgeable teachers are not evenly distributed across public schools.

Sandra Stotsky
Columnist EdNews.org
Many educators choose to believe that learning to read and write is as natural as learning to listen and speak, even though scientifically based research does not support their belief. However, most educators (as well as the public) believe that most students must be taught mathematics to learn it.

Sandra Stotsky - To begin with, education schools supply far too many teachers with an inadequate background in the subjects they are licensed to teach. As one school administrator discovered when she examined her teachers' college transcripts while preparing a proposal for a Teaching American History grant,

by Sandra Stotsky - Court-ordered busing to integrate Boston’s public schools began in 1974. At the time, the schools enrolled about 94,000 students. As white and black middle class parents fled the public schools or continued their migration to the suburbs,

Sandra Stotsky - Many K-12 teachers who teach history today suffer from a crippling defect-a minimal knowledge of history. But in the Alice in Wonderland world created several decades ago by schools of education and state departments of education, they are nonetheless licensed to teach history.

Sandra Stotsky - According to the latest assessment of adult literacy in this country, just released by the National Center for Education Statistics in December 2005, the reading skills of American adults have dramatically declined from 1992 to 2003.