Tom Birmingham

Mass. schools must recommit to knowledge-based curriculum

/0 Comments/in , , /by Tom Birmingham
Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on
LinkedIn
+

This op-ed is authored by Tom Birmingham and E.D. Hirsch. It originally appeared in CommonWealth Magazine. It was also published in the Worcester Telegram & Gazette.

LONG BEFORE OTHER states, Massachusetts understood that a democratic republic can’t endure without a good public education system. Its constitution, written by John Adams in 1780, requires that it “cherish” education. The Bay State’s native son Horace Mann pioneered the common school movement, and it was also the first state to have compulsory education for all children.

Moreover, by “education” Adams, Washington, Jefferson, and Horace Mann meant not just facts but also a social commitment – not just to Massachusetts but also to the new nation as a Union.

The Bay State’s leadership role has continued into the current century. Massachusetts made tremendous strides in the years following passage of a landmark 1993 education reform law.

But it has been backsliding since 2010, when it adopted weaker English and math standards known as Common Core. To get back on track, Massachusetts must reform its school- and district-level curriculum to emphasize imparting a shared body of background knowledge and social commitment to students in all ZIP codes.

This knowledge-and-society-centric approach isn’t new. Massachusetts’s decision to prioritize academic and civic content was one of the central reasons for its rise to the top on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), known as “The Nation’s Report Card.” In stark contrast to the country as a whole, Bay State students proved themselves to be competitive with top-scoring Asian countries in international math and science testing.

Disadvantaged students also benefitted from Massachusetts’s rise. Providing all students with the same knowledge-rich content helps those who are less affluent by giving them access to the vocabulary of the classroom and the world.

Advantaged students gain much of their knowledge outside the classroom. Providing it to their less advantaged counterparts beginning in pre-school can’t eliminate the knowledge gap, but does narrow it.

There is a strong correlation between overall educational quality and equity. Between 1998 and 2005, the three states that showed significant improvement in eighth-grade reading scores – Delaware, Massachusetts, and Wyoming – also saw narrowing achievement gaps.

But in 2010, the Bay State replaced academic content-rich standards with the content-empty, value-free Common Core. Most other states did the same, but the impact was particularly unfortunate in Massachusetts, where its former standards were a national model.

Since Common Core, NAEP fourth-grade reading scores have declined nearly a quarter of a point per year and eighth-grade reading scores are down by three times that much.

Last year the bottom fell out. Eighth-grade math scores fell three points since the last time NAEP was administered in 2017. Meanwhile, 15 of the jurisdictions tested showed improvement and 23 declined less than Massachusetts. A two-point drop in fourth-grade math was worse than 40 states and the District of Columbia.

Yet, math performance was downright encouraging compared to the state’s 2019 fourth- and eighth-grade reading scores, each of which fell by a stunning five points.

Politics make it highly unlikely that Massachusetts will correct its failed Common Core experiment and revert to its former, superior standards.  But individual school districts can adopt a specific, content-rich, year-by-year elementary school curriculum like the Core Knowledge sequence that sets out exactly what students should learn about subject areas and our national ideals in each grade.

Renowned Stanford University Professor Emeritus James Milgram calls mathematics “ruthlessly cumulative.”  That doesn’t just apply to math.  In the humanities as well, students need to understand “A” before they can understand “B.”  Above all, they need to understand the language of the classroom before they can understand what the teacher and text are trying to convey.   Including all students means ensuring that all have the necessary background knowledge from their earlier lessons.

Public education and patriotism remain the cornerstones of a self-governing republic.  Our nation must be based on schools that offer disadvantaged students genuine hope of upward mobility.

Currently, Massachusetts is in full retreat from a system that produced both historic results and greater promise for educational equity. But if the Bay State’s schools and districts can recommit themselves to a set, high-quality curriculum, perhaps the Commonwealth can once again become a model for other states to emulate.

 

Get Our COVID-19 News, Tips & Resources!

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

 

How Public Transportation’s Efficiency Changed During Covid

The MBTA's efficiency plummeted during Covid; as people chose either personal transportation or personal work, the MBTA lost significant ridership. However, it maintained its vehicle fleet and the depth of its services even as its operating cost per passenger mile increased dramatically.

As COVID-19 Emergencies Ease, Some Progress on Telehealth Rules

A new report from Reason Foundation, Cicero Institute and Pioneer Institute rates every state’s telehealth policy for patient access and ease of providing virtual care. The report highlights telehealth policy best practices for states.

Khan Academy’s Sal Khan & ASU Prep Digital’s Amy McGrath on the Khan World School @ ASU Prep

This week on “The Learning Curve," Cara Candal and Gerard Robinson talk with Sal Khan, founder and CEO of Khan Academy, and Amy McGrath, the Chief Operating Officer of ASU Prep and Deputy Vice President of ASU Educational Outreach.

Pandemic Dead Reckoning: Unseen Casualties of Public Health Interventions

Hubwonk host Host Joe Selvaggi talks with Pioneer Institute’s Senior Fellow Dr. Bill Smith about new evidence that during the past two years of the pandemic, there were as many unseen excess deaths from non-Covid-related diseases as seen from Covid. They discuss the need for public health leaders to pivot their messaging to address this hidden mortality.

Why the jump in non-COVID deaths?

The Wall Street Journal echoes our warning about the rise of non-COVID-related deaths.

Mandate’s Constitutional Collision: Court Offers Civics Lesson with Vaccine Rulings

Hubwonk host Joe Selvaggi talks with Cato Institute Vice President Ilya Shapiro about the recent Supreme Court vaccine mandate rulings and what they tell us about the limits of executive branch power and the sitting justices’ views on the guidance of the U.S. Constitution.

How did COVID impact Massachusetts’ long-term care facilities?

Pioneer Institute has filed a Public Records Act request related to COVID's impact on Massachusetts’ long-term care facilities because the Institute believes this is a matter of obvious importance, both on principle (the public has a right to know the facts), and for purposes of evaluating – and where possible improving – public policy. 

Massachusetts Telehealth Report Card: Are We Embracing Disruption for Better Quality of Care?

Hubwonk host Joe Selvaggi talks with Pioneer Senior Fellow in Healthcare Josh Archambault about his newest research paper, produced with the Cicero Institute and the Reason Foundation, on states' success in implementing telehealth to improve healthcare outcomes. They discuss how Massachusetts has used remote medicine to better reach patients and serve their needs.