Editorial Staff

UVA Prof. E.D. Hirsch, Jr. on Core Knowledge, Equity, & Educating Citizens

/in , , , , /by Editorial Staff
Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on
LinkedIn
+

This week on “The Learning Curve,” co-hosts Cara Candal and Gerard Robinson talk with Professor E.D. Hirsch, Jr., founder and chairman of the Core Knowledge Foundation, professor emeritus at the University of Virginia, and acclaimed author of the books, Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know and How to Educate a Citizen: The Power of Shared Knowledge to Unify a Nation. They discuss his newest book on how policymakers, teachers, and students can use our country’s complicated, shared past to educate for common civic purposes. They also talk about troubling results on national and international assessments of K-12 reading and math, and Prof. Hirsch’s December 2020 open letter to NAEP’s governing board, published in EducationWeek, recommending that they not follow through with plans to replace NAEP’s assessment of reading comprehension for the 2025 tests. They explore the NAEP change’s implications for assessing and improving reading results in America’s schools, and he shares thoughts on how to improve academic quality and equity across the entire system. Then they turn to the academic quality of state-approved teacher preparation programs, insights from the Core Knowledge Foundation’s work in education schools, and models of success among schools in other states and countries.

Stories of the Week:  An Associated Press poll of education departments revealed that 38 states are planning to open permanent virtual schools as a result of increased interest in at-home learning. The NAEP governing board is shifting to a new framework for the reading assessment, that will allow analysis of student performance by socioeconomic status and race.
Guest:

Prof. E.D. Hirsch, Jr. is the founder and chairman of the Core Knowledge Foundation and professor emeritus of education and humanities at the University of Virginia. He is the author of several acclaimed books on education, including Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know, The Schools We Need, The Knowledge Deficit, and How to Educate a Citizen: The Power of Shared Knowledge to Unify a Nation, in which he has persisted as a voice of reason making the case for equality of educational opportunity.

The next episode will air on Wednesday, August 25th, 2021 at 12 pm ET with guest, David Blight, Sterling Professor of American History and the director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University. He is the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom.

Tweet of the Week:

News Links:

38 States Setting Up Permanent Virtual Schools After Pandemic Sparked Interest

https://www.newsweek.com/38-states-setting-permanent-virtual-schools-after-pandemic-sparked-interest-1618894

‘Nation’s Report Card’ Has a New Reading Framework, After a Drawn-Out Battle Over Equity

https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/nations-report-card-has-a-new-reading-framework-after-a-drawn-out-battle-over-equity/2021/08

Get new episodes of The Learning Curve in your inbox!

Recent Episodes:

“The Last Candid Man”: B.U.’s Dr. John Silber

0 Comments
/
This week on The Learning Curve, Cara and Gerard talk with Rachel Silber Devlin about her memoir, Snapshots of My Father, John Silber, which captures the wide-ranging and remarkable life of the late philosopher, teacher, and president of Boston University.

OECD’s Andreas Schleicher on PISA & K-12 Global Education

0 Comments
/
This week on The Learning Curve, Andreas Schleicher, Director for Education and Skills at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), discusses global K-12 education, skills, and competition.

India Unbound: Gurcharan Das on the Rise of the World’s Largest Free-Market Democracy

0 Comments
/
This week on The Learning Curve, Gurcharan Das, author, public intellectual, and former CEO of Procter & Gamble India, discusses the rise of India since independence to become a thriving, incredibly diverse nation of 1.4 billion people—the world's largest free-market democracy.

Dr. Deborah Plant on Zora Neale Hurston’s Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo”

0 Comments
/
This week on The Learning Curve, Dr. Deborah Plant, editor of the 2018 book Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo" discusses Zora Neale Hurston's work as an anthropologist telling the story of one of the last survivors of the infamous Middle Passage.

George Weigel Discusses Pope St. John Paul II for National Catholic Schools Week

0 Comments
/
This week on The Learning Curve, George Weigel, the biographer of Pope St. John Paul II explores how Karol Wojtyla's education, deep faith, and experiences during World War II shaped his life as a spiritual leader and helped lead to the fall of Communism.

Award-Winning UK Author & Filmmaker Laurence Rees on the Holocaust, Auschwitz, and Remembrance

0 Comments
/
To mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Laurence Rees, a former head of BBC TV History Programmes and author of The Holocaust: A New History, sheds light on Germany in the 1920s and 1930s and the cultural and political conditions that led to the Holocaust.

D.C.’s Kevin Chavous on National School Choice Week

0 Comments
/
This week on The Learning Curve, Cara and Gerard talk with Kevin Chavous, president of Stride K12, Inc. and a former member of the Council of the District of Columbia, on the growing movement toward school choice in education. Chavous discusses recent Supreme Court rulings and the expansion of school choice programs, education savings accounts, and vouchers.

Pulitzer Winner Prof. David Garrow on the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement

0 Comments
/
https://chrt.fm/track/4655F8/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/53284998/tlc_davidgarrow.mp3 This…

Independent Institute’s Dr. Richard Vedder on Higher Education, Skyrocketing Tuitions, & the Student Debt Crisis

This week on “The Learning Curve," co-hosts Cara Candal and Gerard Robinson talk with Dr. Richard Vedder, Senior Fellow at the Independent Institute and Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Economics at Ohio University. He shares analysis on the macro impact of COVID on the U.S. labor market, and the long-term economic prospects of American college students. He reviews insights from his recent book, "Restoring the Promise: Higher Education in America."

Columbia’s Prof. Roosevelt Montás on the Great Books & a Liberal Arts Education

Professor Roosevelt Montás, Director of the Freedom and Citizenship Program at Columbia University, and author of Rescuing Socrates: How the Great Books Changed My Life and Why They Matter for a New Generation, shares his immigrant story and what inspired his appreciation for the Great Books tradition.