The Knowledge Deficit: Closing the Shocking Education Gap for American Children
- ISBN-10
- 0618657312
- ISBN-13
- 9780618657315
- Category
- Language Arts & Disciplines / Literacy
- Pages
- 169
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2006
- Publisher
- Houghton Mifflin
- Author
- Eric Donald Hirsch
Description
E. D. Hirsch, Jr., author of the best-selling Cultural Literacy and our most insightful thinker on what schools teach, offers an urgent solution to the shocking national decline in children's reading ability.
How can it be, Hirsch asks, that American students score so low among developed nations in international comparisons -- and that they perform worse the longer they stay in school?
Drawing on arresting classroom scenes, the history of ideas, and current understanding of the patterns of intellectual growth, Hirsch builds the powerful case that, while our schools excel at teaching the mechanics of reading, they fail virtually all American children -- poor and middle class, in public and private schools -- because of their inability to convey the more complex and essential skills of reading comprehension. Hirsch brilliantly reasons that literacy depends less on the formalistic reading "skills" taught in virtually every school across America and more on exposure to content-rich, appealing books.
His argument is compelling, for it
- gives parents specific tools for enhancing their child's ability to read with comprehension;
- shows how No Child Left Behind and SATs measure reading comprehension -- a knowledge-based skill not successfully taught in our schools;
- tackles the weaknesses of specific state-by-state curricula
- explains in detail how American schools can serve as the strongest possible antidote to poverty and to our frustrating race-based achievement gap
A road map for all thinking parents, teachers, and citizens, The Knowledge Deficit shows exactly how we can convert all American schools into places where the skill of reading comprehension is effectively imparted -- and why this goal is ever more essential to the democratic ideal.
Get the book
Other editions
-
- 2007-04-01
- 192 pages
- Ebook
- Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
-
- 2007
- 169 pages
- Paperback
- Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Similar books
-
Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know
By E.D. Hirsch, Jr.Argues that American children are deprived of cultural literacy
-
Why Knowledge Matters: Rescuing Our Children from Failed Educational Theories
By E. D. HirschWhy Knowledge Matters provides thoughtful solutions to important education issues.” —Susan B. Neuman, professor and chair, Teaching and Learning Department, Steinhardt School, New York University “If you are frustrated and angry about ...
-
Dismantling Deficit Thinking in Academic Libraries: Theory, Reflection, and Action
By Chelsea Heinbach"Explores the history of deficit thinking in higher education.
-
Books to Build On: A Grade-By-Grade Resource Guide for Parents and Teachers
By E.D. Hirsch, Jr.Books to Build On recommends: • for kindergartners, lively collections of poetry and stories, such as The Children’s Aesop, and imaginative alphabet books such as Bill Martin, Jr.’s Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and Lucy Micklewait’s I ...
-
Handbook of Research on Challenging Deficit Thinking for Exceptional Education Improvement
By Williams, Richard D.International Handbook of Research on Teachers' Beliefs (1st ed.). Routledge., doi:10.4324/9780203108437 ... Exceptional learners: An introduction to special education. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education/Merrill/Prentice Hall.
-
The Writing Revolution: A Guide to Advancing Thinking Through Writing in All Subjects and Grades
By Natalie Wexler, Judith C. HochmanThis is how I would describe The Writing Revolution.
-
Reaching and Teaching Students in Poverty: Strategies for Erasing the Opportunity Gap, Second Edition
By Paul C. Gorski“What about the rest of us?”: An overview of LGBT poverty issues and a call to action. Journal of Progressive Human Services, 27(3), 143–174. DeLuca, S., Clampet-Lundquist, S., & Edin, K. (2016). Coming of age in the other America.
-
What Your First Grader Needs to Know (Revised and Updated): Fundamentals of a Good First-Grade Education
By E.D. Hirsch, Jr.This book answers these all-important questions and more, offering the specific shared knowledge that hundreds of parents and teachers across the nation have agreed upon for American first graders.
-
How to Educate a Citizen: The Power of Shared Knowledge to Unify a Nation
By E. D. Hirsch, Jr.We ignore this book at our peril."— Joel Klein, former Chancellor of New York City Public Schools In this powerful manifesto, the bestselling author of Cultural Literacy addresses the failures of America’s early education system and its ...
-
The Making of Americans: Democracy and Our Schools
By E. D. HirschIn this comprehensive book, educational theorist E. D. Hirsch, Jr. masterfully analyzes how American ideas about education have veered off course, what we must do to right them, and most importantly why.