Education
Jan 18, 2013
Nearly a decade ago, the Minnesota Department of Education thoroughly revised the social-studies standards for K-12 public schools. Largely a response to the much-reviled Profiles of Learning, these new standards sought to beef up content and drastically reduce the busywork that was so prominent under the Profiles -- and so frustrating to both teachers and students.
Dec 7, 2012
In "A promising focus on achievement gap" (Dec. 4) the Star Tribune Editorial Board was prudent in expressing both hope and caution regarding "Generation Next," the Twin Cities' newest and most encompassing attempt to narrow achievement gaps between white and nonwhite K-12 students. Led by a remarkable collection of business, foundation, educational and political leaders, Generation Next has been inspired by a similarly comprehensive approach in Cincinnati known as "Strive."
Oct 11, 2012
Evidence mounts that social mobility is slowing for Americans trapped in poverty, with lifelong consequences for millions of children. Most live in single-parent homes and don’t obtain an education enabling them to escape poverty. What should be done?
Oct 11, 2012
For many decades, through relentless technological change and rapid alterations in the general prosperity of most Americans, we have endured an unprecedented transformation of many basic social institutions. These include marriage, family size, and education, among others.
Oct 11, 2012
Because I’m an historian, not a futurist, I’d prefer not to speculate about what the country might look like, if present trends in family breakdown persist—or, worse yet, worsen.
Oct 11, 2012
In trying to attack this very glum prognosis, I will offer a few alternative scenarios. I am omitting one of the most important issues, the total health care picture, and I hope someone else will do that.
Oct 11, 2012
I read with great interest the series of articles in local papers this spring on the achievement gap that exists between white and Asian students on the one hand and blacks and Hispanics on the other. The only thing that surprised me was that I saw no mention of E.D. Hirsch, who is emerging as arguably the most important educational theorist and reformer of the last 100 years. His ideas regarding the achievement gap deserve careful attention.
Oct 11, 2012
The theme of this symposium, “fragmented families and splintered classes and what it means for the United States and Minnesota,” overstates problems attributed to broken families and underemphasizes other conditions that affect well-being, human capital development, and ultimately economic performance.
Oct 11, 2012
In the late 1980s, my shop at the U.S. Department of Education released a slim but alarming volume called Youth Indicators, that documented trends in family disintegration, academic stagnation, and souring economic prospects for Americans under 18 years old.
Oct 9, 2012
This new American Experiment symposium grows out of a book of mine published just about a year ago, From Family Collapse to America’s Decline: The Educational, Economic, and Social Costs of Family Fragmentation, which examined many of the problems and shortcomings resulting from very high rates of nonmarital births, very high rates of divorce, and routinely short-lived cohabiting relationships. One of the book’s central themes is how such family churning—more specifically, the extent to which it hurts great numbers of children—is leading, and can only lead, to stunted mobility and deeper class divisions in a nation that has never viewed itself in such splintered ways.