The Knowledge Deficit: Closing the Shocking Education Gap for American Children - Hardcover

Hirsch, E. D.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0618657312 ISBN 13: 9780618657315

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin, 2006

Synopsis

Hirsch shows why American students perform less well than students in other industrialized countries. Drawing on classroom observation, the history of ideas, and current scientific understanding of the patterns of intellectual growth, he builds the case that our schools have indeed made progress in teaching the mechanics of reading, but do not convey the more complex and essential content needed for reading comprehension. Hirsch reasons that literacy depends less on formal reading 'skills' and more on exposure to rich knowledge. His argument gives parents specific tools for enhancing their child's ability to read with comprehension; shows how No-Child-Left-Behind tests and SATs are measuring a kind of knowledge that is not being taught in our schools; and maps out how American schools can become a strong antidote to poverty and to the race-based achievement gap, and thus fulfill our democratic ideal for our children.--From publisher description.Provides an analysis of the state of modern American education to trace a link between a lack of reading comprehension and poor performance and furnishes specific tools for parents to enhance a child's ability to read with comprehension.

About this title

About the Author

E.D. Hirsch, Jr. is the Linden Kent Memorial Professor of English at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, and the author of Cultural Literacy, The First Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, and The Core Knowledge Series. Dr. Hirsch is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and has been a senior fellow of the National Endowment for the Humanities. He is president of the Core Knowledge Foundation, a nonprofit organization devoted to educational reform.

Edition details

• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0618657312
• ISBN 13: 9780618657315
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 169