For nearly three decades, E.D. Hirsch Jr. has been beating the drum on a simple idea, though one that鈥檚 proved a hard sell: To become good readers and communicators, U.S. students need a shared curriculum that teaches them about science, history, math, geography, literature, and the arts.
In other words, more than skills and strategies, students need knowledge.
His philosophy first came to the general public鈥檚 attention in 1987 when, as head of the English department at the University of Virginia, he wrote Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know. The book included an appendix listing about 5,000 names, dates, places, and ideas鈥攅verything from the adrenal gland to zeitgeist鈥攖hat students should learn in school.
The list made the book a best-seller鈥攁nd it also made Hirsch persona non grata in plenty of liberal education circles. He was labeled Eurocentric and an elitist, and many wrote off his ideas entirely.
But Hirsch, an avowed liberal who champions the idea that having students learn the same things will lead to equal opportunities for all, hasn鈥檛 backed down. And now, at age 88, he鈥檚 at it again with a new book about the need for a knowledge-based curriculum. The book鈥檚 publication comes as Hirsch is seeing his theories rebound and creep their way into more schools, teacher trainings, and instructional materials鈥攍argely, many say, thanks to the Common Core State Standards.
But in Why Knowledge Matters: Rescuing Our Children From Failed Educational Theories, Hirsch excoriates the education policies of the day, including鈥攊nterestingly鈥攖he use of the common core.
The reading standards鈥� focus on all-purpose comprehension skills rather than content, while it may be politically necessary, is 鈥渁 deep misfortune,鈥� he said.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a pointless approach,鈥� he concludes.
Role of Background Knowledge
Asked why he thinks his work is undergoing a renaissance, Hirsch answers plainly: 鈥淭here鈥檚 been a sense that what we鈥檙e doing isn鈥檛 working very well.鈥�
Average reading scores for 17-year-olds on the National Assessment of Educational Progress have declined significantly since 1988, according to the most recent long-term-trend assessment, as Hirsch notes in his newest book. At the same time, reading scores have risen among 9- and 13-year-olds, which he chalks up to improvements in how foundational reading skills are taught. But those gains are lost when students meet more demanding texts in high school.
In addition, racial and socioeconomic achievement gaps have remained large and unyielding.
鈥淢ost people seem to agree that over the past 10 to 15 years, there鈥檚 been a narrowing of the curriculum to make time for more math and reading,鈥� said Lisa Hansel, the director of Knowledge Matters, a campaign launched this past spring to encourage knowledge-building in schools. (Hirsch is a board member of the group.) 鈥淪omehow, spending more and more time on reading isn鈥檛 giving us the long-term reading results we鈥檙e after.鈥�
Plus, as both Hirsch and other scholars note, a growing body of research shows the critical role background knowledge plays in reading comprehension.
A year after Cultural Literacy was published, researchers Donna R. Recht and Lauren Leslie published a seminal study looking at the link between what students know and their reading proficiency. When given a passage about baseball, students deemed poor readers (by a standardized reading test) who were knowledgeable about baseball showed better comprehension than good readers who knew little about the sport.
A 1997 study by Anne E. Cunningham and Keith E. Stanovich likewise found a high correlation between reading ability and general cultural knowledge. And, more recently, Gina N. Cervetti and other University of Michigan researchers found evidence that students who read a series of texts on a particular topic, becoming experts on the subject in a way, improve their vocabulary and comprehension.
鈥淐ognitive models of reading emphasize that a lot of the information you need to make connections between ideas and text are typically left out of the text,鈥� explained Daniel Willingham, a psychology professor at the University of Virginia who studies K-12 education. For instance, if you read, 鈥� 鈥業 got a puppy. My landlord is really angry,鈥� that鈥檚 readily understandable but relies on you knowing about the kinds of things puppies do to carpets and the attitudes landlords hold toward damage to their property,鈥� he said. 69传媒 need that background knowledge to understand the text.
鈥淚n some ways, Don [Hirsch] was ahead of his time,鈥� Willingham said. 鈥淭he persistent importance of background knowledge in reading comprehension is really quite evident in the last 30 years.鈥�
Common Core Pays Homage
Hirsch鈥檚 ideas, and the research backing them, 鈥渕attered a lot鈥� in the development of the common core, said Sue Pimentel, one of the lead writers of the English/language arts standards.
David Liben, a senior content specialist for the literacy team at Student Achievement Partners, a professional-development group founded by the lead writers of the common core, points to Page 33 of the standards, which calls for systematically building knowledge in English/language arts. However, he admits that many people overlooked that page, at least at first, because it鈥檚 not part of the grade-specific goals. 鈥淚鈥檝e done [professional development] with thousands of teachers鈥攑ossibly 10,000. Not one of them recognized [the page] at first, but those 10,000 know it now,鈥� he said.
Seven years after the standards were published, more educators are noticing that language and beginning to pay it heed, said Hansel of Knowledge Matters. 鈥淚t鈥檚 taken a while to get to the point where folks at the state, district, and school level and community partners have had the chance to read and digest the whole standards document,鈥� she said.
The common core鈥檚 emphasis on reading complex texts has also gotten educators thinking about the importance of teaching content, some said. 鈥淭eachers are seeing you have to grow knowledge and you have to grow vocabulary,鈥� Liben said.
In the 1980s, Hirsch helped develop a framework for teaching content called Core Knowledge, which about 1,000 schools were using for many years. The program was recently expanded into a full-fledged, common-core-aligned ELA curriculum, the commercial version of which is now being used in about 3,700 schools. A free version of the English/language curriculum has been downloaded over 5 million times in the last three years, said Linda Bevilacqua, president of the Core Knowledge Foundation.
Hirsch himself is adamant that there鈥檚 no single right curriculum for building knowledge鈥攖hat Core Knowledge is just one 鈥渨orkable example鈥� of how to teach critical content. (He emphasizes that he doesn鈥檛 make a personal profit from the curriculum sales鈥攖he funds are funneled back to the associated nonprofit foundation.)
And recently, there鈥檚 been a proliferation of curricula that take a similar tack. Expeditionary Learning, Great Minds, and Pearson have all published knowledge-based ELA curricula for the common core, according to Liben. Some free online resources are emphasizing content, too, including one called Bookworms, devised by two university professors.
鈥淚n terms of uptick among schools, I really feel like this is the first break-out moment for Don鈥檚 ideas,鈥� said Hansel.
Her group also links the renewed energy around Hirsch鈥檚 theories to the recently passed federal education law, the Every Student Succeeds Act. The law repeatedly refers to the need for a 鈥渨ell-rounded education鈥� and lists subjects outside of reading and math that students should be exposed to.
鈥楨mpty鈥� Standards
But to hear Hirsch talk about the common core is to get a different story entirely.
He calls the reading standards 鈥渆mpty鈥� and 鈥渄eeply flawed鈥� because they teach all-purpose reading-comprehension strategies rather than facts and information. An entire chapter of his new book is devoted to what he refers to as 鈥渢he tribulations of the common core.鈥�
鈥淭he people who developed the common core had a choice. Either [the standards] were going to be educationally correct or they were going to be politically viable,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hey chose the second.鈥� Forty-six states agreed to adopt the standards right away, which he argues 鈥渃ould only be accomplished if you didn鈥檛 specify the content of the curriculum.鈥�
One standard in particular that galls Hirsch asks students to find the main idea of a text.
鈥淭here is no such thing as an abstract main-idea-finding skill,鈥� he said. 鈥淛ust think of it鈥攈ow in the hell would I find the main idea if I didn鈥檛 know what the ideas were?鈥�
Willingham, the University of Virginia psychologist, said Hirsch is right here鈥攖o a point. 鈥淚f you apply a reading-comprehension strategy to a text where you lack backgroundknowledge, it鈥檚 not going to work,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut there are lots of studies showing that teaching students comprehension strategies does boost reading comprehension.鈥�
Such studies show that students only need about 10 sessions of practicing a strategy. After that, the effect fades away, Willingham explained.
But many teachers still worry that Hirsch鈥檚 push for teaching facts rather than encouraging independent exploration and learning is out of date in the internet age and will bore students. 鈥淎t what point do we value being able to make sense of all of it over trying to recall some disconnected facts?鈥� asked Will Richardson, an author, consultant, and former teacher with expertise in digital learning. 鈥淵ou risk losing a whole generation of kids as learners because you鈥檙e just force-feeding them stuff.鈥�
Unfair 69传媒 Tests
In his new book, Hirsch also claims that empty standards have led to reading tests that are neither fair nor productive.
鈥淎 fair test would be a curriculum-based test that tested the reading comprehension on subjects that the schools had taught,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 not the nature of reading tests now. It cannot be the nature of the reading tests because the test-makers don鈥檛 know what the curriculum is, because there is no set subject-matter curriculum that all 3rd graders all 4th graders are going to study.鈥�
That鈥檚 particularly unfair for disadvantaged students, he said, who are likely coming to school with less background knowledge than their more affluent peers.
While many of the ideas in his new book reiterate his previous work, Why Knowledge Matters also makes the argument in a new way: by looking to the education history in France.
Hirsch writes that between 1977 and 1989, France had a national elementary curriculum. When that was replaced under an education reform law with locally determined curricula and instruction focused on general skills such as 鈥渃ritical thinking,鈥� achievement declined across demographic groups, and social stratification increased.
鈥淚t was a natural experiment what happened in France,鈥� Hirsch said. 鈥淚f we don鈥檛 take note of it, we鈥檙e just sticking our heads in the ground.鈥�
His discovery of the research on France compelled Hirsch to write the new book, which he won鈥檛 say for sure is his last. 鈥淚 thought the book before was my last,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut if it鈥檚 important, you can鈥檛 say it too often.鈥�
