Dr. Lance Izumi On Why Kids Can’t Read or Do Math

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[Bad curricula have] put up blocks for kids. For example, I spoke to a math tutor in…the San Francisco Bay Area. He told me that he works with affluent kids who, when it comes time to multiply simple fractions, like one-half times three-fourths, don’t know that they can just get the answer—three-eighths—by multiplying the numerators and denominators.

Instead, they’re asked to color pictures and shade in different parts to eventually arrive at the answer of three-eighths.

Dr. Lance Izumi, senior director of the Pacific Research Institute’s Center for Education, recently wrote “The Great Classroom Collapse.” The book centers around a fundamental question: Why can’t kids today read or do math?

In an attempt to answer that question, “The Great Classroom Collapse” is divided into three sections:

  1. The equity agenda and the collapse of merit and rigor
  2. The collapse of reading skills
  3. The collapse of math skills

Read the entire interview in the Independent Women’s Forum.

Nothing contained in this blog is to be construed as necessarily reflecting the views of the Pacific Research Institute or as an attempt to thwart or aid the passage of any legislation.

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