Public Schools
Classroom Ideology
America’s Math Collapse: Harvard Institutes Remedial Math
America’s amazing technological achievements, such as SpaceX’s recent rescue of stranded astronauts, mask the death spiral of math learning in the U.S., which has reached an ignominious low with Harvard’s decision to offer remedial math. On the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress math exam, 73 percent of eighth graders ...
Lance Izumi
April 14, 2025
Classroom Ideology
The Retreat From Euclid And America’s Great Math Collapse
When average people think about classical education, they tend to think about students reading the great works of Western civilization such as Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey. Those same people probably do not think about mathematics and its classical origins, yet it is the movement away from mathematics’ classical heritage that ...
Lance Izumi
February 18, 2025
Blog
Latest test scores show CA's public schools continue to fail kids
The California Classroom Collapse Hits the Middle Class
Last year, Bret Daniels, the mayor of the middle-class Sacramento suburb of Citrus Heights, announced that he was quitting his position as mayor and moving to Kentucky, in part because of the quality of education his seven-year-old daughter was receiving. Recently released test scores show that California’s education decline is ...
Lance Izumi
February 11, 2025
Classroom Ideology
Elon Musk needs H-1B workers because math education fails our students
When entrepreneur Elon Musk made headlines with his vociferous comments supporting the H-1B visa program, the ensuing debate focused on the implications of his position on immigration. But this debate obscured the reason America even has such a program in the first place: its homegrown students are being poorly educated ...
Lance Izumi
February 3, 2025
Education
Adam Abolfazli – Permission to Fail
Adam Abolfazli, Sacramento-area public high school student and author of the new book Permission to Fail, shares with us his firsthand view from the classroom on how recent changes in public education such as increased parent and student apathy toward the learning process and a lack of academic rigor, have ...
Pacific Research Institute
December 9, 2024
Classroom Ideology
Young People Aren’t Reading Great Books Because Many Can’t Read
Think about your favorite novel that you read in school. Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables? Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice? Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote? Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations? Now imagine if all the wonder and wisdom of those great works was closed off to you because your school failed to ...
Lance T. izumi
December 3, 2024
Classroom Ideology
Learn more about the math and literacy crisis
Dr. Lance Izumi On Why Kids Can’t Read or Do Math
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: ...
Lance Izumi
October 23, 2024
Education
Dr. Lance Izumi explains why math scores are low in the United States
Watch the full interview here.
Lance T. izumi
October 17, 2024
Blog
Read the latest on teachers' unions
Teacher Shortages in Schools? Blame the Teachers’ Unions
A just-released analysis by the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) says, “there are at least 55,000 vacant teaching positions nationally.” However, contrary to the conventional belief that these vacancies are spread across the board, the NCTQ analysis observes, “The reality is, teacher shortages do exist—in specific subjects, regions, and ...
Lance Izumi
July 1, 2024
Blog
Why High School Graduates Turn Out to Be College Illiterates
Education Week recently pointed out that high school graduates’ “college readiness has reached historic lows, according to several metrics—including the lowest scores in 30 years on the ACT and declining scores on the SAT, the two primary standardized tests used for college admissions.” The ACT measures college readiness in English ...
Lance Izumi
June 12, 2024
America’s Math Collapse: Harvard Institutes Remedial Math
America’s amazing technological achievements, such as SpaceX’s recent rescue of stranded astronauts, mask the death spiral of math learning in the U.S., which has reached an ignominious low with Harvard’s decision to offer remedial math. On the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress math exam, 73 percent of eighth graders ...
The Retreat From Euclid And America’s Great Math Collapse
When average people think about classical education, they tend to think about students reading the great works of Western civilization such as Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey. Those same people probably do not think about mathematics and its classical origins, yet it is the movement away from mathematics’ classical heritage that ...
Latest test scores show CA's public schools continue to fail kids
The California Classroom Collapse Hits the Middle Class
Last year, Bret Daniels, the mayor of the middle-class Sacramento suburb of Citrus Heights, announced that he was quitting his position as mayor and moving to Kentucky, in part because of the quality of education his seven-year-old daughter was receiving. Recently released test scores show that California’s education decline is ...
Elon Musk needs H-1B workers because math education fails our students
When entrepreneur Elon Musk made headlines with his vociferous comments supporting the H-1B visa program, the ensuing debate focused on the implications of his position on immigration. But this debate obscured the reason America even has such a program in the first place: its homegrown students are being poorly educated ...
Adam Abolfazli – Permission to Fail
Adam Abolfazli, Sacramento-area public high school student and author of the new book Permission to Fail, shares with us his firsthand view from the classroom on how recent changes in public education such as increased parent and student apathy toward the learning process and a lack of academic rigor, have ...
Young People Aren’t Reading Great Books Because Many Can’t Read
Think about your favorite novel that you read in school. Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables? Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice? Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote? Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations? Now imagine if all the wonder and wisdom of those great works was closed off to you because your school failed to ...
Learn more about the math and literacy crisis
Dr. Lance Izumi On Why Kids Can’t Read or Do Math
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: ...
Dr. Lance Izumi explains why math scores are low in the United States
Watch the full interview here.
Read the latest on teachers' unions
Teacher Shortages in Schools? Blame the Teachers’ Unions
A just-released analysis by the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) says, “there are at least 55,000 vacant teaching positions nationally.” However, contrary to the conventional belief that these vacancies are spread across the board, the NCTQ analysis observes, “The reality is, teacher shortages do exist—in specific subjects, regions, and ...
Why High School Graduates Turn Out to Be College Illiterates
Education Week recently pointed out that high school graduates’ “college readiness has reached historic lows, according to several metrics—including the lowest scores in 30 years on the ACT and declining scores on the SAT, the two primary standardized tests used for college admissions.” The ACT measures college readiness in English ...