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Yahoo
25-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Opinion: Can Learning Cursive Help Kids Read Better? Some Policymakers Think It's Worth a Try
This article was originally published in The Conversation. Recently, my 8-year-old son received a birthday card from his grandmother. He opened the card, looked at it and said, 'I can't read cursive yet.' Then he handed it to me to read. If you have a child in the Philadelphia School District, chances are they have not been taught how to read or write cursive either. Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter But cursive handwriting is making a comeback of sorts for K-8 students in the United States. Several states in recent years passed legislation mandating instruction in cursive handwriting, including California, Iowa and Oklahoma. Pennsylvania and New Jersey are considering similar legislation, as are other states. I'm an associate professor of special education and the director of the Iowa Reading Research Center. At the center, we're conducting a systematic review of prior research to improve cursive handwriting instruction. We also want to know how learning cursive affects the development of reading and writing skills. In cursive handwriting, the individual letters of a word are joined with connecting strokes, such as in a person's signature. Cursive fell out of favor in U.S. schools over a decade ago. In 2010, most states adopted Common Core academic standards which omitted cursive handwriting from expected academic skills to be learned by K-8 students. In fact, the standards only briefly mention print handwriting, a writing style in which the individual letters of a word are unconnected, as a skill to be taught in early elementary grades. Educators often have trouble finding enough time in the school day to teach all the expected writing skills, let alone something that's not mandated such as cursive handwriting. In several national surveys, teachers have reported limited amounts of time for writing instruction and that they have found it difficult to address both the basic skills of writing, such as handwriting, and more advanced skills, such as essay composition. The increased interest in cursive handwriting likely stems from effort by policymakers to improve the literacy performance of K-12 students across the country. On the National Assessment of Educational Progress reading assessment, a measure of nationwide reading progress, only 31% of fourth grade students scored proficient or above. Philadelphia's numbers were worse, with just 19% of fourth grade students scoring proficient or above. Research suggests it may be possible to improve overall writing and reading through handwriting instruction. The benefits have been more closely studied with print handwriting, but preliminary evidence suggests cursive handwriting instruction may also be beneficial. Some studies have found cursive handwriting instruction can improve handwriting legibility, writing length and select reading skills. In a 2020 study, researchers found cursive handwriting instruction can also improve spelling accuracy and storytelling ability. Why might cursive make a difference? On the surface, it seems like a simple motor skill. But under the surface, cursive handwriting draws upon deep reading knowledge and requires the coordination of multiple cognitive and physical processes. To handwrite letters or spell words in print or cursive, students need to commit multiple aspects of each letter to memory. For example, if students handwrite the word 'cat,' they need to know the overall shape of each letter, as well as its name and sound. After drawing upon this reading knowledge from memory, students use a combination of motor and vision systems to write each letter and the entire word. Gross motor movements are used to adjust the body and arm to the writing surface. Fine motor movements are used to manipulate the pencil with one's fingers. And visual-motor coordination is used to write each letter and adjust movements as needed. Besides potential benefits to overall writing and reading development, cursive handwriting continues to have social importance. It is often used to sign formal documents via a cursive signature, or to communicate with close friends or loved ones. Furthermore, understanding cursive is needed to read important historical documents, such as the Declaration of Independence. Even in the digital age, touch-screen tablets and other devices often come with the ability to handwrite text with an electronic pencil. I teach courses at the University of Iowa, and many of my students handwrite their notes on electronic tablets. For schools, low-tech options such as paper and pencils remain more cost-efficient than high-tech options. For example, it can be time-consuming and expensive to replace a broken laptop but relatively cheap to sharpen a broken pencil or get a new piece of paper. Although it may be difficult for educators to find sufficient time for writing instruction, students will likely benefit from developing the capacity to express their ideas in a variety of ways, including cursive handwriting. For anyone interested in learning about cursive handwriting and teaching it to their children or students, the Iowa Reading Research Center will release a free online course and curricula called CLIFTER on June 2, 2025. Read more of our stories about Philadelphia. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Time of India
12-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
With no national plan, how educators lead US learning revival amid political neglect
For decades, the pursuit of academic excellence was a shared political priority in the US. Both Republican and Democratic leaders once positioned themselves as champions of student achievement, recognizing reading and math proficiency as both a national responsibility and a viable electoral promise. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now But that era appears to be over. As reported by The New York Times, no major US political figure today seems committed to a serious agenda for improving academic learning. In a time of intense ideological conflict, measurable educational goals have fallen off the radar, leaving student outcomes to suffer. A decline in national leadership on education Since taking office, President Trump has shifted the federal focus away from learning outcomes and toward cultural and ideological issues. He canceled federal exams designed to track student progress and ended programs that shared effective teaching strategies with schools. As reported by The New York Times, a spokeswoman for the administration defended these decisions by pointing to low test scores, stating, 'What we are doing right now with education is clearly not working. ' Trump's administration has instead prioritized 'patriotic' curricula and launched investigations into how schools handle race and gender issues. But as The New York Times noted, none of these efforts add up to an agenda centered on learning. Democrats have largely responded by defending the education status quo. While they've fought to protect the Department of Education from elimination and challenged funding cuts, they've offered little in terms of a comprehensive strategy for student learning. As The New York Times reported, even when Democratic leaders such as Kamala Harris addressed education, the focus was on book bans or student debt—not on improving core instruction. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Alarming trends in academic performance and college outcomes Student performance indicators show a troubling picture. Reading scores are now at their lowest point in decades, according to The New York Times. Meanwhile, college outcomes are also suffering—40% of students who begin college do not graduate, often leaving with debt and insufficient job-ready skills. Former education secretary Arne Duncan stated, 'Right now, there are no education goals for the country,' as quoted by The New York Times. He added there are no clear metrics, strategies, or transparency in place to drive improvement. Michael Petrilli of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute echoed this sentiment, noting that national conversations rarely mention achievement gaps or social mobility. How bipartisan reform collapsed During the Bush and Obama administrations, bipartisan efforts like and the Common Core aimed to raise academic standards. These policies showed early gains, particularly for the lowest-performing students. However, the emphasis on testing led to excessive test prep, reducing time for science and social studies, according to The New York Times. Widespread backlash followed. On the right, there was resistance to federal oversight. On the left, parents increasingly opted students out of testing—20% did so in New York in 2015. Ultimately, Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act, unraveling much of his own policy legacy. Learning beyond politics Despite political neglect, a new grassroots movement is emerging. As The New York Times detailed, educators and advocates are emphasizing the importance of a rigorous, knowledge-rich curriculum. In Louisiana, for example, students at Highland Elementary engage with advanced vocabulary and historical context—without screens. Groups like the Knowledge Matters Campaign, led by Barbara Davidson, promote such evidence-based approaches. Davidson, who served under Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush, believes these strategies correct past policy excesses. Structured phonics has seen success in early literacy, but broader knowledge-building in subjects like history and science is also essential. Jon Gold, a teacher in Providence, Rhode Island, told The New York Times he moved back to paper-based reading, finding 'reading comprehension is stronger' without screens. The future of education reform While public school satisfaction is at a 25-year low and enrollment continues to fall, some leaders are responding. Democrat Jake Auchincloss has called on his party to take accountability for school closures and proposed taxing social media to fund tutoring. Republican Senator Tom Cotton supports taxing elite university endowments to fund job training for high school graduates. As reported by The New York Times, these efforts suggest the possibility of a new political platform—one rooted in learning outcomes, not ideological battles. The question now is whether the US will recognize the academic crisis for what it is and act accordingly.
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Can learning cursive help kids read better? Some policymakers think it's worth a try
(The Conversation) – Recently, my 8-year-old son received a birthday card from his grandmother. He opened the card, looked at it and said, 'I can't read cursive yet.' Then he handed it to me to read. If you have a child in the Philadelphia School District, chances are they have not been taught how to read or write cursive either. But cursive handwriting is making a comeback of sorts for K-8 students in the United States. Several states in recent years passed legislation mandating instruction in cursive handwriting, including California, Iowa and Oklahoma. Pennsylvania and New Jersey are considering similar legislation, as are other states. I'm an associate professor of special education and the director of the Iowa Reading Research Center. At the center, we're conducting a systematic review of prior research to improve cursive handwriting instruction. We also want to know how learning cursive affects the development of reading and writing skills. In cursive handwriting, the individual letters of a word are joined with connecting strokes, such as in a person's signature. Cursive fell out of favor in U.S. schools over a decade ago. In 2010, most states adopted Common Core academic standards which omitted cursive handwriting from expected academic skills to be learned by K-8 students. In fact, the standards only briefly mention print handwriting, a writing style in which the individual letters of a word are unconnected, as a skill to be taught in early elementary grades. Educators often have trouble finding enough time in the school day to teach all the expected writing skills, let alone something that's not mandated such as cursive handwriting. In several national surveys, teachers have reported limited amounts of time for writing instruction and that they have found it difficult to address both the basic skills of writing, such as handwriting, and more advanced skills, such as essay composition. The increased interest in cursive handwriting likely stems from effort by policymakers to improve the literacy performance of K-12 students across the country. On the National Assessment of Educational Progress reading assessment, a measure of nationwide reading progress, only 31% of fourth grade students scored proficient or above. Philadelphia's numbers were worse, with just 19% of fourth grade students scoring proficient or above. Research suggests it may be possible to improve overall writing and reading through handwriting instruction. The benefits have been more closely studied with print handwriting, but preliminary evidence suggests cursive handwriting instruction may also be beneficial. Some studies have found cursive handwriting instruction can improve handwriting legibility, writing length and select reading skills. In a 2020 study, researchers found cursive handwriting instruction can also improve spelling accuracy and storytelling ability. Why might cursive make a difference? On the surface, it seems like a simple motor skill. But under the surface, cursive handwriting draws upon deep reading knowledge and requires the coordination of multiple cognitive and physical processes. To handwrite letters or spell words in print or cursive, students need to commit multiple aspects of each letter to memory. For example, if students handwrite the word 'cat,' they need to know the overall shape of each letter, as well as its name and sound. After drawing upon this reading knowledge from memory, students use a combination of motor and vision systems to write each letter and the entire word. Gross motor movements are used to adjust the body and arm to the writing surface. Fine motor movements are used to manipulate the pencil with one's fingers. And visual-motor coordination is used to write each letter and adjust movements as needed. Besides potential benefits to overall writing and reading development, cursive handwriting continues to have social importance. It is often used to sign formal documents via a cursive signature, or to communicate with close friends or loved ones. Furthermore, understanding cursive is needed to read important historical documents, such as the Declaration of Independence. Even in the digital age, touch-screen tablets and other devices often come with the ability to handwrite text with an electronic pencil. I teach courses at the University of Iowa, and many of my students handwrite their notes on electronic tablets. For schools, low-tech options such as paper and pencils remain more cost-efficient than high-tech options. For example, it can be time-consuming and expensive to replace a broken laptop but relatively cheap to sharpen a broken pencil or get a new piece of paper. Although it may be difficult for educators to find sufficient time for writing instruction, students will likely benefit from developing the capacity to express their ideas in a variety of ways, including cursive handwriting. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Opinion - The DEI era harmed non-white students most, yet some states won't end it
Former President Barack Obama's Department of Education compelled states to adopt Common Core in exchange for waivers from the failed No Child Left Behind Program. State education departments readily complied under pain of losing federal funding. Ever since, they have unquestioningly collected and shared students' private personal information as a condition for keeping the federal dollars flowing, raising significant privacy concerns. However, 16 states have resisted certifying the elimination of diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, which the Trump administration has targeted as illegal racial discrimination under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. Sixteen other states reportedly intend to certify. (The remaining 18 states are either still reviewing the issue or have responded only recently.) The resistance here isn't a Trump-versus-Obama phenomenon. For instance, state education departments embraced Republican George Bush's No Child Left Behind despite its potential to undermine student outcomes. The premise of that law was to have every student be proficient in reading and math by 2014. Everyone knew that to be impossible, so states were allowed to set their own proficiency standards. Predictably, standards plummeted to give a false sense of higher achievement. In Kansas, for example, 8th-grade reading proficiency rates artificially increased from 34 percent to 65 percent in one year due to lowered standards, creating a misleading sense of achievement and reducing the impetus for genuine improvement. However, going along with No Child Left Behind kept the federal money flowing, so states ignored its effect on student achievement and happily complied. In contrast, today, many states seem willing to risk the loss of federal funding rather than stop DEI practices that potentially violate Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. No one opposes encouraging diversity, including people of all races and backgrounds or giving all students an equal opportunity to attain a good education. However, the DEI concepts that the Education Department will no longer support with taxpayer money are quite different. They often teach students to feel guilt about being white and that the U.S. is founded on racist principles. They exclude differing viewpoints on gender identity. 'Equity' isn't about equal opportunity; it reduces standards and robs students of the education they deserve. DEI was partially sold to school board members as a way of improving student outcomes. The premise was that DEI training would help students feel better about themselves and do better in school. Unfortunately, student outcomes have only grown worse as DEI programs have proliferated, and they have grown particularly worse among non-white student populations. The 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress reveals a troubling decline in proficiency among minority students. In eighth grade reading, proficiency for Black students declined from 18 percent in 2017 to 16 percent now, and for Hispanic students from 23 percent to 19 percent. Outcomes are even worse in eighth-grade math, where proficiency rates fell from 13 percent to 10 percent for Black students and from 20 percent to 15 percent for Hispanic students over the same period. Regardless of their personal viewpoints on DEI, state and local school board members should be asking hey they can justify diverting time and resources to a program that isn't improving student outcomes. Ideally, all of educators' efforts should be urgently focused on improving student outcomes, especially for those students who are furthest behind. Every school district and state education department should aim to improve outcomes and academically prepare students to succeed in life. Sadly, there is ample evidence that this is not being done. It seems that some education administrators want students to do better, but not if it means adults must change their behaviors and do better. Declining or hesitating to certify compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, as requested by the Department of Education, is just the latest example of many adults in education putting politics ahead of students. That likely won't change until more student-focused people run for state and local school boards. Dave Trabert is CEO of Kansas Policy Institute and its subsidiary, the Kansas School Board Resource Center, and is author of the book '8 Things to Know about Running for School Board.' David Hoyt is Executive Director of School Boards for Academic Excellence and has written frequently on strategies for achieving academic excellence within the American education system. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
09-05-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
The DEI era harmed non-white students most, yet some states won't end it
Former President Barack Obama's Department of Education compelled states to adopt Common Core in exchange for waivers from the failed No Child Left Behind Program. State education departments readily complied under pain of losing federal funding. Ever since, they have unquestioningly collected and shared students' private personal information as a condition for keeping the federal dollars flowing, raising significant privacy concerns. However, 16 states have resisted certifying the elimination of diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, which the Trump administration has targeted as illegal racial discrimination under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. Sixteen other states reportedly intend to certify. (The remaining 18 states are either still reviewing the issue or have responded only recently.) The resistance here isn't a Trump-versus-Obama phenomenon. For instance, state education departments embraced Republican George Bush's No Child Left Behind despite its potential to undermine student outcomes. The premise of that law was to have every student be proficient in reading and math by 2014. Everyone knew that to be impossible, so states were allowed to set their own proficiency standards. Predictably, standards plummeted to give a false sense of higher achievement. In Kansas, for example, 8th-grade reading proficiency rates artificially increased from 34 percent to 65 percent in one year due to lowered standards, creating a misleading sense of achievement and reducing the impetus for genuine improvement. However, going along with No Child Left Behind kept the federal money flowing, so states ignored its effect on student achievement and happily complied. In contrast, today, many states seem willing to risk the loss of federal funding rather than stop DEI practices that potentially violate Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. No one opposes encouraging diversity, including people of all races and backgrounds or giving all students an equal opportunity to attain a good education. However, the DEI concepts that the Education Department will no longer support with taxpayer money are quite different. They often teach students to feel guilt about being white and that the U.S. is founded on racist principles. They exclude differing viewpoints on gender identity. 'Equity' isn't about equal opportunity; it reduces standards and robs students of the education they deserve. DEI was partially sold to school board members as a way of improving student outcomes. The premise was that DEI training would help students feel better about themselves and do better in school. Unfortunately, student outcomes have only grown worse as DEI programs have proliferated, and they have grown particularly worse among non-white student populations. The 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress reveals a troubling decline in proficiency among minority students. In eighth grade reading, proficiency for Black students declined from 18 percent in 2017 to 16 percent now, and for Hispanic students from 23 percent to 19 percent. Outcomes are even worse in eighth-grade math, where proficiency rates fell from 13 percent to 10 percent for Black students and from 20 percent to 15 percent for Hispanic students over the same period. Regardless of their personal viewpoints on DEI, state and local school board members should be asking hey they can justify diverting time and resources to a program that isn't improving student outcomes. Ideally, all of educators' efforts should be urgently focused on improving student outcomes, especially for those students who are furthest behind. Every school district and state education department should aim to improve outcomes and academically prepare students to succeed in life. Sadly, there is ample evidence that this is not being done. It seems that some education administrators want students to do better, but not if it means adults must change their behaviors and do better. Declining or hesitating to certify compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, as requested by the Department of Education, is just the latest example of many adults in education putting politics ahead of students. That likely won't change until more student-focused people run for state and local school boards. Dave Trabert is CEO of Kansas Policy Institute and its subsidiary, the Kansas School Board Resource Center, and is author of the book '8 Things to Know about Running for School Board.' David Hoyt is Executive Director of School Boards for Academic Excellence and has written frequently on strategies for achieving academic excellence within the American education system.
