Sandra Stotsky, one of the nation's leading experts on the Common Core standards for English Language Arts, has two recent articles on the Standards and their failure to help students achieve real "college readiness." Her blog at Education News focuses on NAS's recent report on freshman summer reading programs, Beach Books. Stotsky analyzes the reading levels of the books being assigned by colleges and universities around the country and finds that the average reading level of these books is that of 7th grade. 

In her article at the Pioneer Institute, Stotsky encourages the grassroots movement that has challenged Common Core to take advantage of the moment and work to refit the Standards through grade 8, not through high school. 

Image: Unamed // CC0

  • Share

Most Commented

March 31, 2025

1.

Keeping Watch

Columbia's descent into chaos is by its own hand. Actions to right the university must be swift and tough....

March 24, 2025

2.

A Reckoning for Higher Education?

Are American colleges and universities finally getting their comeuppance?...

April 15, 2025

3.

Fighting Harvard and the Other Cultural Warlords

The academic bureaucracies and professoriate are so deeply committed to their radical program of replacing American society with their own vision of a new order that we have no real choice b......

Most Read

May 15, 2015

1.

Where Did We Get the Idea That Only White People Can Be Racist?

A look at the double standard that has arisen regarding racism, illustrated recently by the reaction to a black professor's biased comments on Twitter....

April 15, 2025

2.

Fighting Harvard and the Other Cultural Warlords

The academic bureaucracies and professoriate are so deeply committed to their radical program of replacing American society with their own vision of a new order that we have no real choice b......

October 12, 2010

3.

Ask a Scholar: What is the True Definition of Latino?

What does it mean to be Latino? Are only Latin American people Latino, or does the term apply to anyone whose language derived from Latin?...