The Knowledge Gap: The Hidden Cause of America's Broken Education System--and How to Fix it

As a homeschooling parent I often look for insights about what to teach, how to teach, and what the best and worst education models look like in the country. This book finally put to words what I couldn't quite pinpoint: schools rarely teach actual content. I would often scour syllabi from various institutions to try and uncover what knowledge I should be imparting on my children, and wondered why such material was kept under wraps. Turned out... it seldom exists! I also had no clue of the politicization behind content-based vs child-led learning. I also didn't know E.D. Hirsch--whose books I have on my own shelf ("What Your First Grader/Kindergartener Needs to Know")--was a dirty name in some education circles.Practically and intuitively, this book affirms what I've noticed with my own children: they simply can't analyze what they don't know; they don't know what they haven't been taught; and they can't be taught without delving into rich material. The homeschooling legend Susan Wise Bauer instills this theme when she articulates that early years are meant to instill facts and parents shouldn't shy away from rote memorization. But, when one hears of children in school learning fancy things like "drawing conclusions" and "extrapolating broader themes from the text," it's hard not to wonder if your child will be left behind if she is unable to do these things when handed a book. After receiving one too many blank stares or frustrating non-answers, I ditched these lofty expectations and went back to what I now identify as content-based learning. Still, there was a sense of defeat in wondering why my 6-year-old child couldn't meet these standards: Was it her? My teaching? How in the world are other kids able to manage? I finally resigned and thought, "She can't cite evidence from the book to support her inferences, but she can read this book quickly and fluently... and I guess she knows about other things like the urethra and Sargon of Akkad, so I suppose that will be okay for now." In many ways this book was a big relief--not only is such a method "okay" but the pivot to imparting actual science and history is setting the child up for success. I appreciated other takeaways, like pivoting away from fluff-based writing prompts ("tell me about your favorite dress") to meatier ones grounded in history lessons ("what did the countries along the silk road trade with each other, and what would be your favorite import?"). Great book. A must-read for any educator.

Book arrived quickly and in perfect condition. This book is a great resource for teachers that work with students on literacy and reading fluency skills.

As a Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrician (DBP) this book opened my eyes to a lot of things in the world of schools and education that I wish I had understood earlier in my career. Well written with a good balance between exposition and illustrative story telling, I plan to give this book to every DBP-in-training I teach from this point forward. I also will use it's insights to advise parents of struggling students and advocate for them with teachers and school administrators. Overall one of the 3 or 4 best reads I've had in the past 5 years.

I loved reading this book. The premise makes sense to me intuitively, and I like the idea of leveraging cognitive psychology research when managing the classroom and curriculum. The book is well written, told in units of historical narrative that were interesting to read, and informative of the history of the Common Core.My main criticism is that I wish that more was done to substantiate the claim that the knowledge-focused method of teaching works at scale. Wexler mentions, for example, that one of her model schools following a knowledge curriculum was not achieving higher test scores than other schools in the state, despite lots of anecdotal evidence of higher engagement with the material, and despite the Common Core being written to allow knowledge-based curricula. But she doesn't give an explanation for why. But a book can't cover everything, and I would recommend this one as an introduction to knowledge curricula.I feel inspired by this book and optimistic that its approach is productive. I wasn't aware of the importance of building knowledge for building reading comprehension. The opposition to abstracting all education into "skills", like we can do in math, resonates with me intuitively, and I'm grateful that this book introduced me to the idea.

I can't recommend this book high enough. It boggles the mind that in most places we don't have a complete curriculum for all grades that makes sure kids learn what they need to learn and then are tested on it, and yet here we are.That being said this book has helped clarify my own thinking on the matter and I'm making sure to get the core knowledge books to make sure my children receive the content instruction they need.

This book contains an essential idea for all educators, which it presents in a clear and compelling manner. In particular, it explores the implementation challenges with detailed insight. My only quibble is that it takes rather too long and becomes somewhat repetitive after a point.

Highly recommend it to uncover the history of where the education system is at now and how to improve it