The Blog

Perspectives on education reform

Essays on special education, classroom teaching, and the decisions made about students by people who have never met them.

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Topic guides

Teacher Voice

Teacher Voice & Education Reform

Vincent’s writing on classroom judgment, local leadership, and the role of teachers in education decisions.

Mathematics

New Math & Arithmetic

Vincent’s essays on New Math, traditional arithmetic, math facts, and algebra readiness.

Special Education

Special Education & Individual Instruction

Themes from Vincent’s 27 years in special education and the chapters devoted to that work.

Education History

Education Reform in Vincent’s Writing

The education changes Vincent discusses in his book and essays, especially those beginning in the 1950s and 1960s.

Phonics – how is it possible not to use it.

Phonics instruction for the first three years of elementary school is a proven method of teaching children how to read successfully.

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New Leadership in Education

How outside influence from higher education, new math, administrative hiring, middle schools, and changing reading programs began reshaping elementary education in the 1950s and 1960s.

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Arithmetic, Algebra Readiness, and the Legacy of New Math

When the President's Math Commission Report of 2008 cited "a lack of ease of operations" regarding algebra readiness, it was quietly circumventing a simpler word: arithmetic.

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Whatever Happened to Arithmetic?

An eight-year-old came home talking about zeros. That's a red flag for anyone who has followed new math and its hold on the elementary curriculum. Here's how arithmetic disappeared from American classrooms, and why it needs to come back.

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More essays coming soon.