Articles, Essays, and Speeches

By Core Knowledge Founder E. D. Hirsch, Jr.

"Teaching Content is Teaching Reading" Principal Magazine, November/December 2010

"School reform's next frontier: Translate new standards into good curriculum that puts reading first" New York Daily News, September 27, 2010

"There’s No Such Thing As a Reading Test" The American Prospect, June 13, 2010

"Common Core Standards could revolutionize reading instruction" Washington Post, April 6, 2010

"First, Do No Harm" Education Week, January 14, 2010

"Another Kind of Dyslexia: Incomprehension" Keynote address, New York Branch of the International Dyslexia Association, 35th Annual Conference, March 7, 2008. Audio recording.

"Plugging the Hole in State Standards, One Man's Modest Proposal" American Educator, Spring 2008.

"The Knowledge Connection" Washington Post and other newspapers, February 15, 2008.

"Narrowing the Two Achievement Gaps" A presentation at the 18th Education Trust National Conference, Washington, D.C., November 9, 2007.

"Strategic Thoughts — Undelivered Remarks", Philanthropy Roundtable, November 10, 2006.

Manhattan Institute Talk about The Knowledge Deficit and New York City reading scores, May 4, 2006.

“The Case for Bringing Content into the Language Arts Block and for a Knowledge-Rich Curriculum Core for all Children” American Educator, Spring 2006.

“Many Americans can read but can’t comprehend” USA Today, February 25, 2004.

“Neglecting the early grades” in Our schools and our future: are we still at risk? ed Paul E. Peterson. Stanford, Calif. : Hoover Institution Press, 2003.

“Not So Grand a Strategy,” Education Next, Spring 2003.

“Reading Comprehension Requires Knowledge — of Words and of the World” American Educator, Spring, 2003.

“Classroom Research and Cargo Cults” Policy Review October/November 2002.

“Breadth Versus Depth: A Premature Polarity” from Common Knowledge, Fall 2001.

“The Latest Dismal NAEP Scores: Can We Narrow the 4th-Grade Reading Gap?” an essay that first appeared in Education Week, May 2, 2001.

“Ideas, Convictions, Courage: People Tell the Story of Core Knowledge" Common Knowledge, Spring 2001.

“Jeanne Chall's Last Book,” American Educator, Spring 2001.

“Overcoming the Language Gap,” American Educator, Summer 2001.

“The Roots of the Education Wars” Catholic Education Resource Center, 2003. Reprint from presentation at a 2001 conference. Also adapted and published in The Great Curriculum Debate: How Should We Teach Reading and Math? edited by Tom Loveless. The entire text of this book may be read at Google Books.

“The SAT: Blaming the Messenger” The Hoover Institution Weekly Essay, May 28, 2001.

“The Tests We Need and Why We Don't Quite Have Them” an essay that first appeared in Education Week, February 2, 2000.

“You Can Always Look It Up — Or Can You?” adapted from the closing address at the 9th Core Knowledge National Conference, Anaheim, California, March 18, 2000.

“Romancing the Child” an article adapted by Education Next from a speech given at Harvard University in October 1999.

“Why Core Knowledge Promotes Social Justice” convocation address, University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, October 6, 1999.

“An Address to the Joint Committee on Head Start Reauthorization” March 26, 1998.

“Class Size: A Question of Trade-Offs” excerpts from testimony before the Joint Congressional Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Youth and Families Hearing, February 24, 1998.

“Heroes of Education Reform” Common Knowledge, Fall 1998.

“Why General Knowledge Should Be a Goal of Education in a Democracy” address at the 7th Core Knowledge National Conference, Atlanta, Georgia, March 14, 1998.

“An Address to the California State Board of Education” April 10, 1997.

“Toward a Centrist Curriculum: Two Kinds of Multiculturalism in Elementary School” an essay for the Core Knowledge Foundation, 1991.

“What Al Shanker Taught Us,” The Washington Post, March 1, 1997, Op-ed.

“Why Traditional Education is More Progressive” The American Enterprise, March/April, 1997.

“Challenging Intellectual Monopoly” an excerpt from The Schools We Need & Why We Don't Have Them, 1996.

“Reality’s Revenge,” American Educator, Fall, 1996. An excerpt from The Schools We Need.

“Fairness and Core Knowledge,” an essay for the Core Knowledge Foundation, 1992.