I became a disciple of E.D. Hirsch, Jr. early in my teaching career for one simple reason. His theories about reading comprehension—and his alone—described precisely what I witnessed every day ...

Teaching comprehension “skills and strategies” divorced from content—the standard approach—doesn’t work. But teaching students to use those techniques in the context of history and other ...

In the early grades, U.S. schools value reading-comprehension skills over knowledge. The results are devastating, especially for poor kids.

Author E.D. Hirsch Jr. argues that inadequate theories of reading are as much to blame for the popularity of "drill-and-kill" lessons in schools as the No Child Left Behind Act.

Schools usually focus on teaching comprehension skills instead of general knowledge—even though education researchers know better.