Education

Erica Jacobs: When educational alarm bells ring off-key

By Erica Jacobs
Published September 27, 2010 4:00am ET
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This is the week of “Education Nation” in Rockefeller Center and on NBC News. This national summit on what needs to be done to improve schools in the United States is drawing attention from political leaders (including President Obama) and educational pundits from prekindergarten through university.

What kids are readingThis weekly column looks at lists of books kids are reading in various categories. Information on the books below came from Amazon.com’s list of children’s best-sellers and are listed in order of popularity.Caldecott Award and Honor Books1. Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity by Mo Willems (ages 4 to 8) 2. Sector 7 by David Wiesner (ages 4 to 8)3. Officer Buckle & Gloria by Peggy Rathmann (ages 4 to 8)4. Crow Boy by Tar Yashima (ages 4 to 8)5. Owen by Kevin Henkes (baby to preschool) 6. Snow by Uri Shulevitz (baby to preschool)7. The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg (ages 4 to 8)8. A Chair for My Mother by Vera Williams (ages 4 to 8)

Education Nation has elicited dire pronouncements including the following: Colin Powell says we have a “dropout crisis,” Obama would not send his daughters to a public school, and Brian Williams tells us we are receiving report cards that put us 20th in the world in mathematics, and show that nearly half all eighth-graders read below grade level. The doom and gloom news keeps coming via live streaming on the NBC Web

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