by Karl Kurtz
In The Thicket, we usually make it a practice not to call out articles on state politics and government that are mentioned in NCSL's clipping service, Grasscatcher. (If you like reading The Thicket, you should also sign up for a free e-mail subscription to Grasscatcher.)
But this time we make an exception because the one-sentence synopsis of a recent Grasscatcher story (drawn from the newspaper's lead) is misleading. The lead on the story in the Seattle Times is "Washington has a math crisis, in part, according to the state board of education, 'because of a lack of highly qualified math teachers.'" This leads the reader to think it's about math teaching in Washington State. The second paragraph, though, goes on to say:
Snohomish County educators say pressure to meet state standards in math, reading and writing is diminishing the amount of social studies taught in the schools. They say the trend threatens students' knowledge of history and government and could lead to a generation that is less informed and less active in public life.
These results from a survey conducted in October by the Washington State Bar
Association and the Washington State Council for the Social Studies are consistent with findings in a national study on the effects of the No Child Left Behind Act by the Center for Education Policy.
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