National Security & Defense

Ramparts, the CIA, and Cold War Revisionism

By Sol Stern April 2, 2015

The cover of Karen M. Paget’s Patriotic Betrayal consists entirely of an extraordinary advertorial instructing readers how they should think about the book’s revelations. The text declares that in February ...

Politics & Policy

Knowledge Makes a Comeback

By Sol Stern October 20, 2014

I began writing about education 20 years ago, in part because of the disturbing instructional practices I was seeing at my children’s New York City elementary school. When my oldest ...

Knowledge Makes a Comeback

By Sol Stern October 9, 2014

I began writing about education 20 years ago, in part because of the disturbing instructional practices I was seeing at my children’s New York City elementary school. When my oldest ...

Common Core: Response to Joy Pullman

By Sol Stern April 8, 2013

Americans have a right — indeed a duty — to make reasoned, fact-based criticisms of the Common Core State Standards. But the critics don’t have a right to invent their ...

Common Core: Response to Joy Pullman

By Sol Stern April 8, 2013

Americans have a right — indeed a duty — to make reasoned, fact-based criticisms of the Common Core State Standards. But the critics don’t have a right to invent their ...

Politics & Policy

The Truth about Common Core

By Kathleen Porter-Magee & Sol Stern April 3, 2013

The new Common Core math and reading standards adopted by 45 states have come under a firestorm of criticism from tea-party activists and commentators such as Glenn Beck and Michelle ...

Politics & Policy

The Palestinian Big Lie

By Sol Stern September 15, 2011

On September 20, Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, will take his case for Palestinian statehood to the United Nations. This is a matter of basic justice, Abbas will ...

Politics & Policy

The Testing Mess

By Sol Stern August 4, 2010

The only thing surprising about last week’s revelation that the fraction of New York City students passing the state’s reading and math tests had dropped by an average of 25 ...

A Crisis in Catholic Education

By Sol Stern October 13, 2009

This week, Time has a welcome look at the plight of urban Catholic schools. The article, by Gilbert Cruz, rightly emphasizes that this is a problem for all of us. ...

At Core

By Sol Stern February 21, 2008

I’m glad that my colleague Jay Greene believes that the school-reform movement should be advocating both good instructional practices and improvement through competition. And I intend to keep writing about ...