"I am of the firm belief that if there is one skill our kids need to graduate with, it's that," says Shari Camhi, superintendent of the Baldwin Union Free School District and who now serves on the board of the National Assessment Governing Board.

Enrollment patterns vary between public and private schools at a time when lawmakers are expanding school choice vouchers and advocating for alternative opportunities for education.

At a national conference, social studies educators discussed how the culture wars are reshaping their work at a time when simply teaching the subject may be viewed as political.

In a study released Sunday night, researchers at Stanford’s Graduate School of Education found that the percent of third-graders in the program who met or nearly met the state reading standards rose 6 percentage points, compared to students at similar schools.