The Math and Literacy Crisis: What Schools Should Actually Teach

The Math and Literacy Crisis: What Schools Should Actually Teach

From Thinking 2 Think by Michael A Aponte

June 3, 2026 · 22 min · Episode 73

About this episode

M.A. Aponte discusses the shortcomings of the K-12 education system in teaching math and literacy, emphasizing the need for genuine intellectual development over narrow test performance.

Send us Fan Mail Test scores are declining, governors are calling for reform, and policy leaders are debating how to fix math and reading instruction—but the deepest problem in K-12 education isn't what we're teaching. It's that we've built a system optimized for narrow test performance instead of genuine intellectual development. In this episode, executive director and educator M.A. Aponte draws on lived experience running a charter school to examine what the research actually says wor...

People in this episode

Host: M.A. Aponte

Topics covered

  • education reform
  • math instruction
  • literacy crisis
  • K-12 education
  • intellectual development

Keywords

  • math crisis
  • literacy crisis
  • education policy
  • charter school
  • test scores
  • intellectual development

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