News Summary

• The Dark Ages implies television and phones are the main cause of cognitive decline.
• This fails to explain the patterns in PISA scores.
• East Asian PISA and IQ scores have probably remained constant, or even risen.
• The two European countries which avoid PISA-malaise – Estonia and England – have more rigorous education systems than their neighbours.
• They (more or less) use the knowledge-rich curricula, direct instruction, and systematic phonics – techniques which their more progressive neighbours abandoned between 1975-1990.