Columnist Pans Common Core Over Grammar, Cursive

In a column in the Detroit Free Press (4/8) Rochelle Riley laments low literacy rates in Michigan, writing that a turning away from grammar instruction in schools and "the universally accepted notion that writing in cursive is passé" are the biggest obstacles that students face. Riley quotes a spokesperson for the Michigan Department of Education saying that grammar is addressed by the Common Core Standards, but adds "it is not taught the way it was years ago, so between lax instruction in some schools and texting language outside schools, many children are having difficulty writing themselves into college."