When students at Prescott High School sign up to take math as seniors, not all of them will be wading into precalculus or calculus, with in-depth explorations of derivatives and trigonometric functions. Some will instead end up using mathematics to study the Electoral College, or the security of Internet passwords, or how delivery companies ship…

Elementary school students have a stronger grasp of U.S. history, and what it means to be a knowledgeable citizen, than they did a few years ago, new test results suggest. Part of the reason they are better informed about history and citizenship, some argue, is that they are better readers. That was the view put forward by U.S. Secretary of…