The Hechinger Report

But by failing to respond to larger criticisms, universities and colleges have become an easy target for critics of such things as their purported ideological leanings, said R. Ethan Braden, vice president and chief marketing and communications officer at Texas A&M University. “If you have a void in how you’re being understood, you have a choice,” said Braden: “You can either fill that void or someone else will fill it for you.”

“Early research showed that background knowledge plays a part,” said Kausalai Wijekumar, a professor of education at Texas A&M University, who has been studying reading instruction and recently produced a study that sheds more light on the debate. “People with good background knowledge seem to be able to read faster and understand quicker.”