August - 2022

Parents choose 'diverse by design' schools

19 hours ago
3 min

Parents choose 'diverse by design' schools

"Diverse by design" schools are catching on, writes Kate Rix on the Hechinger Report. In Dallas, "50/50" schools try enroll an even mix of students from middle-class and lower-income areas. Race and ethnicity are not used as factors. Instead, "half of the students admitted must live in one of Dallas’ socioeconomically disadvantaged census blocks, while the other half are drawn from more affluent areas." Students may live outside district boundaries. Last year, Dallas Independ

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Joanne Jacobs

2 days ago
2 min

'Covid grads' aren't ready for college

A top student at his Milwaukee high school, Angel Hope won college scholarships and chose the University of Wisconsin at Madison, writes AP's Collin Binkley. But, when he faced the university's math placement test, he was "lost." "I feel like I didn't really learn anything" in more than two years of pandemic disruption, he says. School felt "optional." Nearly a third of Hope’s high school career was spent at home, in virtual classes that were hard to follow and easy to brush

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50 years of progress: Students are learning more

Joanne Jacobs

3 days ago
2 min

50 years of progress: Students are learning more

Reading and math scores have increased significantly in the last 50 years -- and achievement gaps by race and family income have narrowed -- write M. Danish Shakeel and Paul E. Peterson in Education Next. They crunched a lot of numbers to reach their conclusions. Across 7 million tests taken by U.S. students born between 1954 and 2007, math scores have grown by 95 percent of a standard deviation, or nearly four years’ worth of learning. Reading scores have grown by 20 percent

7 comments

Who wants to teach at Lord of the Flies High?

Joanne Jacobs

4 days ago
2 min

Who wants to teach at Lord of the Flies High?

Who wants to teach at Lord of the Flies High School? Replacing baby-boomer teachers was a challenge even before the COVID-19 pandemic., writes Matthew Ladner, executive editor of redefinED. Now, given the post-pandemic meltdown in student behavior, it's even tougher. Ladner fondly recalls this Simpsons' parody of Lord of the Flies. Who wants to be a counselor at Kamp Krusty? He cites a survey of public school teachers by The 74, which found problems "from regular f-bombs and

3 comments

Joanne Jacobs

4 days ago
1 min

Bartleby is back

The Chinese called it "lying flat," until the government banned the term. The British prefer "quiet quitting." In the U.S., workers have become coasters, slackers and cyberloafers, writes Jack Kelly in Forbes. They stay on the job, but do the minimum needed to get by. In an October, 2021 survey, 39 percent of workers said they were coasting, writes Kelly. Working remotely apparently eroded adults' motivation. It's not just the kids who'v lost their mojo. But it's not new: Her

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Joanne Jacobs

5 days ago
2 min

'If things get hard, they just quit'

After three years of pandemic-disrupted schooling, students just don't care any more, complains a teacher on Chalkbeat's After the Bell column. At the height of Covid, teachers were told to "give students grace," she writes. Assignments were excused. Expectations were lowered. Now students believe "there are no consequences" for refusing to do the work. "While I try to make lessons engaging and relevant, the lack of consequences is an added challenge for motivating students

31 comments

Joanne Jacobs

6 days ago
2 min

Ask a quirky question ...

Test scores are optional or ignored, grades are inflated -- and essay questions are more important than ever for students applying to selective colleges. Essay prompts are designed to force students to think -- or fake it -- outside the proverbial box, writes Bob Hoge, a father of four, on Red State. Quirky is in. A college hopeful might be asked: “Where is Waldo, really?,” reports the Wall Street Journal. Hoge posts a response from Rombutan (@rombutans) at left. Application

5 comments

To keep kids healthy, keep them in class learning

Joanne Jacobs

7 days ago
2 min

To keep kids healthy, keep them in class learning

School closures were a mistake, writes Joseph G. Allen, an associate professor and director of the Healthy Buildings program at Harvard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health. A public-health scientist and a father of three school-age children, he proposes new Covid-19 policies that prioritize keeping students in class and making school look and feel normal. "The way to do this is to get rid of excessive quarantine and isolation policies, and to rely on the protective power of

2 comments

Joanne Jacobs

Aug 5
2 min

Get kids off social media

"Social media is no place for kids," writes Yuval Levin in a New York Times op-ed. He advocates raising the age requirement for social media use to 18, and giving it "real teeth." If Instagram and TikTok were brick-and-mortar spaces in your neighborhood, you probably would never let even your teenager go to them alone. Parents should have the same say over their children’s presence in these virtual spaces. Children under 13 aren't supposed to have social-media accounts, but t

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Joanne Jacobs

Aug 5
2 min

Screen time all the time

"Screen time here to stay," writes Cari Spencer on The 74. Teachers are trying to use the technology to engage students, even as they worry about its impact. John Arthur, a teacher in Utah, uses Minecraft simulations to teach about ancient civilizations, she writes. But all math instruction is on paper, so "children can have a tactile learning experience, as well as a break from screens." Children's screen time soared when schools were closed, reaching more than eight hours a

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Joanne Jacobs

Aug 4
2 min

Rich kid, poor kid

Upward mobility is a matter of who you know, conclude the authors of a newly published study on social capital. (See the data here.) "Economic connectedness" is a key factor in determining who prospers and who doesn't. “Growing up in a community connected across class lines improves kids’ outcome and gives them a better shot at rising out of poverty,” Harvard economist Raj Chetty, one of the study’s four principal authors, told the New York Times, reports David Leonhardt. The

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Administrators return to teaching to fill shortages

Joanne Jacobs

Aug 3
1 min

Administrators return to teaching to fill shortages

Teacher shortages are worse than ever this year, reports Hannah Natanson in the Washington Post. "Pandemic-induced teacher exhaustion" may be kicking in. Teachers are being asked to close ever-wider achievement gaps, while dealing with students' emotional, mental and behavior problems, in the middle of a culture war. Arizona will hire teachers who haven't yet finished their degrees, while Florida will open teaching jobs to military veterans who've earned 60 college credits wi

3 comments

Can teachers make 'differentiation' work -- and not go crazy?

Joanne Jacobs

Aug 3
2 min

Can teachers make 'differentiation' work -- and not go crazy?

In my newspaper days, I talked to principals at elementary schools with above-average reading and math scores and a significant percentage of lower-income and Hispanic students. What were they doing? Two principals said teachers grouped students by reading level for reading instruction, and the third school grouped students for reading and math. Later, I wrote about the growing popularity of Success for All, which grouped students by reading level for a 90-minute literacy ses

5 comments

Joanne Jacobs

Aug 2
3 min

Don't say 'cisheteronormativity'

What's the right age for students to learn that the gender binary is a product of white colonialism? In Portland, Oregon public schools, the "sexual revolution starts in kindergarten," writes Christopher F. Rufo. Many of the city's K-5 teachers are using a radical curriculum based on academic "queer theory," he writes. He posts documents. Kindergarteners learn that “person with a penis” may be a boy, but not necessarily, and a“person with a vulva,” may be a girl. Or not. The

2 comments

Joanne Jacobs

Aug 1
1 min

We don't lower standards for pilots

States are dropping licensure tests for elementary teachers writes Abigail Swisher on the National Council on Teacher Quality blog. In particular, they're dropping content knowledge tests or allowing alternatives for would-be teachers who don't pass. There's a shortage of airline pilots too, but nobody's calling for lower standards to get someone in the cockpit, writes Heather Peske. Yet policymakers are eager to "lower the barriers" for aspiring teachers "in response to real

7 comments