Joanne Jacobs
Drop college mandates for jobs before the next $400 billion bailout
Forgiving student loans -- if it survives a legal challenge -- is estimated to cost $400 billion to $500 billion or more. That means...
top of page
Joanne Jacobs
- Sep 29, 2022
- 3 min
Who decides what books belong in the school library? Can we talk about it?
You probably can't find Hustler in the school library -- or Donald Trump's The Art of the Deal, write Jay Greene and Robert Pondiscio in...
Joanne Jacobs
- Sep 28, 2022
- 1 min
Homeschoolers try mix-and-match option
Long before Covid-19 closed schools, families were "combining part-time homeschooling with part-time in-person classes, reports Greg...
Joanne Jacobs
- Sep 28, 2022
- 2 min
School choice withstands challenge in Arizona
A campaign to repeal Arizona's expansion of school choice apparently has failed to gather enough signatures to go on the ballot. Arizona...
Joanne Jacobs
- Sep 27, 2022
- 2 min
You're not so special
"No one is you, and that is your superpower!" reads a sign at Brian Huskie's school. "Ridiculous," he writes on SubStack. "Imagine being...
Joanne Jacobs
- Sep 26, 2022
- 1 min
Topless teens
More transgender and gender-neutral teenagers are having "top surgery" -- double mastectomies -- to make their bodies conform with their...
Joanne Jacobs
- Sep 26, 2022
- 3 min
Instead of gender dogma, why not say: 'There's no wrong way to be you'
Seven states now require schools to teach about gender identity: California’s Department of Education tells kindergarten teachers that...
Joanne Jacobs
- Sep 25, 2022
- 2 min
Biology denial: Girls can't win if sports go coed
I was forced to take four years of P.E. in high school in the late '60s. Illinois' gym teachers had a great lobby. Only three years of...
Joanne Jacobs
- Sep 24, 2022
- 2 min
Without phones, school is calmer and students are listening, talking
Banning cell phones transformed a Philadelphia high school, reports Kristen A. Graham in the Inquirer. Students were ignoring teachers --...
Joanne Jacobs
- Sep 23, 2022
- 2 min
Once they can decode, the next step is knowledge
The mainstream media has declared a victor in the "reading wars," writes Robert Pondiscio. Both TIME and The New Yorker had stories last...
Joanne Jacobs
- Sep 22, 2022
- 3 min
Most boys should start school a year later than girls
Boys should start school a year later than girls, argues Richard V. Reeves in The Atlantic. Boys are slower to mature and benefit from...
Joanne Jacobs
- Sep 21, 2022
- 2 min
Career tech pays off in Massachusetts
Students at career-tech high schools in Massachusetts are more likely to go to college and earn more than similar students who take a...
Joanne Jacobs
- Sep 20, 2022
- 2 min
If the students don't care ...
Desperately trying to get failing students to a diploma, counselors are putting kids who can't pass Integrated Math 1 (ninth grade) into...
Joanne Jacobs
- Sep 20, 2022
- 1 min
Why the math learning curve is a K
Some students were learning more math, before the pandemic, while most were learning less, writes Mike Goldstein. He believes changes in...
Joanne Jacobs
- Sep 20, 2022
- 2 min
They passed calculus, but can't add fractions
Alex Small, who teaches physics at Cal Poly Pomona, keeps seeing students who passed calculus in high school, but aren't prepared for...
Joanne Jacobs
- Sep 19, 2022
- 1 min
Learning builds resilience
It's a mistake to put "social-emotional learning" ahead of academic learning, writes Eva Moskowitz, who created the high-performing...
Joanne Jacobs
- Sep 19, 2022
- 2 min
Closing schools was a 'wrecking ball'
"The pandemic was a wrecking ball for U.S. public education," concludes the Center for Reinventing Public Education in The State of the...
Joanne Jacobs
- Sep 18, 2022
- 1 min
Reading 'Anne Frank' in Kabul
A secret book club for teen-age girls in Kabul, Afghanistan is reading The Diary of Anne Frank, reports Diaa Hadid for NPR. "Banned from...
Joanne Jacobs
- Sep 17, 2022
- 2 min
Freedom of ... um ... uh ...
Happy Constitution Day! How many First Amendment freedoms can you name? If you get more than one, you're a civics star. Americans' civics...
Joanne Jacobs
- Sep 17, 2022
- 2 min
Can online privacy laws make the net safe for kids?
A new California law will try to protect children online by requiring safeguards for users under 18, reports Natasha Singer in the New...
bottom of page