October - 2022

Alabama (!) leads nation in minimizing learning loss

Joanne Jacobs

Oct 31, 2022
1 min

Alabama (!) leads nation in minimizing learning loss

Alabama led the nation in maintaining math and reading achievement during the pandemic, reports Trisha Powell Crain of AL.com. That is, it lost the least learning. "At the district level, Alabama schools also were among the top in the country for learning gains among Black and Hispanic students." Despite the state's history of low achievement, a new analysis of the pandemic's impact shows Alabama school districts rank high for "preserving learning of Black and Hispanic studen

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'Shades of badness' in math, reading scores

Joanne Jacobs

Oct 31, 2022
3 min

'Shades of badness' in math, reading scores

The longer urban schools stayed closed the worse their fourth-graders are doing in math, concludes an analysis of National Assessment of Educational Progress NAEP) data by The 74, writes Asher Lehrer-Small. Looking at districts, rather than states, showed the link. “The districts with more remote learning have larger test score losses,” said Emily Oster, a Brown University economics professor who also analyzed the results. “It was very hard for the little kids to focus on Zoo

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Serve your country to clear your student loans

Joanne Jacobs

Oct 30, 2022
1 min

Serve your country to clear your student loans

Link college loans to civilian or military service, writes Steve Cohen in City Journal. "President Biden’s plan to 'forgive' student loans . . . rewards the wrong values and incentives," he argues. "It requires nothing in return, not even an acknowledgment of one’s responsibility." Cohen has one son who paid off his loans, and now feels like a chump, and another who still owes tens of thousands of dollars and would like some relief. He thinks a year of "minimally paid" nation

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Colleges can cut costs by getting back to basics

Joanne Jacobs

Oct 30, 2022
2 min

Colleges can cut costs by getting back to basics

If colleges and universities got back to basics -- teaching and worthwhile research -- they could serve students without saddling them with massive debt, writes Richard Vedder, an emeritus economics professor at Ohio University. College officials keep raising tuition, enabled by federal student loans, then spend the money "on programs and activities with little or no educational value," writes Vedder. In the 1970s, Ohio University employed two faculty members for every non-te

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Joanne Jacobs

Oct 29, 2022
2 min

Boy trouble

Boys are struggling in school around the world, not just in the United States, points out Kay Hymowitz in City Journal. Boys have lower grades than girls throughout their primary and secondary school years. They have more behavior problems. Boys are more likely to be diagnosed with attention deficit disorder; to wind up in special-education classes; and to be held back, be suspended, or drop out. Hence, they’re less likely to graduate from high school. . . . Boys’ lagging sch

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Joanne Jacobs

Oct 28, 2022
1 min

In search of lost time

Schools need more time to "instruct, support, and engage with students," after more than two years of disruption, writes Rick Hess, director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute. They also need to make better use of learning time. Teachers are interrupted by intercom announcements, staff visits and students entering and leaving classrooms an average of 2,000 times a year, a 2021 study in Providence, R.I found. "These interruptions wind up consuming

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Year-round school doesn't help kids learn

Joanne Jacobs

Oct 28, 2022
1 min

Year-round school doesn't help kids learn

Year-round school calendars "do little to raise achievement and pose a host of logistical problems that are hard for schools and parents to solve," write researchers Paul T. von Hippel and Jennifer Graves in Education Next. "To school leaders who hope that changing calendars can undo pandemic learning loss, we offer this advice: Don’t do it." One reason year-round students don't learn more is that they don't get more learning time, Von Hippel and Graves write. Typically, year

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Is SEL a 'Trojan horse' for identity politics?

Joanne Jacobs

Oct 27, 2022
2 min

Is SEL a 'Trojan horse' for identity politics?

Social-emotional learning (SEL) can mean the sort of things teachers have taught for generations: Count to ten to calm down, take turns, set goals. Or, under the "social awareness" umbrella, it can involve discussing identity, race and "white privilege," writes Meg Anderson on NPR. SEL is now controversial, she writes, accused of being a "Trojan horse" for critical race theory and transgenderism. "Some prominent SEL programs do talk about racial justice and racism," writes An

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Teacher, counselor, therapist: Is it too much?

Joanne Jacobs

Oct 27, 2022
2 min

Teacher, counselor, therapist: Is it too much?

As students' emotional and mental health needs soar, teachers are being asked to serve as ad hoc counselors, therapists and social workers, writes Holly Korbey on Edutopia. "Is it too big an ask?" Teachers are not mental health professionals, writes Ellen Dahlke, a high school English teacher, who "desperately" wants to focus on teaching English. Teachers don't have the training or the time. "Even if more teachers developed trauma-informed instructional strategies," they woul

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Teacher: Students can cut class, skip assignments and pass

Joanne Jacobs

Oct 26, 2022
2 min

Teacher: Students can cut class, skip assignments and pass

Giving students a minimum of 50 percent on assignments -- regardless of whether they're turned in -- was a disaster, a former D.C. public school teacher told Washington Post columnist Jay Mathews. A few weeks into the 2021-22 school year, he said, students figured out they could pass without showing up in class or doing more than one or two assignments. The 50 percent rule, he said, created “an environment where students can come to school to pop their heads into the classroo

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Tell parents truth: Enough with the happy talk

Joanne Jacobs

Oct 25, 2022
2 min

Tell parents truth: Enough with the happy talk

Tell parents the unpleasant truth about learning loss, writes Andrew Rotherham in a story on the state NAEP scores in the The 74. "The disaster and inequity of pandemic policies is now in clear focus," he writes. Despite a few outliers -- Department of Defense and Catholic schools -- "it’s an across-the-board disaster for the United States." "Students already furthest from success in school were most impacted," he writes. "Thirty-eight percent of eighth-graders are at a leve

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Nation's Report Card shows 'appalling' fall in math, reading

Joanne Jacobs

Oct 25, 2022
3 min

Nation's Report Card shows 'appalling' fall in math, reading

Fourth- and eighth-graders' math and reading proficiency fell across the country after two years of disruption, reports the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as the Nation's Report Card. Scores are reported by state and for 26 large cities. U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona called the results "appalling," "heartbreaking and horrible." Students who spent more time in remote instruction did worse, but not a lot worse, writes Martin R. West,

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No critical race theory? No student teachers

Joanne Jacobs

Oct 24, 2022
1 min

No critical race theory? No student teachers

A California ed school won’t send student teachers to a nearby school district that has banned critical race theory, reports Jill Replogle in LAist. Cal State Fullerton’s College of Education wrote: The placement of student teachers in Placentia Yorba Linda Unified School District (PYLUSD), at this time, would place us in conflict with our goals to prepare teacher candidates with pedagogical approaches rooted in diversity, equity, inclusion, social justice, race and gender th

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Joanne Jacobs

Oct 24, 2022
1 min

'Critical race theory' means ... um ...

Should schools teach critical race theory (CRT)? Fifty-one percent of Americans have never heard of it or know nothing about it, according to a recent poll by USC researchers, part of the Understanding America Study. "Almost all score poorly on a knowledge quiz about CRT." Asked about beliefs central to CRT, there were partisan splits, writes Beth Hawkins on The 74. For example, 69 percent of Democrats, but only 24 percent of Republicans said "racism is central and fundamenta

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63% say 'no' to racial preferences in college admissions

Joanne Jacobs

Oct 23, 2022
1 min

63% say 'no' to racial preferences in college admissions

Sixty-three percent of Americans say colleges shouldn't consider race in admissions, according to a Washington Post poll. Blacks are split, while two-thirds of whites and Asian Americans and 60 percent of Hispanics oppose racial preferences. On the other hand, 64 percent said "programs designed to increase the racial diversity of students on college campuses are a good thing." "In two lawsuits before the high court, a group called Students for Fair Admissions alleges that Har

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Without test scores, college admissions is 'chaotic' -- and still unfair

Joanne Jacobs

Oct 23, 2022
1 min

Without test scores, college admissions is 'chaotic' -- and still unfair

Without SAT or ACT scores, deciding who to admit is "chaotic, admissions officers told Kelly Slay, a Vanderbilt researcher. It's hard to be fair. Most colleges and universities waived test scores during the pandemic, and many haven't restored them, reports Hechinger's Jill Barshay. Test-optional policies are supposed to be fairer for students who can't afford tutors or test prep. As the U.S. Supreme Court takes up affirmative action in college admissions, she writes, Slay's i

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Joanne Jacobs

Oct 22, 2022
1 min

College enrollment just keeps falling

College enrollment continues to fall, according to a report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. The number of undergraduates is now 7 percent lower than in fall 2019, before the "pandemic rocked higher education," reports Nick Anderson in the Washington Post. Freshmen enrollment is down this fall by about 1.5 percent. “We don’t see a huge upsurge of first-year students, of freshmen, especially at the four-year institutions,” Doug Shapiro, the research cen

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Joanne Jacobs

Oct 21, 2022
2 min

'Red wave' includes frustrated parents

Education is an "iceberg" that will sink Democrats' chances in the midterms, argues Hugh Hewitt in a Washington Post commentary. Republican candidates are capitalizing on voters' belief that "transgender rights" have gone too far, he writes. That's a "super-majority" position, according to polls. For example, 58 percent of adults want transgender athletes to compete on teams that match their biological sex, according to Pew Research. In addition, "GOP candidates are campaigni

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'Protect our kids from graphic porn' in the school library

Joanne Jacobs

Oct 20, 2022
2 min

'Protect our kids from graphic porn' in the school library

Parents who object to sexually explicit books in school libraries have been labeled "book banners," writes Max Eden, a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, in Newsweek. But it's not just Christians or the "ultra-MAGA" who want to keep school libraries G rated. Hundreds of Muslim parents told the Dearborn (MI) school board that they're not OK with books that depict sex acts, describe group masturbation games or or recommend apps such as Grindr to meet stranger

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Fuzzy civics: Teachers don't value knowledge

Joanne Jacobs

Oct 19, 2022
2 min

Fuzzy civics: Teachers don't value knowledge

I learned about separation of powers, checks and balances and the three separate and equal branches of government -- executive, legislative and judicial -- in eighth grade. When the president signs an executive order because he can't persuade Congress to pass a law, when pundits claim the U.S. Supreme Court isn't the supreme authority on interpreting the Constitution, I think back to the Constitution Test, which we had to pass to get into high school. It's useful stuff. But o

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