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Joanne Jacobs
Apr 17, 20231 min read
When fourth graders can't read
Third-, fourth- and fifth-grade teachers have many more students who read poorly because they missed out on decoding instruction when...
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Joanne Jacobs
Apr 17, 20231 min read
Is your honor-roll student at grade level? Maybe not
“87% of Sacramento County parents think their kids do math at grade level,” reads one billboard. “28% of kids actually do." The goal of...
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Joanne Jacobs
Apr 16, 20232 min read
Should teens work more?
Desperate for entry-level workers, employers are pushing states to ease child-labor laws to let teenagers work longer hours, at younger...
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Joanne Jacobs
Apr 15, 20232 min read
Desperately seeking kindergarteners in Portland, preschoolers in NYC
Four- and five-year-olds are in short supply in Portland, Oregon, reports Rachel Saslow in Williamette Week. Schools are competing for...
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Joanne Jacobs
Apr 14, 20232 min read
'Algebra for none' fails in San Francisco
The goal was equity. The result: Meh. Frustrated by high failure rates in eighth-grade algebra, San Francisco Unified decided in 2015 to...
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Joanne Jacobs
Apr 13, 20232 min read
Was Anne Frank bisexual? Graphic novel -- with breasts! -- is out of school library
The Diary of Anne Frank remains in the Vero Beach High School library, but the Florida school has removed a retelling of the story, Anne...
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Joanne Jacobs
Apr 12, 20232 min read
Beyond fat cats on mats: Knowledge closes the learning gap
Teaching phonics is a critical first step in teaching reading, but students need to build knowledge and vocabulary to get from fat cats...
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Joanne Jacobs
Apr 12, 20232 min read
Will 65% of Tennessee 3rd-graders repeat the year? Not likely
If Tennessee's read-or- repeat law had been in place last year, 65 percent of third graders would have been at-risk of retention for...
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Joanne Jacobs
Apr 11, 20231 min read
Who gets tech internships?
"Big tech" internships offer excellent pay, challenging work and valuable networking opportunities, writes Natasha Singer in the New York...
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Joanne Jacobs
Apr 11, 20232 min read
Feds fund college, neglect job training
College isn't worth the cost, say 56 percent of of respondents -- 60 percent among 18- to 34-year-olds -- in a a new Wall Street Journal...
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Joanne Jacobs
Apr 10, 20232 min read
'Ethnic studies lens' vs. 'e pluribus unum'
Washington state plans to make ethnic studies a high school graduation requirement, but it's not clear what that means, writes David J....
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Joanne Jacobs
Apr 9, 20232 min read
You are not enough: Love thy neighbor too
"You are enough" is a popular saying, writes Katherine Boyle on The Free Press. But it's not true. Americans have lost their sense of...
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Joanne Jacobs
Apr 8, 20233 min read
The politics of parenting
Permissive parenting -- known as "gentle" or "mindful" or "intentional" parenting -- is spreading among left-of-center parents, writes...
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Joanne Jacobs
Apr 7, 20232 min read
Dreams are lost in the community college 'maze'
Community college was "a weird maze," recalls Santos Enrique Camara, who'd hoped to study audio engineering at Washington's Shoreline...
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Joanne Jacobs
Apr 6, 20231 min read
Educating for adulthood
Americans have fallen out of love with college degrees, writes Jenny Anderson in Time. In 2019, Americans ranked “preparing for college”...
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Joanne Jacobs
Apr 6, 20232 min read
What's the purpose of high school?
Teaching "self-sufficiency and competence" should be the goal of high school -- not merely college prep -- writes Selim Tlili, a biology...
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Joanne Jacobs
Apr 5, 20232 min read
Some teachers resist 'science of reading' laws
Teachers' unions are pushing back against state laws requiring early literacy instruction to be based on the "science of reading," write...
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Joanne Jacobs
Apr 4, 20233 min read
Without the jargon, 'social-emotional learning' means ...
Social-emotional learning means "teaching kids to be nice to one another and to be nice to themselves," Liz Mikitarian, a retired...
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Joanne Jacobs
Apr 3, 20231 min read
Students learn more from tough graders
Students learn more when their teachers have high expectations, concludes a study in North Carolina, reports Kevin Mahnken. Algebra...
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Joanne Jacobs
Apr 3, 20232 min read
Grades and grad rates rise, and that's not good news
Grades are up! Graduation rates are rising! But that's not good news. Test scores are down, across the country, writes Hechinger's Jill...
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