Joanne Jacobs
The broke-woke-stroke convergence: Why professors lower standards
College professors are "inflating grades and watering down their courses," write Mark Horowitz, Anthony L. Haynor and Kenneth Kickham in...
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Joanne Jacobs
- Aug 31
- 1 min
Up, up and away: More A's, lower test scores
High school grades went up in all subjects from 2010-2022, reports ACT. Achievement did not. Grade inflation was the highest in math:...
Joanne Jacobs
- Aug 30
- 2 min
Low-SES Asians are top students: Can 'excellence gap' be closed?
A middle school in a working-class, mostly Hispanic neighborhood in San Jose started teaching algebra after a wave of Vietnamese refugee...
Joanne Jacobs
- Aug 29
- 1 min
Cheaters prosper: Why graduation rates are meaningless
High schools have been using online credit recovery (OCR) to inflate graduation rates, writes Jeremy Noonan. His former district,...
Joanne Jacobs
- Aug 28
- 2 min
More students are in 'big, big trouble' in reading, math, and they're not catching up
Students are learning again, but most are not catching up for learning lost during the pandemic, conclude three new reports comparing...
Joanne Jacobs
- Aug 28
- 2 min
Cover-up in California: State botched remote learning, tried to silence critics
After Oakland schools closed in March, 2020, eight-year-old Cayla J. had two remote classes. Then, according to her mother, the teacher...
Joanne Jacobs
- Aug 25
- 2 min
School bans 'only 2 genders' T shirt: There's only 1 acceptable opinion
A 12-year-old boy's free-speech rights to say "there are only two genders" on a T shirt is trumped by classmates' rights to feel...
Joanne Jacobs
- Aug 25
- 2 min
Death wish: Contempt for parents will destroy public ed
Public schools are trouble. Trust is low. Enrollment is falling. Parents are embracing new alternatives. Is transgender policy the hill...
Joanne Jacobs
- Aug 24
- 2 min
You may already be a student ! Colleges are admitting students who haven't applied
Doonesbury foresaw the trend 20 years ago: Desperate to counteract falling enrollment, colleges are admitting students who haven't...
Joanne Jacobs
- Aug 23
- 2 min
'Learning stations' are glitzy busywork: Teachers should teach
"Learning stations" are a waste of time, writes Daniel Buck. Motivated achievers may be able to learn independently, but most students...
Joanne Jacobs
- Aug 22
- 2 min
NYC will spend billions to cut class sizes: Who'll get the good teachers?
State-mandated cuts in class sizes primarily will benefit New York City students in low-poverty schools, report Alex Zimmerman and Matt...
Joanne Jacobs
- Aug 21
- 3 min
Homeschooling is so much work
In Hard Lessons from a Veteran Homeschooler, Larissa Phillips talks about the challenges of educating her two children in rural New York....
Joanne Jacobs
- Aug 21
- 2 min
DIY schooling leaves home: Microschools, co-ops, hybrids, pods ...
When schools went remote, many parents took charge of their children's education, and learned how to find online and community resources,...
Joanne Jacobs
- Aug 20
- 2 min
Apprenticeship-to-degree model launches debt-free careers
How do you get a job at Goldman Sachs? In the U.S., it usually takes a degree from an elite college to get in the door. In Britain,...
Joanne Jacobs
- Aug 19
- 2 min
Colleges ask students to write about identity -- in a constitutional-ish way
Asked by his first-choice college about a challenge he'd overcome, "Frank" wrote about struggling with algebra in ninth grade. He'd...
Joanne Jacobs
- Aug 18
- 2 min
California pledges $4 billion for 'community schools' -- but do students learn more?
There were high hopes for Akron's I Promise School when it opened in 2018, writes Mike Antonucci on The 74. With lots of extra funding...
Joanne Jacobs
- Aug 17
- 2 min
Detracking in Shaker Heights: 'Honors' for all, lower expectations
All Shaker Heights students take honors classes -- or classes with an "honors" label. The "enriched" and "advanced" tracks are gone,...
Joanne Jacobs
- Aug 16
- 1 min
Gen Z teens want practical skills, on-the-job learning
Gen Z teens are very practical, writes Bruno Manno on The 74. In the recent Question the Quo survey, high school students say they want...
Joanne Jacobs
- Aug 16
- 2 min
Summer jobs boost school success
Working for the summer pays off for teenagers from low-income families, concludes a study of Boston's summer job program. Winning the job...
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