Special-ed services helped students make academic gains in three states, concludes a new study.

Are simpler math standards conservative?

California wants students to "make meaning" in math class. But many can't add or multiply without a calculator.

Melania Trump is promoting robot teachers, but few think bots will replace humans in the classroom.

Starting all students in college-level math was supposed to speed their path to a degree, writes Kath erine Mangan in the Chronicle of Higher Education . Instead of starting in no-credit remedial math, poorly prepared students are placed in college-level classes and offered a corequisite  "math lab" or extra catch-up class to learn missing skills. But the short cut is not working for many unprepared students , she writes. They end up taking longer because they keep flunking m

What's a diploma worth in Massachusetts? Without a state test requirement, graduation rates -- but not test scores -- are way up in Boston.

Learning isn't natural. Teachers need to teach, not just "guide" or "nurture."

There is no 8th-grade reading "miracle" anywhere.

Bring back textbooks , write Sophie Winkleman and David James in The Spectator . In Britain, as in the U.S., schools have embraced online learning and "one-to-one" devices, they write. Students swipe and scroll between tabs, "some educational and some not," while the teacher tries to keep the class "on task." Textbooks "are slandered as boring compared with online resources, which offer video clips, audio, 3D modelling and other seductive 21st-century ‘essentials’," they writ

"I ain't saying you treated me unkind," sang Bob Dylan. "You just kinda wasted my precious time." From X: Figen posts a video of a teacher who brought a PlayStation to class to use Assassin's Creed to teach about the Industrial Revolution . This is a distraction and a waste of time, responds Tom Bennett. It gets students to expect bells and whistles. SoL in the Wild agrees it's "100% terrible." He blames constant messages to teachers to make lessons fun, fun, fun. Learning

“When tech enters education, learning goes down,” neuroscientist Jared Cooney Horvath told a U.S. Senate subcommittee. His testimony went viral . In The Digital Delusion , Horvath makes the case that declining test scores are linked to rising screen time. Classroom technology, such as a laptop or tablet for every student, is undermining learning, he argues. The anti-tech "message is resonating with some parents, educators, and lawmakers," writes Matt Barnum on Chalkbeat. As

Pittsburgh will close public schools for three days in late April because the NFL draft is coming to town, potentially causing traffic problems. Students will be "learning at home," which means that most will not be learning. Only one of the district's 54 schools is in the city core, close to the event, writes Salena Zito in the Washington Examiner . One-third of Pittsburgh's public school students are chronic absentees. The implicit message of the three-day closure -- if

Achievement gaps are wide and growing wider, especially in traditional public schools, in the last 20 years.

Struggling students often get "interventions" that don't help them learn the core curriculum.

Weak administrators, out-of-control students and disengaged parents are driving teachers to quit.

Teaching citizenship focuses on engaging students: Doing substitutes for knowing.

Elementary students should learn history, told as stories, not social studies "skills," argues the Knowledge Matters Campaign.

Does it have to take 4+ years and 120 credits to earn a bachelor's degree?

Children need time to play -- without supervision or screens.

AI can help teachers with lessons, grading and diagnosing students' learning needs, Chinese educators believe.