Joanne Jacobs
Happy talk isn't helpful: Tell parents the truth about their kids' learning
Keri Rodrigues, co-founder and president of the National Parents Union, complained on Twitter about the special-education team "who...
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Joanne Jacobs
- Feb 14
- 3 min
'Challenging' students with disabilities are sent home (but not suspended)
Schools aren't supposed to suspend special-needs students if their misbehavior is related to their disability. But some schools use...
Joanne Jacobs
- Jan 21
- 2 min
Do 'red flag' laws prevent shootings?
“I just might come to yo school and kill everybody,” a 17-year-old former student wrote in an Instagram message. He specifically...
Joanne Jacobs
- Jan 15
- 2 min
To protect kids, treat parents' addiction, mental illness
The best predictor of children's risk of severe neglect and abuse is not poverty, writes Naomi Schaefer Riley in City Journal. It's drug...
Joanne Jacobs
- Jan 14
- 1 min
Grandin: Educate the visual thinkers too
Our society and our schools aren't designed for "visual thinkers, which so many of us neurodivergent folks are," writes Temple Grandin, a...
Joanne Jacobs
- Jan 3
- 3 min
NAACP pushes for literacy reform: Teach our kids to read
Black leaders have transformed reading instruction in northern Virginia, reports Sarah Carr in the Washington Post. The Fairfax County...
Joanne Jacobs
- Dec 23, 2022
- 3 min
Mastering newspeak at Stanford
Will Stanford continue to award master's degrees? Will my daughter's major -- American Studies -- need a new name? Stanford's IT...
Joanne Jacobs
- Dec 3, 2022
- 2 min
Suicidal students: What can universities do?
Yale discriminates against students with mental-health issues, according to a lawsuit filed this week, reports William Wan in the...
Joanne Jacobs
- Dec 2, 2022
- 1 min
Florida's special-ed students are doing very well: Is it choice?
In Florida, which pioneered school choice for special-needs students more than 20 years ago, students with disabilities are doing very...
Joanne Jacobs
- Nov 5, 2022
- 2 min
Pandemic amnesty: Is it time?
My resolution for 2021, renewed for 2022, was to be kind and calm. There is enough nastiness and enough hysteria out there without me...
Joanne Jacobs
- Sep 4, 2022
- 2 min
It's college, not kindergarten
Of the three million students who will start college this fall, one million won't make it through the first year on campus or won't...
Joanne Jacobs
- May 3, 2022
- 1 min
To get special-ed teachers, pay more
Teaching special-needs students is challenging and stressful. Special education teachers are in short supply across the country, and have...
Joanne Jacobs
- May 2, 2022
- 2 min
Unsafe schools drive away teachers
Classroom violence is driving teachers to quit in Oregon’s Salem-Keizer school district, reports Christine Pitawanich for KGW-TV. Despite...
Joanne Jacobs
- Oct 7, 2018
- 2 min
Lost in a special-ed maze
Special education is failing children in New York City, reports Elizabeth A. Harris in the New York Times. When “T.J.” was two, his...
Joanne Jacobs
- Oct 2, 2018
- 1 min
No clapping, please. Use your ‘jazz hands’
Clapping and cheering have been banned at University of Manchester Student Union events, lest the noise upset “students with anxiety or...
Joanne Jacobs
- Aug 19, 2018
- 2 min
Teachers may not know how kids learn to read
How do children learn to read? Most states don’t require new elementary and special-education teachers to show they understand the...
Joanne Jacobs
- Jul 24, 2018
- 2 min
Has inclusion gone too far?
Inclusion — placing students with disabilities in mainstream classes — may not help special-needs students learn, concludes Allison...
Joanne Jacobs
- Jul 19, 2018
- 1 min
NC parents choose alternatives
North Carolina public schools are losing students to charter schools, private schools and homeschooling, reports T. Keung Hui in the...
Joanne Jacobs
- Jul 16, 2018
- 2 min
Less discipline, more disorder
– Education Next 2015 The Obama-era push to reduce suspensions of black students ended up hurting black students, writes Gail Heriot, a...
Joanne Jacobs
- Jun 26, 2018
- 1 min
Pushed out for being ‘weird’
The teenage boy, who’s on the autism spectrum, wore a black trench coat every day as a comfort garment. He talked obsessively about video...
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