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Keeping smart kids down
Achievers need challenging academics -- not just "enrichment" activities.

Joanne Jacobs
5 days ago2 min read
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20% of high school graduates are 'barely literate'
Twenty percent of high school graduates have trouble reading anything more complex than a restaurant menu.

Joanne Jacobs
6 days ago2 min read
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Equity or mediocrity? Mamdani would phase out gifted classes in early grades
Should New York City schools phase out classes for gifted elementary students?

Joanne Jacobs
Oct 32 min read
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Math teacher was trained on equity, culture, but not how to teach math
At a well-respected graduate school of education, a former engineer learned about equity, culture and identity, but very little about how to teach math.

Joanne Jacobs
Sep 293 min read
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To win back public-school parents, be like Mississippi
Education reforms are working in the South, and they can work in blue states too, if there's political leadership.

Joanne Jacobs
Sep 263 min read
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Effort matters: Kids have to do the work
Effort matters.

Joanne Jacobs
Sep 33 min read
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The new math has more on 'social justice,' less math
Money earned by people who were very, very good at math is being spent to promote anti-racist, justice-infused not-very-mathy math.

Joanne Jacobs
Aug 262 min read
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Teachers are skeptical of 'equitable' grading: 'Students sink to lower expectations'
Teachers don't like grading "reforms" that lower expectations.

Joanne Jacobs
Aug 202 min read
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You're a genius! You're a genius! You're a genius!
Calling every student a "genius" -- even if they're not learning - - obscures failure for students and their teachers.

Joanne Jacobs
Jul 72 min read
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'Dismantling oppression' meant destroying effective schools
"No excuses" charters were closing achievement gaps, until "equity" crusaders persuaded them to lower academic and behavioral expectations.

Joanne Jacobs
May 212 min read
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Honors for none
"De-laning" -- dropping honors classes at Silicon Valley high schools -- is "an assault on excellence," tweets liberal Democratic congressman in California.

Joanne Jacobs
May 142 min read
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Zuckerbergs give up on holistic, trauma-informed, culturally responsive schools
What if a school provided help with parenting, health and wellness and social services? A Zuckerberg-funded experiment is closing, an apparent failure.

Joanne Jacobs
Apr 262 min read
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'Disparate impact' is out: Base discipline on behavior, not race, says Trump order
Schools should discipline students who misbehave without regard to their race, says Trump's new executive order.

Joanne Jacobs
Apr 252 min read
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Seattle is losing top students: 'We don't serve their needs'
Seattle is closing special schools for advanced students -- and losing students to private schools.

Joanne Jacobs
Mar 262 min read
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DEI double take
Columbia researchers say they're losing federal grants for DEI language that they were required to add by the Biden administration.

Joanne Jacobs
Mar 232 min read
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Five years to destroy public faith in schools
Public schools' response to the pandemic has caused permanent damage.

Joanne Jacobs
Mar 103 min read
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Dear Colleague: Do what the Ed Department wants -- or else
The Education Department has used "guidance" letters to force states, colleges and districts to spend hundreds of millions of dollars.

Joanne Jacobs
Mar 43 min read
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'Americans got tired of being ridiculed for values like equality, color-blindness, and responsibility,' and now it's backlash time
The anti-DEI backlash is fierce, because so many people were forced to suppress their real feelings.

Joanne Jacobs
Feb 182 min read
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If the scores are bad, should we dump the test?
A majority of black, Hispanic and low-income fourth-graders have "below basic" reading skills. Does it matter?

Joanne Jacobs
Feb 113 min read
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Schools' gender, DEI policies pushed parents to the right
Parents have moved to the right, fed up by transgender and DEI policies.

Joanne Jacobs
Feb 82 min read
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