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If you aren't teaching kids to read and do math, you don't care about 'equity'
"Equity" talk is meaningless, if adults aren't held accountable for teaching students to read and do math.

Joanne Jacobs
Apr 172 min read


Skip the smart kids
High achievers are bored and frustrated. Let them skip a grade.

Joanne Jacobs
Apr 12 min read


Why teachers assign less homework: Students won't do it -- but AI will
Most teachers assign less homework -- or none at all. Students won't do it, they say. But AI will.

Joanne Jacobs
Mar 42 min read


Inflated grades lead to deflated pay
Students who receive good grades for mediocre work tend to learn and earn less in the long run.

Joanne Jacobs
Feb 122 min read


The anti-knowledge league prefers 'engagement' to learning
Teaching knowledge and vocabulary helps students learn, but education professors prefer "engagement" to learning.

Joanne Jacobs
Nov 21, 20252 min read


Futureness is the future!
Why settle for 21st-century edubabble when you can sell 22nd-century skills?

Joanne Jacobs
Nov 10, 20252 min read


Getting math wrong
New York is telling teachers to adopt trendy math ideas that failed in California.

Joanne Jacobs
Nov 4, 20253 min read


NEA trains teachers in activism, self-care and 'the future of trans'
The NEA's online courses favor progressive fads over teaching.

Joanne Jacobs
Oct 30, 20251 min read


While teachers worry about discipline, ed researchers focus on 'equity'
As teachers try to get students to "sit down, focus and learn," researchers priorities are equity, justice and identity.

Joanne Jacobs
Oct 30, 20252 min read


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

Joanne Jacobs
Oct 21, 20252 min read


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
Oct 20, 20252 min read


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 3, 20252 min read


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 29, 20253 min read


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 26, 20253 min read


Effort matters: Kids have to do the work
Effort matters.

Joanne Jacobs
Sep 3, 20253 min read


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 26, 20252 min read


Teachers are skeptical of 'equitable' grading: 'Students sink to lower expectations'
Teachers don't like grading "reforms" that lower expectations.

Joanne Jacobs
Aug 20, 20252 min read


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 7, 20252 min read


'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 21, 20252 min read


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 14, 20252 min read
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