Joanne Jacobs
Black history in Florida: 'Strong, valuable people'
Alex Haley's Roots, which traced his ancestors back to Africa, was a very big deal when it was shown on TV in 1977. I was surprised to...
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Joanne Jacobs
- Jul 4
- 2 min
Home of the brave
Most Americans are proud of our country and happy to be citizens, writes Michael Baharaeen on the Liberal Patriot. Political progressives...
Joanne Jacobs
- Jun 8
- 2 min
Public is divided on public schools
Most Democrats say the public schools positive effect on the U.S. Most Republicans disagree. The partisan divide on the value of public...
Joanne Jacobs
- May 23
- 1 min
Test reading and civics at the same time
Only 6 percent of eighth-graders can read Martin Luther King Jr.’s I Have a Dream speech and identify two ideas from the Constitution or...
Joanne Jacobs
- May 23
- 1 min
Textbooks are light on Latino history -- except for Sonia Sotomayor
U.S. history textbooks don't include much about Latino Americans, concludes a report by Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy and...
Joanne Jacobs
- May 6
- 2 min
Texas limits 'action civics'
Civic activism can't be required in Texas public schools if it requires communicating with federal, state or local officials, reports...
Joanne Jacobs
- May 5
- 1 min
History, civics and reading comprehension go together
The more students know about the world, the better they can understand what they read, writes Susan Pimentel in Education Week. The...
Joanne Jacobs
- May 4
- 2 min
Educating citizens: We can do better, but will we?
"The new National Assessment of Educational Progress civics and history results are as deplorable as they were predictable," writes...
Joanne Jacobs
- May 4
- 2 min
40% of 8th-graders are 'below basic' in history
Eighth-graders don't know much about U.S. history and civics, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), which...
Joanne Jacobs
- Apr 30
- 2 min
Surrendering Concord's Minutemen
Concord High School in Northern California is under pressure to give up its "Minutemen" mascot, reports Stephanie Magallon for NBC Bay...
Joanne Jacobs
- Apr 21
- 1 min
Museum plans charter school, loses public school field trips
Worcester (Mass.) public school students won't be going on field trips to nearby Old Sturbridge Village any more, reports Neal McNamara...
Joanne Jacobs
- Apr 10
- 2 min
'Ethnic studies lens' vs. 'e pluribus unum'
Washington state plans to make ethnic studies a high school graduation requirement, but it's not clear what that means, writes David J....
Joanne Jacobs
- Mar 17
- 2 min
Why was Rosa Parks told to move to the back of the bus?
Florida is approving new "anti-woke" social studies textbooks, reports Sarah Mervosh in the New York Times. Some publishers think the...
Joanne Jacobs
- Feb 21
- 2 min
DC 2nd-graders will study gender roles in Rome, Aksum and China
Writing social studies standards is always controversial. Often they're vague and meaningless, but sometimes they're insanely detailed,...
Joanne Jacobs
- Feb 20
- 2 min
AP African American Studies: None dare call it 'systemic'
The new Advanced Placement African American studies course was revised after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis called it anti-racist...
Joanne Jacobs
- Feb 3
- 2 min
It's only Schoolhouse Rock (but I like it)
I'm so old I don't know the words to Conjunction Junction. Schoolhouse Rock, animated musical shorts on grammar, history, civics,...
Joanne Jacobs
- Jan 16
- 1 min
'Letter from a Birmingham Jail'
"We will reach the goal of freedom in Birmingham and all over the nation, because the goal of America is freedom," Martin Luther King Jr....
Joanne Jacobs
- Dec 13, 2022
- 2 min
We're not that far apart on how to teach our history
The "history wars" are a fight between "imaginary enemies" concludes More in Common, after surveying Americans. "Both Democrats and...
Joanne Jacobs
- Nov 23, 2022
- 2 min
Blamesgiving: Public schools teach that America is 'bad and broken'
Public schools have lost touch with their mission and purpose, writes Robert Pondiscio, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise...
Joanne Jacobs
- Sep 12, 2022
- 3 min
Why Americans don't trust schools to teach history
"Americans are losing faith in the ability of public schools to teach controversial issues, writes Natalie Wexler. One person's "hard...
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