Joanne Jacobs
Raising not-so-American kids
College-educated parents want their children taught in Japanese, Mandarin, French and Spanish, writes Abigail Shrier on Substack. They...
Joanne Jacobs
- Oct 2
- 2 min
Louisiana eyes requiring summer school for struggling readers
Louisiana students not reading at grade level in K-4 would be required to attend summer school -- or repeat a grade -- under a proposal...
Joanne Jacobs
- Aug 15
- 1 min
'Sounds first' works in Tennessee
The Knowledge Matters Campaign's new web site highlights teachers and schools that use "knowledge-building curricula" to develop...
Joanne Jacobs
- May 7
- 1 min
‘Russian’ school gets a new name
A “Support Ukraine” rally in Indianapolis on April 9. Children still come for after-school classes in math, science and chess, but the...
Joanne Jacobs
- Jun 6, 2018
- 3 min
Does babytalk matter? Word gap wrangle
By the age of three, children growing up in poverty hear 30 million fewer words than the children of educated parents, concluded a study...
Joanne Jacobs
- Apr 16, 2018
- 2 min
How immigrants learn English in Canada
In Canadian schools, immigrants catch up to native English speakers within three years, reports Education Week correspondent Kavitha...
Joanne Jacobs
- Mar 21, 2018
- 1 min
Learn, talk, think
Three girls are using prior knowledge, texts and images to rank five Civil War heroes in order of heroism. Then they’ll write essays...
Joanne Jacobs
- Mar 14, 2018
- 2 min
Bilingual ed for black English?
Remember Ebonics? Worried about black students’ reading skills, Oakland’s school board declared black English to be a separate,...
Joanne Jacobs
- Jan 31, 2018
- 2 min
Immigrant parents aren’t keen on bilingual ed
Mural by students at Broadway Elementary School in Los Angeles Los Angeles Unified is tripling the number of dual-immersion bilingual...
Joanne Jacobs
- Jan 9, 2018
- 2 min
Bilingual ed as white privilege
Middle-class, native English-speaking, white parents are flooding into dual-immersion bilingual programs, writes Conor Williams in The...
Joanne Jacobs
- Dec 8, 2017
- 1 min
Refuge, friendship and hope
In The Newcomers: Finding Refuge, Friendship, and Hope in an American Classroom, journalist Helen Thorpe describes the progress of newly...
Joanne Jacobs
- Nov 14, 2017
- 1 min
NY cuts English classes for immigrants
Beginning English Language Learners (ELLs) need direct instruction in English writes Arthur Goldstein, an English as a Second Language...
Joanne Jacobs
- Aug 5, 2017
- 2 min
Why Learn Languages?
Yes, but what does this take? A language towers over the best of minds. A few years of high school study won’t get you far, unless the...
Joanne Jacobs
- Jul 24, 2017
- 2 min
Newcomer schools: Separate and better?
Michael Krell teaches statistics at the International Academy, a program for immigrant students at Cardozo Educational Campus in...
Joanne Jacobs
- Jun 26, 2017
- 1 min
Where poor kids are learning — Texas
Only 4 percent of schools have closed the economic achievement gap, according to the Education Equality Index. Brownsville, Texas, a...
Joanne Jacobs
- Jun 14, 2017
- 1 min
Welcome to Refugee High
Chicago’s Sullivan High has raised its enrollment and test scores by welcoming immigrants and refugees, reports Elly Fishman for Chicago...
Joanne Jacobs
- May 19, 2017
- 1 min
The pleasures of poetry
High school students recited three poems they’d memorized for the Poetry Out Loud finals last month, reports Education Week. “This...
Joanne Jacobs
- May 8, 2017
- 2 min
Do refugees learn more in ‘international’ schools?
“Segregating” refugees may help them integrate, suggests the Hechinger Report’s Meredith Kolodner. Bowling Green, Kentucky has opened a...
Joanne Jacobs
- Feb 21, 2017
- 1 min
Schools get refugees, but no resources
El Cajon, just east of San Diego, has been a resettling refugees for years, reports Mark Keierleber on The 74. But now the Cajon Valley...
Joanne Jacobs
- Dec 19, 2016
- 2 min
If families fail, what can schools do?
Who’s your daddy? asks Ian Rowe, a Fordham fellow, who leads two charter schools in the South Bronx. That’s the message on two mobile DNA...