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'Brain rot' is the word for Gen Alpha
"Ohio" means "weird" in Gen Alpha slang. Hmmmm.

Joanne Jacobs
Dec 29, 20241 min read
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'Multilevel classes' aren't equitable or excellent, say teachers
Mixing high-achieving, average and low-achieving students in the same class was a noble experiment, writes Ryan Normandin, a high school...

Joanne Jacobs
Dec 11, 20242 min read
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Chicago to teachers: Give migrant students a 70% and pass them along
Chicago teachers say they were told to pass all migrant students, regardless of their academic skills.

Joanne Jacobs
Sep 20, 20242 min read
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As immigrants fill empty seats, schools scramble to teach them
" Migrants coming here as been a godsend " for New York City schools threatened with closure because of declining enrollment, Schools...

Joanne Jacobs
Sep 16, 20242 min read
2 comments


Sprinkling the fairy dust that helps children fly
My visiting eight-month-old granddaughter crawl-flopped past the teething toys to chew on the metal leg of the coffee table. "Try the...

Joanne Jacobs
Aug 21, 20241 min read
2 comments


Sprechen sie ... Don't bother, AI will parlez vous for you
Learning a foreign language may soon be as obsolete as learning how to churn butter, writes Louise Matsakis in The Atlantic. Total...

Joanne Jacobs
Apr 6, 20242 min read
7 comments


No hablo ingles? No es un problema at California community colleges
Immigrants can find classes in Spanish, Mandarin, Russian, Armenian, Korean and other languages at some California community colleges. ...

Joanne Jacobs
Nov 17, 20232 min read
1 comment


Talking 'bout 'oracy'
Teaching students to speak well would "break the class ceiling," said Sir Keir Starmer, the British Labour leader and would-be prime...

Joanne Jacobs
Jul 9, 20233 min read
6 comments


Science says: Masking didn't help stop Covid spread
The value of masking during the pandemic was "approximately zero," according to a Cochrane review of high-quality research, reports John...

Joanne Jacobs
Feb 18, 20231 min read
4 comments


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 23, 20223 min read
2 comments


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 8, 20222 min read
8 comments


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
Oct 2, 20222 min read
1 comment


'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
Aug 15, 20221 min read
1 comment


‘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
May 7, 20221 min read
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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
Jun 6, 20183 min read
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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
Apr 16, 20182 min read
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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 21, 20181 min read
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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
Mar 14, 20182 min read
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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 31, 20182 min read
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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
Jan 9, 20182 min read
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