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How virtual learning broke a top high school's culture of excellence
Eighteen months of remote schooling broke the culture of excellence at Baltimore's City College high school.

Joanne Jacobs
Mar 101 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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Covid school closings hurt kids' learning, health and happiness -- for nothing
Reopening schools didn't increase Covid cases, hospitalizations or deaths in five countries. But kids learned more.

Joanne Jacobs
Jan 272 min read
4 comments


Credits for competency makes sense -- if colleges avoid the credit-recovery route
"Competency-based" education makes sense -- if students really are competent.

Joanne Jacobs
Jan 112 min read
3 comments


From Walmart Academy to a bachelor's degree in business
With credit for workplace training and Walmart’s tuition-assistance program, Bonnie Boop earned an online business degree, reports NPR's...

Joanne Jacobs
Jul 12, 20241 min read
1 comment


In college, but not in class: Kids with 'snowplow parents' give up easily
Absenteeism -- physical and mental -- is high for college students too.

Joanne Jacobs
May 19, 20241 min read
5 comments


NY high school becomes storm shelter for migrants
Students at Brooklyn's James Madison High School "were kicked out of the classroom" today "to make room for nearly 2,000 migrants" from a...

Joanne Jacobs
Jan 10, 20241 min read
6 comments


Why parents choose virtual schools
Virtual schooling has a bad reputation, writes Ian Kingsbury, a senior fellow at the Educational Freedom Institute, in City Journal....

Joanne Jacobs
Jun 6, 20232 min read
4 comments


Dual enrollment soars, but is it really college?
Sarah Olufemi-Dada is graduating from her Texas high school with a diploma, an associate science and a full scholarship to Stanford,...

Joanne Jacobs
May 25, 20232 min read
11 comments


Is a religious charter school kosher?
Oklahoma is considering approval of the first religious charter school in the U.S., reports Andrea Eger in Tulsa World. A state board is...

Joanne Jacobs
Feb 15, 20232 min read
3 comments


The students who never returned
A quarter-million students who left public schools during the pandemic are missing, according to an analysis of 21 states and the...

Joanne Jacobs
Feb 13, 20232 min read
3 comments


Khan: Students hit the wall in Algebra I if they don't know 3 x 7 = 21
Remote instruction led to disastrous learning losses," especially in math, according to conclusive research, writes Kevin Mahnken on The...

Joanne Jacobs
Feb 9, 20233 min read
10 comments


No more snow days? Not yet
Snow days have not been canceled, despite the rise of remote learning, writes Nathan M. Sorber, a higher education professor at West...

Joanne Jacobs
Jan 7, 20232 min read
3 comments


Some like it virtual: Will online students learn less?
Enrollment is climbing in virtual schools, even as pandemic fears wane, reports Asher Lehrer-Small on The 74. Online schools saw an...

Joanne Jacobs
Nov 15, 20222 min read
4 comments


College students lost learning too, but how much?
Universities aren't even trying to figure out how much students lost when classes went remote, writes Jonathan Zimmerman, who teaches...

Joanne Jacobs
Nov 11, 20221 min read
3 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
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Out the classroom door, but still teaching
While there’s little evidence of a “Big Quit” in education there may be a Significant Shift in how teachers see their options, writes...

Joanne Jacobs
Jun 16, 20223 min read
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22 weeks of lost learning
Remote students’ learning losses are worse than educators are willing to acknowledge, writes Thomas Kane, faculty director of Harvard’s...

Joanne Jacobs
May 25, 20222 min read
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Zoom U was very bad for students
College students are not OK, writes Jonathan Malesic, who teaches first-year writing at Southern Methodist University, in a New York...

Joanne Jacobs
May 16, 20222 min read
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Remote ed was double-whammy for poor students
Remote learning widened achievement gaps in states and districts that kept schools closed the longest, concludes a working paper by...

Joanne Jacobs
May 16, 20221 min read
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