Joanne Jacobs
Most want more focus on academics, less on gender, sex
The red wave turned out to be a purple haze. Moderates outperformed extremists. Democracy did not end. Trumpery lost its luster. An...
Joanne Jacobs
- Oct 27
- 2 min
Is SEL a 'Trojan horse' for identity politics?
Social-emotional learning (SEL) can mean the sort of things teachers have taught for generations: Count to ten to calm down, take turns,...
Joanne Jacobs
- Oct 24
- 1 min
No critical race theory? No student teachers
A California ed school won’t send student teachers to a nearby school district that has banned critical race theory, reports Jill...
Joanne Jacobs
- Oct 24
- 1 min
'Critical race theory' means ... um ...
Should schools teach critical race theory (CRT)? Fifty-one percent of Americans have never heard of it or know nothing about it,...
Joanne Jacobs
- Oct 17
- 2 min
Teaching controversial issues is OK for teens, but not younger students
Most Americans want schools to teach older students about controversial issues, according to USC's Understanding America Survey, reports...
Joanne Jacobs
- Sep 7
- 1 min
Rebuild trust or say 'good-bye' to students
Public schools must rebuild trust with parents -- or continue to lose students to homeschooling, private schools, microschools and other...
Joanne Jacobs
- Sep 2
- 1 min
What does 'we' mean?
Jay Wamsted, who is White, teaches math in an Atlanta middle school where most students are Black. Last year, before Georgia passed a law...
Joanne Jacobs
- Aug 31
- 2 min
'The child is not the creature of the state'
Parents aren't perfect. Some are very imperfect indeed. But they have the right to "direct the upbringing and education" of their...
Joanne Jacobs
- Aug 26
- 1 min
Public trusts teachers, but not so much on racism or gender
Sixty-three percent of people trust local public-school teachers according to a new poll by PDK, an educators' group, reports Libby...
Joanne Jacobs
- Aug 17
- 2 min
Education's middle ground is 'vanishing'
When schools closed in 2020, support for schools remained strong, but the public's faith in the quality of their local schools has...
Joanne Jacobs
- Jun 16
- 1 min
Black male teachers are not security guards
If schools want more black male teachers, principals will have to let them be teachers — not security guards — writes Durrell Burns....
Joanne Jacobs
- Jun 12
- 1 min
Second wave of learning loss is coming in ’23-24
Students learned a lot less in remote classes, test scores show. “The achievement loss is far greater than most educators and parents...
Joanne Jacobs
- Jun 10
- 2 min
Kids, you’re not ‘stamped’
Moshe K. Levy considers himself “pro-human” rather than “anti-racist,” he writes on FAIR’s site. So he’s not a fan of Ibram X. Kendi’s...
Joanne Jacobs
- May 30
- 2 min
Want to be antiracist? Teach kids to read
Education Week reports that a growing number of school districts are asking would-be teachers: “What have you done personally or...
Joanne Jacobs
- May 22
- 1 min
If you want to speak up, you’d better be a saint
Princeton’s president wants to fire a tenured classics professor, but claims it’s not because he criticized “anti-racist” proposals,...
Joanne Jacobs
- May 10
- 2 min
Causing discomfort remains legal
Lessons that cause students discomfort remain legal everywhere, even in Florida, writes Peter Minowitz, a Santa Clara University...
Joanne Jacobs
- May 9
- 2 min
What’s ‘age appropriate’ for young students?
Parents and teachers want lessons to be “age appropriate,” but disagree on when children are ready for painful topics, writes Marta W....
Joanne Jacobs
- May 8
- 1 min
Teaching about racism: Americans are divided
Americans agree that schools should teach about historic racism and slavery, but divided on present-day racism, writes Matt Barnum on...
Joanne Jacobs
- May 4
- 2 min
Is social-emotional learning a Trojan horse?
While social-emotional learning sounds “positive and uncontroversial” in theory, “in practice, SEL serves as a delivery mechanism for...
Joanne Jacobs
- Mar 22, 2020
- 2 min
Closing the Racial Achievement Gap, Or Not
A contrarian view, to be sure, but I can’t say the author’s wrong: In 2015, MCPS (Montgomery County, MD, Public Schools) embarked on a...