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Young students are better in phonics, worse in math
"Covid toddlers" -- kids who were two years old in March 2020 -- were more likely to be unprepared for kindergarten in fall 2023 reports...

Joanne Jacobs
Feb 1, 20241 min read
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Students are catching up in math, reading -- but gaps are wider
Reading and math scores are on their way up, reports the Education Recovery Scorecard. On average, students in grades three through eight...

Joanne Jacobs
Feb 1, 20242 min read
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Beyond decoding: Teaching knowledge, vocabulary builds comprehension
In Portage, Michigan, fourth graders are reading about hurricanes -- including words such as "atmosphere" -- in their English Language...

Joanne Jacobs
Jan 17, 20242 min read
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Do teachers learn how to teach reading? 19 states are 'weak' or worse
There will be no reading "miracles" without effective teachers, warns the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) in a new report....

Joanne Jacobs
Jan 16, 20242 min read
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Parents trust their child's reading teacher, but should they?
More than 90 percent of parents think their child's elementary school and teacher are doing a "good" or "excellent" job of teaching...

Joanne Jacobs
Dec 15, 20232 min read
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It matters how kids read: On-screen reading doesn't build comprehension
It doesn't matter what kids read as long as they're reading, people often say. Maybe so. But for "developing readers," leisure reading...

Joanne Jacobs
Dec 15, 20231 min read
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'Literacy liberators' are as effective as teachers in tutoring early readers
An Oakland parent group hired and trained tutors from the community to work with early readers, reports Linda Jacobson on The 74....

Joanne Jacobs
Dec 8, 20231 min read
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Training teachers in 'science of reading' improves reading
Low-performing California schools improved third-graders' reading by training teachers in how children learn to read, according to a new...

Joanne Jacobs
Dec 8, 20231 min read
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Math crisis is global: US teens do worse on PISA, but so do others
The bad news from international testing: U.S. 15-year-olds did significantly worse in math from 2018 to 2022 on the Program for...

Joanne Jacobs
Dec 6, 20232 min read
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Missing dyslexia
Schools are failing to diagnose dyslexia, which makes it hard for as many as 20 percent of students to master reading, writes Sarah Carr...

Joanne Jacobs
Nov 20, 20232 min read
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Only 1.2% to repeat 3rd grade due to Tennessee 'reading gate'
Sixty percent of Tennessee third graders faced the prospect of repeating the grade, but only 1.2 percent failed to get past the "reading...

Joanne Jacobs
Nov 20, 20232 min read
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To kill 'To Kill a Mockingbird'
Ninth-graders aren't reading To Kill a Mockingbird this year in Mukilteo, Washington, an affluent, mostly white town north of Seattle. ...

Joanne Jacobs
Nov 6, 20232 min read
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How to kill the bad-teaching monster: Don't forget the garlic
To kill a vampire permanently dead, you'll need to hammer a wooden stake in its heart, shoot it with a silver bullet melted down from a...

Joanne Jacobs
Nov 1, 20233 min read
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Repeating a grade can help elementary students succeed
Holding kids back if they're way behind in reading is very controversial, but new research shows that repeating a grade in elementary...

Joanne Jacobs
Oct 18, 20232 min read
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You can't give 'Hop on Pop' to a 7th-grader
Middle schoolers who read at the first, second and third-grade level won't read "baby books" and can't read grade-level books, says...

Joanne Jacobs
Oct 17, 20231 min read
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Why so many parents mistrust schools: They didn't teach our kids to read
"When schools fail to teach reading, it harms the public's trust in schools," writes Kendra Hurley in Slate. Her children's Brooklyn...

Joanne Jacobs
Oct 17, 20232 min read
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Please, please, please don't politicize reading instruction
Oklahoma Superintendent Ryan Walters declared the first week of October "Teach Kids to Read Week." This is controversial, reports Sarah...

Joanne Jacobs
Oct 13, 20232 min read
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Rosalinda wants to be an astronaut, but she doesn't read very well
Massachusetts, which claims to have the best public schools in the nation, is "failing its neediest learners," write Mandy McLaren and...

Joanne Jacobs
Oct 9, 20232 min read
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'Hungry Caterpillar' is banned as school purges pre-2008 books
Books published before 2008 have been removed from school library shelves in a school district near Toronto, Canada, reports Nicole...

Joanne Jacobs
Sep 18, 20232 min read
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More students are in 'big, big trouble' in reading, math, and they're not catching up
Students are learning again, but most are not catching up for learning lost during the pandemic, conclude three new reports comparing...

Joanne Jacobs
Aug 28, 20232 min read
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