Joanne Jacobs
Detracking in Shaker Heights: 'Honors' for all, lower expectations
All Shaker Heights students take honors classes -- or classes with an "honors" label. The "enriched" and "advanced" tracks are gone,...
top of page
Joanne Jacobs
- Jul 21
- 2 min
You want equity? Teach more -- not less
The foolish idea that teaching kids less math will advance "equity" has spread from California, which has adopted watered-down guidelines...
Joanne Jacobs
- Jul 14
- 2 min
'Big ideas' aren't always good ideas
Impatience is the besetting sin of progressive education. Progressives want to skip the boring, old fundamentals -- phonics,...
Joanne Jacobs
- Jul 7
- 1 min
'Data science' closes STEM doors, professors warn
"Data science" classes don't prepare students for college-level math, science or engineering courses, say University of California...
Joanne Jacobs
- Apr 14
- 2 min
'Algebra for none' fails in San Francisco
The goal was equity. The result: Meh. Frustrated by high failure rates in eighth-grade algebra, San Francisco Unified decided in 2015 to...
Joanne Jacobs
- Apr 3
- 1 min
Students learn more from tough graders
Students learn more when their teachers have high expectations, concludes a study in North Carolina, reports Kevin Mahnken. Algebra...
Joanne Jacobs
- Feb 23
- 2 min
Algebra: Gateway or barrier?
“What is so magical about algebra as a math requirement?” asked Eloy Ortiz Oakley, former chancellor of California’s community college...
bottom of page