Joanne Jacobs
'B-flation' misleads parents: 89% say their child is at grade level
Seventy-nine percent of parents say their child is receiving mostly B's or better, and 89 percent believe their child is at or above...
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Joanne Jacobs
- Nov 16
- 2 min
Disarming grades
"Handwringing" about grade inflation is "inflated," suggests Valerie Strauss in the Washington Post. She offers a piece by Jack Schneider...
Joanne Jacobs
- Nov 12
- 2 min
Tutors for toddlers: Crazy parents will raise crazy kids
"The race to the Ivy League starts early," writes Asia Grace in the New York Post. Affluent parents are hiring tutors for their toddlers...
Joanne Jacobs
- Nov 11
- 2 min
Teen angst is normal: 'Wellness' may backfire
Mental health doesn't mean feeling good all the time, writes psychologist Lisa Damour in The Emotional Lives of Teenagers: Raising...
Joanne Jacobs
- Nov 9
- 1 min
'B' is for below grade level (and chronically absent)
"Rosie" averaged an 83 in core classes and tested more than two months above grade level in fifth grade in 2019. She was absent three...
Joanne Jacobs
- Nov 5
- 2 min
Mom knows everything: Apps let parents track kids' schoolwork -- and drive them crazy
If only parents were involved in their children's education, teachers said, students would do so much better. If only teachers...
Joanne Jacobs
- Nov 3
- 2 min
Black homeschoolers plan microschool, if Texas OKs ESAs
Texas may provide $10,400 per student for parent-directed education, if Gov. Greg Abbott can push a compromise bill through a third...
Joanne Jacobs
- Oct 31
- 2 min
Why are Dept of Defense schools so good?
The highest-scoring school district in the country isn't a school district, reports Sarah Mervosh in the New York Times. The "Defense...
Joanne Jacobs
- Oct 19
- 2 min
Teens spend 4.8 hours a day on social media, says Gallup
U.S. teenagers average 4.8 hours a day on social media apps such as YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and X (formerly Twitter),...
Joanne Jacobs
- Sep 24
- 2 min
Pro-trans parents won't get custody edge in California
Mom wants to start "Oliver" on puberty blockers. Dad thinks "Olivia" should go through puberty before deciding whether to be male, female...
Joanne Jacobs
- Sep 13
- 2 min
Love, marriage, honor roll: Culture closes 'excellence gaps'
Culture explains why Asian-American students do so well in school, writes Helen Raleigh, who's Asian American, in The Federalist. It's...
Joanne Jacobs
- Sep 8
- 2 min
How Detroit school is trying to get students to show up
Mentors, home visits, data analysis and movie visits for students and grocery gift cards for parents are among the strategies used to get...
Joanne Jacobs
- Jul 29
- 3 min
Autism is a disability -- not a 'natural difference to be celebrated'
Autism rates keep climbing -- nearly 3 percent, of all eight-year-olds in the latest estimates -- yet there's no sense of crisis, writes...
Joanne Jacobs
- Jul 2
- 2 min
Goofus and Gallant break the bad-good binary
My sister and I shared a subscription to Highlights Magazine. I always checked out the two-panel comic strip to marvel at Goofus'...
Joanne Jacobs
- Jul 1
- 2 min
NJ sues school district for 'outing' students to their parents
If Ella wants to be called Elliot or Elliot goes from "he" to "they," teachers in three New Jersey districts are supposed to tell the...
Joanne Jacobs
- Jun 14
- 2 min
Still disrupted: Students are missing a lot of school
Schools haven't returned to normal reports Alia Wong for USA Today. An alarming number of students are "missing vast stretches of their...
Joanne Jacobs
- May 24
- 2 min
'At lunch hour, everyone eats alone, scrolling TikTok'
But, Mom, everyone else has a smartphone. Parents are trying to say "no" to smartphones for elementary and middle schoolers, but it's...
Joanne Jacobs
- Apr 20
- 2 min
Don't ignore the smart kids
Victoria McDougald thought kindergarten would be exciting and joyful for her son, "an eager, rapid learner," but she learned that the...
Joanne Jacobs
- Apr 8
- 3 min
The politics of parenting
Permissive parenting -- known as "gentle" or "mindful" or "intentional" parenting -- is spreading among left-of-center parents, writes...
Joanne Jacobs
- Feb 8
- 2 min
Parents need 'choice navigators'
"Choice navigators" can help parents use education scholarships to find the right options for their children, writes Travis Pillow of the...
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