Joanne Jacobs
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...
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Joanne Jacobs
- Oct 17
- 2 min
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 13
- 2 min
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
- Jul 3
- 1 min
Good news in Tennessee
Tennessee's focus on tutoring and summer school is paying off, report Marta W. Aldrich and Kae Petrin on Chalkbeat. Scores are up for the...
Joanne Jacobs
- Jul 3
- 2 min
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
There are three terrifying things about the long-term federal test data on 13-year-olds' achievement, writes Vladimir Kogan, an Ohio...
Joanne Jacobs
- Jun 27
- 2 min
Why Johnny can't read in Oregon
Oregon schools, which once outdid national averages, produced "jaw-dropping declines in student outcomes" during the pandemic, and now...
Joanne Jacobs
- Jun 20
- 2 min
'It's heartbreaking to realize I never taught my students to read'
Hoping to share her love of reading, Bridget Scanlan became an "intervention" teacher working with struggling readers and special-ed...
Joanne Jacobs
- Jun 20
- 2 min
38% of ed schools get 'F' in prepping teachers to teach reading
Thirty-eight percent of teacher-education programs are failing to prepare future teachers to teach reading using the most effective...
Joanne Jacobs
- May 10
- 2 min
It's 'our fault' Johnny and Juanita can't read, says NYC chancellor
New York City's public schools have been teaching reading badly for decades, ignoring research on how children learn to read, said...
Joanne Jacobs
- May 1
- 2 min
It's easier to become a teacher, but ...
States are dropping licensing tests to qualify more teachers, write Hannah Putnam and Heather Peske of the National Council on Teacher...
Joanne Jacobs
- Apr 5
- 2 min
Some teachers resist 'science of reading' laws
Teachers' unions are pushing back against state laws requiring early literacy instruction to be based on the "science of reading," write...
Joanne Jacobs
- Jan 3
- 3 min
NAACP pushes for literacy reform: Teach our kids to read
Black leaders have transformed reading instruction in northern Virginia, reports Sarah Carr in the Washington Post. The Fairfax County...
Joanne Jacobs
- Dec 2, 2022
- 1 min
Florida's special-ed students are doing very well: Is it choice?
In Florida, which pioneered school choice for special-needs students more than 20 years ago, students with disabilities are doing very...
Joanne Jacobs
- Dec 1, 2022
- 2 min
Leave the straw man alone: Teach those kids to read
Students don't need to sound out words, letter by letter, teachers were told. They don't need to be taught phonics systematically. If...
Joanne Jacobs
- Nov 14, 2022
- 3 min
The magic of reading: Teach first, joy later
In The Superstar, part of her Sold a Story podcasts, APM reporter Emily Hanford explains how a romantic view of how children learn to...
Joanne Jacobs
- Nov 7, 2022
- 2 min
Los Angeles schools will follow reading science, says Carvalho
"If we are going to follow the science, then we should really embrace all science, including the science of reading," said Alberto M....
Joanne Jacobs
- Nov 7, 2022
- 2 min
Teaching reading should not be political
"So the anti-public school, pro-book banning crowd has latched onto the “science of reading” movement…shocked," tweets Ryan Davis...
Joanne Jacobs
- Oct 18, 2022
- 2 min
Finally, schools are following the 'science of reading'
Phonics is back in classrooms and it's helping young children learn to read, writes Bella DiMarco, a FutureEd policy analyst, in the New...
Joanne Jacobs
- Sep 23, 2022
- 2 min
Once they can decode, the next step is knowledge
The mainstream media has declared a victor in the "reading wars," writes Robert Pondiscio. Both TIME and The New Yorker had stories last...
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