As a college professor who also teaches high school students computer science in a summer program, dinner-table conversations in my home often sound like faculty meetings. My husband, an assistant principal and former classroom social studies teacher, and I regularly compare notes about what we are seeing in students as they move from middle school […]
Current Events in Education
Posted inCurrent Events in Education
When Everyone Else is Scrolling: Why I’m Delaying Smartphones for My Daughters
I’ve spent a decade teaching high school English, and I can tell you exactly when a student got their first unrestricted smartphone. Not because they tell me, but because I watch it happen in real time. The attention span fragments, the anxiety spikes, and the ability to sit with difficult thoughts disappears. I’m also a […]
Posted inCurrent Events in Education
From Funding to Fidelity: What Districts Should Know as LIFT Implementation Begins
With the launch of LASO Cycle 4, Texas is ushering in the next evolution of its grant and allotment programs, investing over $500 million to strengthen schools across the state. “Learning Acceleration Support Opportunities (LASO) is a single, consolidated application that combines grants, allotments, and in-kind supports, bundled around a few key strategies to accelerate […]
Posted inCurrent Events in Education
Holding your kids back: Retention isn’t the problem
The idea that holding students back when they haven’t met grade-level standards does more harm than good is a widely held belief in education circles. This phrase is often repeated as if it were an unquestionable scientific fact. But few anti-retention advocates seem to understand how the foundational studies were conducted, what the data could […]
Posted inCurrent Events in Education
Trump administration abandons appeal targeting DEI in education
The Trump administration has withdrawn a significant initiative that sought to curb diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts across schools and colleges. The Trump administration has filed a notice withdrawing its appeal in a case that sought to roll back more than 60 years of civil rights protections in public education after attempting to require […]
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Chasing a different STAAR: HB8 changes to state testing for elementary and middle schooL students in Texas
I remember the exact moment. It was June 2023, right after the last bell rang on a Friday afternoon. My colleague stuck her head in my classroom door, grinning. “Did you hear? They killed the STAAR!” We’d been teaching under the weight of the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness for over a decade. […]
Posted inCurrent Events in Education
The Hidden Threat in Florida’s new “Vision for Education“
Florida recently became the first state in the nation to adopt The Phoenix Declaration: An American Vision for Education, a statement of principles for education in America by the conservative think tank, The Heritage Foundation. At first glance this manifesto seems harmless; after all, who doesn’t want access to a “high-quality, content-rich education?” On closer examination, however, […]
Posted inCurrent Events in Education
Idea Exchange: What is school and how do we “do” school?
Education is one of the largest systems we interact with. Nearly all of us have a formal education background in some way. In other words, we all have experience going to school growing up. So let me pose a few questions, and specifically regarding K-12: I try to be mindful that schools vary. I am […]