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Nancy Bailey's Education Website

Revive, Rally and Recover Public Schools

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How PICTURE Books Help TEACH Comprehension and Phonics!

September 27, 2023 By Nancy Bailey 16 Comments

When he looks at the pictures, he’ll get so excited he’ll want to draw one of his own. He’ll ask for paper and crayons.  ~Laura Joffe Numeroff, illustrated by Felicia Bond. If You Give A Mouse a Cookie Regarding how teachers teach reading, it’s alarming that pictures get a bad rap. One of the best […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Picture Books, Read alouds, reading to teach, Sheep in a Jeep

Raising the Bar on Kindergartners: A Nation at Risk Lives On

September 13, 2023 By Nancy Bailey 30 Comments

History is not kind to idlers. ~The Reagan administration’s A Nation at Risk (1983, p.7) In What Happened to Recess and Why are our Children Struggling in Kindergarten, Susan Ohanian writes about a kindergartner in a New York Times article who tells the reporter they would like to sit on the grass and look for […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: A Nation at Risk, advanced placement, child development, High Expectations, kindergarten, Raising the Bar on Kindergarten, school reform

10 Years Later: The Continuing Intentional Unraveling of America’s Public Schools

August 27, 2023 By Nancy Bailey 46 Comments

School reform continues to privatize and destroy public schools. August marks ten years since I began blogging. Within that time I have written two books and co-authored a third with Diane Ravitch. I’m proud of all this writing but Losing America’s Schools: The Fight to Reclaim Public Education is the book title that especially stands […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: assessment, class size, corporations and politicians, Covid, data, Diversity, expectations, Media, parents, reading, retention, School Choice, school facilities, School libraries and librarians, school reform, special education, students, teachers, Technology, the arts, workforce

When One School District Falls: HISD is a Preview for All Schools

August 2, 2023 By Nancy Bailey 13 Comments

I think there is a likelihood that we will be seeing more state takeover of districts. ~Kenneth Wong, education policy researcher and former advisor to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, March 28, 2023 Houston faces harsh public school reforms, a sad example of the continuing efforts in America to destroy all public education and […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Amplify, charter schools, discipline, Eli Broad, Houston Independent School District (HISD), Loss of Qualified Assistant Principals, Loss of Qualified Librarians, Loss of Qualified Teachers, Loss of School Libraries, Poor and Rich Schools, school reform, School Takeovers, Superintendent Mike Miles, Zoom Centers

Little-Discussed Reasons Why Students Might Not Like to Read

July 19, 2023 By Nancy Bailey 23 Comments

Students don’t like to read. These rarely discussed reasons may explain why. Kindergarten is no longer a garden.    Kindergartners are pressured to read. Before NCLB, over twenty years ago, this was unheard of and still makes no sense. Formal reading instruction once began in first grade. Children in the not-too-distant past were given time to […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: analyzing reading, Close Reading, hazing, high-stakes standardized tests and reading, Kindergarten reading, phonics, reading, reading choices, reading difficulties, reading interest, school gimmicks, school libraries, Students dislike reading, technology and reading, third grade retention

3 Ways to Lose Democratic Public Schools: The Crisis on This 4th of July

July 4, 2023 By Nancy Bailey 7 Comments

When hanging the flag, please stop and think about public education, freedom, and what schools could be like. So much has been done to privatize schools that they may be a shell of their potential. Corporate reformers have changed how America’s students are educated, and politicians from both parties have, for years, evaded, ignored, or facilitated […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: 4th of July, Freedom, public education, public schools, teaching

Is Mississippi Shifting to Online Teacher Education with Reading Universe?

June 27, 2023 By Nancy Bailey 4 Comments

Switching from face-to-face, in-person public education to computer screens is concerning. It’s happening in K12 and appears to be driving privatization with teacher education at the university level. The Science of Reading lends itself to this, but there’s little proof online instruction makes better students or teachers. So far, research supporting this is hard to […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Barksdale Reading Institute, ExcelinEd, First Book, Mississippi, Online Instruction, online teacher education, reading, Reading Rockets, Reading Universe, science of reading, teachers, WETA (PBS)

Problem-Solving through Play: What Children Miss with Age-Inappropriate Expectations

June 11, 2023 By Nancy Bailey 2 Comments

Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood. ~Fred Rogers Lately, when do children get chances to solve problems through unstructured play? How much time do they spend in school thinking, discovering, and figuring things […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: child development, early childhood education, high-stakes testing, play, play-based learning, problem solve, problem solving through unstructured play, recess, Unstructured Play

Can a State Reading Program Be a Success if Students are Segregated and Hungry?

June 7, 2023 By Nancy Bailey 12 Comments

Nicholas Kristof’s recent New York Times opinion piece, Mississippi Is Offering Lessons for America on Education, showcases a troubling disregard for segregated schooling and the poverty in which children find themselves. Mississippi’s Segregated Public Schools His article also begs questioning due to its focus on the agenda of ExcelinEd, former governor Jeb Bush’s education lobbying group, […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: ExcelinEd, NCLB, Nicholas Kristof, no excuses, poverty and children, science of reading, The New York Times, third grade retention, vouchers

Third-Grade Retention: Parents Show Common Ground Fighting It

May 28, 2023 By Nancy Bailey 14 Comments

My last post criticized Science of Reading (SoR) advocates for not fighting against third-grade retention or believing it’s good remediation for reading problems. Third-grade retention based on a test is a ploy to drive parents to take their children out of public schools. Some parents with children who have dyslexia, who believe in the SoR, […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: dyslexia, parents, retention, third grade retention

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Author, Ph.D. Ed. Leadership and longtime teacher, Blogging for Kids, Teachers, Parents & Democratic Public Schools. On Mastodon, and looking into BlueSky.

NancyEBailey1
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nancyebailey1 Nancy E. Bailey @nancyebailey1 ·
5 Feb 2018

The concept of the IEP was stolen by Gates and Zuckerberg for "personalized" learning! Definitely concerning and parents should not be confused! #SPEDChat @disabilityscoop https://twitter.com/Philly852/status/960490008854630400

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nancyebailey1 Nancy E. Bailey @nancyebailey1 ·
27 Sep

Pictures are paramount for children learning to read. Lately, they're getting a bad rap. Here's an outline of what children learn through picture books they like.

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plthomasedd Paul Thomas @plthomasedd ·
2 Oct

Grade Retention Harms Children, Corrupts Test Data, But Not a Miracle: Mississippi Edition via @plthomasEdD

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kathybeeryforva Kathy Beery for Senate @kathybeeryforva ·
2 Oct

@VA_GOP Public schools, mental health, roads, bridges, etc. are NOT "left-wing" special interests. They are community needs that are in ALL of our interests.

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barbmcdowdall Barbara McD Dowdall @barbmcdowdall ·
2 Oct

@NancyEBailey1 1946 picture book Bright April, fictional African American family (postman father, brother in army, sister in nursing school, main character a Brownie scout learning handcrafts, birdwatching, tree study) provided mirror of herself to youngster in NYC, now Librarian of Congress.

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