Whether it’s dyslexia (a specific learning disability) or writing, attention, organization, or other learning and behavioral difficulties, children who struggle in school need teachers who can help them learn. Sometimes that help can occur in a general class setting. Other times a child might benefit from small group or individualized assistance. That’s what special education […]
The Headband Obsession With Student Concentration
Headbands created to collect information about student attending behavior are the latest trend. Adults monitor and gather information from students’ brains to see if they stay focused on schoolwork. Here’s the Vulcan Post that discusses Neeuro, from just one company jumping on the headband bandwagon. This falls into the social-emotional “good behavior” and “self-regulation” learning […]
Social-Emotional Learning and Teachers Students Love? Teachers in Los Angeles!
Social-emotional learning (SEL) in schools makes many parents and teachers nervous. We worry there’s an ulterior motive to collect behavioral data on how children think and act, and that the ultimate goal is to privatize public schools and track students. Talk about transforming our public schools away from cognitive learning to SEL is everywhere! Those […]
Arne Duncan Continues to Push Dangerous Corporate School Reform
With Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, it might be tempting to see Arne Duncan as an educational expert, but Duncan has never formally studied education, or been a teacher. Duncan paved the way for DeVos. EdSurge recently brought us Arne Duncan’s 6 lessons about education. They are nothing but the same old corporate reforms that have […]
The Reading Wars? Who’s Talking About Reading and Class Size?
…extensive research in the reading difficulties of children show that large classes are the basic cause of failure in reading as well as in other subjects. ~Professor Arthur I. Gates, nationally known authority in the field of reading instruction. Elementary School Journal; February 1937. When parents and teachers debate phonics and whole language, they might […]
My Blogging Anniversary: How Has School Reform Changed in Five Years?
I recently passed the five-year anniversary of when I started writing my blog. What has changed? In this post, I analyze some of the issues I’ve written about over the years. Then, I thank you for your support. Change or lack of change in education can seem dark and foreboding, but there’s a great deal […]
What School Safety Reports Ignore: Reducing Class Size
Over the summer we have seen a glut of school safety reports. Local, state, and federal agencies have written possible solutions they think will thwart future school violence. Some suggestions might be well-advised, but others have created concerns about questionable student surveillance. It’s difficult to believe any solutions will be successful if no one addresses class […]
Why Some Parents Turn Their Backs on Public Schools, And What Can Be Done About It
Why do parents remove their children from public schools? Why do they switch to homeschooling, private, or charter schools? What makes them believe that technology is the answer to their child’s problems? Sometimes, it’s simply because they prefer other settings, and they have no complaints about public schooling. But parents who remove their children from […]
Worries about Tech and the Chan/Zuckerberg $30 Million Support of “Reach Every Reader”
Reading is essential for learning, yet students across the U.S. are completing elementary school with inadequate reading abilities. So begins the announcement in The Harvard Gazette telling us about the new $30 million grant Chan/Zuckerberg will hand over to Harvard’s School of Education and MIT’s Integrative Learning Initiative (MITili). Learning to read, all of us […]
Require Ed. Secretary Betsy DeVos to Teach in a Public School
Betsy DeVos and any corporate reformer who impacts school policy should be required to spend at least a month each year teaching in a public school classroom. DeVos just attended Gov. Jeb Bush’s ExcelinEd meeting in Nashville. Let Jeb Bush and his corporate friends and politicians who drive corporate reform also teach for a month. […]