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Nancy Bailey's Education Website

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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

Kindergarten Reading is NOT a Crisis! The Real Reasons Behind These Claims

March 13, 2022 By Nancy Bailey 20 Comments

Words like alarm, crisis, and loss should never be used to reference kindergarten reading or any learning. What must children think? It destroys the trust parents have in teachers and public schools. This is school privatization on steroids flamed by the pandemic! Dana Goldstein’s recent fear-mongering report by The New York Times: Children Are Severely Behind […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Amplify, Demanding Advanced Work in Kindergarten, i-Ready, kindergarten, Kindergarten is the New First Grade, Kindergarten pressure to read, Pandemic learning loss, Reading loss

Kindergarten Online Data? Teacher Observation is Safer and Better!

January 18, 2022 By Nancy Bailey 12 Comments

Making kindergartners participate in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is a strange idea, and collecting data about kindergartners is worrisome. What’s the purpose? President of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and Hoover Institute research fellow and public school critic Michael Petrilli believes testing kindergartners online is easier than having them sit still long enough […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: assessment, early childhood education, high-stakes testing, kindergarten, Kindergartners, Natinal Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test

Want to Rethink Education? It’s Time to Take Back Kindergarten!

November 18, 2021 By Nancy Bailey 15 Comments

Since the pandemic, there’s much talk about rethinking education and this includes the early years of schooling. Most parents just want their schools reopened safely and schedules back to normal, but corporate reformers want to see even more changes made to schools than seen with No Child Left Behind (NCLB)! The October edition of KAPPAN, […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Corporate Reform, early childhood education, equity, kindergarten, kindergarten pressure, preschool, reading, Rethinking Education, School-to-Prison Pipeline

Play-Based Learning Isn’t Free Play and May Be Connected to Online Learning

May 20, 2021 By Nancy Bailey 13 Comments

The term play-based learning is increasingly used to reference play in school, especially during the past year. Sometimes it’s called purposeful play. Play-based learning is not the same as free play, even though sometimes it is described as such. It also might be used to transform classroom learning to screens. It’s critical to understand the […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: early childhood education, free play, kindergarten, play-based learning, preschool

Acceleration: The Meaning Behind the Buzzword

April 15, 2021 By Nancy Bailey 12 Comments

Acceleration is the new pandemic buzzword brought to you by pro-privatization school reformers. Students may have missed some in-person schooling, even though most learned remotely or in person. Still, the frenzy surrounding learning loss is mounting. The pandemic has given rise to a new way to reframe the old learning gap talk, with new terminology, […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Acceleration, Elementary, expectations, High School, kindergarten, Middle School, preschool

Kindergarten Pandemic Learning Fears Should Not Be Tied to Screen Time and Rigid Drilling

October 28, 2020 By Nancy Bailey 7 Comments

Kindergartners and their parents and teachers struggle with the pandemic. When the focus is on problems with children learning online, whether a child will succeed, it might help to revisit what’s developmentally appropriate for a kindergartner. Many reports are raising concern about learning loss in kindergarten. “What Kindergarten Struggles Could Mean for a Child’s Later […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Early Childhood, early childhood development, kindergarten, Online Learning, Technology

Kindergarten Reading Push: Still Problematic During the Pandemic

August 3, 2020 By Nancy Bailey 10 Comments

Parents and educators, convinced that kindergartners must learn to read, might purchase unproven commercial online reading programs during the pandemic. The best solution for kindergartners currently is for school librarians and teachers to get interesting picture books and reading material into the hands of young children. Standardized testing made pushing children to read in kindergarten […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: assessment, books, kindergarten, pandemic, Picture Books, reading

It’s Time to Erase Harmful, Recycled Education Policy!

October 4, 2019 By Nancy Bailey 5 Comments

Serious education issues in public schools are recycled because the ulterior motive of some is to end public education. Research is repeatedly ignored. Why are school administrators clueless? How is it that legislators repeatedly recreate policy we know is harmful for students? Each heading contains a link to proof. End Retention. Research is clear that […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: 3rd Grade Retention, Alternative Strategies to Retention, high-stakes testing, Homework/busywork, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, kindergarten, Kindergarten is the New First Grade, libraries and librarians, nonstop online testing, online behavioral data, retention, teacher qualifications, the arts

Play v. Reading: How Flawed Thinking About Preschool Has Become Accepted Practice

September 12, 2019 By Nancy Bailey 18 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 One education topic that every politician running for office mentions is preschool for all. What do they mean? What do they think preschool should be […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Alliance for Childhood, Defending the Early Years, kindergarten, Prereading skills, preschool, preschool reading demands, Waterford UPSTART

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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 ·
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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rachelannelevy Rachel for Delegate @rachelannelevy ·
28 Sep

Virginians!

This is precisely type of teacher diploma mill program, i.e., iTeach, that our Gov. Youngkin and his leadership team at the Virginia Department of Education is trying to push through without proper vetting.

Here's some vetting for you:
https://twitter.com/benjaminjriley/status/1707378957857792003

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drmaryhoward Dr. Mary Howard @drmaryhoward ·
28 Sep

"When we find a thing we can measure, in this case, how quickly a child can decode words, we make it THE measure of being literate. It is a classic, arrogant mistake that was on full display in that first grade classroom." Leigh Patel

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nancyebailey1 Nancy E. Bailey @nancyebailey1 ·
29 Sep

One of HISD's super's so-called innovations? Are these high expectations of students?

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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.

Reply on Twitter 1707060021169701027 Retweet on Twitter 1707060021169701027 16 Like on Twitter 1707060021169701027 39 Twitter 1707060021169701027
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