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Nancy Bailey's Education Website

Revive, Rally and Recover Public Schools

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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

Adult Organized Recess Isn’t Real Recess! How the Pandemic is Being Used to Privatize P.E. As Recess

August 28, 2021 By Nancy Bailey 5 Comments

Children should own recess. Adults own P.E. It should be as easily understood as that. But those who wish to privatize public education are conflating the two. They’re using Covid-19, and social-emotional learning, to privatize P.E, calling it recess when it’s not. A Brief History of The Loss of Recess In 1998, The New York […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: covid-19, Delta Variant, Is Playworks replacing P.E? Physical Education, recess, School Privatization, Unstructured Play

The Covid-19 Experiment: Facing the Sins of a Nation that Quit Caring About Public Education Long Ago

August 10, 2020 By Nancy Bailey 8 Comments

Using the word “experimenting” when it comes to opening schools is not comforting to parents and teachers. For teachers, it’s like rubbing salt in a wound. What this pandemic has brought to light are the past inequities of public education, inequities that have been all about dismantling America’s public schools. It has included the disregard […]

Filed Under: Featured, Uncategorized Tagged With: Covid-19 and schools, Large Class Size, loss of recess, outdoor learning, playgrounds, poor school ventilation systems, recess, school facilities, school overcrowding, School Privatization, social distancing

Are School Playgrounds Still Empty? Animals Get More Recess!

May 17, 2019 By Nancy Bailey 3 Comments

Parents in Florida and Tennessee and many other states have fought for recess. Sometimes children in elementary school get 20-minute breaks once a day if they’re lucky. Children should get several recess breaks each day! We should be looking at the benefit of school recess breaks for every grade level. Middle and high school students […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: American Academy of Pediatrics, American Humane Association, Georgia, recess

An ADHD Medical Device Again Raises Questions about Classroom Rigor and the Lack of Recess

April 23, 2019 By Nancy Bailey 7 Comments

The American Psychiatric Association (APA) says that 5 percent of American children have ADHD. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) puts the number at more than double the APA’s number. The CDC says that 11 percent of American children, ages 4 to 17, have the attention disorder. ~The A.D.D. Resource Center, Oct […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), corporate school reform, eTNS System, No Recess, recess, sendentary students in elementary school, standardized testing

My Blogging Anniversary: How Has School Reform Changed in Five Years?

August 21, 2018 By Nancy Bailey 17 Comments

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 […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: 5th year anniversary, charter schoos, class size, Common Core, data, early childhood education, reading, recess, retention, Social Emotional Learning, special education, standardized testing, Technology, the arts, vouchers

Worries about Tech and the Chan/Zuckerberg $30 Million Support of “Reach Every Reader”

March 8, 2018 By Nancy Bailey 6 Comments

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 […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: $30 Million Grant to Harvard and MITili, Brick-and-Mortar Schools, class size, Dr. Priscilla Chan, early reading, free reading, Harvard School of Education, Librarians, Mark Zuckerberg, MITili, phonics, phonics vs. whole language, public school teachers, public schools, reading, recess, school libraries, School Privatization, special education, Technology, the arts, whole language

The Sad Impact of Corporate School Reform on Students with Emotional/Behavioral Disabilities

January 26, 2018 By Nancy Bailey 7 Comments

We have a lot of troubled kids. As of 2016, approximately 1 in 5 youth aged 13–18 (21.4%) experiences a severe mental disorder at some point during their life. For children aged 8–15, the estimate is 13%. HERE. Schools should be on the front line to assist children and adolescents with mental health difficulties. But […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Adolescents, Art, Betsy DeVos, Children, Data collecting, eliminating special education services, emotional disabilities, high-stakes testing, inclusion, mental health, music, no excuses, One-size-fits-all, play, recess, Rewards, School Choice, Social Emotional Learning, Teach for America, teachers, teens

Recess Isn’t P.E.: State Legislatures Reframe the Meaning of a Child’s Freedom

November 23, 2017 By Nancy Bailey 1 Comment

”I’d like to sit on the grass,” she confided in a whisper of angelic conspiracy, ” and look for ladybugs.” But there is no time for such lollygagging. The Atlanta public schools, like many districts across the country, have eliminated recess in elementary schools as a waste of time that would be better spent on […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Betsy DeVos, Elementary Schools, free play, P.E. Physical education, play, Privatization of recess, public schools, recess, State Legislatures

Are Children Getting Real Recess?

October 4, 2017 By Nancy Bailey 11 Comments

Children have been in school for awhile. How much recess are they getting? Is their school day overly organized? Are they getting pretend recess–physical education, or some canned program from a digital device? How many principals are tricking parents into thinking their children are getting real recess? Even preschool parents need to ask this question. […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Brain Breaks, Go Noodle. Leap Bands, play, Playworks, recess, School Privatization, shape up America, Technology, what is not recess, What's not play

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An education glossary with an attitude.

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Do we really want an America where we no longer own our public schools?

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This book says “no” to the reforms that fail, and challenges Americans to address the real student needs that will fix public schools and make America strong.

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Nancy E. Bailey Follow

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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