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Joanne Jacobs
Oct 18, 20232 min read
Repeating a grade can help elementary students succeed
Holding kids back if they're way behind in reading is very controversial, but new research shows that repeating a grade in elementary...
11 comments


Joanne Jacobs
Oct 17, 20232 min read
Why so many parents mistrust schools: They didn't teach our kids to read
"When schools fail to teach reading, it harms the public's trust in schools," writes Kendra Hurley in Slate. Her children's Brooklyn...
7 comments


Joanne Jacobs
Sep 9, 20232 min read
For failing students, lockdown was freedom, school is 'prison'
School is "like being in prison," says 14-year-old Kieran, who has dyslexia and ADHD. He prefers doing physical labor with his father....
2 comments


Joanne Jacobs
Aug 10, 20231 min read
Special-ed numbers doubled in 40 years: Are 20% of New York kids really disabled?
Fifteen percent of K-12 students are in special education, nearly double what it was in the late '70s, according to a Pew Research Center...
3 comments


Joanne Jacobs
Jul 30, 20232 min read
Teaching fragility: 1/5 of undergrads are 'disabled'
Colleges are disabling students, teaching them that they need not show up in class, complete assignments on time or give an oral...
10 comments


Joanne Jacobs
Jul 29, 20233 min read
Autism is a disability -- not a 'natural difference to be celebrated'
Autism rates keep climbing -- nearly 3 percent, of all eight-year-olds in the latest estimates -- yet there's no sense of crisis, writes...
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Joanne Jacobs
Apr 23, 20232 min read
Autism doesn't define me -- or make me a worthwhile person
Emma Camp was diagnosed with autism in college, and embraced the explanation for her insecurities and personality quirks, she writes in a...
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Joanne Jacobs
Mar 6, 20232 min read
Happy talk isn't helpful: Tell parents the truth about their kids' learning
Keri Rodrigues, co-founder and president of the National Parents Union, complained on Twitter about the special-education team "who...
1 comment


Joanne Jacobs
Feb 14, 20233 min read
'Challenging' students with disabilities are sent home (but not suspended)
Schools aren't supposed to suspend special-needs students if their misbehavior is related to their disability. But some schools use...
14 comments

Joanne Jacobs
Jan 21, 20232 min read
Do 'red flag' laws prevent shootings?
“I just might come to yo school and kill everybody,” a 17-year-old former student wrote in an Instagram message. He specifically...
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Joanne Jacobs
Jan 15, 20232 min read
To protect kids, treat parents' addiction, mental illness
The best predictor of children's risk of severe neglect and abuse is not poverty, writes Naomi Schaefer Riley in City Journal. It's drug...
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Joanne Jacobs
Jan 14, 20231 min read
Grandin: Educate the visual thinkers too
Our society and our schools aren't designed for "visual thinkers, which so many of us neurodivergent folks are," writes Temple Grandin, a...
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Joanne Jacobs
Jan 3, 20233 min read
NAACP pushes for literacy reform: Teach our kids to read
Black leaders have transformed reading instruction in northern Virginia, reports Sarah Carr in the Washington Post. The Fairfax County...
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Joanne Jacobs
Dec 23, 20223 min read
Mastering newspeak at Stanford
Will Stanford continue to award master's degrees? Will my daughter's major -- American Studies -- need a new name? Stanford's IT...
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Joanne Jacobs
Dec 3, 20222 min read
Suicidal students: What can universities do?
Yale discriminates against students with mental-health issues, according to a lawsuit filed this week, reports William Wan in the...
7 comments

Joanne Jacobs
Dec 2, 20221 min read
Florida's special-ed students are doing very well: Is it choice?
In Florida, which pioneered school choice for special-needs students more than 20 years ago, students with disabilities are doing very...
11 comments


Joanne Jacobs
Nov 5, 20222 min read
Pandemic amnesty: Is it time?
My resolution for 2021, renewed for 2022, was to be kind and calm. There is enough nastiness and enough hysteria out there without me...
27 comments


Joanne Jacobs
Sep 4, 20222 min read
It's college, not kindergarten
Of the three million students who will start college this fall, one million won't make it through the first year on campus or won't...
13 comments


Joanne Jacobs
May 3, 20221 min read
To get special-ed teachers, pay more
Teaching special-needs students is challenging and stressful. Special education teachers are in short supply across the country, and have...
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Joanne Jacobs
May 2, 20222 min read
Unsafe schools drive away teachers
Classroom violence is driving teachers to quit in Oregon’s Salem-Keizer school district, reports Christine Pitawanich for KGW-TV. Despite...
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