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Teach old, 'problematic' books
Teach old books, argues Daniel Buck, author of author of What Is Wrong with Our Schools?, on Fordham's Flypaper blog. Yes the language...
Joanne Jacobs
Feb 19, 20241 min read
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Parents get pushy in Fort Worth: Why did every 1st-grader get the same grade?
Trenace Dorsey-Hollins asked why her daughter received "emerging" (the lowest level) on her first-grade report card for a skill she'd...
Joanne Jacobs
Feb 16, 20242 min read
7 comments


Teaching Ta-Nehisi Coates
Mary Wood is teaching Ta-Nehisi Coates' memoir, Between the World and Me, in her AP English Language and Composition class in Chapin,...
Joanne Jacobs
Feb 7, 20242 min read
13 comments


$250K for 'woke' training: Reading, math scores fall even lower
Training teachers to "disrupt whiteness" isn't helping children learn at a Bay Area school, reports Jill Tucker in the San Francisco...
Joanne Jacobs
Feb 5, 20242 min read
5 comments


Reading revolution: It's a lot more than 'back to basics'
States are jumping on the "science of reading" bandwagon, writes Sarah Schwartz for Education Week. New York, Massachusetts, Indiana,...
Joanne Jacobs
Feb 2, 20242 min read
3 comments


Young students are better in phonics, worse in math
"Covid toddlers" -- kids who were two years old in March 2020 -- were more likely to be unprepared for kindergarten in fall 2023 reports...
Joanne Jacobs
Feb 1, 20241 min read
4 comments


Students are catching up in math, reading -- but gaps are wider
Reading and math scores are on their way up, reports the Education Recovery Scorecard. On average, students in grades three through eight...
Joanne Jacobs
Feb 1, 20242 min read
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Beyond decoding: Teaching knowledge, vocabulary builds comprehension
In Portage, Michigan, fourth graders are reading about hurricanes -- including words such as "atmosphere" -- in their English Language...
Joanne Jacobs
Jan 17, 20242 min read
9 comments


Do teachers learn how to teach reading? 19 states are 'weak' or worse
There will be no reading "miracles" without effective teachers, warns the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) in a new report....
Joanne Jacobs
Jan 16, 20242 min read
5 comments


Parents trust their child's reading teacher, but should they?
More than 90 percent of parents think their child's elementary school and teacher are doing a "good" or "excellent" job of teaching...
Joanne Jacobs
Dec 15, 20232 min read
1 comment

It matters how kids read: On-screen reading doesn't build comprehension
It doesn't matter what kids read as long as they're reading, people often say. Maybe so. But for "developing readers," leisure reading...
Joanne Jacobs
Dec 15, 20231 min read
1 comment


'Literacy liberators' are as effective as teachers in tutoring early readers
An Oakland parent group hired and trained tutors from the community to work with early readers, reports Linda Jacobson on The 74....
Joanne Jacobs
Dec 8, 20231 min read
1 comment


Training teachers in 'science of reading' improves reading
Low-performing California schools improved third-graders' reading by training teachers in how children learn to read, according to a new...
Joanne Jacobs
Dec 8, 20231 min read
2 comments


Math crisis is global: US teens do worse on PISA, but so do others
The bad news from international testing: U.S. 15-year-olds did significantly worse in math from 2018 to 2022 on the Program for...
Joanne Jacobs
Dec 6, 20232 min read
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Missing dyslexia
Schools are failing to diagnose dyslexia, which makes it hard for as many as 20 percent of students to master reading, writes Sarah Carr...
Joanne Jacobs
Nov 20, 20232 min read
1 comment


Only 1.2% to repeat 3rd grade due to Tennessee 'reading gate'
Sixty percent of Tennessee third graders faced the prospect of repeating the grade, but only 1.2 percent failed to get past the "reading...
Joanne Jacobs
Nov 20, 20232 min read
2 comments


To kill 'To Kill a Mockingbird'
Ninth-graders aren't reading To Kill a Mockingbird this year in Mukilteo, Washington, an affluent, mostly white town north of Seattle. ...
Joanne Jacobs
Nov 6, 20232 min read
7 comments


How to kill the bad-teaching monster: Don't forget the garlic
To kill a vampire permanently dead, you'll need to hammer a wooden stake in its heart, shoot it with a silver bullet melted down from a...
Joanne Jacobs
Nov 1, 20233 min read
4 comments


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...
Joanne Jacobs
Oct 18, 20232 min read
11 comments


You can't give 'Hop on Pop' to a 7th-grader
Middle schoolers who read at the first, second and third-grade level won't read "baby books" and can't read grade-level books, says...
Joanne Jacobs
Oct 17, 20231 min read
7 comments
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