top of page
Joanne Jacobs
Jun 6, 20221 min read
‘Diversity’ is required, but it must be ‘critical’
Northern Arizona University will require all students to take four Diversity Perspectives courses in Global Diversity, U.S. Ethnic...
0 comments
Joanne Jacobs
Jun 1, 20221 min read
CA school officials must report threats — or not
Photo: Pixabay California school officials would be required to report any “perceived threat” of a mass shooting to law enforcement under...
0 comments
Joanne Jacobs
May 8, 20221 min read
Teaching about racism: Americans are divided
Americans agree that schools should teach about historic racism and slavery, but divided on present-day racism, writes Matt Barnum on...
0 comments
Joanne Jacobs
Apr 20, 20222 min read
‘Rigor’ is a Potemkin village
High school rigor is often a facade, writes Natalie Wexler on Forbes. It’s a “Potemkin village.” High school graduates in the class of...
0 comments
Joanne Jacobs
Mar 19, 20201 min read
Postsecondary Math Education
Reports like this make me rub my head and sigh. It’s wrong right out of the gate: Higher education institutions in California and across...
0 comments
Joanne Jacobs
Jul 19, 20182 min read
Elite colleges drop SAT, ACT essay test
The ability to write cogently, quickly and under pressure, helped me get into and through college. However, a growing list of selective...
0 comments
Joanne Jacobs
Jun 19, 20182 min read
One track for math: Is equity unfair?
Nobody takes algebra in eighth grade in San Francisco’s district schools any more, reports Ed Week‘s Stephen Sawchuk. In the name of...
0 comments
Joanne Jacobs
Jun 18, 20182 min read
Equity and excellence
New York City’s elite high schools are filled with Asian-American students — many from low-income, immigrant families — who’ve aced the...
0 comments
Joanne Jacobs
May 2, 20181 min read
Bootstrapping is harder in U.S.
Our competitors do a better job of enabling students to gain more education than their parents, she writes. Once, public education was...
0 comments
Joanne Jacobs
Jan 26, 20181 min read
Disabled kids need well-off parents
Affluent parents in New York City hire lawyers to sue for private-school tuition for their special-needs children, writes Jim Epstein on...
0 comments
Joanne Jacobs
Jan 23, 20181 min read
To get to equity, teach ’em to read
Kate Walsh of the National Council on Teacher Quality is tired of apologizing for her “narrow-minded” focus on academic goals as the way...
0 comments
Joanne Jacobs
Dec 13, 20172 min read
Open doors to accelerated classes
Open the doors to advanced classes to a wide range of students, argues AP social studies teacher Nate Bowling on EdWeek...
0 comments
Joanne Jacobs
Oct 20, 20171 min read
‘Teach Us All’ troubles activists
Teach Us All, a documentary on school integration, “troubles some activists,” writes Chalkbeat’s Christina Veiga. The movie highlights...
0 comments
Joanne Jacobs
Oct 13, 20172 min read
Backpack full of mishmash
Backpack Full of Cash, an anti-charter documentary showing at film festivals, blames charter schools for taking funding from traditional...
0 comments
Joanne Jacobs
Oct 9, 20172 min read
Scores slip after ‘equity’ focus
“Racial equity” became the priority in Edina Public Schools (EPS), an affluent Minneapolis suburb, in 2013. Test scores are falling,...
0 comments
Joanne Jacobs
Sep 11, 20172 min read
AP for all: Who benefits?
Expanding access to AP classes is supposed to help disadvantaged students prepare for college, but pass rates are very low. Is expanding...
0 comments
Joanne Jacobs
May 21, 20172 min read
‘An A in Harlem vs. an A in a majority-white school’
Teens Take Charge publicizes students’ views on school segregation in New York City. Photo: Brett Rawson When Yacine Fall went from a...
0 comments
Joanne Jacobs
Mar 11, 20171 min read
PISA’s best of the best
PISA4U, a “collaborative learning program for teachers and schools,” hopes to help schools improve. BASIS Schools, a national charter...
0 comments
Joanne Jacobs
Jan 27, 20171 min read
Stress tested
Tested a documentary about New York City eighth graders trying to qualify for elite public schools, will come out on DVD next month....
0 comments
Joanne Jacobs
Jan 5, 20171 min read
U.S. schools get a slacker’s C
U.S. schools have a C average on Education Week‘s Quality Counts Report Card. There’s little change from last year in most categories....
0 comments
bottom of page