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If the scores are bad, should we dump the test?
A majority of black, Hispanic and low-income fourth-graders have "below basic" reading skills. Does it matter?
Joanne Jacobs
Feb 113 min read
5 comments


Psych out: Why are we teaching kids to be hopeless and helpless?
"Anti-racists" are demoralizing black students, write Julian Adorney and Jake Mackey on Quillette. Teenage depression and suicide rates...
Joanne Jacobs
Jan 30, 20242 min read
2 comments


LA celebrates 'blackness' while black students fail in reading, math
Black students are "disastrously behind" in math, reading and attendance in Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), writes Heather...
Joanne Jacobs
Jan 3, 20242 min read
3 comments


Culturally relevant math: If Cardi B owns $500K in handbags ...
Math achievement is very low for black students. Can "culturally relevant" math problems -- such as analyzing a hip-hop star's purse...
Joanne Jacobs
Dec 29, 20232 min read
1 comment


Anti-racist math: 2 + 2 = whiteness
Apples and oranges featured heavily in my elementary school math curriculum, and yet I knew math was about the numbers, not about the...
Joanne Jacobs
Nov 29, 20232 min read
10 comments


Detracking in Shaker Heights: 'Honors' for all, lower expectations
All Shaker Heights students take honors classes -- or classes with an "honors" label. The "enriched" and "advanced" tracks are gone,...
Joanne Jacobs
Aug 17, 20232 min read
8 comments


Students don't learn more from a same-race teacher
Elementary students don't learn more from a teacher who matches them in race or ethnicity, concludes a new study. There is little...
Joanne Jacobs
May 19, 20232 min read
5 comments


The sound of stupid
The Sound of Music is not the Nazi-glorifying Triumph of the Will, nor is it the Nazi-spoofing Springtime for Hitler. But it does have...
Joanne Jacobs
Jan 29, 20232 min read
7 comments
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