Joanne Jacobs
Who's truly disadvantaged? Look at single parenting, not race or poverty
Growing up in a single-parent family is a huge disadvantage in life, writes Fordham's Michael Petrilli in Forbes. If racial preferences...
top of page
Joanne Jacobs
Oct 192 min read
'Free college' isn't enough to raise success rates for low-income students
"Free" tuition has boosted two-year graduation rates in Tennessee, but low-income students need more help to complete a degree.
Joanne Jacobs
Oct 102 min read
Want equity? Teach more math, not less
As a math teacher in the early 2000s, Adrian Mims saw few Black and Hispanic students succeeding in Brooklin (MA) High School's honors...
Joanne Jacobs
Oct 12 min read
How schools can help poor kids beat the odds: Consistency, collaboration, priorities
Schools that help disadvantaged students achieve focus on consistently good teaching, a strong, shared curriculum and lots of collaboration.
Joanne Jacobs
Jul 252 min read
Most challenging schools are charters educating low-income students
Urban charters in high-poverty areas have become the most challenging high schools in the country, as measured by students taking...
Joanne Jacobs
Jul 192 min read
Vo-tech is STEM prep: Needy kids can't get in to learn a trade
High-needs students have a hard time getting into vocational-tech schools in Massachusetts, reports the Boston Globe. Most of the highly...
Joanne Jacobs
Jul 61 min read
Tests may be 'optional,' but not if you want to get in to an elite college
Yale is not “being honest about the reality of our admissions process” because the university is “denying 98 percent of the students who...
Joanne Jacobs
Feb 62 min read
Dartmouth will require SAT/ACT scores to help low-income students
Dartmouth will require applicants to submit standardized test scores such as the SAT or ACT, ending a long "pandemic pause," reports...
Joanne Jacobs
Feb 12 min read
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
Jan 243 min read
Teachers are fed up with student misbehavior, classroom chaos
The "new normal" of student behavior -- a toxic mix of disrespect, disruption, violence and apathy -- is driving teachers to despair,...
Joanne Jacobs
Jan 202 min read
Does preschool help kids -- or harm them?
Expanding free preschool is a progressive priority. Early experiments in the 1960s and 1970s -- Perry Preschool program and the...
Joanne Jacobs
Jan 91 min read
To gain public trust, make college admissions less 'murky'
College admissions are "murky," and getting murkier, writes Peter Arcidiacono, a Duke economics professor, on Persuasion. "Test-optional"...
Joanne Jacobs
Nov 21, 20233 min read
AP tests are tough: Is the bar too high for disadvantaged students?
"The basic philosophy of the Advanced Placement Program is simply that all students are not created equal," said the program's director,...
Joanne Jacobs
Sep 14, 20232 min read
KIPP schools are game changers
KIPP charters are game changers, concludes a new Mathematica study. Compared to similar students who applied to KIPP but lost the...
Joanne Jacobs
Aug 1, 20231 min read
Promises, promises: LeBron James' school struggles in Akron
Akron's I Promise School opened five years ago with high hopes and lots of extra funding from basketball star LeBron James' foundation....
Joanne Jacobs
Jul 12, 20232 min read
Inner-city schools aren't underfunded any more
Abbott Elementary, a popular ABC sitcom about teachers at an inner-city Philadelphia school, is "entertaining but not elucidating" about...
Joanne Jacobs
Jul 6, 20231 min read
Prep disadvantaged kids for Ivy futures
Elite colleges should create and fund middle and high schools to educate disadvantaged students, writes Roland Fryer, a Harvard economics...
Joanne Jacobs
Jun 26, 20232 min read
Poor blacks get nothing from affirmative action
Affirmative action in college admissions has failed to help disadvantaged black students, writes Bertrand Cooper in The Atlantic. If the...
Joanne Jacobs
Nov 1, 20223 min read
What will replace racial preferences in college admissions?
Based on yesterday's oral arguments, the U.S. Supreme Court's conservative majority appears likely to reject race-based affirmative...
bottom of page