Journal

Journal

Increasing Representation in Education: What Works?

Attracting diverse teachers is of critical importance for students of color across a range of metrics — improved achievement, higher rates of attending college, lower suspension rates, and so on.  But the actual “state of the states” is fairly dire. Every state and the District of Columbia has a deficit in this area: more students […]

How Representation Affects Suspension Rates: A Solution

Last time, we discussed the fundamental problem of disparities in suspension and expulsion rates for children of color and how this phenomenon begins at the very first point of contact for many children: preschool.  Disproportionate suspension and expulsion for children of color continues as they move up the grades.  We would expect that children would […]

How Representation Affects Suspension Rates: The Problem

I ran across a fascinating study from the Brown Center on Education Policy that posed a critical question about students of color:  what effect does having a same-race teacher have on suspensions? We need to understand why this is a critical question and the Brown Center helpfully offers some statistical data which I will include, […]

Teachers and Teaching: State Level Solutions

This is part 3 of a short series on issues affecting teachers and teaching.  Click the links to read Part 1 and Part 2. Given that shortages are more pronounced in specific settings, recruiting and retaining teachers is less about teachers generally and more about finding and keeping the right teachers, in the right subjects, […]

Teachers and Teaching: The Decline of the Education Degree

This is part 2 of a short series on issues facing teaching and teachers. you can read Part 1 here. The number of undergraduates electing to become educators has been in a long, slow decline for more than 40 years.  This fact has been cited by multiple media outlets and pundits as contributing to the […]

Teachers and Teaching: “Teaching Loss”

This is Part 1 of a short series on issues specific to teaching and teachers. No, this isn’t another post about how teachers are leaving the profession.  In fact, this is not about teaching the profession, but rather, about teaching the practice — the strategies and approaches teachers employ when they  deliver learning to students […]

New Jersey’s Judicial Ruling on De Facto School Segregation

In a recent pre-trial decision, a New Jersey superior court judge recently ruled that the state has systematically failed to address the problem of racial segregation that exists in its public schools. The state’s central argument is that the public education system is socioeconomically segregated and that racial segregation exists across every district.  Essentially, they’re […]

School Choice Part Deux: Lawsuits and Legislation Challenges

School choice is popular in some circles, but problematic for economically disadvantaged students, special needs students, their parents, and (as it turns out) entire states.  A lawsuit in Ohio and a legislative hearing in Texas offer glimpses into two critical issues. In Ohio, nearly a third of the state’s public school districts have joined a […]

The Case for Keeping Miscue Analysis

In the last post, I talked about several things that are in danger of being eliminated in the push to get rid of balanced literacy programs.  One of those things — Miscue Analysis — has already been more or less banned in Texas. I have been told, but can’t confirm independently, that this was the […]

The Science of Reading and the Wild Pendulum of Educational Practice

There’s been a movement over the last several years to replace “balanced literacy” reading programs* with the “science of reading.”  As of now, the science of reading is winning. More than 30 state legislatures now require reading programs to utilize the science of reading and more are poised to require it.  Proponents for both types […]