K-12 Public Schools by the Numbers
With thanks to Education Week, do you know that...? *** The 2024-25 School Year Money Train: + + Federal Spending: $ $119.1 billion (About $2,400 per student) ++ State Spending: $383.9 billion (About $7,738 per student) + + Local Spending: $375.2 billion (About $7562...
School Year 2025-26: Is Any of This Acceptable?
As grades and graduation rates keep rising … About Equitable Grading policies—such as no zeros, no penalties for late work, unlimited test/quiz retakes, no credit for completed assignments, and none for class participation—a Rand Corporation/Fordham Institute...
A Parent’s To-Do List Before Schools Reopen
Dear Parents, Ready or not, it’s upon us… Retailers got started way back on July 4 with early back-to-school sales, and many took full advantage, while others are still getting the job done, shopping, filling bookbags, and readying everything for day one of the...
Education Spending and the Philly School District, Too
“We’re thinking too narrowly if we’re thinking that teachers’ unions are just focused on education or just focused on supporting teachers. Education decision-making is moving out of education arenas, and… teachers’ unions are engaged in broader politics outside of...
“You Can’t Buy Love, But You Can Rescue It”
“A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself.” ~ Josh Billings, 19th century humorist & lecturer Thanks to Home at Last Rescue, I got me one--a dog named, of all things, Twinkle, but that didn’t last long. Within days, she was...
The Ed-Tech Experiment: Disruptive, Toxic, and Costly, Too
“Funding uncertainty, budget constraints, and a move toward paring down inventories of educational technology are top of mind for many district officials… Despite these downward pressures on ed-tech adoption, the number of tech tools in use in school systems continues...
Guest Post: How to Raise Lifelong Learners, by Jenna Sherman
The spark is there—you’ve seen it. A question that turns into five more, a doodle that grows into a story, a late-night idea that can’t wait for morning. But somewhere between school schedules, test anxiety, and digital distractions, that light can flicker. Keeping...
Mahmoud v Taylor Pits Parents Against an Elementary LGBTQ+ Book Mandate
Unlike Shakespeare’s challenged Romeo and Juliet, Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn, and Dr. Seuss’s Cat in the Hat, once-upon-a-time schooling mainstays, nine elementary grade LGBTQ+ picture books find themselves in the hands of the nine Supreme Court Justices. Brought...
From Freed Slaves Honoring Dead Union Soldiers after the Civil War in 1865 to Memorial Day 2025
Did you know that… As the Civil War wound down, the Confederate Army turned Charleston’s fancy Washington Racecourse & Jockey Club into a makeshift prison to house captured Union soldiers. Of those, 260 died and were quickly buried in a mass grave behind the...
The Reading Wars: From 1783 to Today, a Mixed Bag
AS IT STANDS TODAY Reportedly, 75% of our elementary schools currently use basals, filled with short stories that DON’T gradually get harder, thus making pacing difficult. To date, at least 8 states have introduced or passed bills that aim to end the teaching of...
The Games Begin but Don’t End with the Science of Reading (Part 3)
Whole Word and Whole Language now reign AND SO… 1970 to 1980: Commissioner of Education James E. Allen launches the Right-to-Read Program, a literacy call-to-arms. He gives up after ten years, saying, “Whole Word is too ingrained.” 1975: Phonics proponent Marva...
The Games Begin but Don’t End with the Science of Reading (PART 2)
ABOUT LOOK/SAY (WHOLE WORD) and WHOLE LANGUAGE: 1929: Neuropsychiatrist Dr. Samuel T. Orton, a pioneer in the study of learning disabilities and dyslexia, warns educators: “The sight word method would cause reading disabilities among a very large number of...
The Games Begin but Don’t End with the Science of Reading (PART ONE)
~ English: 26 letters and 44 distinct sounds (phonemes) AND AROUND AND AROUND WE GO… The term Science of Reading first appeared in the 1836 issue of The American Annals of Education and Instruction, waited 174 years to make a comeback in 2010,...
Teacher Graded vs. AI Graded
While Learning Together author Elham Kazem and others suggest that school leaders should work with teachers to analyze student writing more regularly…,” Education Week’s Sarah Schwartz tells us: “[There is] an emerging group of middle and high school teachers using...
Universities in the Spotlight this April 24, Holocaust Remembrance Day
As Washington Post’s Peter Stevenson put it, “If there is one comparison you never make, it’s comparing someone to Hitler. It just isn’t done because almost no one in history was as bad as Hitler was.” Or, so you’d think, but… Seems a number of politicians,...
Social Media As Mental Health Advisor
When looking for answers, kids used to turn to a parent, teacher, or some other trusted adult. Nowadays, though, many are drawn to sites like TikTok on their quest for self and belonging, as evidenced by a recent EdWeek Research Center survey. Among the findings:...
Education Reforms Have Put kids—Especially Boys–at Risk
REMINDER: George W. Bush’s 2002 No Child Left Behind (NCLB) claimed it “has raised expectations and improved results.” REMINDER: NCLB’s follow-up, the Barack Obama/secretary of Education Arne Duncan ’s July 24, 2009, $4.35 billion Race to the Top and June 2, 2010...
A Sign of the Times: 3 School-Wise News Updates and 4 Quotes
** According to a recent National Center for Education Statistics School Pulse Panel survey of 1,500 schools, more than 80% say they’re “seeing stunted behavior and socioemotional development in their students.” ** While federal law requires that states test...
A.E. Stevenson Elementary’s School Improvement Model
Recently, Education Week’s Libby Stanford reported that, three years ago, Adlai Stevenson Elementary had little to boast: As the lowest-performing elementary school in Pennsylvania's Southfield School District, it found itself hemorrhaging students. The solution: It...
Trending and Complicated: Teachers at Risk in the Classroom
Back in my junior high days, the principal got to know me really well… God, I even made my 7th-grade history teacher cry by rolling a marble or two down the aisle while she droned on and on. At the same time, during art class, Mr. H. liked to walk around his...
