From the Flag and THC to Anti-Gender Reveal Parties and Sexualized Entertainment: A Changed America
First, chivalry died, then civility, ethics, morality, and gratitude came tumbling after, straight into the divisive 2020s, not just applauded by millions, but promoted, too, even on the 4th of July. *** U.S. track and field, hammer throwing Olympic bronze medal...
Ready or Not: The New National Civics Guidelines
Released on March 1, “The Roadmap to Educating for American Democracy” write Education Week’s Stephen Sawchuk and Sarah Schwartz, "center on the idea of ‘reflective patriotism,” meaning that “students should learn to feel committed to this country and the ideals it...
Standardized State Tests: Waste of Time or Effective Measure of Student Performance?
The ball got rolling with President George W. Bush’s 2001 No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), next made its way to Obama’s Common Core Standards (CCS) online assessments and 2015 Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), and then landed on Biden’s lap. He, despite a year of...
Did Pandemic Ed Tech Get It All Wrong?
Writing that “getting ed tech wrong would be a bitter pandemic legacy, American Enterprise resident Scholar and Education Policy Studies director Rick Hess cites several examples of bad ed-tech habits that developed during the lockdown “compromising instruction and...
What Keeps Teachers from Quitting?
Back on May 4, Education Week’s Sarah Schwartz wrote, “Teaching has long been a profession with long hours and low pay. Compared to other jobs that require a similar level of education and training, teachers make less money. Still, many educators will say they didn’t...
Quality Counts Grades the States, the Country, on the Chance-for-Success Index
Quality Counts grades all 50 states and the country, too, on what’s known as the Chance-for-Success Index, resulting in "a snapshot of a person’s prospect of successful outcomes over a lifetime, from early childhood to adulthood and the working world.” To accomplish...
8 States Restrict Classroom Racism and Sexism Discussions
Education Week’s Sarah Schwartz recently reported that “Lawmakers in eight states have introduced legislation that may make it harder for teachers to talk about racism, sexism, and bias in the classroom.” Those eight states banning “the teaching of what they deem...
Is Pandemic Learning Loss for Real?
Education Week’s Sarah D. Sparks took on the question, “How Much Real Learning Time Are Students Losing during the Pandemic?” She writes… Unfortunately, a series of new analyses suggest that the pandemic disrupted both of the most critical kinds of educational time....
School-Wise News: Critical Race Theory Banned In Idaho, Struggling Principals & Teachers, and SCOTUS Taking on Brandi Levy’s Snapshot Rant
*** On April 25, after its passage through the House, Idaho’s State Senate passed HB377 banning the teaching of Critical Race Theory. On May 1, GOP governor Brad Little signed it into law. In part it reads, “No public institution of higher education, school district,...
The Connection between Closed Schools and Teachers’ Unions
*** Recently, Corey DeAngelis, national director of research at the American Federation for Children and executive director at the Educational Freedom Institute, looked into school reopenings in the time of COVID-19. For his study, he analyzed data on school reopening...
Georgia’s Election Integrity Act of 2021: Unread by Most and Misrepresented by the Media and Biden, Too
In mid-April, Campus Reform’s video reporter Addison Smith headed to Georgetown University, camera on and rolling, and asked numerous students about “specific measures regarding voting integrity.” These included: Voter expansion Requiring weekend early voting for two...
Non-White Students Change the Landscape of America’s Suburban Public Schools
Recently, the EdWeek Research Center analyzed the demographic changes in our suburban public schools, updating a 2012 study which was the basis of The Resegregation of Suburban Schools, co-edited by Penn State education professor Erica Frankenberg and UCLA professor...
New York’s Progressive Take on Inclusive Language, Sex Ed, SIECUS Standards, and Having Onlookers Assist NYC Hate Crime Victims
*** Manhattan’s private K-12 Grace Church School wants its students to use “inclusive language.” For instance, instead of “mom,” “dad,” and/or “parent"--such terms they advise “make assumptions about their home life"--students should say, “grown-ups,” “folks,”...
Schooling in California from Ongoing Teacher Demands to Postponing the Renaming of 44 Schools
*** The Board of Education for the Los Angeles Unified School District has diverted $25 million from the Los Angeles School Police Department to fund its Black Achievement Plan designed to “empower community groups, improve student literacy, and reduce...
Move over Reading, Writing, and ‘Rithmetic, Critical Race Theory Races into America’s Classrooms
About how children grow into hate-filled adults, Bosnian genocide survivor Amra Sabic-El-Rayess writes that “… My research suggests the answer is in radicalizing education where extremist narratives minimize the relevance of teachers. These narratives are...
Grading the Quality of Students’ Written Work Is Now Considered “Racist.”
First came Oregon's "Pathway to Equitable Math Instruction" suggesting that having kids show their work is a crutch for teachers, that there isn’t a right or wrong answer, and that grading “reinforces inequity…” In its wake came Illinois’s “Culturally...
RI’s Democrat Governor Raimondo Reopened Schools in September & Four Docs Call for All to Follow Suit
Way ahead of the curve, Rhode Island's Governor Gina Raimondo took a stand for kids and in-person schooling way back in June and got schools reopened on September 14. As she put it: ** “Every day a child is out of school is a problem for that child.” ** “To those...
All Aboard the Marijuana Money Train in Virginia and New Jersey, with Oregon Decriminalizing All Drugs
With dollar signs dancing in their heads, state officials across the country already have or are now considering legalizing recreational marijuana. Virginia recently joined their ranks, though the law won’t go into effect until 2024, disappointing even the ACLU...
Political Correctness on Steroids: The WOKE Cancel Culture
“… Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me.” ~ Pastor Martin Niemoller, 1946 *** In 2009’s Read Across America Day, Obama called Seuss “one of America’s revered wordsmiths." In 2016, he said that the writer “used his incredible talent to...
Illinois’s “Culturally Responsive Teaching and Leading Standards”: The End of Learning as We’ve Known It
Make no mistake, these “Culturally Responsive Standards” have nothing to do with reading, writing, or math, but, on February 16, the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules of the Illinois General Assembly approved them anyway—and they’re on track to go national....