by Carol A. Josel | May 23, 2025 | Articles, Carol A Josel, Looking Back at History
  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...				
					
			
					
				
															
					
					 by Carol A. Josel | May 21, 2025 | Carol A Josel, Education reform, Making Education News, Reading Wars
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...				
					
			
					
				
															
					
					 by Carol A. Josel | May 19, 2025 | Carol A Josel, Making Education News, Reading Wars
   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...				
					
			
					
				
															
					
					 by Carol A. Josel | May 9, 2025 | Carol A Josel
                         ~ 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,...				
					
			
					
				
															
					
					 by Carol A. Josel | Apr 26, 2025 | AI in Education News, Carol A Josel, Technology in Education
  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...				
					
			
					
				
															
					
					 by Carol A. Josel | Apr 22, 2025 | Academics, Articles, Carol A Josel, Making Education News
  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,...