*** A recent Gallup survey found that:
- 35% of Americans are completely or somewhat satisfied with our public schools, falling 8% since last year.
- 38% are somewhat dissatisfied.
- 24% are completely dissatisfied, and
*** On the continuing math wars, USA Today recently reported that … One side opposes “old teaching methods they say promote rote memorization over actual understanding.” However, other educators say that “explicit instruction and repeated practice are proven to be the best way to get kids to retain the information they need to thrive.”
Meanwhile, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics recently stated that “timed tests do not assess fluency and can negatively affect students and thus should be avoided.” Said its president, Latrenda Knighten, “My students had a breakdown. They were crying because they couldn’t do it that quickly…[so] I stopped using them…”
*** As reported in The New York Post, the National Education Association’s recent “Advancing LGBTQ+ Justice event” promoted, among other things, Neopronouns, new, third-person pronouns for he/him, she/her, and the singular they/them, such as xe/sem/xyr and ey/em/eir. Meanwhile, Xeopronouns represent such “conceptual identities” as star/stars/starself and cat/cats/catself.
*** Federal Judge Roger Benitez recently ruled that parents have a constitutional right to know if their children may be transgender, and that California schools cannot now mislead parents or prevent employees from notifying them.
*** On the continuing math wars, USA Today recently reported that … One side opposes “old teaching methods they say promote rote memorization over actual understanding.” However, other educators say that “explicit instruction and repeated practice are proven to be the best way to get kids to retain the information they need to thrive.”
Meanwhile, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics recently stated that “timed tests do not assess fluency and can negatively affect students and thus should be avoided.” Said its president, Latrenda Knighten, “My students had a breakdown. They were crying because they couldn’t do it that quickly…[so] I stopped using them…”
*** About equitable grading—no zeroes, no penalties for late work, unlimited test/quiz retakes, no credit for completed homework, and no credit for classroom participation—the Thomas B. Fordham Institute found that:
- 50% of teachers said their district or school had adopted one of those 5 policies above.
- 2% had adopted all of them.
*** About extra credit, a recent, informal LinkedIn poll of 971 respondents conducted by Education Week found that:
- 39% said extra credit should be offered.
- 34% said “no” to extra credit.
- 27% said, “It depends.”
*** About homework and according to Monitoring the Future, in 2023:
- 8th graders averaged 36 minutes of daily homework in 2023, down 17% from 2021.
- 10th graders averaged 47 minutes of daily homework, down from 60 minutes in 2021.
- 15% of 8th graders and 10.8% of 10th graders reported doing no homework at all in 2023.
*** About uncertified teachers, the U.S. Department of Education says a teacher is uncertified if on the job without having completed licensing or a state-approved preparatory program.
- The number of uncertified teachers in the U.S. rose from 6.1% in 2015 to 6.9% in the 2020-21 school year—and probably more since then, as it stands at 14% in Florida and 33% in Texas.
*** Micro schools are small learning environments where children from multiple families learn together and can be either public, private, or charter schools. According to the RAND corporation, between 750,000 and 2.1 million are enrolled in micro schools.
*** When it comes to school recess, a recent EdWeek Research Center online survey of 464 teachers found that:
- 26% of elementary teachers reported twice-a-day recess; 12% have recess more than twice a day.
- 80% of high school teachers feel that students do NOT need recess, as do 49% of middle school teachers.
- 36% of elementary teachers said recess lasts between 20 and 30 minutes; experts recommend 20 daily minutes.
- 25% of elementary teachers said 31-45 minutes is ideal.
- 15% of elementary teachers said 45-60 minutes is ideal.
