Author name: Munzir Forbiz

Millions of students are returning for another school year marked by challenging teacher shortages, causing schools to double up classrooms, move courses online and employ what critics have labeled as underqualified teachers. As states lower the certification standards to become a teacher, education experts worry these tactics could delay students’ recovery from pandemic learning loss. Packed …

Doubling up on classrooms, using online teachers and turning to support staff: How schools are dealing with the ongoing teacher shortage Read More »

Districts serving large numbers of students of color and families in poverty are losing the highest number of educators. For many educators, the 2022-2023 school year was harder than the pandemic years. Sharif El-Mekki, founder and CEO of the Center for Black Educator Development, recalled a recent conversation with a principal describing the challenges. “Every time …

What Teacher Turnover Means for the Upcoming School Year Read More »

Gregg Klinginsmith, a Missouri superintendent, switched his district to a 4-day school week in 2019. The district nixed a day in an effort to keep teachers from leaving for better pay in bigger cities. Both students and teachers love the new schedule, and teacher retention is up after four years. This as-told-to essay is based …

My school district switched to a 4-day school week. It’s been a game changer for teachers, who were previously leaving our schools in droves. Read More »

As a teacher, you know the thrill of a new day and the satisfaction of preparing for it with care. You have lessons that will captivate your students, visual aids that will make their eyes light up, and a plan to keep them engaged from start to finish. But, let’s be real, sometimes things don’t …

The Three Pillars of Effective Classroom Management in Schools Read More »

One of the latest teaching trends includes getting rid of grades and homework as part of a push towards achieving equity in the classroom. We’ve sort of created this rate race and competition all about just getting the grade rather than focusing on the learning itself and that favors, in some cases, the kids who …

Schools trending towards no homework, no grades in the name of equity Read More »

I once taught a shooter. He wrote me a scathing letter about my class a year before he murdered his mother and reportedly planned to attack the school. During a safety training at my school, we were taught that if a student is trapped in the hall during a lockdown and they knock on the door …

For teachers and students, safe classrooms feel like a fairy tale Read More »

While schools across the country struggle to fill vacant teaching positions, one Texas district is capitalizing on groundwork it laid in 2019 that has led to a near-zero vacancy rate. When Ector County Superintendent Scott Muri took over the 33,500-student district in the summer of 2019, there were 356 teaching vacancies—the equivalent of 18 percent …

A District’s Long-Term Investment in Cultivating Future Teachers Is Paying Off Read More »

When friends suggested I include charter schools among the places to visit during my recent trip to see innovative learning models in New York City, I was skeptical. I was focused mostly on spotlighting microschools, learning pods, hybrid homeschools and similar experimental programs created by entrepreneurial parents and teachers who are reimagining K-12 education in …

We need a new school of thought about charter schools Read More »

Faced with the undeniable fact city kids attending charters schools do far better on state exams than those stuck in the regular public-school system, critics routinely complain that charters “teach to the test” — as if that’s somehow a bad thing. Tests, after all, measure what kids are supposed to learn. Schools that don’t “teach to the test” effectively …

Charters succeed at teaching — that’s why their enemies hate them Read More »

In all of my language-learning experiences, whether that’s taking Japanese in college or learning Spanish in high school, I often ponder what a challenge learning a language actually is. At the time, I would question, “How did I even learn English as a kid?” Well, in many cases, children are better language learners than adults. …

OPINION: America should take a multilingual approach to education Read More »