Blog

The class of ninth-graders that in September will enter the city’s eight “specialized high schools” — entry to which is determined solely by doing well on a standardized test — will be substantially less black and Latino than before. Per Department of Education data, black and Latino kids, who make up almost 70 percent of […]

Teachers unions aren’t happy, but this time, they’re mad at President Joe Biden. In February, the Biden administration released guidelines to keep standardized tests in schools. Needless to say, a lot of school administrators weren’t pleased. After all, school board officials across the country are trying to delegitimize test scores. But the administration did the right thing

In recent weeks, a growing number of students across the country have set foot in their schools, some for the first time since last March. Here’s what they said it was like to return. Maisie Robinson was so excited for her first day of kindergarten that she woke up at 2:30 a.m. to make her

Disruptions to education during the pandemic are turning people away from a profession that was already struggling to attract new recruits. Kianna Ameni-Melvin’s parents used to tell her that there wasn’t much money to be made in education. But it was easy enough for her to tune them out as she enrolled in an education

Some adaptations for hybrid classrooms, like digital manipulatives and instructional videos—will be worth keeping when all students are back in the room. During this past year, the pandemic has molded how I teach. When my school went fully online, I had to learn strategies for keeping my students motivated and engaged behind a computer. Now

A former substitute teacher who was living in his car was gifted with a $27,000 check by a former student. Jose Villarruel, lovingly known as “Mr. V” by his students, turned 77 years old on Thursday. His former student, Steven Nava, now 21, decided to arrange a celebration for Villarruel. Villarruel has served as a substitute teacher for

We are quickly approaching the one-year mark since Governor Wolf first closed schools back on March 13, 2020. Depending on where you live in the state, especially in low-income communities, your child still may not be attending school in-person. There are federal civil rights laws that prohibit discrimination based on race, color, national origin, sex,

The nation’s schools need thousands of more teachers, full-time and substitute, to keep classrooms open during coronavirus outbreaks. As exposure to the coronavirus forced thousands of teachers across the United States to stay home and quarantine this winter, administrators in the Washoe County School District, which serves 62,000 students in western Nevada, pulled out all

After the U.S. education system fractured into Zoom screens last spring, experts feared millions of children would fall behind. Hard evidence now shows they were right. A flood of new data — on the national, state and district levels — finds students began this academic year behind. Most of the research concludes students of color

Spending most of 2020 attending school virtually, students at a small charter school in Aurora are enjoying a new kind of class where everyone chooses what to learn. “It’s kind of boring to sit on a Zoom screen all day,” 14-year-old Karinne Jones said. “It feels good to just work on something I’m passionate about.”