Blog

Researchers on Monday released a massive collection of education studies timed to inform the next California governor’s and Legislature’s preK-12 agenda. The big achievement gap for California’s low- and middle-income children relative to their peers in other states starts in kindergarten, indicating a need to significantly expand preschool and quality child care.Among the findings of Getting Down to Facts II: The big achievement gap for California’s low- and middle-income children relative...

Hope Brown can make $60 donating plasma from her blood cells twice in one week, and a little more if she sells some of her clothes at a consignment store. It’s usually just enough to cover an electric bill or a car payment. This financial juggling is now a part of her everyday life—something she never expected almost two decades ago when she earned a master’s degree in secondary education and became a high school history teacher. Brown often works from 5 a.m. to 4 p.m. at her school in...

Students who witness violence in school at age 13 are at later risk of psycho-social and academic impairment at age 15, according to a new longitudinal study by researchers at Université de Montréal with colleagues in Belgium and France. In the study, published today in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, Michel Janosz of UdeM's School of Psycho-Education and his international team looked at a stratified cohort of nearly 4,000 Quebec high-school students. The researchers...

Drumming for 60 minutes a week can benefit children diagnosed with autism and supports learning at school, according to a new scientific study. The project, led by the University of Chichester and University Centre Hartpury, showed students’ ability to follow their teachers’ instructions improved significantly and enhanced their social interactions between peers and members of school staff. Research involved pupils from Milestone School in Gloucester who took part in a ten-week drumming...

My first month teaching, I peeked in on the first parent meeting of the year, and a lone parent sat listening to the presentation. There were over 500 students in the school. Eight years later, over 300 families attended that meeting. Our biggest challenge had been getting parents—who often didn’t like school themselves—to see us as a loving and supportive community, so we deliberately fostered an environment in which families could feel comfortable. If a serious discussion about a student...

To better get to know her students, Jaclyn Wehmeier ventures outside of the classroom, to visit each of her third-graders at their homes. Home visits are part of the teaching approach at Christel House Academy South, an Indianapolis charter school that aims to serve students from low-income families in underserved communities. During those home visits, Wehmeier can meet her students’ families and learn more about their backgrounds. Seeing more of her students’ home lives has changed the way...

Starting school can be a worrisome event for a kindergartener, so the Davidson County Schools system has launched a new program to help them feel more comfortable and to understand it is OK to be nervous. The district launched the “One Book, One District” initiative that uses the book “Wemberly Worried” by Kevin Henkes to help students adjust to being in the classroom and dealing with their various emotions. All kindergarten classes in the school system are reading the book to their students...

In recent years, the pendulum of education trends have swung back to emphasize the importance of relationships to learning. Schools are using social and emotional learning curricula to help students develop interpersonal skills and learn ways to solve problems peacefully . But there's still debate around which social and emotional skills are the most important to teach -- such as empathy, e xecutive functioning or persistence -- and some educators feel unprepared to take on a role that seems...

Last spring, Paul Strode gave an unusual survey to his advanced biology students at Fairview High School in Boulder, Colorado. The first five questions were: Define as best you can: What is a racial group? Define as best you can: What is an ethnic group? Define as best you can: What is meant by the term genetic ancestry? True or False: There is too much overlap between racial groups to use a single biological trait (like skin color) to distinguish one racial group from another. True or...

In an age plagued with addiction, economic disparity and mental illness, where technology is advancing faster every day, professionals say aging educational systems aren’t meeting the needs of Vermont’s growing minds. “We have to re-think everything we do when it comes to educating these kids,” said Mill River Union High School Principal Todd Finn. “We have so much more flexibility with school leadership, and the world is so different for these kids.” Which is why Vermont schools are...

Janine Jackson: Nothing says America 2018 like a spate of stories on how back-to-school shopping includes bulletproof backpacks. Arming teachers and gearing kids up like commandos are presented as more-or-less reasonable responses to concerns about school safety. Any violence in schools is too much, of course, but a conversation about school safety that’s focused on guns and bullets is a narrow and distorted conversation. Recasting our definition of a “safe school environment” could lead us...

Parenting with ACEs is sharing inspiration, information, and expertise from our chat series in 3 formats. Parenting with ACEs: How It Feels & How We Heal Quote Collection (pdf version below as well) Quotes Database (pdf version below as well) Links to Chat Transcripts and before and after-the-chat blog posts. Thanks to everyone who showed up, who shared, and who is doing the important work that is our mission (prevent ACEs, heal trauma, build resilience). We know that work happens...