Listen Up, Legislators: People Want Better Sex Education Than What Many States Require

Teacher/administrator communication, or its lack

Administrators and teachers are mostly in agreement about the importance of trying new tools and methods for instruction, yet each identifies the other as an obstacle, writes Jordan Shapiro in The Hechinger Report. Administrators want teachers to adopt new methods, but feel teachers resist change. Teachers yearn to be creative, but feel this is impossible within a rigid bureaucracy. Blame creates a gridlock that…

A home-schooling free-for-all?

Unlike much education in this country, home-schooling is broadly unregulated, writes Motoko Rich in The New York Times. Along with its steady growth has come a debate and lobbying war over how much oversight such education requires. Eleven states do not require home-schooling families to register with district or state agencies, according to the Coalition for Responsible Home Education. Fourteen states do not specify subjects that…

Education: the epicenter of injustice in our society

Low-income children of color are at the epicenter of injustice in our society, writes Mark Warren in The New England Journal of Public Policy. It will take a social movement to break this cycle, but education reformers seldom think in movement terms. Most reformers take a technical or an organizational approach, concentrating on how education is delivered, e.g., improving curricula or better training…

To grow up the child of well-educated parents in an affluent American home is to hit the verbal lottery, writes Robert Pondiscio on the Thomas B. Fordham Institute website. Verbal parents chatter incessantly, and offer a running commentary on everything in a child's life. In sharp contrast, early disadvantages in language among low-income children -- both a low volume of words and little variety in how words are used --…

TECHNOLOGY IS A TOOL, NOT A LEARNING OUTCOME.