Category: Education

Some charter school operators make profits by leasing space to themselves at unusually high rates. By Ilya Andriyanov from www.shutterstock.com While critics charge that charter schools are siphoning money away from public schools, a more fundamental issue frequently flies under the radar: the questionable business practices that allow people who own and run charter schools […]

Denver public school teachers went on strike on Feb. 11 and successfully eliminated a controversial bonus-based pay system. David Zalubowski/AP Editor’s note: Denver teachers reached a tentative deal on Feb. 14 that ended a three-day strike. Besides raises of 7 to 11 percent, one of the concessions they won was the end of performance-based pay, […]

Denver public school teachers went on strike on Feb. 11 and successfully eliminated a controversial bonus-based pay system. David Zalubowski/AP Editor’s note: Denver teachers reached a tentative deal on Feb. 14 that ended a three-day strike. Besides raises of 7 to 11 percent, one of the concessions they won was the end of performance-based pay, […]

Zero tolerance polices in school discipline are on the decline, new data show. wavebreakmedia/www.shutterstock.com When parents and educators discuss school discipline, one of the things that comes up most are “zero tolerance” policies. This term is often misused and misunderstood, according to new research I published recently. Zero tolerance policies are also thought to be […]

Early starts are key to developing children’s talents, experts say. Eugene Partyzan from www.shutterstock.com Some people think talent is born. The often-told story of Mozart playing piano at 3 and composing at 5 reinforces such beliefs. But here’s the rest of that story: Mozart’s father was a successful musician, composer and instructor. He was devoted […]

School shooters tend to have a death wish, new research shows. Constantine Pankin from www.shutterstock.com Two years before he lined his schoolmates up against a classroom wall and executed them one by one, the student, who would become the gunman, tried to show his English teacher something important. He had quietly slid up his sleeves […]

Only 1 in 5 American students take a foreign language before college. pathdoc from www.shutterstock.com Of all the skills that a person could have in today’s globalized world, few serve individuals – and the larger society – as well as knowing how to speak another language. People who speak another language score higher on tests […]

School experiments with new ways to discipline students without suspending them show mixed results. Africa Studio / www.shutterstock.com Proponents of restorative justice suffered a blow recently with the late 2018 release of a much anticipated RAND study of restorative practices in Pittsburgh schools. The study’s results showed restorative practices were not as effective as many […]

Textbooks often do a poor job when it comes to teaching students about slavery in the U.S. Dusan Pavlic from www.shutterstock.com When it comes to teaching students about slavery in the United States, teachers often stumble through the topic. In the worst cases, they use poorly conceived lessons that end up inflaming students, parents and […]

The code of the street – where respect is won by fighting – often follows children into school. Pixel-Shot/www.shutterstock.com When school officials suspend students, the idea is to maintain a safe environment and deter violence and other problematic behavior on the school campus. But when I interviewed 30 children in southeast Michigan who had been […]