The collegiate curriculum now includes capstone projects, which allow students to apply their academic knowledge to real-world problems. These programs are crucial to education in the U.S. and Brazil, although their execution and impact vary due to educational philosophies, resources, and institutional aims. This essay compares these disparities with teacher perspectives from both countries. The…
The Chicago Teachers Union’s effort to go remote across the district is rooted in racism. Asking members to force a work stoppage without acknowledging the critical state of our babies is wrong. It ignores the fact that large numbers of children suffered the last time academically, physically and emotionally. Remote learning hurt Black and brown…
It’s been an excellent year for school choice! 2021 has rightly been called a “breakthrough year” and “The Year of School Choice,” as 18 different states enacted seven new school choice programs and worked to expand 21 existing programs. And 2022 may prove to be even better! What’s really impressive is that school choice is…
When thousands of schools across the country closed their doors and went virtual for months due to COVID, Missouri’s Discovery Center of Springfield stepped up to meet the needs of families. “We weren’t going to let them become victims of the COVID slide,” executive director Rob Blevins told Springfield’s Fox 2 local affiliate. Instead, the…
If there is one thing we know for sure about this pandemic, it’s that interest in homeschooling has been on the rise as families search for a learning environment that meets all their childrens’ needs. In fact, the number of families choosing to homeschool has more than doubled since 2020! As families took control of…
Looking for a state that can innovate on education? Give Idaho more than a glance. So argues a new Manhattan Institute policy brief on the advent of microschooling in the Gem State. For decades, Idaho has been an easy place to homeschool, with few regulations. And Idaho’s many small, mostly rural districts have been unusually…
“The wolf took one last look at his mother and father…” My son is reading aloud in the other room. I hear his little voice recounting the story of a wolf who became the first wild wolf in California in a very long time. He reads with expression—exclamation points invoke excitement in his voice, question…
The continued killing of unarmed Black men by police has spurred action across the country. Some people are looking at how we fund law enforcement. Some people are looking at their own biases and participating in training about diversity, equity, and inclusion. Me? I’m looking at how we educate children of color. I’m the founder…
Just a glance at student attendance rates confirms what many have suspected for a while now: The pandemic had a profound impact on public school enrollment — and not in a good way. Across the country, enrollment in public schools declined by over a million students during the 2000-2021 school year. And this year enrollment…
Cameron Frazier didn’t attend a historically Black college or university, but the veteran educator recognizes their power, thanks to one of his former bosses. “During my work in Nashville, my principal was an HBCU graduate, and she was the poster child for HBCUs,” said Frazier a first-generation college graduate who earned his bachelor’s degree from…
The latest numbers on public school enrollment last school year show that states lost more than 1 million students (Delaware and Illinois are not in the count, yet.). While the loss is concentrated in preK and kindergarten, which suggests families may have chosen to hold off on starting their young children in formal school, families…
When I became a parent, it seems like ages ago, my favorite book to read to my sons was “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.” As a social scientist, I appreciated the book’s message that actions have consequences that often delight. Thus, I was especially eager to pull together a talented group of researchers…
Samantha Bee decided to go on the attack against school choice this week during her show, Full Frontal. Based on the first clip she played during her school choice rant, it was clear that the president’s support for parents having educational options for their children has really gotten under her skin. And she’s not alone—if…
Thank your agent, thank your God, and fuck off. Okay? When comedian Ricky Gervais took a flamethrower to the Golden Globes last night and called out the Hollywood elites for their hypocrisy and faux-wokeness, I immediately thought of Matt Damon. The father of four who shot to stardom after his lead role in Good Will…
There is a striking double standard when it comes to how the media treats parent advocate groups—while some are heralded for their work, others are smeared. This contrast was on full display this past weekend when a group of parents—mostly black moms and grandmas—descended on Atlanta to express their frustration and anger over Elizabeth Warren’s…
After what happened last night at Elizabeth Warren’s rally in Atlanta, Democrats might want to reconsider their strategy of attacking school choice. Black and brown parents, some who have been fighting chronically failing schools locally for decades, have had enough. A group of hundreds of mostly black parents —and grand parents and great grandparents —descended…
Sarah Carpenter is a black mother and grandmother from Memphis, Tennessee who has been fighting for better schools for decades. She was part of the group, Powerful Parent Network, that disrupted Elizabeth Warren’s rally in Atlanta on Thursday night. She was also one of the people, along with long time school reform advocate Howard Fuller,…
If you had told me when I started working in education that we’d face a day when the United States prioritized bars and gyms over children, I wouldn’t have believed you. Yet that day is here. Even as New York Mayor Bill de Blasio recognizes that there is an “unbelievably low level of transmission in…
Elizabeth Warren wants to batten down the hatches but unlike a ship captain who feels a duty to protect his passengers from an impending storm, Warren’s mission is to prevent them from escaping to safety—well, at least the poor ones. In her just released education plan, she isn’t throwing educational lifeboats to anybody who can’t…