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…
While adults in schools split hairs over what to call what just happened to young people during the pandemic—“learning loss” vs. “unfinished learning”—the students send us a very different message. Behavior is communication. And right now, national problems with student behavior in school communicate that adults are completely out of touch. In Oregon, a middle…
This year, 48 states and Washington, D.C. will recognize Juneteenth as a holiday. Juneteenth commemorates the announcement of the Emancipation Proclamation in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865. Texas was the last Confederate state where the proclamation was announced. Slavery did not officially end in the entire United States until December 6, 1865, when the…
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…