Too Many School Parties?
In January, a kindergarten teacher invited me to a celebration of the 100th day of school. Before I left, I asked the children to tell me what they had learned about 100. Maybe they were exhausted, or maybe they’d succumbed to the sugary treats, but the boys and girls stared at me blankly.
Reading to Students
The 13th boy arrived late. He towered over me, an eighth-grader who was 16, with a crime sheet and time served in a detention center for assault. The lesson I’d planned was hopeless. Maybe I could get them interested in a story. … In no time, the boys were riveted.
Girls in Jail
In 2005, Newsweek described a “significant rise in violent behavior among girls” that amounted to a “national crisis.” Has there been a surge in teen girls’ criminal behavior? Are girls’ crimes increasingly violent? Have crimes committed by girls reached the crisis point? The answers, I’ve found, are partly yes—but mostly no.
Research Shows Education Trends
Current trends in education indicate that collaboration is increasingly essential, professional development a necessity, instructional time is due for reform, teacher accountability has moved to the forefront, and schools will continue to struggle with behaviors created or fueled by technology, such as “sexting” and cyberbullying.
Students Need Time To Play
Children who have recess for more than 15 minutes each day have better classroom behavior, concentration, and grades. Many teachers, including those who supervise recess, fail to see the mini-society, replete with complicated “rules and structure,” that children invent on the playground.
A brutal truth is that many runaways die, some from suicide, some from drug overdose or alcohol, and some from HIV and other diseases. Some runaways are homicide victims. Many run away before turning 14, many run away more than once, and girls are more likely to be repeat runaways.
Children who are slow to catch on to reading typically have “slow shutter speeds.” Sounds and words fly by too quickly, leaving the children stranded. Neuroscientists say these children require a two-fold intervention: exercises that thicken their gray and white matter and forge neural connections; and one-on-one instruction.
Can a Devasting School Fire Happen Again?
Newer schools are designed to keep fires from igniting and spreading, with sprinkler systems as the first line of defense. But, the fire marshals warn, today’s schools have many “potential ignition sources.” These days, school fires can spread rapidly, owing to the immense “fuel load” of the buildings.
A Place for Parents at the School Table
It takes home-school connections and parent partnerships to repair a broken school. Home visits improve student attendance and test scores and reduced suspensions, expulsions, and vandalism. Try as we may to dignify success in schooling with test scores and bar charts, it is in relationships that educators become significant.
The Dropout Crisis Cure
How do U.S. dropout rates compare to those in other industrialized countries? A 2006 study ranked the U.S. 21st out of 28 countries, lower than Germany, Greece, and Slovenia and barely above Estonia, New Zealand, and Spain. Could the numbers be any worse?
A Place for Rural Schools
Research reveals the remarkable power of simple acts of kindness and compassion, and classroom lessons that, as an elementary teacher told me, “get where students live.” It turns out that these acts, when seamlessly woven into daily practice, motivate rural students to learn and achieve, and to stay in school.
Preventing Sports Concussions in Children
Crack open an egg and swish the yolk around inside the shell. That’s what a youngster’s brain looks like during a concussion. Concussions occur in all organized sports. The American College of Sports Medicine has stepped up efforts to enact a national policy for concussion in youth sports.
Civic Lives of Students
What happens after students get elected to student councils? At best, the process gives students a voice in school governance and prepares future leaders. But many low-income students are skeptical about student government, convinced that principals and other officials would subvert their efforts to improve school conditions.