It’s that time of the year again. All around the country schools are gearing up for their state standardized test. Some may have already started. Test season is one of the most polarizing times of the year. If you are in education then you know a lot of people, teachers, students, and parents alike, who…
As a teacher, the period between spring break and summer vacation is the season of awkward conversations. This is the time of the year in which teachers start looking at data and grades and make suggestions for retention. These conversations are never pleasant for a variety of reasons. For one, parents and students rarely want…
As we get further away from the height of the pandemic, there is a desire to get back to “normal” in the school system. And though we have quickly started to romanticize the public education mess that we had before, it would be hard to argue that coronavirus has not made life more difficult. This…
Transportation is not typically something discussed at length when it comes to education. It is understandable why. How you get to and from school does not have much to do with test scores or instruction. So, conversations about busing often fall by the wayside. With that being said, transportation is arguably the most important aspect…
A spotlight has been shined on the treatment of Asian Americans for the worst possible reason. Hate crimes against Asians have risen since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Some people have attributed this to the coronavirus rhetoric. But a couple of weeks ago, it unfortunately was more than rhetoric. A man, Robert Aaron Long, walked into…
The COVID-19 pandemic is by no means over. But as more of the vulnerable population is vaccinated, there is a sense that we will be returning to “normal.” In schools normal would likely be defined as in-person classes as opposed to online ones. While in-person classes will return and have started to already, it would…
You know those memes on the internet where people talk about how their teachers never taught them X, Y, or Z? A lot of them are false, but some correctly point out gaps in the curriculum. At the top of that list is taxes. Personal finance, in general, is not touched on nearly enough in…
There are a lot of education ideas out there floating around. The number of students in a class is one of those ideas. Sure, there are schools that have experimented with smaller classes, but most people have never worked at one of these schools. Most districts have never tested it in the context of their…
March is Women’s History Month. This is the time of the year where we take a step back and make sure that we are honoring the accomplishments and legacy of women past and present. We have to be intentional about this because women have been historically marginalized. Even today, their history is often left out…
Stop me if you have heard this before: People have complaints about standardized testing. This is not new. It is the same dance we see around this time every year, but this time it’s to a different song. All over the country schools, parents, and other stakeholders are crying foul over plans to go through…