Reading scholar Maryanne Wolf believes that every child needs an array of digital skills in their learning repertoire. Her research focuses on how best to introduce technology in terms of reading acquisition so children can develop deep reading skills over time. Educators must focus on a carefully considered trajectory in order to develop a truly…

In this essay the author argues that today's resurgent focus on noncognitive skills, especially for low-income students, may unfairly mask cognitive deficiencies and work to relieve our society of its duty, at which we are currently failing, to help low-income children improve their lives by improving their cognitive skills. The author points…

The Response to Intervention initiative is in danger of failing and being thrown on the ash heaps of countless education reform initiatives, but not because it is poorly structured, rather on account of poor implementation. Among the implementation mistakes are seven that can be watched for and avoided. (Contains 3 tables.)

The author, a longtime teacher and principal, levels harsh criticisms against the English/language arts standards of the Common Core State Standards. Some standards call on young children to behave like high school seniors, making fine distinctions between words or literary devices, carrying on multiple processes simultaneously, and expressing…

In praise of isolation: Who says professional learning communities (PLCs) are a better way? The author says the PLC trend is but the latest education fad that is not helping teachers or students. PLCs, says the author, represents an administrative, clinical ideal of collaboration. He blames legions of high-paid consultants, and says that all along…

What do young black males say about what stands in the way of their academic success? Rather than rely on scholarly researchers to answer this question, the authors talked with a number of black males between ages 13 and 22 in Washington D.C., and Milwaukee, Wis., to learn what they had to say. These young men rarely talked about schools or…

U.S. education is at a transformational moment. The choices we make will determine whether our schools become collaborative and democratic or prescriptive and authoritarian. The policies proposed by the federal government for the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act will create some good schools for some students while…

The United States should not allow itself to be sucked into a competition against developing nations such as China, says Chinese-born American scholar Yong Zhao in an interview with Kappan. Instead, the U.S. should cling to and enhance the characteristics that have made it great, encouraging creativity, flexibility, and curiosity among its…

This article presents an interview with Assistant Deputy Secretary of Education Kevin Jennings on his ideas about school safety. In this interview, Jennings describes his plans for making schools safer for students and for developing a way to measure school climate that can drive such changes. Bullied in school, Jennings now devotes his life to…

The reading students are required to do for school bears little semblance to the reading they do outside of school. Students today are reading the same texts in school that students read a generation ago, but the varieties of text used outside of school are much different. One result is that many students are unmotivated to become readers.…

The sense of calling that compels educators to persist through difficult times and cope with stressful situations, also puts educators at risk for burning out. In order to fight potential burnout, both schools and individual teachers must attend to the issue. Schools must develop themselves as supportive work environments and educators must be…

"Turnaround" has become the new buzzword in education. From states and districts paying for principals to be trained as turnaround specialists to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan's call to turn around the country's 5,000 lowest-performing schools, the concept of rapid, large-scale reform in individual schools--not just incremental school…

This article presents an interview with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. In this interview, Duncan talks about the goal for his work leading American schools and how merit pay, charter schools, and mayoral control would improve student learning.

In this article, the author makes a distinction between two kinds of change: tinkering change and systemic change. Tinkering change includes reforms intended to address a specific deficiency or practice. Such tinkering change can be contrasted to what Shakespeare termed "sea change" in "The Tempest" ("a sea change into something rich and strange")…

Unlike every other developed country, Canada has had no national or pan-Canadian agency that works to support and promote research in education, and especially to build connections between research, policy, and practice. Canada has a national granting council that funds academic research in all fields, including education (the Social Sciences and…