Category: Formal Education

June 2, 2023

The National Council on Measurement in Education’s (NCME) annual meeting has always offered an opportunity to learn about innovative research and new trends in student assessment. It is a chance to get hints of where the field is moving and […]

April 17, 2023

Critical thinking is plainly in decline. Everywhere we look, people are uncritically consuming and spreading information that is distorted, misleading, and sometimes intentionally deceptive. Conspiracy thinking is rampant–QAnon, Alex Jones and the Sandy Hook shooting, Pizzagate, and unfounded claims of […]

April 13, 2023

Two in three students say their professors grade fairly over all, according to the recent Student Voice survey of 3,004 two- and four-year students by Inside Higher Ed and College Pulse. About one in 10 of students says their professors […]

April 3, 2023

Standardized tests can be hard on students. Many of us still remember the frustration and anxiety we experienced when we were younger and sat down for our first round of testing. To make matters worse, it’s fairly common for students […]

March 31, 2023

Arts education belongs in every student’s curriculum — and not just because the arts can improve skills in other content areas. As an instrumental music teacher, I am used to advocating that the arts are essential to all students even […]

March 22, 2023

The NAEP results in late 2022 revealed that reading scores fell for both fourth and eighth grade readers as a result of the pandemic. Only 33 percent of fourth graders are reading proficiently, which means that two-thirds read below grade […]

March 17, 2023

What do you do when you don’t know what to do? Think about it for a minute. You are facing a new challenge – whether it be learning to fix a burst pipe, tackling a new hobby, or just struggling […]

February 23, 2023

The evolving needs of the IT workforce are constantly discussed–even people who are far from it understand the constantly growing needs for computer science. And yet, U.S. high schools don’t consistently offer computer science education and IT classes. Current situation […]

February 16, 2023

The National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) Report Card on learning loss was a sobering but not unexpected reckoning for how deeply and broadly the pandemic impacted student learning and achievement. NAEP state-level findings of drops in math and reading […]

February 8, 2023

With all the surprises sprung on the world over the last few years, it can be both exciting and frightening to imagine what 2023 might hold. Will this be a year defined by amazing breakthroughs for humanity—like cracking the formula […]

January 11, 2023

A recent study found that community college students earn degrees quicker and increase their earnings if they get extra help in credit-bearing courses rather than taking remedial courses. The seven-year study, conducted by scholars at Trinity College in Connecticut and […]

December 16, 2022

Merging high schools and community college classes in areas with a high number of Latino, Black and low-income students is emerging as a way to overcome disparities in who gets to take dual enrollment courses. The schools, known as “early […]

October 26, 2022

When 17-year-old Jerry Marnell thought about heading off to college, economics seemed like an enticing major to study. Between self-starting his own production company and serving as president of a local club, he knew basic business tenets were vital to […]

August 30, 2022

Returning to college after years away from formal education can feel like a new beginning, as well as a daunting challenge. What sparks students to return? Once they’re back, how can colleges help them stay on track? And what informal […]

March 28, 2022

Regularly I run into our students making Tik Tok videos in school stairwells. I often jump in, but that’s a different article for another day. I’ve come to learn that these videos are complicated, skillful endeavors that require multiple takes, […]

September 28, 2021

Providing an engaging and equitable STEM education is an important step in helping to develop more scientists and engineers while increasing race and gender diversity in the field–both of which are much needed in today’s world. Education in STEM can […]

September 22, 2021

The education establishment seems to think that time is a tangible asset. State legislatures mete out requirements based on minutes of classroom time as a measure of accountability. In higher education, we have the holy contact hour. Amazingly, those dictating […]

September 16, 2021

This back-to-school season is unlike any before it. Not only are many students heading back to full in-person learning after more than a year of virtual or hybrid learning, they’re doing it in the middle of COVID-19 surges nationwide. The […]

September 7, 2021

In New Jersey, promoting vaccines, literacy and a safe welcome-back to school For AFT-New Jersey President Donna M. Chiera, her union’s back-to-school vaccination and literacy campaign (funded by a Return, Recover and Reimagine grant from the national AFT) is especially […]

September 3, 2021

As President Joe Biden announced the end of the longest war in U.S. history, schools across the nation prepared for an influx of refugees, who were among the more than 120,000 people that were evacuated from Afghanistan. “So many of […]