Category: Formal Education

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 […]

September 1, 2021

If the female teachers of America had a patron saint, her name would be Sarah Josepha Hale. The celebrated 19th-century editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book is best known as the author of “Mary Had a Little Lamb” and for her […]

May 25, 2021

About 42 percent of rural school districts in the U.S. offered fully in-person instruction as of February, compared with only 17 percent for urban districts, according to a new RAND Corporation survey of school district leaders. The opposite pattern held […]

April 20, 2021

As a parent, the excitement surrounding the prospect of returning to in-person teaching and learning at our children’s school is welcome. It is also pervasive nationwide, as parents everywhere begin to think about a resumption of familiar routines, whether their […]

April 1, 2021

When schools across the country started shutting down in-person instruction in March of 2020 in response to the COVID-19 virus, much of the nation focus turned to the impact on students. Educators, parents, stakeholders, and policymakers still wonder if remote […]

March 26, 2021

The U.S. reached an important milestone several years ago—minority students now comprise the largest demographic group in our nation’s public schools. While there is great diversity within our student population, the majority of educators still do not share the same […]

March 26, 2021

While many educators found unique and innovative ways to deliver remote and engaging instruction to their students, the majority of teachers responding to a McKinsey survey said virtual learning over the past year is “a poor substitute” for in-person learning. […]