Once upon a time, a knight in shining armor rode his gallant steed into a village where he was met with cheers and celebration. I like to believe that these heroes still exist — I know one named Fluviano. He’s a student in my English language development class. He does not ride atop a gallant...

In 2020, voters in California’s Alameda County made a remarkable decision. Rather than accept generations of underinvestment in young children, they chose to build something families had never truly had: an early childhood system designed to work. Parents, early educators, childcare providers, labor leaders, business leaders, advocates and community organizations came together around a shared...

Chemical fires, leaks and explosions happen at U.S. industrial facilities every other day — incidents such as four disasters in greater Los Angeles over Memorial Day weekend, including one involving a chemical tank that threatened to explode and forced 50,000 residents and more than 20 schools to evacuate, and a chemical tank explosion the next...

I run into a former student of mine, outside of school. “How are you, miss?” he asks. I respond in our native tongue, “Muy bien, ¿y tú?” We chat briefly about students from our class, and I ask about Camila — a silly ninth grader who always brightened our days. “Hay … la deportaron, miss,”...

As educators, we spend a lot of time talking about the things we think are important. Attendance. Graduation rates. Test scores. Yes, those things matter. But before any of them improve, students have to believe that school is a place where they belong.  This year, a student told me: “I gave up on myself because...

Math improvement rarely stalls because districts aren’t taking action. More often, it stalls because well-intentioned supports accumulate faster than schools can turn them into a coherent, actionable instructional plan. The instinct to seek additional support is understandable. Students need help immediately. Teachers deserve time and training. Families want progress they can see. So districts invest...

Recently, researchers at Dartmouth, Harvard and Stanford released the annual Education Scorecard, which points to a long-entrenched learning recession in American K-12 education.The latest reading achievement data tells a troubling story: Reading scores remain below pre-pandemic levels in many of the nation’s most under-resourced school districts. Equally concerning, researchers found that declines in reading achievement...

For a few years now, the United States has been marinating in a particular version of the American story. Specifically, we’ve been awash in warnings about the country’s alleged vulnerability in the face of cultural change. In this conservative telling, America grows stronger when it is monocultural, wealthier when it goes it alone, and better...

Public education, in red and blue states alike, is being pulled apart by student disengagement, mental health needs, culture war battles, voucher expansion, budget uncertainty and the disruptive force of artificial intelligence. New data prompt renewed handwringing over standardized test scores and their decade-long decline. Meanwhile, Republicans who seek more choice in public education and...

Most California parents assume that when they send their children to school on a hot day, someone is responsible for keeping them safe. They assume there are rules and that the adults in charge will notice if a child is struggling in the heat. That assumption is not always true. Until very recently, it was...