In June, after decades of inaction on gun violence, the federal government enacted the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. While limited in its scope compared to the magnitude of America’s gun violence crisis, the law still presents an enormous opportunity to save lives — particularly the lives of children. But that’s not guaranteed. As gun violence...

Schools are places where health care happens, an essential part of the nation’s public health infrastructure. During COVID-19, schools across the country responded to the call to action to vaccinate students and community members and to provide nutritious meals and mental health counseling services to kids — despite shuttered classrooms. Even before the pandemic, schools were providing care that supports...

There’s an old conversational set piece in the lively world of early education policy that goes something like this: a study comes out showing that pre-K programs do a solid job of raising children’s knowledge and skills, and even improve kindergarten readiness, but seem to be less effective at producing higher third-grade reading scores or some other...

Teachers play a critical role in developing students’ world views regarding marginalized communities. But educators are increasingly being silenced in their ability to deliver inclusive teaching. Since January 2021, 37 states have introduced measures to limit how race and discrimination can be taught in public school classrooms, and 14 have imposed laws or rules to enforce these restrictions. Across...

This article originally appeared in the April 2022 School Business Affairs magazine and is reprinted with permission of the Association of School Business Officials International (ASBO). The text herein does not necessarily represent the views or policies of ASBO International, and use of this imprint does not imply any endorsement or recognition by ASBO International...

Parents and educators are asking: when is GreatSchools going to have new school data?  The answer is two-fold. First, it’s important to know we are not going to give parents information that doesn’t help them, or only helps some of them. Second, we have been consistently adding new data, but its type and source may...

This article first appeared in Idaho Capital Sun The more things change, the more they stay the same, or so the saying goes. In January 2021, I wrote a column called “Talking to your kids about recent mob violence.” The recent tragedies in Uvalde, Texas, and several other states bring on the sad occasion to...

Reading is freedom. It opens up the world.  In my day job as an education researcher, I know that too many kids never learn to read well. Kids who don’t learn to read fluently by 3rd grade will struggle as the material gets more complex.  That fact hit home this spring when I noticed my 8-year-old son had...

Enrollment in colleges and universities continued its steep plunge this spring, down 4.7% from a year ago. The nation’s higher education drop is worsening — but not for the reasons you might think. A newly released National Student Clearinghouse report shows total post-high school enrollment fell by about 685,000 students in spring 2022. In the wake...

It has been a long time since so many education issues have been so politically divisive, with sharp debates between conservatives and liberals, Republicans and Democrats about mask mandates, student sexual identity, and the role of race in the curriculum overtaking the routine work of educating students. But as school districts have decided how to...