When the coronavirus shut down school in the spring, my kids’ teachers spun out many impressive lessons. Their emails included links to travel videos on YouTube, math tutorials on Khan Academy, even parent-teacher video conferences. There was, however, one conspicuous absence from my kids’ e-learning: a feedback or support platform for their writing assignments. This...

Every four years, education reformers dare to dream that a presidential election will finally hinge on the issue of school choice. And each time, their hopes are crushed as wars, recessions, and scandals bump their top priority out of the spotlight. The unique conditions of the 2020 election, in which a deadly pandemic and a...

This summer brought a long overdue national spotlight to the role racism plays in all aspects of American society, and education has not been spared — nor should it be. Around the country, schools are scaling back and even abolishing long-established systems of policing. Major districts like Minneapolis and Portland, Oregon, moved swiftly to dissociate their schools from...

When the 2019-20 school year began, no one could have imagined that schools would sit dark and empty for one-third of the instructional year. COVID-19 left unprecedented disruption in its wake, laying bare inequities that existed long before living rooms turned into classrooms. Because Black and Latino communities have been hardest hit, we’re certain to...

Their heated exchange over school busing during a Democratic presidential debate last year was one of the more dramatic moments of the primary season. But now former Vice President Joe Biden and California Sen. Kamala Harris share the ticket and could make education a more defining issue in their effort to unseat President Donald Trump....

Education data guru Chris Minnich has some advice for school leaders: You may have spent the spring struggling to get food, hotspots and human connection to students, but right now is the time to plan for how school must be different next year if you’re going to address learning gaps widened by the pandemic. Minnich...

Tyneisha Gibbs and a few friends in East Orange, New Jersey, were in the midst of organizing a child care co-op called Umi-verse when the coronavirus hit the U.S. But this summer, when it became clear that families were facing the prospect of another three months or more of school closures, they saw an opportunity....

Students of civics might think the California state budget is crafted by the elected representatives of the citizenry, who debate and amend proposals working their way through various committees, ultimately leading to a spending plan with majority support and the signature of the governor. All that happens, of course, but no budget makes it to...

When Melissa Brennan begins school this fall at Mattie Lou Maxwell Elementary School in Anaheim, Calif., she’ll sit one-on-one with each of her special-needs kindergartners and first-graders and take the time to assess their basic skills. Brennan expects that the process will take place not in person, but over a video conferencing platform. “I’ll Zoom...

Updated August 6 Los Angeles Unified will reopen for the fall semester in less than two weeks, with campuses closed and students learning from home. The district and United Teachers Los Angeles struck a tentative agreement Sunday night over what distance learning will look like, but parents were excluded from the negotiations and largely kept...