As schools shut down during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, Vanessa met with five new teachers as part of a research project to learn about their preparation to teach in rural schools in the Pacific Northwest. Vanessa posed the question, what surprised you most about teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic? One teacher, Ms. Tolson
On January 13, 2020, I started my new role at the University of Chicago’s To&Through Project as a coach. Full of excitement, and a little nervousness, my colleague Ashley Leonard and I were launching a new initiative called the Middle Grades Network (MGN) with the vision of cohorts of schools in Chicago Public Schools (CPS) collaborating to
Last fall, sixty high schools in states across the US piloted an AP course in African-American studies (International Business Times 2022). The pilot responds to years of activism and educational research supporting culturally responsive teaching, a pedagogy that links learning with “deep understanding of (and appreciation for) culture” (Ladson Billings 2014, 76). Culturally responsive teaching focuses
Education’s “Me Too” Moment Teacher pay is sexist and damages both teachers and students. While the “Me Too” movement has exposed sexual discrimination rampant in Hollywood, the more mundane sexual discrimination issue holding back educators remains muted. The adjacent teacher accounts reveal financial insecurity, and research says that teaching induces stress too (Rand 2022). The anxiety begins with
By Ghadir Al Saghir Conversations with school principals who host minoritized student groups at their schools can be eye-opening. A project I did in Lebanon had me going to schools that host refugee students to explore the role of principals in building healthy school environments for the kids. The conversations I had showed that the
Photo by Rene Bernal on Unsplash I recently attended the 2023 American Counseling Association (ACA) Conference, where I presented a poster on supporting youth experiencing intergenerational conflict (IC) in immigrant families. As a first-time attendee, the conference was a significant opportunity to improve my public speaking and open communication skills and networking. My presentation aimed to promote mental
The fight over the American public-school curriculum is a decades old debate (Shelton, 1979). At issue is not only what should be taught, but who should regulate that curriculum. Whether control is at the national level, the state level, or at the individual district and school level, teachers are often left wondering what control, if any, they
In his weekly presidential address to the American public on the morning of January 30th 2016, President Obama asserted, “In the new economy, computer science isn’t an optional skill—it’s a basic skill, right along with the three ‘Rs.’” By claiming that computer science (CS) education should be prioritized with the same importance as reading, writing, and
Statistics achievement is one’s level of success or proficiency in the field of statistics. It is critical to enhance college students’ statistics achievement because it benefits their future research endeavors (Onwuegbuzie 2004). However, many college students, particularly those in traditionally less quantitative programs in social sciences, are shown to exhibit unsatisfying academic behaviors that result in
The full-length American Journal of Education article by Sarah W. Beck and Amanda J. Godley can be accessed here. As entry into four-year colleges becomes more competitive each year, equalizing opportunity in college admissions for first generation, low-income and racially and linguistically minoritized students remains a persistent challenge (Nietzel 2021; Serling 2019). There is a need for
