Category: Learnings

Like free speech in too many circles these days, student voice is under attack inside our traditional K-12 school system. Student voice is the serious process of listening to young learners about how they like to learn and what they like to learn. Sometimes it’s referred to as learner agency. The Atlantic, in an article…

“At the beginning of each new class, Al Rabanera lets his students know that he knows they’re using AI.” “’I’m not going to pretend like you aren’t,’ he tells his students. ‘I know it’s readily available for most of you, if not all of you.’” “A math teacher at La Vista High School in Fullerton,…

It seems advocacy groups, worried about declining performance on the part of our K-12 school system, are suggesting that vouchers are the cause. One national group making that case is EdTrust, a Washington D.C. think tank committed to advancing policies and practices to dismantle the racial and economic barriers embedded in the American education system.…

ABPTL has been hard on Mike Miles, the state-appointed superintendent assigned to lead the Houston Independent School District back in 2023. But now, based on new test data, it seems like Miles’s reforms, a program he calls his New Education System, is working for more kids in more schools. The Houston Chronicle reported earlier this…

Last Thursday ABPTL posted Part 1 of “What If It’s Not the Phones,” which included excerpts from an article published in The Atlantic focused on the mental-health crisis facing our young people. Today’s Part 2 focuses on Peter Gray’s reaction to Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation and Gray’s theory about why our young learners are…

On last night’s Tonight Show, Jimmy Fallon announced that France became the first European Union country to ban social media for kids under 15. Fallon’s crowd clapped, demonstrating approval. The next news item Fallon shared was about “Jimothy,” the internet sensation raccoon currently captivating the social media world. Fallon’s crowd went crazy with clapping and…

Lack of imagination has always been something of a curse traditional K-12 decision-makers had to endure. When challenged to do something different to help kids learn, most school district leaders just double-down on what they have tried in the past, cross their fingers, and hope for the best. Education savings accounts presented an opportunity for…

After three weeks off, ABPTL is back. Our ability to read and our love of reading is under attack. “Twenty-three hundred years ago, the legend goes, King Ptolemy I of Egypt asked his court adviser to assemble a comprehensive collection of the world’s written works. Ptolemy, who had served under Alexander the Great, envisioned a…

I was big into America’s Bicentennial celebration back in 1976. Although I was just 16 years old, I served as treasurer for my county’s Bicentennial commission. And I designed a commemorative coin to honor my county’s history (focused mainly on the Pottawattamie Native American tribe along with a century or so of white man’s farming).…

When I worked as a public school educator in Texas, charter school growth was substantial. Since 1995 when the Texas Legislature approved charter schools, growth occurred in both numbers of students and numbers of charters throughout The Lone Star State. Until now. The Texas Tribune reported last week that, “Texas charter schools recently saw their…