Tag: students
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Eating Crow
Back on July 28, 2026, ABPTL wrote this about Mike Miles, the current state-appointed school superintendent for the Houston Independent School District: “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,…
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Notes From Camp
Traditional school people tend to look down on summer camp education. Most think that camp is nothing more than something kids do to pass the time until “real” school begins in late summer. My experience with summer camps and other out of school learning opportunities suggests that young learners benefit greatly from these non-formal experiences,…
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The Public School Bible
“This summer, the Texas State Board of Education approved a new required-reading list for public schools, mandating what the state’s 5.4 million students will read in every grade from kindergarten to 12th. …What made the Texas list controversial is the inclusion not of a new book, but of a very old one: the Bible. Students…
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Get Loud
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…
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Friday News Roundup
Time for the Friday News Roundup! 52 Million U.S. Kids Eligible for New Scholarships, but California Hasn’t Opted In (The 74) This could be a game changer. The 74 reported this week that nearly 52 million U.S. kids will be eligible to receive funding under the Education Freedom Tax Credit program so they can choose…
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Define Cheating
“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,…
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Stop Hating Vouchers
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.…
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Could Mike Miles Be Our Educational Savior?
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…
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What If It’s Not the Phones? Part 2
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…
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Friday News Roundup
It’s Friday! Time for the News Roundup. Can the Prospect of 3rd Grade Retention Improve Early Literacy? Yes, Study Says (EducationWeek) To hold kids back or not continues to be a debate in our K-12 school system. Most recently, findings from a study conducted by researchers at American University and Syracuse University suggest that just…