A Better Path to Learning

Tag: teachers

  • Friday News Roundup

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    It’s Friday the 13th. Time for the News Roundup. Progress on Chronic Absenteeism Has Slowed. Some Say McMahon Should Speak Up (The 74) ABPTL doesn’t do this often, but here is a shout out to the State of Alabama. According to The 74, Alabama serves as an example of how to get kids back to…

  • Cheated Out of History

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    It’s February, so we are celebrating Black History Month. Next month we will celebrate Women’s History Month. In May, Asian/Pacific American Heritage is celebrated. Pride Month is celebrated in June (notice that most public schools aren’t in session during June). National Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated from the middle of September to the middle of…

  • Supporting Learner Choice

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    School choice is surging, mainly because of the rise of state-sponsored money flowing away from traditional public school districts toward private schools and other educational costs. Funding pathways have expanded and it’s tough to keep track of all of the options available to families these days when it comes to making a choice different than…

  • Congress Maintains

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    Congress just passed an education budget for 2026. For the most part, the budget remains similar to 2025 expenditures. This action comes after a year of Donald Trump blustering about how he and Linda McMahon, his secretary of education, would dismantle the U.S. Department of Education. Based upon the actions of House Speaker Mike Johnson…

  • The Bible as a Public School Textbook?

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    The Bible as required reading in American public schools? Texas and other states think so. EdWeek reported on 1/29/26 that, “Debates over what constitutes the American literary canon – and whether Bible excerpts should be a part of it – erupted…during a tense Texas State Board of Education discussion over a proposed list of books,…

  • Friday News Roundup

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    It’s a gray Friday in Iowa. Time for the Roundup. How a Notorious Maximum-Security Prison Was Transformed Into a Thriving Preschool (The 74) We talk a lot about “anytime, anywhere” learning here at ABPTL, but this story takes that phrase to a different level. Rhian Allvin was looking for learning space for her newly launched…

  • Struggle Not Failure

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    In my 35-years as a public educator, I never saw a young learner that “learned a lesson” from failure. Far from it. Instead, what I witnessed were young learners that doubted themselves as smart and strong, blamed their teacher, and at worse, gave up and dropped out from the learning game – after being labeled…

  • AI Positives

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    Artificial intelligence has the potential to serve as a transformative change in how kids learn. But today, many K-12 traditional school districts have banned its use in the classroom, along with cell phones and other forms of social media. Maybe it’s time to survey the news regarding how schools are using AI effectively when it…

  • Mixing Learners

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    I’ve told this story before. Back in the 90’s, Jerry Weast, Montgomery County, Maryland’s school superintendent, started digging around trying to find out why his students were suddenly scoring higher than expected on their reading and math tests. He looks at the district curriculum. He looked at classroom instructional strategies, He examined formative testing. Although…

  • The Inability to Do Right

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    If you hang around K-12 education in this country long enough, like most other things, what comes around goes around. The Atlantic recently published a piece titled “The Program That’s Turning Schools Around.” It’s a story about how important non-profits like Communities in Schools and others are when it comes to providing wrap-around services for…