Let’s face it, writing is important.  It is a skill that is necessary in nearly every field, yet our students often feel that writing is something that they don’t need to know how to do.  They don’t see how their language arts classes will correlate to their careers in medicine, technology, or business.  While we as teachers understand the importance of this skill, this lack of buy-in on the part of students’ shows that we’re not doing all we can to communicate this to them.   Continue Reading...

The March 2010 issue of Education Matters (now available for non-members to read and download) includes an article about a recent study of the federal Head Start program, "Head Start Lags Behind." The study reveals "few sustained benefits" for the students, despite the program costing $7 billion per year. In fact, the results are even less promising when, as the article's author, Lindsey Burke notes, it becomes clear the Department of Health and Human Services study used less rigorous standards when measuring data.  Continue Reading...

The December 2009 edition of Education Matters (now available for non-members to read and download) includes an article highlighting how a local teachers union in Washington state disaffiliated from the state and national teachers unions. In "Declaring Independence," read about how the local teachers freed themselves from the WEA and the NEA—and saved money.   Continue Reading...