By Fyodor Kushnirsky Originally published at The American Thinker In the current backlash against DEI, most criticism is focused on the "D" -- diversity -- which replaces the principle of meritocracy with racial criteria in hiring, admissions, and promotions. Notorious examples of implementation include police and fire departments lowering requirements for education and physical fitness, or aviation authorities adopting biographical assessment in place of traditional skill-based hiring evaluations. The "E" -- equity -- is more complex. Equity has replaced the concept of equality, which progressive ideology in the U.S. deems discriminatory because of its emphasis on individual … [Read more...]
High pay, low test scores: Washington state teachers earn most when adjusted for cost of living
By Carleen Johnson / The Center Square Washington state ranks highest in the nation for adjusted pay among elementary, middle and high school teachers, according to USAFacts, based on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. According to the data, kindergarten teachers in Washington earned the highest median salary in 2024, at $87,530. In the Evergreen State, elementary school teachers earned a median salary of $99,320, middle school teachers earned a median salary of $99,150, and high school teachers earned a median salary of $99,640. The median represents the middle point of a salary distribution By comparison, the 2024 median annual wage for pre-K-12 teachers in the U.S. … [Read more...]
A New Operating System for K–12 Education
This article was published at American Thinker. Kevin Finn is the author. It will take about 5 minutes to read. Teaching is an art as much as it may be a science. I liken it to conducting an orchestra. Just as the conductor leads his orchestra, the teacher guides his class. The conductor ensures that each musician is playing at the right tempo and volume, and the teacher ensures that each student is on task and contributing to the best of his abilities. Different conductors will lead their orchestras to perform the same piece of music in slightly different ways just as different teachers will teach the same subject in slightly different ways. Unlike orchestras, where each … [Read more...]
Homeschoolers May Need Less Instructional Time than Traditional School Students
HSLDA - Steven Duvall Summary A recent study by HSLDA’s Director of Research, Stephen Duvall, PhD, found that the efficiency of the homeschool environment can allow for more learning in less time. His findings suggest that 3rd and 4th grade homeschool students can spend as little as 2–3 hours daily in academic pursuits and make the same progress as public school students do in a full school day. Of course, every child is different, and some states have minimum hour requirements for homeschoolers. Many parents find homeschooling appealing because it gives them flexibility when designing their children’s learning experiences.[1] This often results in shortened school days, but … [Read more...]
Rhythmic Reads: How Music Shapes Lifelong Learners
Today we bring you an article form a guest author: Emily Graham. Emily Graham is the creator of Mighty Moms (mightymoms.net). She believes being a mom is one of the hardest jobs around and wanted to create a support system for moms from all walks of life. On her site, she offers a wide range of info tailored for busy moms — from how to reduce stress to creative ways to spend time together as a family. Rhythmic Reads: How Music Shapes Lifelong Learners In an era dominated by digital screens and boundless distractions, the potential of music emerges as a beacon for cultivating literacy among young learners. Music isn’t just a fun pastime – it can also take a child’s learning … [Read more...]
Should the Education System Embrace ‘Subsidiarity’?
Intellectualtakeout.org has another interesting article...what say you? Reports of failure in public schools tend to be systemic. Stories of success tend to be localized. Is this a reason to promote subsidiarity in the public school system? Subsidiarity is a principle that calls for decision-making power and responsibility to be held at the lowest level as much as possible. Applied to schools, this would loosely mean that the district does not do or decide things for an individual school that the school can manage for itself, that the state does not unnecessarily interfere with districts, and that the federal government does not unnecessarily interfere with states. It’s … [Read more...]
Kindergarten the new first grade? It’s actually worse than that….
From The Answer Sheet at The Washington Post > > > > Kindergarteners Noah Bellamy, L, and Morgan Creek read together during their kindergarten class library visit at Peabody Elementary School on Wednesday, February 25, 2015, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post) > > > > There is a newly published study out of the University of Virginia titled, “Is Kindergarten the New First Grade?” (based on a 2014 working paper), which finds, not surprisingly, that it is. This work should not be confused with the the 2009 study “Crisis in the Kindergarten” from the nonprofit Alliance for Childhood, which said: Kindergartners are now … [Read more...]
Meet Your New ‘Neighbor’: ESSA, Seriously!
From: commoncorediva - > > > Being a great neighbor is a privilege. But what do you do when your new neighbor is a portion of the Every Student Succeeds Act{ESSA}?! Hang on, anti CCSS Warriors, the information you are about to read may cause shock! The Language: We all know the ESSA is over 1,000 pages and its ink was barely dry when it was voted on and passed into law. Very few took time to read it when it first came out. I wager many others STILL haven’t read through it today! However, we MUST keep digging, we MUST know what the language says. To date, several truths have been uncovered and shared. Warriors, we CANNOT stop now! This huge education bill has more … [Read more...]
Welcome to TotCare: Obama’s Preschool Takeover
Radix News > > > > > > The wheels on the bus go ’round and ’round, just like the endless cycles of big, bad government programs to federalize preschool and daycare. On Wednesday, the White House Summit on Early Education will unveil nearly $1 billion in new “investments” to “expand access to high-quality early childhood education to every child in America” from “birth and continuing to age 5.” It’s a retread of President Obama’s 2013 State of the Union school-spending plan, which was a repackaging of his 2011 Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge program. Those Obama initiatives are knockoffs of moldy-old Democratic policy chestnuts, such as former … [Read more...]
The New Preschool Is Crushing Kids
This article appeared in The Atlantic ***************** Step into an American preschool classroom today and you are likely to be bombarded with what we educators call a print-rich environment, every surface festooned with alphabet charts, bar graphs, word walls, instructional posters, classroom rules, calendars, schedules, and motivational platitudes—few of which a 4-year-old can “decode,” the contemporary word for what used to be known as reading. Because so few adults can remember the pertinent details of their own preschool or kindergarten years, it can be hard to appreciate just how much the early-education landscape has been transformed over the past two decades. The changes … [Read more...]