It is never too early to start practicing good money habits. In fact, the earlier teenagers are exposed to good financial habits, the better chance they will become financially savvy. This is an important life lesson in general, but especially if college is on the horizon for your teenager. Becoming a college student is one of the most exciting and immediate milestones for high school students. Teenagers feel a sense of freedom and it’s often…
Read More »Sueli Gwiazdowski, 24, says she switched high schools three times when she was growing up. She wanted to stay at her first school because she loved being on the speech and debate team – but the campus wasn’t wheelchair accessible. Her second school forced her to learn in a separate room, away from her non-disabled friends. “I had to fight my way out of that by going to a lot of…meetings and asserting that I…
Read More »in Art, Education, Music Education, News
In recent years, many school districts have had to make the difficult choice to eliminate art programs (drama, music, visual arts, photography, etc.) due to budget cuts and based upon state/national academic priorities that are more focused on math and English student achievement. The budget crisis came against the backdrop of the decade-long emphasis on math and reading as mandated by the federal No Child Left Behind law and other state initiatives and acts. For…
Read More »in Education, Mental Health, News
The Trump administration says it will stop paying out $1 billion in federal grants that school districts across the country have been using for student mental health funding, including to hire mental health professionals like counselors and social workers. The Department of Education is telling impacted districts that the Biden administration, in awarding the grants, violated “the letter or purpose of Federal civil rights law.” The grants were part of the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities…
Read More »The Trump administration says one of its primary goals in education is to expand school choice and put power back in the hands of parents. Yet it has killed the main way to track one of the most rapidly growing options – learning at home, or homeschool. The Education Department began counting the number of homeschooled children in 1999, when fewer than 2 percent of students were educated this way. Homeschooling rose by 50 percent…
Read More »President Donald Trump inherited a U.S. Department of Education with 4,133 employees, according to the administration’s own numbers. Nearly 600 workers have since chosen to leave, by resigning or retiring. And this week, more than 1,300 workers were told they’re losing their jobs in a Tuesday purge. That leaves 2,183 remaining department staff, according to the administration, which means the Department of Education will soon be roughly half the size it was just a few…
Read More »Observed each October, during National Disability Employment Awareness Month, or “NDEAM,” we celebrate the value and talent workers with disabilities add to America’s workplaces and economy. NDEAM’s purpose is to confirm our commitment to ensuring disabled workers have access to good jobs, every month of every year. Let’s hear from an educator on how we can bring disability history and disability employment awareness into the classroom. A few years ago, curriculum specialist Richard Cairn showed…
Read More »A SMART goal is a framework for defining objectives, where each goal is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). Follow this method to establish clear, attainable goals that hold you accountable to a deadline. SMART goals are useful in all professional sectors and industries, as well as in your personal life and in education. Using this framework will help ensure that you are working toward clearly defined goals that you can execute by a…
Read More »Four years after the pandemic shuttered schools, we all want to be done with COVID, but the latest analyses from three assessment companies paint a grim picture of where U.S. children are academically. While there are isolated bright spots, the general trend is stagnation. One report documented that U.S. students did not make progress in catching up in the most recent 2023-24 school year and slid even further behind in math and reading, exacerbating pandemic…
Read More »It’s no secret that when schools make a concerted effort to foster healthy, strong relationships with families, students benefit in a number of ways. Studies suggest that parental involvement and communication can lead to academic gains for students: higher grades and test scores, improved social skills and time on task, better attendance and participation, and decreased behavioral problems in the classroom. But parent-teacher communication can be challenging, say teachers. In 2006, 50 percent of participants…
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