3-2-15: “If policy makers were to listen to educators – and to students and parents – they would hear that the real crisis in public education is the loss of our collective commitment to the common good. If we continue to make the kinds of choices that steer resources away from our neediest students, the […]

1-22-15: “If you truly believe you could work full time and support a family on less than $15,000 a year, go try it.” – President Obama to Congress, Jan. 20, 2015, via E.J. Dionne

1-17-15: “We have to give them quality teachers, small class sizes, up-to-date equipment. But in addition, if we’re serious, we have to do things that overcome the damages of poverty. We have to meet their health needs, their mental health needs, after-school programs, summer programs, parent engagement, early-childhood services. These are the so- called wraparound […]

1-15-15: “Rebecca Marcon found negative effects of overly-directed preschool instruction on later school performance in a study of three different curricula, described as either ‘academically oriented’ or ‘child-initiated.’ By third grade, her group of 343 students — 96% African American with 75% of the children qualifying for subsidized school lunch — displayed few differences in […]

1-9-15: “I don’t understand what youth are dealing with in their schools every day. I didn’t realize. My daughter, who’s a senior at Harding, says they see fights on the regular. I mean, growing up, I didn’t understand when she came home and said ‘There was a fight today’ that it happened in front of […]

1-8-15: “Students from first- and second-generation immigrant families are more likely than their peers from non-immigrant families to have strengths such as parents who remain married and households where multiple generations of relatives may live. ‘These children are more likely to live in intact, extended families. That’s a positive for them and one that can […]

1-3-15: “Now I can make a very powerful case to a parent about the opportunities they want for a child that they love. But I can make a business case to you about the opportunities you want to develop the most powerful economic driver that any community, any state, any nation can imagine – the […]

1-1-15: Heads up, adults: Monday begins the next year of young people’s school lives. Are you constructively engaged?

12-30-14: Tal Gross, a Columbia University assistant professor, making a New Year’s resolution, in the Washington Post, to ban electronics from his classroom: “We are becoming a distracted nation, constantly alt-tabbing to our e-mail and peeking at our phones. We should not be so quick to throw out our pens and pencils.”

12-27-14: Messages left by Empty Stocking Fund donors this year included this: “As an example for the young set by Granna.” Just so.