Should Non-Standard English Be Taught in Schools?

March 15th, 2017

The 2016 presidential election brought into sharp focus the divisions among Americans about how to handle diversity. While race and country of origin came to the forefront of public and private debates, language is another issue that sparks passionate arguments. Oral language – the words we say and the way we speak them – is a strong marker of cultural background, not just across countries, but within them.

Americans have long debated educational policies for

Confronting a Threat to Scientific Progress: Skepticism

Scientific progress is at its highest point in history, yet advances in health, environmental protection, and other fields face a major threat: distrust from some members of the public. Although 97% of scientists agree that global temperatures are rising and changing ecosystems, less than 75% of American citizens do. And a shocking number of parents distrust the safety of childhood vaccines, despite the fact that fabricated claims about the risks have been thoroughly debunked.

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Educational Technology Is Not Making the Grade

Digital technology has revolutionized our homes, cars, and workplaces, but it hasn’t changed much in one surprising area: schools. The problem isn’t that schools lack access to technology, but that the expensive technology they have isn’t effective. In 2014 alone, U.S. schools spent close to $10 billion on educational technology, yet research on the benefits for students is “disheartening, at best,” according to Kimberly Lawless, who reviewed dozens of studies on the topic in Policy

For Teaching Math, Two Ways Are Better Than One

If you think you’re bad at math, you’re not alone. Large percentages of adults lack confidence in their math skills; even teachers have surprisingly low ratings of their ability in the subject. But it might be possible to reverse that trend for our children. Research suggests that one straightforward approach can help students develop a clearer understanding of math: teaching multiple strategies to perform the same skill. When teachers demonstrate two ways to do subtraction or multiply