Literacy

While kids across the country still struggle to read due to pandemic school closures, hopeful signs are emerging in Tennessee. Why there?

As we head into summer, I’m so excited to read that tall stack of books that’s been waiting for me. And I’m encouraging my fourth grade students to get to the library and build their own summer collection.

Early this year, the Illinois Right to Read Act looked like a no-brainer. As originally written, the bill pushed teacher colleges, districts and schools to pay greater attention to phonics and phonemic awareness when teaching children to read.

Florida’s book bans—targeting everything from math books to Everywhere Babies—reveal the absurdity and hypocrisy of the culture wars. If “inappropriate” content is really the issue, it’s time to take a hard look at the filth, violence, and sexual innuendos hiding in plain sight inside the classroom’s most sacred cow: William Shakespeare.

In this moment, shaped by both the global pandemic and enduring racial inequities, excellent educational opportunities that communities are rightly demandi

The great American educator, Mary McLeod Bethune, once said, “The whole world opened to me when I learned to read.” As we mark National Family Literacy Mon

“The wolf took one last look at his mother and father…” My son is reading aloud in the other room. I hear his little voice recounting the story of a wolf w

I live in Lawrence, New Jersey—a middle-class, diverse town, halfway between Princeton and Trenton. For years I was on the school board and was very active

Picture this: a Spanish-speaking student in the back of the classroom struggling to understand a lecture.  Now picture this: a Spanish-speaking student in