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Fewer students are heading into the teaching field, according to American College Testing (ACT) records. The ACT test measures a high school student’s readiness for college and provides colleges with necessary data. ACT reports 7% of Alabama’s 2012 graduating class who took the ACT, selected Education as their planned major. That number dropped to almost…

Melanie Hester could see her fifth graders were confused. A history lesson she was teaching about Native Americans asked the students to think about how they could honor the cultural history of the land where the United States now stands. “Where are the Native Americans now?” her students wanted to know. In the past, the…

“You’re smart, you’re Asian, you’re queer and nonbinary, and you were raised by a single mom. Colleges will love you.” That’s the message I heard from friends even years before applying to college. In high school, advisers chimed in, too; they made it seem like it was a cool thing to be from a marginalized…

As a school psychologist, I’ve spent most of my time providing counseling for students and making sure those considered academically or behaviorally at risk get the services they’re entitled to. It has been rewarding, but also frustrating, as I watched as students with disabilities were disproportionately disciplined. I will never forget a 2019 encounter involving…

“Hello, my name is Melissa, and my son has expressed how excited he is to have a ‘man teacher’ this year, which in turn made me excited for him.” She went on to write that I was her fifth grader’s first male teacher, adding: “You are all this boy talks about at home.” It’s been…

As the pandemic nears its cheerless two-year anniversary, matters of health and wellness have dominated education conversations nationwide. The largescale return to in-person learning this fall has seen schools put in place mask mandates, COVID testing protocols, physical distancing requirements, and handwashing and sanitizing stations. But there has been at least one school health solution…

Oklahoma education officials came up with an ambitious plan to help students who struggled during the pandemic: build a 500-person math tutoring corps. The goal is to have 250 tutors in place by January. But first, the state has to find them. Already, they’ve changed their recruiting approach. After assuming most of the tutors would…

Unprecedented shortages of bus drivers and substitutes. A coronavirus variant that has quarantined swaths of students and staff. Pressure to help students readjust and catch up. As schools face this battery of challenges, they’re short another key resource: teachers. In 18 of 20 large U.S. school districts that provided data to Chalkbeat, the number of teacher vacancies…

Confronting classrooms without permanent teachers, school administrators across the country are turning to an assortment of incentives — many of them financial, some unprecedented — to fill widespread vacancies. Some districts are offering thousands in signing bonuses, others adapt to four-day work weeks and many are easing the way for college students or other would-be…

Every child learns differently. This individual process is affected by a range of factors, including prior knowledge, ability and motivation. It is also dynamic and changes over the course of someone’s lifetime. So what can teachers do to accommodate the needs of each individual student? If you are a teacher, you probably know that not…