Helping new teachers succeed - Kappan Online
When we invest in our new educators, we’re investing in our students, our school culture, and the future of our profession.| Kappan Online
Q: “How can I start the year on a positive note, building a culture of belonging for all students?” Signed, Classroom teacher A: The first weeks of school are a golden opportunity to create a classroom where every student feels valued, connected, and excited to learn. By intentionally weaving community-building, celebration of diversity, and student […] The post Classroom teacher asks, “How can I ensure a successful start to the school year?” appeared first on Kappan Online.| Kappan Online
A focus on collective well-being over stress prevention or individual self-care can help new and current special educators stay engaged in the field. The post Sustaining the special education workforce: Gen Z edition appeared first on Kappan Online.| Kappan Online
The Glenwood Community School District in Iowa transformed its teacher induction program to give Gen Z teachers the opportunities and support they crave. The post Helping next-gen educators cross the teaching tightrope appeared first on Kappan Online.| Kappan Online
🏆 Best Education Journalism of the Week 🏆 (08/29/2025) Alexander Russo Aug 29, 2025 In this week’s newsletter: 📌 States and districts show improvements — mostly. 📌 Journalists reflect on post-Katrina education coverage. 📌 All-star education reporter Talia Richman has her Baltimore Banner debut. 📌 “Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married.” STATES SHOW IMPROVEMENT The big education story […] The post Improving scores, Katrina reflections,...| Kappan Online
Not all rural communities are the same. Data from Kansas and Missouri reveal how differences across contexts can affect teacher recruitment and retention. The post New teachers in rural America appeared first on Kappan Online.| Kappan Online
Foreign language anxiety hinders the learning of many English learners. When teachers understand the source of students’ anxiety, they can develop strategies to help. The post The emotional side of learning a new language appeared first on Kappan Online.| Kappan Online
Teacher education students share why they want to teach and what they hope for in their careers. The post Voices of future teachers appeared first on Kappan Online.| Kappan Online
On the 20th anniversary of the Katrina disaster, a longtime NOLA reporter describes the challenges of covering a highly decentralized system — and the nuances outside NOLA coverage often miss. Marta Jewson Aug 27, 2025 Fifteen years ago, I moved to New Orleans as an Americorps volunteer. I was 22 years old. Having spent my […] The post Disaster, decentralization, & the slow climb back to school transparency appeared first on Kappan Online.| Kappan Online
Q: “I’m finishing my education degree, and I’m interviewing for my first teaching position. How do I prepare for my interviews and how will I know when it is a good fit? I don’t want to make a bad choice in my first job. Please help!” — Signed, Future lifelong educator A: Congratulations! This is […] The post How to prepare for your first teaching position interview appeared first on Kappan Online.| Kappan Online
When we invest in our new educators, we’re investing in our students, our school culture, and the future of our profession.| Kappan Online
To help new and veteran teachers grow, bring them into a professional community that values deep thinking, learning, and problem solving.| Kappan Online
Career Confidential columnist Starr Sackstein advises a superintendent who wants to help his administrative team align.| Kappan Online
Schools should be safe learning environments where students can thrive. Ongoing reports of shooting on school grounds are vivid reminders of the need to prevent gun violence in schools (Jonson, 2017). But as we work toward preventing these tragedies, we cannot ignore another essential question: How are schools centering the emotional safety and well-being of […]| Kappan Online
Providence Journal reporter Linda Borg grades herself critically for her coverage of the state takeover, pandemic shutdown, and schools reopening. By Colleen Connolly and Alexander Russo School district takeovers. Lawsuits. Recalls. Sudden resignations. Providence Journal reporter Linda Borg has seen and done it all. She’s been at the paper for 35 years, the last 15 […]| Kappan Online
Education journalism can do better at providing useful information focused on families’ needs. By Greg Toppo Back in the day, I was a huge fan of Alton Brown, the charismatic TV chef whose weekly Food Channel show would vividly explain the chemistry of yeast respiration or the architecture of green bean casseroles, then guide viewers […]| Kappan Online
Over nearly three years, The Grade has published a large number of pieces about media coverage of the COVID-19 crisis and schools. JOURNALISTS’ SELF-REFLECTIONS ‘We wasted a lot of time:’ A veteran reporter reflects ‘I will never forget it.’ Education reporters reflect on two years covering schools during the pandemic How education reporters stay safe […]| Kappan Online
A new story from the New Yorker shows how the media under-reported the plight of vulnerable kids — and unwittingly helped fan teachers’ fears that kids were COVID “super-spreaders” By Alexander Russo On the surface, the recent New Yorker/ProPublica article by Alec MacGillis focuses much-needed attention on the plight of vulnerable kids who have been […]| Kappan Online
Inadequate media coverage contributes to lack of urgency in school recovery efforts, says ProPublica’s Alec MacGillis. By Alexander Russo Over the past three years, ProPublica’s Alec MacGillis has emerged as a standout voice among journalists covering the impact of the pandemic response on students. In 2020, he wrote a prescient piece about a Baltimore student […]| Kappan Online
Pandemic education coverage failed to capture the losses vulnerable kids and working-class families were experiencing, says NPR’s K-12 education correspondent. By Alexander Russo I have often been disappointed during the past two years tracking education beat coverage of schools’ pandemic responses. However, there have been a small number of education reporters doing invaluable work. Chief […]| Kappan Online
A dozen education journalists share their best and worst moments By Colleen Connolly and Alexander Russo Two years ago, most of the nation’s public schools shut down, launching a tremendously difficult time for everyone, including education journalists. The unprecedented shutdown created enormous education coverage demands and access problems. Some reporters were new to the beat […]| Kappan Online
Over the past 12 harrowing months of the pandemic, what stories told us startling new things, moved us most, or changed the way we thought about things – for better or worse? By Alexander Russo The first school-related COVID story that I’ve been able to find was this Washington Post story about some schools canceling […]| Kappan Online
Abamu: "The question isn’t whether your industry will change, it’s whether you’ll change with it."| Kappan Online
Equity grading gets an “F” in San Francisco — and increased scrutiny in other places. A chance to breathe for education reporters. A surge of criticism for the EWA conference. Don’t mess with Sacramento Bee education reporter Jennah Pendleton!| Kappan Online
Connecting education research, policy, and practice| Kappan Online
The voices of high school students show how unhealthy stress, sleep deprivation, and lack of belonging are threatening their well-being.| Kappan Online
New research findings challenge common assumptions about summer learning loss. In 1996, a team of scholars at the University of Missouri conducted a comprehensive meta-analysis of earlier research on the extent to which students learn and/or forget academic content and skills during the summer months (Cooper et al., 1996). They found that the test scores of […]| Kappan Online
Current and former education journalists look back and share lessons on the 5th anniversary of the start of the pandemic.| Kappan Online
This is the story of how virtual learning broke school culture, how administrators failed to rebuild it — and how media coverage overlooked the human toll of these failures.| Kappan Online
When teachers promote learning and mastery over grades and test scores, student engagement and motivation increases, research shows. Motivation — why students do what they do — and engagement —whether students do the work, see the purpose of it, and find it interesting and enjoyable — are often intertwined. In fact, engagement has been described […]| Kappan Online
Three common mistakes in how media outlets depict English language learners in schools — and a handful of model stories and tips for better coverage in 2020. By Barbara Gottschalk Find a story about standardized test score results — federal, state, or district-level — and chances are you’ll see something about the poor performance of […]| Kappan Online
Research reveals the most effective ways to help young struggling readers through tutoring. Early literacy tutoring works.| Kappan Online
English learners remain under-covered and subject to misleading news accounts, according to an expert teacher.By Barbara Gottschalk Two years ago, I wrote an article for The Grade on how to improve coverage of English-language learners. In it, I recommended more accurate representation of ELLs and complained about misleading stories on “bogus EL/non-EL achievement gaps.” Much […]| Kappan Online
A Q&A with the Boston Globe’s Bianca Vázquez Toness and Jenna Russell about their much-admired recent story, A year of grit and despair. By Colleen Connolly Writing about students who are both immigrants and English language learners is one of the most difficult tasks for education journalists. Maybe they don’t speak their sources’ primary language. […]| Kappan Online
We “EL advocates/SoR critics” have articulated very clearly and openly the rationale for our opposition to Science of Reading legislation, which is not a critique of the research itself.| Kappan Online
Misplaced concerns about English learners and the science of reading are slowing progress, says former Stanford professor Claude Goldenberg. Vigilant journalism is the key to addressing the confusion. By Alexander Russo While it might seem like the literacy reform movement has become something of a juggernaut, that’s not entirely the case. Several states — California […]| Kappan Online
Adopting a new, “science-based” methodology is not enough to address students’ difficulties with reading. Over the last several years, the field of literacy instruction has come to focus a great deal of attention on what’s known as the science of reading (SoR) — which emphasizes systematic instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics, reading fluency, vocabulary, and […]| Kappan Online
