JD Solomon

K12 is moving to ease food insecurity

When the New York City Department of Education announced in September that all public school students will now receive free lunch, it joined a...

School turnaround relies on steady leaders

Linda Cliatt-Wayman is the turnaround queen. As the principal who changed two low-performing and violent Philadelphia high schools into safe spaces focused on learning,...

Can they pray?

Perhaps one of the more confusing aspects of teaching about religion is the question of whether students can pray in public schools. The answer is...

Teacher sources for religion studies

Curious to know what you can and cannot teach in a religious studies class in primary, middle, and secondary schools? You can find a few...

Schools are teaching, not preaching

Teaching religion in public schools has been illegal for decades. Teaching about religion, however, is not only permissible, but is gaining traction as a...

Reversing a long decline in language instruction

With U.S. businesses of all sizes competing on the global stage, foreign language classes—and the teachers who teach them—are vanishing from K12 schools. Only about...

Building your school brand

What sets your school apart from thousands of other schools in the country, or even the others in your district? Former educator and now marketing...

NCSS offers new guidelines for religious studies in schools

Whether and how religion should be taught in public schools is one of those perennial hot buttons in America that seems to defy consensus....

Cambridge makes inroads in U.S. education

The race to offer a rigorous pre-college curriculum to K12 students, even in elementary school, is heating up, with the move by one of...

Destigmatizing mental health starts in schools

The number of young people suffering from depression has increased almost 40 percent in the last three years. And, as the Hamilton Southeastern School...

Protecting food security and fighting lunch shaming

When it comes to boosting the nutritional and academic value of school meals, Janet Poppendieck certainly offers food for thought. A nationally recognized scholar...

Teachers plan largest charter teachers union in Windy City

If educators in Chicago's Noble Network of Charter Schools get their way, they will soon compose the largest unionized charter school network in the...

New teachers need a master’s support

David Krulwich, principal of the Urban Assembly School for Applied Math and Science, says new teachers are too often left to fend for themselves, without...

Paul Tough discusses how to overcome school stress

In his previous book, How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity and the Hidden Power of Character, journalist Paul Tough looked at how non-cognitive personal qualities...

Hope in a hostile school environment

Every school district has that "last stop school" where the so-called "bad kids" end up. In California's Morongo USD that school is Black Rock...