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Is school segregation getting worse? Plenty of people say yes, including scholars , journalists , and civil-rights advocates . For the first time in years, there’s something approximating a consensus: Racially divided schools are a major and intensifying problem for American education—maybe even a crisis . There’s seemingly compelling numerical evidence, too. According to my analysis of data from the National Center on Education Statistics, the number of segregated schools (defined in this...

The emotional and sexual abuse that some children endure can lead them to commit crimes later in life. But when children achieve good grades and don't skip school, the likelihood of self-reported, chronic criminal behaviors declines significantly, according to researchers at the University of Michigan and University of Washington. This new ongoing study is one of the few in the nation to follow the same individuals over several decades to learn about how child maltreatment -- described as...

“We were in special measures. We had low staff morale, parents not happy with the school, results were poor and nobody wanted to come here, we had budget issues. It’s a downward spiral when you’re there.” This is what Feversham headteacher, Naveed Idrees, told The Guardian . He continued: “We could have gone down the route where we said we need to get results up, we’re going to do more English, more maths, more booster classes, but we didn’t. You might hit the results but your staff morale...

A conference this week aims to bring people together across generations. The Association for Education of Young Children (AEYC) and the Juneau Suicide Prevention Coalition are joining forces to set up their Resiliency Symposium, which runs from Thursday, March 15 to Saturday, March 17 at Centennial Hall. The conference is called “ARRR!” which stands for Attachment, Responsive Relationships, Resilience. The aim of the conference is to educate people young and old about how to become closer as...

Oprah does a great job emphasizing the change required to the perspective of adults in the way we try to understand — from the old, judgmental “What’s wrong with you?” to the more appropriate, insightful and caring question “What happened to you?”

Sen. Marco Rubio sent a letter to Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and Attorney General Jeff Sessions this week wrongly blaming the Parkland shooting on the Department of Education’s School Discipline Guidance package. This guidance, released in 2014, reminded schools of their responsibility to address racial discrimination in school discipline, which affects students in every state. The guidance includes a series of recommendations to help close the school-to-prison pipeline, including...

On the Friday after the deadly shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, Matthew Mayer, a professor at the Rutgers Graduate School of Education, got an email during a faculty meeting. The email was from Shane Jimerson, a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Both specialize in the study of school violence. That email led to nearly two weeks of long days, Mayer says, for some of the leading experts in the field. On conference calls and in Google docs...

“We’re all humans and we’re all going through the same things,” Kelsey Sisavath explains. “It’s important for everyone to know. It can change your perspective on how you see yourself, how you see others, and how you see the world.” The “it” Kelsey is talking about is trauma-informed and resilience-building practices based on the science of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) . She has a unique perspective on the topic given her range of experiences throughout her 19 years of life. The story...

In the weeks since the mass shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, educators have been asking tough questions: How do I help my students reflect on the violence in Parkland, and on violence in their own communities that perhaps hasn’t garnered as much attention? With student activism making headlines, should I talk about protests and walkouts in class? Do I dare address controversial topics like gun control and the Second Amendment? And what is my role when...

"I love how interactive this workshop is and how open and honest we were allowed to be. I felt respected as an educator and human, and I feel empowered and encouraged..." Elementary School Teacher This Positive Discipline in the Classroom 5-week workshop gives educators tools to create a classroom and school environment where students feel encouraged and engaged in learning, solve their own friendship issues, and feel a sense of connection and value. As an educator you will feel a sense of...

Back in early January, I wrote a commentary for Education Week ( read it here ) that focused on ways that those of us who care about SEL can get critics to understand why it's important that schools focus on SEL. If you read the blog, and scrolled down to the comments, you saw that I did not win everyone over. I actually had some people e-mail me to send support because they were appalled by the comments. Unfortunately, I was not surprised by those comments. I was actually expecting them...

I had a conversation with an elementary principal from Florida while I was in WA DC last week that has been haunting me. This amazing principal and her staff came together to become a trauma informed school. Why? Because they saw their students’ pain and wanted to create a nurturing, safe, and loving school culture.... Days before coming to the Trauma Sensitive School Conference, she and her staff were notified by the State of Florida Education Office that the entire staff was going to be...