If your child is a rising junior or senior, odds are good that you’ve started thinking about college applications. And according to a recent poll released by the Robert Morris University Polling Institute, if you’re not happy with the college application process, you’re not alone. The poll, which focused onRead More

A recent study by scholars at the London School of Economics has revived the argument over using mobile technology in schools, and whether students should be allowed to use their own devices. The study found that schools that banned cell phones had a 6% stronger test score improvement than schoolsRead More

Tis the season for championship academic competitions. And while not as well known as UIL or quiz bowl, the inaugural Vocabulary.com  Vocabulary Bowl was notable this year for crowning a champion from Houston. Chavez High School students won the national championship with a collective total of 303, 387 points amassedRead More

May 27th – High school students from all over the state converged in Austin, TX for the 2015 University Interscholastic League Texas Academic meet. The meet, which was held on campus at the University of Austin, lasted for three days and held over a dozen competitions in subjects such asRead More

When I was little, my mother would sometimes pre-read books before allowing me to have them. If she was concerned that content or themes might be too adult, she’d look for herself and see. She meant well; she wanted to protect me from growing up too fast and learning thingsRead More

In this day and age, children start using digital devices early on and grow up with technology. But how do we decide which devices our children will use? A recent study from PlayScience asked that very question, and some of the answers it found were unsettling. In addition to devices’Read More

Apart from anecdotal evidence and a cornucopia of movies, books, and songs written on the subject of teenage angst, we can learn from scientific research that negative emotions become more common as people age from age 10 to age 15. Then, from age 15 to age 18, the ratio ofRead More

Dress codes in schools make sense – they set out concrete guidelines to keep students decent and at least somewhat professionally dressed. In theory, they can help to set students on an equal footing and reduce the disparity in dress between the economically disadvantaged and the well-off. Some administrators alsoRead More

A recent article in the New York Times relates the story of a C+ high school student who went to college out of a lack of other ideas, and flourished because of it. The benefits of a college education are oft quoted in our education system. Between the higher earningsRead More

  Last week, after two months of back-and-forth, House Bill 4 won its final passage in the Texas legislature. The bill, which provides state funding for public prekindergarten programs, is now ready to be signed into law. In its finalized form, House Bill 4 provides for $130 million in grantsRead More

The sixth annual Building a Grad Nation report, released last week, showcases an encouraging trend. According to the most recent data, the United States is still on track to achieve a 90% high school graduation rate by 2020. The 2013 graduation rate of 81.4% was a record high. More importantly,Read More

I come from a family of teachers, I have many friends that are teachers, and I work in the fields of education and psychology. Playful ribbing of the struggles and strife that educators have to put up with has always been a popular topic in my life. I have noticedRead More

The equivalence of ages with grade levels is a fairly ingrained tradition in American education. If a friend tells you her son is five years old, it’s reasonable to assume that the child is in kindergarten; and if a teenager has just gotten her driver’s license, it’s a safe betRead More

As the academic year draws to a close, so too does the season for academic competitions. The Private Schools Interscholastic Association State Meet was held in late April; its public school counterpart, the UIL Academic Competition, will have its state meet next week. And the week after that, the NationalRead More

Bullying is an eternal problem in schools; teachers have a limited scope for controlling students’ social hierarchies and practices. While teachers may discipline students who display harmful social behavior, or act as resources for students who have been the targets of this harmful behavior, it would be nigh impossible toRead More

Earlier this week, HISD announced the first concrete programs created under the Arts Access Initiative. The initiative, which is organized by the local nonprofit Young Audiences of Houston, focuses on creating opportunities for arts education in Houston’s public schools. In 2013-2014, the initiative conducted preliminary research in HISD K-8 schools. InformedRead More