Boys vs. girls

“Education Next” just came out with a list of their top education stories from last year.  This one on boys falling behind is is an interview with the man who wrote the book “Why Boys Fail” and the woman who was the principal author of  “How Schools Shortchange Girls,” a report written 20 years ago.

Based on both college attendance and college graduation, the article discusses how and why boys have fallen behind.  No simple solutions are offered, just things like

Until we confront the reality that many boys fear being viewed as less than “all boy” when achieving academically, we will only be playing around the edges of the problem.

The value of great teachers

Steve Herbert for NYT

The New York times recently wrote about what will likely turn out to be a landmark study on the difference of having great teachers in the classroom.  This is something we can all verify from our own experience, but I have never seen it quantified in dollars and cents before.  As I’ve said many times, we can never thank those people enough for all they do.