Denise Fawcett Facey

For every parent who wonders why his or her child hates reading, Richard Allington and Anne McGill-Franzen, educators at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, may have found the answer: choice. That’s right, giving students a choice of reading materials makes all the difference. And offering students free books, not only seals the deal, but also prevents the “summer slide” of decreased reading ability that educators often note, particularly in low-income students, after summer break.

Following two groups of randomly selected first- and second-grade students over the course of three years, (more…)

What’s the best way to prepare students to compete in a global economy? Increasingly, the answer among educators across the U.S. is engineering, and they’re teaching it as early as kindergarten. In fact, teachers have come up with some very original ideas for doing it. (more…)

Do you remember an old public service commercial with the tag line, “Reading is Fundamental?” I was reminded of it recently by a wonderful reading program in Oakland, California, targeting at-risk children, and I was elated. Then I discovered, to my dismay, that our current dismal economy jeopardizes the program’s existence for the upcoming school year. So, the program’s sponsors, a non-profit group called Oakland Parents Literacy Project, may have to end their eight-year quest to raise reading ability in their school district. (more…)

Do you think of the words “gifted” and “minority” as mutually exclusive? Even if you don’t — or won’t admit it — far too many educators act as if gifted African American and Latino students are non-existent or, at the very least, a rarity. That’s why I’m so enthusiastic about the Los Angeles Unified School District’s effort to prove otherwise. (more…)

Remember how much you looked forward to recess when you were in elementary school? You couldn’t eat lunch fast enough to get outside and play. Now, some schools have decided to allow children to have recess first, and then have lunch. The result, for the most part, has been (more…)

Everything old really is new again. In this case, the old and new topic is the Chinese language. Although Spanish remains the dominant language taught in U.S. foreign language classes, Chinese is rapidly growing in popularity. And, like the propensity toward taking Japanese language classes in the 1980’s, a major impetus for the Chinese classes today is China’s emergence as a key player in the international business world. (more…)

Educational changes can be good, but sometimes you need to weigh the benefits gained against the disadvantages that students might incur. What I’m talking about is the new practice of having elementary students change classes—or departmentalize—as middle and high school students have always done. (more…)

It’s not easy being a five-year-old nowadays. Blocks, paints and songs have given way to such serious scholastic endeavors as math, reading and the ubiquitous test taking. And the children had better meet the standard lest they be labeled “not proficient” and then forced to repeat kindergarten. Somehow, kindergarten was a lot more fun in the “olden days.” (more…)

When New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently announced his plan to make passing fourth and sixth grades more difficult for students (and to retain those who fail standardized tests), it once again raised the issue of social promotion versus grade retention for struggling students. (more…)

Do you remember fourth grade as a special time? According to a June 2, 2009 article in the online edition of Education Week, students who drop out of high school routinely mention fourth grade as the last time they felt successful. (more…)

I'm intrigued by the results of a study recently published in the journal Cognition and Instruction. The study, which focused on the relationship between cooperative learning and race, was conducted on 132 urban 4th and 5th graders in one northeastern school. (more…)