Toppo shows that reading might be the salad to digital media's chicken nuggets, but vegetables matter! "We’ll look back on this decade, he said, with its easily attained dopamine, its endless mental chicken nuggets and distractions, and realize, “We were weaponizing mental health.

"People, in other words, need books. No matter how advanced our digital media have become, nothing can replace the depth of understanding they afford." Great piece from @gtoppo today in @The74 on why kids don't read for fun.

States taking a comprehensive approach to improving math instruction, including supporting both teachers and kids, are seeing gains. It's this kind of work that helped inspire our thinking behind Mathways. Alabama: DC:

States figured out the policy & legislation needed to prioritize every kid becoming a reader. (Yes, the work is far from over on reading!) . Now it's time to do the same for math. Join us in believing that every kid can be a math kid - read our new report and let's get started!.

Pre-order here:

We've learned so much about tutoring in the past five years that I wrote a book about it! I visited 19 schools in 7 states, & spoke to dozens of folks across government, research, advocacy, and tutoring providers. Excited to share the book with the world on Oct 14!

I bought used copies of several required books from this research and made my own incoming ninth-grader pick two. His school does not require a book. This would have gone better if it didn’t come from the parent! Schools have leverage. They should use it. /end.

If you told me we ask ninth-grade students to read hundreds of demanding pages and dozens of full books over the year, you might convince me to lay off summer reading. But we all know that’s not what’s happening. Why not make kids read more? Why not ask them to level up? 6/.

Real life is 12 months a year. Shouldn’t high school be when students start getting a taste of the real world? 5/.

If we want kids off screens, asking them to read over the summer seems a decent way to claw back at least a few hours from electronics. 4/.

High school shouldn’t be easy. If we say high school kids aren’t engaged, have we considered that it’s because we don’t ask enough of them? Reading shouldn’t always be easy. Magical things can happen when you push through hard books. 3/.

It seems to me that if we want kids to read more, we can start by asking them to read more. Sure, not all kids will complete summer reading. If there’s an assignment due in the first week of school, getting a zero on the first task seems like a strong incentive. 2/.

Two months ago, I had never given much thought to summer reading as an issue. So why did I spend much of July digging into what DC-area high schools, and others around the US, ask of incoming ninth-graders? And why am I now convinced this actually matters a lot? 1/.

RT @FiftyCAN: New today in @The74: 50CAN VP of Policy @lizcohen12 finds wide variance in summer reading requirements:. "If there’s one inst….

“…college is not summer camp; it is an investment in Americans’ individual and collective futures.” Smart takes by @JerseyCAN’s Paula White on how and why we need to think differently about higher ed.

RT @FiftyCAN: Five years after the pandemic, chronic absenteeism has jumped to 23% and that needs to change immediately. In @The74, 50CAN V….

RT @The74: .@lizcohen12: To put an end to chronic absenteeism, start by improving data, so it's clear who is missing school, and putting an….

Fascinating piece on ability-level grouping for reading instruction. Particularly struck by this: "We don’t move on if a group isn’t showing mastery. We pause. We support. And sometimes, we shift students into a group that’s a better fit." .

Nobody should be surprised that the day is here when kids in classrooms lose out to the need to fund teacher pensions. We've known for years this was coming. But everyone should be alarmed.

Louder for the back: 93% of Louisiana voters support high-impact tutoring! . @Accelerate_US @NSSAccelerator.