AdLit News Headlines

The pandemic hurt children’s reading skills. Librarians are doing what it takes to connect them with books, including dance routines.

Literacy lessons are embedded in every academic class. Even in biology.

Virginia’s Attorney General Jason S. Miyares said he will launch an investigation into allegations of racial discrimination at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. Miyares announced following claims from a group of parents that the school withheld notifications this fall from students whom the National Merit Scholarship Corp. named “commended students,” a distinction given to the nation’s high scorers on standardized tests. 

Los Angeles schools Supt. Alberto Carvalho has announced a plan to create a unique progress report for every student. The proposed Individual Acceleration Plans, or IAPs, would affect all students in the nation’s second-largest school district and provide parents with a clear explanation of how their children are doing in school. His plan also calls for “late buses” so children can stay after school for tutoring and get a ride directly to their homes; efforts to improve learning and make up ground lost during the pandemic.

This essay by Ashley Hope Pérez is part of a series of interviews with — and essays by — authors who are finding their books being challenged and banned in the U.S.

While more long-term studies are needed to truly understand how the use of phones, tablets, and other screens is affecting kids’ mental health, a 2022 study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health found a link between screen time and obsessive-compulsive disorder in pre-teens over a two-year period.

New laws tell teachers how to discuss the history of slavery and racism. We visited four schools to see what kids are really learning.

Policymakers across local, state, and federal governments regularly make decisions about how to allocate resources to U.S. public schools. For students, these decisions matter. For decades, advocates and researchers have raised alarms about inequities in resource allocation and pushed for reforms to the country’s school finance systems. These inequities have roots in the complex, decentralized ways in which public schools are funded. 

This list of 32 activities covers digital citizenship, activities that will help students find online resources, and how to stay safe on the internet; ultimately setting students up for success in their digital learning journeys.

While there are lots of YA books that don’t feel like YA, there are also plenty of YA books that are just so dang good that everyone should read them. I’ve included a little of both in this list. 

I felt isolated and powerless until I sought out Black spaces at my NYC specialized high school.

Thoughtfully assessing their progress allows middle school students to make adjustments in order to achieve their academic goals.

When done well, career and technical education (CTE) expands opportunities for student success after high school while strengthening workplace readiness.

The new Advanced Placement class on African American Studies comes amid new state laws restricting how historical racism is taught.

As gender remains the single strongest determinant of school participation among Nepalese adolescents, it is important to understand the social-emotional needs of adolescent girls and how can they be addressed.

Los Angeles Unified’s unexpectedly big increase in eighth grade reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress drew praise and skepticism after the release of the scores last month. The results may have warranted some of both.  

The Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center’s new middle-grade anthology dives into stories of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders who shaped the United States.

There’s nothing we love more than a fantastic edition of a great YA book, and with so many amazing books out there, it’s become quite the cornucopia of lovely anniversary and special editions! 

The stress of living through the pandemic physically changed adolescents’ brains and prematurely aged them by at least three or four years, according to a Stanford University study(opens in a new window).

High school English teacher Beth Knapp talked with Education Week about how she routinely seizes on opportunities in the popular culture to build rapport with her students while also growing their vocabulary and hers.

When the revision process is scaffolded, students learn that writing multiple drafts can be fun and will lead to better writing.

Pending Gov. Phil Murphy’s signature, a bipartisan bill would make New Jersey the first state to standardize media literacy lessons for all students.

A longtime librarian picks 15 books: Picture books for your littlest ones, middle-grade novels for young readers and young-adult titles for teens.

Sabaa Tahir received this year’s Young People’s Literature prize for her YA novel ‘All My Rage’; during her tearful acceptance speech, Tahir noted, “I am the first Muslim and Pakistani American woman to win this award.” 

The brain isn’t wired to read. Most kids need instruction in phonics, vocabulary & background knowledge to grasp the written word.

James Gensaw’s work in California’s public high schools as a Yurok language teacher and mentor to Native American students is part of a reckoning with equity and justice in schools.

Teachers can use creative ways to spark students’ interest in words and encourage long-term retention of their meanings.

Teachers can motivate middle and high school students by providing structure while also allowing them some control over their learning.

Seniors who sat for the SATs last month at El Paso High School will have to retake the test after many of the sheets with their answers were scattered on the street.

Over the weekend, the Virginia Department of Education released new standards of learning that, if approved next year, will radically reshape what and how students in the state learn in history and social studies lessons.

Drug use among teens ages 14 to 18 remained relatively stable between 2010 and 2020, yet more young people are dying from fentanyl than ever before.

Adolescents need unstructured time to build connections with other students and learn how to recover after failure.

The nation’s second-largest school district credits connectivity and teacher training for academic gains.

While competition can create the possibility of sometimes winning and sometimes losing, it’s always about something more. Pursuing opportunities, winning, and losing is a game everyone must play.

Gathered from northernmost Canada to the Mayan of Central America, these works are only a selection of the stories that exist within the Native community. They take place in the past, but also the future, to emphasize that Native peoples have been, are still, and will always be an active and indelible part our complex story.

The literary award was first given in 2014 and is among the highest paying, granting each of its winners $50,000.

In a recent study, children and adolescents with ADHD often had to change treatment in instances of ineffectiveness or complications.

Of these five holiday books, two are about Hanukkah, two are written by authors of color, and one centers a queer romance! Which, to be honest…it’s about time in 2022. 

Teachers and librarians are showing kids that books are for everybody, regardless of gender.

A Chiefs for Change paper explains why approaches in middle school should differ from those in elementary and high schools due to the rapid neurological, learning, psychological and social changes children experience during this time.

A library media specialist shares how to create engaging cross-curricular virtual reality tours for students.

An English professor takes a critical look at why today’s students are assigned the same books that were assigned decades ago and why American school curricula are so difficult to change.

How will they interpret the past?

Local districts decided whether to allow middle schools to use grades in choosing students. The majority chose to keep a less competitive lottery system that began during the pandemic.

We live in an era where public school districts are routinely slammed for being hidebound and resistant to change. Some are, but others make changes all the time, sometimes with success. This post looks at a few districts that have done just that.

The authors take a look at another example of what the author says could be a new questionable “miracle” in Texas schools: the rise in test scores in the Marlin Independent School District. 

A new research study from across the pond that highlights how six secondary schools in the U.K. identify and support struggling readers.

English language arts teachers can foster moments of joy in the classroom to boost students’ engagement and learning.

Rather than make cheating a conduct issue between parent and teenager, and the young person acting defensive with the adult, I think it works better to treat cheating as a concern for how the adolescent is treating themself. To do so, parents can acknowledge the temptations to cheat and then suggest some possible costs.

Writer and LGBTQ activist George M. Johnson sparked conversation and controversy with their 2020 memoir about growing up Black and queer. All Boys Aren’t Blue has been banned in dozens of school libraries.

A forum for young people to share their experiences and opinions, and to offer adults advice for how to make media literacy education more relevant and useful.

It’s time we reexamine the term “reluctant reader” because it is more problematic than it is helpful to those who bear that label. 

Dakolios, formerly an award-winning high school math teacher, decided to switch careers in his mid-30s. He pursued a master’s in Data Science, and when he completed the degree in December of last year, he landed a job as a data scientist with a major home electronics retailer. But the classroom came calling, along with his former professors, Dakolios designed a high school Data Science class that he is piloting this year.

Instruction is tailored to meet all students’ needs, interests and strengths.

Three…two…one…LIFTOFF! The second annual STEAM Race to Space Reading Challenge launches Friday, encouraging children throughout Orange County to read books related to science, technology, the arts and math in exchange for some out-of-this world incentives.

The graduation rate in Cuba, N.M., rose to 95 percent after schools engaged family members, aligned with colleges and embraced Native culture.

Students may soon have another teacher in the classroom, but from an unlikely source: artificial intelligence (AI). In two recent papers, computer scientists at Penn State vetted the effectiveness of a form of AI known as natural language processing for assessing and providing feedback on students’ science essays. 

Arts integration allows students and educators to tap into their creativity making learning more meaningful.

Harvard researchers Emily Weinstein and Carrie James tell us what teens are really doing while on their phones.

University of Notre Dame psychologists Theodore Beauchaine and Kristin Valentino have been awarded the Transformative Research Award from the National Institutes of Health to research two promising new interventions to reduce the risk of suicide among vulnerable youth.