Zoom Made Me a Better Teacher

When Classrooms Went Digital, Relationship Building Became My Most Essential Tool to Keep Students Engaged

The start of the new year at the middle school where I teach in South Los Angeles has been stressful; the rapid spread of the Delta variant shook us from the tenuous sense of security we were lulled into over the summer. Fans blow in the hallway, dual air filters hum in the classrooms, staff screen kids for symptoms at the gate, and everyone wears masks.

The stakes are high: the surrounding community was ravaged in earlier waves of COVID-19 as family members in service jobs or working in nearby garment …

by Carl Finer | November 3, 2021

California’s New Education Architecture Is Already Failing

The New System Is So Incoherent That We May Not Know If It's Helping Poor Students

By Joe Mathews | October 6, 2016

Is California abandoning its poorest students?

That question would be dismissed as absurd by our state’s education leaders, especially Gov. Jerry Brown and the State Board of Education. For years, they …

California’s Bad Bet on School Finance Leaves Too Much to Chance

It’s the Already-Fortunate Who Are Most Likely to Luck Out in the State’s Public Education System

By Joe Mathews | September 15, 2016

Californians may think we have a system of public education. But what we really have is a state system for rationing public education.

I got a personal taste of this …

What’s a School District Like Without a Teachers’ Union?

Paying Dues Isn’t the Only Way for Educators to Get Organized

By Joe Mathews | April 7, 2016

What would a California school district be like if it jettisoned its teachers’ union?

Up until recently, that question has been mostly hypothetical. For some, it’s a fantasy: Conservative education reformers …

Californians Have No Idea How Important Public Universities Are

If They Did, They’d Stop Making the Schools Beg for Money

by Joe Mathews | June 25, 2015

Californians, I regret to inform you that your diploma is being held up. You won’t be able to graduate.

You flunked higher education.

Another state budget, accompanied by an eight-month-long …

Free Community College Isn’t the Answer

The President’s Tuition Giveaway Won’t Land More People Middle-Class Jobs. Here’s What Will.

by Michael Bernick | February 3, 2015

In the past few weeks, President Obama’s free community college tuition proposal has received a lot of media attention as a strategy for rebuilding the middle class. Even if the …

California education