High-achieving students from low-income backgrounds are half as likely to be placed in a gifted program as their more affluent peers, according to our new study. Arkansas, like all the other states, has a unique process for identifying gifted kids. We wondered whether academically advanced students – the top 5% of scorers in math and literacy, who are […] … learn more→

Cross-town sporting rivalry between the kids from the wealthy school and those from the country school – or the poorer suburbs – has been fodder for Hollywood movies such as Friday Night Lights, McFarland USA, Coach Carter, The Mighty Ducks and Hoosiers. We like to believe sport is the great leveller and privilege doesn’t matter […] … learn more→

The disciplines of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (commonly grouped by the acronym STEM, or STEM for its acronym in English Science Technology, Engineering and Maths ) are often full of abstract concepts that make it difficult to understand. If we think, for example, of our fridge magnets, it is fairly intuitive to understand that there is […] … learn more→

Why do us kids have to go to school? – Vanessa C., age 10, Gilbert, Arizona Kids go to school for many reasons. Where and when depends on their age, location, parental preference and local policies. Parents send their kids to school to expose them to experiences that are different from their own at home […] … learn more→

“Let’s go to the beach, to cure your soul, close the screen, open the medal (…), and take advantage of the fact that the sun is hot and let’s enjoy the atmosphere”. Probably this song fragment has moved you to some summer enclave. If we add images, we find his music video showing us a Caribbean […] … learn more→

With the end of the school year here, parents, caregivers and educators may find themselves reflecting on another turbulent year in education. For researchers of children’s literacy, year-end reflections may prompt discussions of the “summer slide” — children’s loss of knowledge over summer break, particularly in literacy and numeracy — and what can be done to […] … learn more→

Some UK private schools appear to be taking advantage of their charitable status and the lax legal definition of “public benefit” by charging fees that are increasingly out of kilter with their ongoing costs. Around 1,300 UK private schools, including the vast majority of the most prestigious private institutions, enjoy long-standing charitable status. This gives […] … learn more→

These days, we hear about the theme of the alarming drop in spelling levels among students and more broadly about the difficulties students encounter in French . But it has been a long time since we deplored in France the lack of mastery of spelling. By way of illustration, in an article written in 1993 by the linguist Jean-Marie Klinkenberg on the recurring […] … learn more→

When Yusuf Islam – the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens – had his first child, he wrote her a song. Her name was Hasanah and the song was a kind of ABC of the Muslim faith: A is for Allah, nothing but Allah … Ka is for kalima, a word we’re taught to teach us […] … learn more→

Most children in the UK own their own phone by the age of 11. In China children get their first phone at an even younger age, with 88% of first to third-grade pupils (aged six to nine) reported to have their own smartphone. If children have their own phone, they may well take it to school with them […] … learn more→