Holly Korbey

Nashville

Education journalist, author of BUILDING BETTER CITIZENS. Subscribe to The Bell Ringer, get smart about the science of learning: https://t.co/TW2VPLplk8

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Articles

Why US schools have fallen in love with scripted lessons

4 weeks ago | tes.com | Holly Korbey

While there’s no official way to measure it, scripted curricula seem to be on the rise in US schools. More elementary schools are using structured, scripted lessons found in literacy curricula such as the University of Florida Literacy Institute Foundations owing to their positive research results in teaching pupils to read.
Training Teachers Like Doctors: Going From the Bare Minimum to Intensive Prep

1 month ago | the74million.org | Holly Korbey

Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter Josie Defreese’s first days as a high school English teacher last year were a little chaotic. Graduating from college just weeks before, Defreese took a job at Beech Grove High School in a diverse Indianapolis suburb, replacing two teachers in a row who had quit. “I had nothing, no resources,” Defreese said.
The building blocks of math that students need to excel - but aren’t always getting

1 month ago | youthtoday.org | Holly Korbey

This story was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news outlet focused on education. A flexible understanding of how numbers work is as important to math as phonics is to readingStudents in Melissa Williams’ kindergarten class at the Westminster School in Atlanta, Georgia, practice connecting quantities to written numbers — a key part of number sense.
‘Number sense’ is one of the building blocks of math

2 months ago | hechingerreport.org | Holly Korbey

ATLANTA — Students gathered around a bright blue number board in Melissa Williams’ kindergarten class at the Westminster School, gazing at the bank of 100 blank squares, organized in rows and columns of 10. Their assignment was to pick a numbered tile and figure out where it should go on the board. The task seems simple, but Williams’ goal was to bolster students’ “number sense” — a difficult-to-define skill, but one that is nevertheless essential for more advanced mathematics.
Is the 'Louisiana Miracle' next? Plus a new Tools for Practice

2 months ago | hollykorbey.substack.com | Holly Korbey

Welcome, Bell Ringers, to the only artisanally handcrafted newsletter focused on news, tools and resources for the science of learning. I’m so happy you’re here. If you’ve ever wondered what’s happening behind the paywall, and want to join the comments discussion and get access to the full archive, try it out for seven days here:The Bell Ringer is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
The evolution of 'no excuses' behaviour approaches

Jan 15, 2025 | tes.com | Holly Korbey

When Vanderbilt University sociologist Joanne Golann arrived at “Dream Academy”, her pseudonym for a US urban charter school, back in the early 2010s, she witnessed a behaviour management system that many in schools worldwide would say tilted towards the severe. Hallways were completely silent between classes. Students received detentions for minor infractions, like putting their head on their desk, and started off the year seated on the floor, until they “earned” the right to sit in a chair.
Just Tell Them: A conversation with Zach Groshell

Nov 22, 2024 | hollykorbey.substack.com | Holly Korbey

I’m excited to bring you another Bell Ringer special: a long-form, in-depth conversation with a top educator in the growing science of learning field. Instructional coach, author and podcaster Zach Groshell has a new book out November 26 on how teachers can use explanation to improve student learning. Check it out below—and as always, get everything The Bell Ringer has to offer by becoming a paying subscriber.
A Novel Burden

Nov 15, 2024 | hollykorbey.substack.com | Holly Korbey

Very excited to share The Bell Ringer’s first guest essay! We’ve got a banger today from Cafeteria Duty, a high school administrator in the U.S. who writes one of my favorite Substacks (CD’s post “Is Teaching Novels Even Worth It?”, which was also published at The Grade, is a personal favorite).
Civics education: a pre-election update

Nov 1, 2024 | hollykorbey.substack.com | Holly Korbey

Five years ago this week, my first (and so far only) book, Building Better Citizens: A New Civics Education for All, was published. Since there’s another big election coming up—you may or may not be aware (I kid!)—I thought I’d take a look at what has or hasn’t happened since I wrote it. Has anything changed in civics? Has the more and better civics education that advocates were clamoring for in 2017 and 2018 made its way into schools? Has it made a difference to kids?
Unlocked: How to Teach Math

Oct 25, 2024 | hollykorbey.substack.com | Holly Korbey

Hey there, readers! Here’s a post that was previously for paid subscribers only, now free for everyone. It’s a long conversation about math instructional practices, what ‘guided inquiry’ learning looks like (and why so many charter schools are seeing success with it), and why teaching math well is so…hard.