Jackie Valley

1 week ago | csmonitor.com | Jackie Valley

Inside a small staff room at Percy Julian Middle School in Oak Park, Illinois, Lyla Czerniawski and three friends are making a video for incoming sixth graders about middle school life. As they bat around suggestions, one student interrupts with a question that is arguably the elephant in the room. “Wait – did we all like middle school?” she asks. Why We Wrote ThisToday’s eighth graders are shaped by pandemic learning and issues with student engagement that followed.

1 week ago | teachplus.org | Jackie Valley

| Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... Inside a small staff room at Percy Julian Middle School in Oak Park, Illinois, Lyla Czerniawski and three friends are making a video for incoming sixth graders about middle school life. As they bat around suggestions, one student interrupts with a question that is arguably the elephant in the room. “Wait – did we all like middle school?” she asks. Why We Wrote This Today’s eighth graders are shaped by pandemic learning and issues with student...

2 weeks ago | csmonitor.com | Jackie Valley |Sophie Hills

A deadlocked Supreme Court sidestepped a decision about whether to allow the United States’ first public religious charter school, preserving the church-state wall for now. The divided court tied 4-4 Thursday in a consolidated pair of cases –​​ Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board v. Drummond, and St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School v. Drummond – that could have eroded a key tenet of the First Amendment while also profoundly changing America’s public schooling system.

1 month ago | csmonitor.com | Jackie Valley

Eugenia Phillips’ warning pierces the crisp morning air at the corner of West 103rd and South Morgan streets in this South Side neighborhood. “Watch this car! Watch this car!” she shouts, arms pointing and waving. Ms. Phillips had seen what others had not: children farther down South Morgan Street who were about to haphazardly cross the road and into the path of an oncoming vehicle. The dark-colored SUV slammed its brakes. The two girls jumped back toward the curb.

1 month ago | csmonitor.com | Melanie Freeman |Jackie Valley

In this hub of midcentury modernism, certain architectural elements of the 20th century’s middle decades reign supreme. Expansive windows. Open floor plans. And, yes, those oh-so-clean lines. But twice a year, a different kind of line appears outside these desert dwellings: a queue of architecture experts and enthusiasts coming from far and wide to tour historic, tastefully decorated homes during the Modernism Week celebration. This February was the festival’s 20th anniversary.