RIP, Book Lady. 'Of all her work, Dolly named Imagination Library the thing she was most proud of. “My dad couldn't read or write and that was kind of crippling to him,” she said in her 2020 documentary The Library That Dolly Built.' www.townandcountrymag.com/society/mone...

The One Thing Dolly Parton Wanted To Be Remembered For

The country music legend’s Imagination Library gives free books to more than 3 million children around the world every month.

townandcountrymag.com

Legend

New study attempts to move beyond correlation in understanding the impact of social media on learning. Spoiler: it appears to cause learning decline. Via @jonathanhaidt.bsky.social: www.afterbabel.com/p/does-early...

Does Early Access to Social Media Harm Later Learning? New Evidence from Italy

Students who got social media accounts by age 12 progressed less than those who waited until age 14

afterbabel.com

This one hits like a gut punch: Austin Sarat, my favorite college professor, pens a fierce OpEd on Amherst College students’ inability to read challenging texts. He rightly pins blame on “a K-12 system that has quietly stopped asking them to finish books at all.” fortune.com/2026/07/26/w...

I've been teaching college students for decades. Most of them can no longer finish a book | Fortune

I assume students will do the reading of long, dense texts, week after week. Lately, that assumption has started to feel naive.

fortune.com

Early reading progress stalls for K-2 learners. Alt Caption: Policy is not progress.'Science of Reading' reforms are underway in 50 states. They are not consistently translating to reading gains. www.k12dive.com/news/reading...

Reading progress has stalled for youngest learners, DIBELS tests show

This is the first time since the 2020–21 school year that early reading readiness has failed to improve year over year, according to test-provider Amplify.

k12dive.com

Me when you call yourself as a literacy person, but promote curriculum without whole books in English Language Arts

Meet California's provisional curriculum list: short on book-rich options, heavy on tech-delivered options. I’ve already heard from parent groups with concerns about both of those details. See the full list here: www.cde.ca.gov/ci/rl/im/ela...

The House Appropriations Committee has put National Reading Panel, the Sequel IN THE BUDGET, to my great delight. I've advocated for a new NRP specifically to address today's most animating questions... 1/

“We are admitting a cohort that cannot read at a college level and are pretending otherwise.” Another college professor adds to the chorus of concern about student capacity. archive.ph/XvPXE#select...

A teacher’s closing line sums it up: Students need enough knowledge to call BS… on a faulty idea, weak Google search result, or a poor or glitchy AI output. Great read from @mattbarnum.bsky.social: www.chalkbeat.org/2026/05/28/a...

Does AI mean basic facts are less important for students to learn?

Experts say that critical thinking still rests on a broad base of knowledge.

chalkbeat.org

The latest sign that the Ed Tech Backlash is the new normal: @rweingarten.bsky.social backs elementary screen time limits. 👏 www.nbcnews.com/news/educati...

Teachers union president calls for limits on AI and screen time in schools

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, is backing a parent-led movement to restrict how much time elementary school students spend on laptops in class.

nbcnews.com

Been working through this list and highly recommended reading on curriculum, ed tech, and beyond.

Karen Vaites@karenvaites.bsky.social · 5mo ago

I wrote this list from memory, in 10 minutes. Which was easier than it sounds. I’ve shared each piece multiple times, with friends, journalists, & social airwaves, BC each serves as an excellent “explainer” for an important topic in K-12. www.karenvaites.org/p/the-articl...

'Every hour counts: Daycares track conversations to boost language skills' "“It’s making it more literacy rich for children, gets their minds thinking, exposing them to that critical thinking, that back and forth."" Via @karenvaites.bsky.social www.yahoo.com/news/article...

‘Every hour counts’: Daycares track conversations to boost language skills

Once a week, children at First Academy Preschool in Leesburg wear purple vests equipped with electronic devices that work like fitness bracelets. But instead of steps, these devices track the number o...

yahoo.com

"When it comes to iReady, we have a district administrator knowledge issue. It is as simple as that." Multiple teachers are collaborating this weekend on the latest iReady post for the Curriculum Insight Project. This comment about the role of admins speaks for all of them.

Day care centers are tracking conversational turns to promote oral language development. <swoon> www.yahoo.com/news/article...

‘Every hour counts’: Daycares track conversations to boost language skills

Once a week, children at First Academy Preschool in Leesburg wear purple vests equipped with electronic devices that work like fitness bracelets. But instead of steps, these devices track the number o...

yahoo.com

I'd like your feedback on an important question. Somehow, US educators are getting the impression that students should only work with decodable texts (or listen to read alouds) until they have learned all letter-sound correspondences. 1/

Weekend catch-up reading... Get your weekend catch-up reading!!! This week's dense roundup surely has something you missed: www.karenvaites.org/p/the-latest...

When I tell you I have this conversation every single day, multiple times, with people across the country, I'm not exaggerating. Related: the misconception that K-2 students should only read from decodable books has gotta be debunked. scienceofreadingclassroom.substack.com/p/partner-re...

In its recent report, RAND noted the prevalence of classrooms with few whole books, and called for more research into the value of books in curriculum. Me: Hard Pass. We have all the research we need… we've just forgotten about it. More: curriculuminsightproject.substack.com/p/unpacking-...

The literacy discourse is Overwhelming Like Maycember. My latest collection is out: www.karenvaites.org/p/the-latest...

Since writing this, @karenvaites.bsky.social has written a more comprehensive (and scathing) review of the RAND report. Well worth a read. open.substack.com/pub/curricul...

Unpacking the RAND survey on books in English Language Arts curriculum

Book-starved and book-rich ELA classrooms can both be found in American schools. Predictably, curriculum is an essential influence.

open.substack.com

Mark Goodrich@markgoodrich.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Hi #Edusky! My #Saturday3 has been a bit delayed by a lot of #Booksky chat today so it's appropriate that I have picked three pieces that all have to do with the role of reading and writing in schools. First up - Robert Pondiscio on the reading of books in schools. substack.com/inbox/post/1...

The important new RAND survey has good news, bad news, and confusing signals about books in American ELA classrooms. We should spend time with this one. My latest: curriculuminsightproject.substack.com/p/unpacking-...

'Rocio Rivas, the school board’s VP, said at an April 21 board meeting that she spoke to district educators about i-Ready, and “I have yet to hear a positive comment.” Dozens of parents burst into applause in response.' Tyler Kingkade on the iReady backlash. www.nbcnews.com/news/educati...

The revolt against i-Ready: Private equity-backed software faces parent, teacher and student fury

A growing number of families and educators say they’re fed up with i-Ready’s personalized math and reading lessons, which feature repetitive cartoons and slow voice-overs.

nbcnews.com

This week's absolute must-read, via @eheubeck.bsky.social: EdWeek covers essential questions of phonics versus oral language and vocabulary dosage. www.edweek.org/teaching-lea...

What Might Matter More Than Phonics in Early Literacy

A district invested in evidence-based literacy instruction but reaped uneven results. Here's why.

edweek.org

Welcome to the Balanced Literacy fallout. My daughter is an 8th grader in a loyal TCRWP district. This summer, the middle school team got together to create a grammar intervention, because student writing skills were raising alarms.

Benjamin Riley@benjaminjriley.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Watching a video of a HS English teacher promoting Brisk, an "AI-powered teaching assistant." She cheerfully reveals that "she doesn't have time to write meaningful feedback that asks good questions" on student essays bc she's too busy correcting their grammar mistakes. What. Are. We. Doing.

Happy Mother’s Day to Tiger Moms, Beta Moms, all the moms. “Paradoxically, the social pressure to overachieve as a parent only seems to intensify with mothers’ increased participation in the labor market…” www.wsj.com/lifestyle/re...

The Era of the Tiger Mom Is Over. Enter the Beta Mom.

For decades, high achieving mothers felt pressure to optimize their children for success. These moms have had enough.

wsj.com

In honor of Teacher Appreciation Week, let's embrace cell phone bans to make teaching more satisfying, pay our best teachers more, and put research front and center. The Latest in Literacy is out: www.karenvaites.org/p/the-latest...

The inimitable @carlhendrick.substack.com takes a measured look at short-form video as a learning tool, giving a fair shake to its potential advantages (ex. motivating learners about a new topics). Still, it’s primarily a cautionary signal. This section, whew. substack.com/home/post/p-...

Honestly, I can hardly keep up with the Ed Tech Backlash. Still, my weekly roundup has been taking a crack at it. Catch last week's jam-packed edition before this week's installment drops. www.karenvaites.org/p/the-latest...

What If Ed Tech Peaked 200 Years Ago? @timdaly.bsky.social makes a solid case for the chalkboard and McGuffey readers as the OG force multipliers in education. www.educationdaly.us/p/what-if-pe...