In 2020 and 2021, blog posts about how schools responded to the Covid-19 pandemic dominated our list of the top ten Education Next blog posts of the year. In 2022, readers moved on to new issues. This year, three posts touching, in one way or another, on religion made the list.
The most popular article with readers, by executive editor Frederick Hess, was a piece about an undercover recording exposing apparent bias in hiring at a Connecticut public school: “If they’re Catholic? Conservative…You don’t hire them.” Also on the list were “Catholic Schools Are a Rare Bright Spot in Nation’s Report Card 2022 Data” and “Texas School District Bans the Bible.”
With the education world abuzz about literacy guru’s Lucy Calkins’ admission to the New York Times that her advice to teachers on reading had ignored the science of reading, we took the opportunity to remind readers that Education Next had made this case 15 years ago, when Barbara Feinberg wrote, “Aside from grumblings from the New York City teachers required to work under her system, there has been remarkably little open debate about the basic premises behind Calkins’s approach, or even feedback on how the programs are faring in the classroom.”
We were glad to see that readers took notice.
Managing editor Ira Stoll’s byline appeared on three of the top five posts.
The full top ten list is here:
1. “If they’re Catholic? Conservative. . . . You don’t hire them.”
Assistant principal of Connecticut public school is put on leave after undercover taping
By Frederick Hess
2. Biden Administration Sues a City Over “Rampant Overspending on Teacher Salaries”
Could the SEC, of all agencies, ride to the school-reform rescue?
By Ira Stoll
3. Lucy Calkins Adjusts, and the Press Takes Notice
New York Times scrutinizes Columbia Teachers College reading and writing guru
By Education Next
4. Catholic Schools Are a Rare Bright Spot in Nation’s Report Card 2022 Data
Charter schools look more like traditional public schools, with test-score declines
By Ira Stoll
5. Teachers Pay to Mail Falsehoods to Massachusetts Voters
In costly campaign for tax increase, misleading claims about revenues, rates
By Ira Stoll
6. College Isn’t For Everyone
Let many 16- and 17-year-olds spend time mostly in workplace apprenticeships, not traditional high school classrooms.
By Michael J. Petrilli
7. Biden’s Next Bad Idea for Higher Education
Student loan cancellation is a stop on the path to “free” community college
By Jim Blew
8. Texas School District Bans the Bible
“Parents had objected”
By Education Next
9. Why Are Fewer People Becoming Teachers?
Getting the answers right can help shape a response
By Chad Aldeman
10. Punishment for Making Hard Choices in a Crisis: Federal Prison
Why every education leader should care about what happened to Julia Keleher
By Marguerite Roza
