School Climate & Safety

Some Picks for Favorite Posts (So Far)

By Nirvi Shah — December 31, 2012 1 min read
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It’s been just a few months since Education Week launched this blog, and co-writer Ross Brenneman and I are delighted to have had you along for the ride.

In this space, we’ve tried to bring you the latest news about student engagement, school climate, discipline, and student health and nutrition. We hope we’ve succeeded, and we look forward to bringing you more in the new year.

Some of you have sent us some fascinating ideas that we’ve already written about. We hope to get to more tips and suggestions in the future.

Some of the posts worth a second mention:


  • A new study says mothers’ stress can affect their daughters later on. This piece by Ross explores new research that finds that teenage girls demonstrated higher levels of anxiety when born into homes with stressed mothers. Those mothers may have been experiencing such high-anxiety events as postpartum depression or financial woes.
  • A television show based on the ever-inquisitive monkey helps students’ math and science skills. In this piece, I learned how “Curious George” actually has an influence on how students do in school.
  • A new report card gives the United States a C-minus in how it treats its children. The report from Save the Children and Focus First, Ross writes, graded America in five categories: economic security, early childhood, K-12 education, permanence and stability, and health and safety. These factors are rated because they all play heavily into outcomes in student learning, dropout prevention, and discipline.
  • At a Senate hearing in December, I wrote about how it looks as if there’s some resolve at the federal level to address the so-called “school-to-prison pipeline.”
  • For me, though, the most touching conversation I conveyed to you was one I had with Connie Sullivan, a 3rd grade teacher at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., just a few days ago about why she loves teaching at the school—and hopes to be there for the rest of her career.

Please, keep your ideas for future posts or Education Week articles about the topics this blog covers coming throughout 2013. Email me at nshah@epe.org. Reach Ross at rbrenneman@epe.org.

You can also find us on Twitter, @Rulz4Engagement.

A version of this news article first appeared in the Rules for Engagement blog.