Jen Jennings
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jenjennings.bsky.social
Jen Jennings
@jenjennings.bsky.social
All things K-12 education policy. Professor @PrincetonSPIA & Sociology; Director, Education Research Section.
Future pandemics, we’re told by NIH Director Bhattacharya, won’t be an issue once Americans achieve metabolic health. Because when I think “nation well-poised for facilitating metabolic health at scale,” I definitely think America.
NIH Directors: The World Needs a New Pandemic Playbook
The old one failed to cope with Covid and may even have caused it.
www.city-journal.org
November 26, 2025 at 10:13 PM
From hanging chads to hanging at home: Broward County is now the epicenter of Florida's home schooling growth.
November 25, 2025 at 3:50 PM
Something to be thankful for, Moms.

A la carte learning: Bringing the fresh hell of coordinating multiple summer camps - now all year round.
A TASTE OF À LA CARTE LEARNING - NextSteps: Step Up For Students
nextstepsblog.org
November 25, 2025 at 3:40 PM
Policymakers used to bemoan "welfare magnet" states. Now, a private school is moving across the river (IL-IA) for voucher $, "to once again reclaim the IA families that had a tough decision of saying, you know, I can do it for...a lower price on the IA side." [School claims decision predated ESA]
Unity Christian School prepares to open new Clinton campus after years of delays
After flooding setbacks, Unity Christian School is nearing completion of its new Clinton campus, with classes expected to move in by January.
www.wqad.com
November 25, 2025 at 3:35 PM
In an Abeka history textbook, authors write that “slaves seemed to be better investments than indentured servants,” & claim that freedmen promoted “fiscal irresponsibility” during Reconstruction. Authors blamed the decline of “American’s views on race relations” on the nation’s first Black president
Alabama is funneling millions of taxpayer dollars into private schools using textbooks that deny evolution, whitewash history, and attack LGBTQ people.

Kids deserve better than conservative Christian propaganda.

www.friendlyatheist.com/p/taxpayer-d...
Taxpayer dollars, Christian lies: What Alabama’s voucher program really buys
Christian textbooks that deny evolution, downplay slavery, and avoid critical thinking are now being subsidized with public funds
www.friendlyatheist.com
November 25, 2025 at 2:28 PM
After shining a perpetual light on the 5 Americans with 300K of student debt, the NYT has moved on to profiling the 5 humanities professors who love AI.
I’m a Professor. A.I. Has Changed My Classroom, but Not for the Worse.
www.nytimes.com
November 25, 2025 at 2:15 PM
Reposted by Jen Jennings
Turns out that holding kids back if they can't read by 3rd grade is good for temporary test score increases but terrible for the adults the kids become www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=...
November 24, 2025 at 11:45 PM
Reposted by Jen Jennings
👉 Our new paper uses daily mobility data to show that spatial isolation is much more common today among those living in advantaged neighborhoods than the converse.

👩🏻‍💻 Lots of massive data wrangling and careful assumptions about mobility data needed - but check it out here! doi.org/10.1177/0042...
November 24, 2025 at 5:20 PM
You know higher ed is in real trouble when the econ job market is suffering - currently below 2020 levels.
Looks like we're in the worst year in since 2015.
November 24, 2025 at 4:58 PM
woke grill discriminates against men
Need an excuse for your dry Brisket? Steaks always overdone?

Introducing AI grills! They won’t make you a better cook, but at least you can blame a computer when everything you grilled for the 4th of July tastes like damp ash.
November 24, 2025 at 1:46 PM
"More parents are discovering that their children simply don’t fit, a terrifying possibility when achievement in school can determine achievement in life. At that point, the best thing to do is to prove that your child has a mental disorder."

Or, it's okay if your kid isn't an academic star.
America’s Children Are Unwell. Are Schools Part of the Problem?
www.nytimes.com
November 24, 2025 at 1:09 PM
The empirical question at hand:
does Thanksgiving week make the average 7am Amtrak rider more or less offensive? It begins. Capybara clip lends calm, unbothered energy.
November 24, 2025 at 12:25 PM
At ICE, we're respectin' power
Join ICE, I hear they got great hours
There's a sign-on bonus of 50 grand
They're in need of you, needin' to feel like a man
ICE detained teenaged US citizen during school lunch break, family says
Christian Jimenez, Oregon high school senior, faces possible obstruction charges after traffic stop by immigration agents
www.theguardian.com
November 24, 2025 at 12:07 PM
All that practice teaching stuffed animals is about to pay off.
November 23, 2025 at 6:58 PM
If you're in NYC and enjoy a high school-focused play, check out Initiative at the Public Theater. 5 hours, but well worth it.
‘Initiative’ Review: High School as an Epic Struggle
www.nytimes.com
November 23, 2025 at 5:00 PM
One big, achievable win for the American Sociological Association @asanews.bsky.social: create a single upload recommendation system for doctoral admissions (akin to the law school admissions).

One upload for each student would be a real blessing.
November 23, 2025 at 4:41 PM
The disruption affects kids who are absent, kids who are there, and the poor teachers who, as always, are trying to hold it together when no one else will.
November 22, 2025 at 12:48 PM
Reposted by Jen Jennings
Commentary by actual parents. School voucher confidential: Yes, the other parents are talking about you arktimes.com/arkansas-blo...
School voucher confidential: Yes, the other parents are talking about you - Arkansas Times
Now that the voucher issue has moved beyond politicians and into the hands of parents, we wanted to know what real people really thought. Who’s using these vouchers, and why? Who’s still out there sin...
arktimes.com
November 22, 2025 at 2:10 AM
"Academic accommodations for anxiety convey two harmful messages. First, they imply that the feared situation is truly dangerous. Public speaking, testing, or lunch with classmates are too risky...Second, they suggest that the student can’t withstand the distress. Those messages increase anxiety."
Schools Are Accommodating Student Anxiety — and Making It Worse
Removing stressors robs students of growth opportunities, writes TC's Ben Lovett and his co-author Alex Jordan
www.tc.columbia.edu
November 21, 2025 at 4:42 PM
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." - Justice Louis Brandeis
November 21, 2025 at 3:50 PM
Only half of Republicans support vaccine requirements for school attendance. The intersection of those attitudes with school voucher polices: Titanic, “may I meet you, glacier?”
November 21, 2025 at 1:24 PM
If you want broad-based support for Sociology, maybe don't name the annual meeting "Disrupting the Status Quo."
November 20, 2025 at 6:05 PM
"The past decade has been a gloomy lesson in how limited a proportion of men actually see women as equal human beings. The fact that many men believe they no longer even have to pretend to respect women in order to participate in public life makes it unlikely that anything will change anytime soon"
President Piggy
This is what consequence-free misogyny looks like.
www.theatlantic.com
November 20, 2025 at 5:13 PM
Reposted by Jen Jennings
@edsustainable.bsky.social is hosting our first annual interdisciplinary conference!

Research at the intersection of education and the environment. 🎓🌎

May 1st, 2026

Providence, RI

Easy one paragraph abstract submission ⬇️
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Please share w/ your networks!
November 20, 2025 at 2:08 PM
Reposted by Jen Jennings
In the latest episode of @haveyouheard.bsky.social, we revisit Plyler v. Doe--the landmark Supreme Court case that guaranteed education for undocumented children.
#208 ‘A Lifetime of Hardship’
Forty plus years ago, the Supreme Court ruled that denying immigrant students access to public education would impose a lifetime of hardship on them. Today, that landmark decision remains on the books
soundcloud.com
November 20, 2025 at 2:21 PM