When I entered elementary school in Tampa, Florida, I flunked my first gifted enrollment test, and had to take it again. Nerves? Socioeconomic status? It wasn’t the most embarrassing moment of my scholastic career; that was likely the day I fell down a hill during cross country practice. But I was invested in my education […]

 Daniel Willingham thinks of his education as typical. His family moved, so Willingham spent time in different school districts. He went to primary school in New York, and completed junior high and high schools in New Jersey. Ironically, Willingham—now a cognitive scientist in UVA’s Department of Psychology—didn’t love the classroom. Daniel Willingham, a cognitive psychologist […]

Do students that meet federal poverty guidelines have less access to advanced studies? The nonprofit news website ProPublica recently released what it calls the “Civil Rights Data Set,” gathered from 2009-2010 school year reports. The data includes numbers on gifted enrollment, free and reduced lunches, and race for every school district with more than 3,000 […]

Days before Ramadan, Islam’s month-long holy fast, the ACLU of Virginia sent letters to sheriffs and jail superintendents throughout the state to reiterate the religious rights of Muslim inmates. Each year, writes ACLU fellow Thomas Fitzpatrick, Muslim inmates complain about meals served during the hours when they are required to fast. The letters remind superintendents that the Department of Corrections provides meals before sunrise and after sunset, as well as a third meal for the late night hours.