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Zack Barnes

@zbarnes.bsky.social
612 followers 296 following 281 posts

Associate Professor of Literacy. I study reading, executive function, and SES. Former sped teacher. Freelance writer.

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Reposted by Zack Barnes
Jen Jennings @jenjennings.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
You don’t gut the country's capacity to measure what's happening in its schools because you care about improving them. Guardian article below.
graph of number of employees at NCES
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James Ryan @jdryan08.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
The combined undergraduate and graduate student populations of all Ivy League schools is about 140,000 students. The CUNY system alone is 250,000.
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Zack Barnes @zbarnes.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Austin Peay State University is hiring a tenure track generalist position in the Department of Teaching & Learning. preference for assessment, science ed, ed psych, or IT. We are located an hour from Nashville. ibqzjb.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...
ibqzjb.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com
Assistant Professor, Teaching & Learning
The College of Education is seeking candidates for a tenure-track position for Education Generalist. The teaching assignment will include Education Generalist courses at the undergraduate and graduate...
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Jascha Dräger @jaschadraeger.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Why do children from lower-SES backgrounds have lower academic achievement? Our new study (with @markusklein.bsky.social & @esosu.bsky.social) shows that higher levels of school absence are one contributing factor to these inequalities in achievement. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
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Nashville Scene @nashvillescene.com · 09/09/2026
Chatting with John Papsidera, Christopher Nolan’s go-to casting director, about his career and adopted hometown in College Grove.
nashvillescene.com
Chatting With John Papsidera, Christopher Nolan’s Go-To Casting Director
John Papsidera, who has worked as a casting director for nearly 30 years, splits his time between Middle Tennessee and Los Angeles. His offices are still located in L.A., but unless he’s needed in per...
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Christy Austin @christyaustin.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Misinformation about dyslexia is often spread by well-intentioned advocates—and it steers families toward fad treatments that don't work. Our new open-access article addresses common myths and points to what the evidence actually supports: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Dispelling Myths and Misunderstandings About Defining and Remediating Dyslexia
Despite a strong base of scientifically supported research on dyslexia, pervasive misunderstandings continue, particularly in the United States, where state legislation, instructional practices and p....
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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
There is an extraordinary disparity between how aggressively Florida now monitors and regulates the education of adults in public universities and the laissez faire approach to regulating kids in publicly funded private schools
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Jess Calarco @jessicacalarco.com · 05/09/2026
Not The Onion.
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Hakeem Jefferson @hakeemjefferson.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
“I was asked not to mention the Times at all. I’m choosing not to honor that norm, b/c silence abt how accountability journalism gets suppressed is itself a form of suppression.” Read the back story of how @nytimes.com and @thebulwark.com killed @adambonica.bsky.social’s piece. What a mf badass.
data4democracy.substack.com
With Fear and Favor
Institutions don’t have courage. They have incentives.
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Zack Barnes @zbarnes.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
He’s my latest article for Publishers Weekly. I enjoyed reading how these authors used their summer break.
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Justin Baragona @justinbaragona.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
I know you'll be extremely shocked to hear this, but the loudest "keep politics out of sports" folks were always full of shit.
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Zack Barnes @zbarnes.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
I am surprised that a majority of GOP voters didn’t want Marsha Blackburn.
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Zack Barnes @zbarnes.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
Professor teaches same story for a decade and one complaint leads to firing. I thought we needed college students reading!? www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-t...
insidehighered.com
Professor Fired for Teaching “Political” Story Sues College
English professor Vinita Prabhakar is suing South Florida State College after she was abruptly fired for teaching a story the college president deemed “political,” according to a complaint filed Wedne...
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Zack Barnes @zbarnes.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
Thanks to inflation, the song 96,000 (came out in 2008) from In the Heights would be worth 150,000.
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Josh Grubbs @joshuagrubbsphd.com · 01/07/2026
Folks have heard me complain vociferously about the fact that there is a lack of programmatic federal funding to study this stuff, and even though I’ve had a few grants on the topic scored, I still haven’t had any that have funded But did you know sportsbooks lobby to prevent that funding?
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Zack Barnes @zbarnes.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
On father’s day, I am in @businessinsider.com talking about how increasing praise made parenting a toddler much easier. www.businessinsider.com/tried-behavi...
businessinsider.com
We started praising our toddler more. The results made us rethink our parenting approach.
We stopped nagging our toddler and started cheering him on. Everything got easier.
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Coleen Murphy @ctmurphy1.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
one anecdote: I was searching for a link to one of my old papers on Google, and the automated Gemini summary attributed all of my lab's work to my husband
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Nashville Scene @nashvillescene.com · 08/06/2026
A proposed data center near the Nashville Zoo could be significantly larger than previously reported — and the site’s stormwater runoff could affect zoo property.
nashvillescene.com
Proposed Data Center Near Zoo Could Be Larger Than Initially Reported
Stormwater runoff from site could run into already-degrading waterways on Nashville Zoo property
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Zack Barnes @zbarnes.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
I’m looking for childrens (PB, MG, YA) authors who are also K12 teachers and are actively publishing. Anyone got any leads?
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Justin Baragona @justinbaragona.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
Oliver Darcy got the audio of the heated 60 Minutes meeting where Scott Pelley dressed Nick Bilton down! "You know what was rude? Black Thursday. That was the absolute definition of rudeness. Telling Tanya Simon she had to be out of here at five o'clock." www.status.news/p/scott-pell...
"Bari loves this institution," Bilton told staffers at one point during the highly contentious meeting. "She loves '60 Minutes.'"

"She's murdering '60 Minutes,'" Pelley countered. "She does not love this place. She was brought in to kill it—and she's doing exactly that."

This story is based on audio of the meeting obtained by Status. A CBS News spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment, but Pelley's stunning series of remarks left staffers on the newsmagazine wondering if he will resign.

In the meeting, Pelley pointed out that Weiss has "no qualifications for her job" and told Bilton "you have slender qualifications for this job." Pelley, the former anchor of "CBS Evening News," noted that the changes Weiss has made to that program "have been catastrophic."

"So why should we expect any of this is going to be any better?" Pelley asked Bilton.

Bilton tried to move the meeting along, but Pelley pressed on, challenging the new executive producer’s references in interviews to “60 Minutes” creator Don Hewitt’s vision for the program as he outlined his plans.

"I have another question," the veteran journalist said. "Did you at any point work with Don Hewitt, telling everybody about what Don Hewitt thought, and what his inspiration was? I worked for Don Hewitt from 1999 to 2004 and Lesley Stahl probably worked with him for 30 years. Just wondering how you have such deep insight?"

Bilton replied that he was simply quoting Hewitt’s own words from past interviews and asked Pelley whether he had any other questions. Pelley said that he did.

"I have many questions," Pelley responded. "What was wrong with Sharyn Alfonsi?"As Bilton started to say he would "defer," Pelley interrupted: "This is not the crowd to dodge."

Bilton insisted he was not dodging.

"Nobody talked to you about that?" Pelley continued, pressing him on the firing. "They're taking one of your correspondents away and nobody mentioned to you what was wrong with Sharyn?"

Bilton acknowledged that he "had conversations with people."

"And what came out of those conversations?" Pelley asked. "They are private conversations?"

Bilton reiterated that he "did not fire" Alfonsi or Vega. Pelley pointed out that Bilton had nonetheless discussed the matter with others. Charles Forelle, a top Weiss deputy and managing editor of CBS News, interjected, telling Pelley that he was being "rude."

"This is not actually productive," Forelle said. "This is not an interview."

"It's working for me," Pelley replied.

"Anybody came into our house—this is '60 Minutes,'" Pelley added. "I guess you wandered in expecting to read a statement off?"

Pelley then asked Bilton "what was wrong with" Draggan Mihailovich, the executive editor of "60 Minutes" who was fired on Thursday.

Bilton again said that he did not fire Mihailovich. Forelle one more told Pelley that he was being "rude."

Pelley did not let up, however. The veteran newsman told Bilton and Forelle that the way management handled the firings was "cruel." Forelle—yet again—responded by calling Pelley "rude."

"I'm not being rude," Pelley shot back. "I have some pretty—you know what was rude? Black Thursday. That was the absolute definition of rudeness. Telling Tanya Simon she had to be out of here at five o'clock. Sending Draggan Mihailovich to HR to get fired, because nobody could look him in the eye. Not talking about Tanya's contract. Not talking about Sharyn Alfonsi's contract. Not talking about Cecilia Vega's contract. Just calling them up and telling they were fired. That's rude. This is a conversation. That is rude, and you were part of that."
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Zack Barnes @zbarnes.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
I’m out with an essay in @businessinsider.com about my experience with alpha gal. It has totally changed my life. www.businessinsider.com/what-its-lik...
businessinsider.com
I thought I kept getting food poisoning. It turned out, a tick bite changed how my body reacts to red meat and pork.
I've been living with alpha-gal syndrome for nearly 18 months. It's changed my life in both good and bad ways.
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Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
What's really astonishing is not the far right authoritarian party doing this, but the near-total lack of <loud public collective action> by university chancellors & presidents to oppose this existential crisis. Almost impossible to overstate how total a failure of leadership this is.
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Robert Kelchen @robertkelchen.com · 25/05/2026
New research on the effects of the Tennessee Promise finds a sizable impact on associate degree completions by age 21 and that the program likely passes a cost-benefit test.
nber.org
A Promise Worth Keeping? Impacts of Free Community College on Degrees and Earnings
Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, an...
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Dave Jorgenson @davejorgenson.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
Colbert guest hosted a public access TV show in Monroe, Michigan a day after the Late Show ended. Guest star: Jeff Daniels Special appearance by: Eminem Musical director: Jack White Genius. youtu.be/jJTXB5uT_C4?...
youtu.be
Only In Monroe --- May 22, 2026
YouTube video by Stephen Colbert
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Zack Barnes @zbarnes.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
Last week I got to call up James Patterson to talk to him about his $10 million donation to create an early adolescent literacy institute at Vandy. Here’s my article for Publishers Weekly, where I also interview a researcher and a teacher about this news. www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...
publishersweekly.com
James Patterson Pledges $10 Million to Launch Literacy Institute
author James Patterson has committed $10 million to create the Patterson Institute of Early Adolescent Literacy at Vanderbilt University.
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Zack Barnes @zbarnes.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
My latest article in the Nashville Scene looks at the confusion about identifying students with dyslexia.
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Zack Barnes @zbarnes.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
We see this in early science learning. Some of the gaps are linked to out of school activities.
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Jordan Ritter Conn @jordanritterconn.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
My book, AMERICAN MEN, is out today. It's an intimate, immersive work of narrative nonfiction that interweaves the stories of four vastly different men, grappling with their relationship to masculinity. I'd love for you to read it.
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Kevin Collins @kwcollins.bsky.social · 11/04/2026
An mRNA treatment for PANCREATIC CANCER was in trials, among many other uses. Choosing to end this research is choosing to sentence millions to an early, painful death
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Simon Marks @simonmarksfsn.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
Impossible to disagree with a single word that Ben Rhodes (Obama era NSC official) is saying here:
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Jonathan Wosen @jonathanwosen.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
Our @statnews.com survey of NIH-funded researchers drew nearly 1,000 responses from 45 states (plus DC and Puerto Rico). Here's a short thread on 5 scientists' whose labs and lives have been deeply impacted by federal policies 🧵
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Taniel @taniel.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
A reminder that you should want universal voting in a democracy irrespective of whether your side is suddenly benefiting or losing due to restrictions and disenfranchisement.
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Zack Barnes @zbarnes.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
When I saw these clips go viral, I had some of the same thoughts. Good piece here.
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Aaron Sojourner @aaronsojourner.org · 12/03/2026
I knew that the Department of War shot a missile into a school & killed 175 civilians, mostly children. This is learned today: Secretary of War Hegseth had cut the teams assigned to prevent such tragedies by 90%. www.npr.org/2026/03/11/n...
After a series of fatal strikes involving civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan, Congress directed the Pentagon to reduce civilian casualties as part of a 2019 law. During the Biden administration, the Defense Department created the Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response initiative.

The civilian mitigation teams – cut by 90% by Hegseth – work with military commanders on target planning, and making sure that targets are actually military sites. The teams help come up with "no strike" lists, including religious and cultural sites and schools
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Betsy Phillips @betsyphillips.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
I wish stories like this would mention how likely it is that Johnson and Ogles are sleeping in Lee Beaman’s house at the same time.
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McSweeney's @mcsweeneys.net · 10/03/2026
"Your steadfast commitment to our strategic mission, despite the multiple tramplings, maulings, and other encounters we shall henceforth refer to as 'terminal networking opportunities' has not gone unnoticed." www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/a-m...
mcsweeneys.net
A Message from Your University President on the Recent Hippopotamus Attacks
Dear Faculty, Staff, Students, and AI Summarization Tools, I want to express my deepest gratitude for your patience as we explore innovative soluti...
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Andrew Bacher-Hicks @abacherhicks.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
🚨Ed policy researchers, look at the newest special call! 📲 We’re eager to fund RCTs and quasi-experimental studies that produce actionable evidence on how K–12 cell phone policies affect student learning, behavior, and well-being. 🗓️ 3-page LOIs due May 1. Learn more: bit.ly/47n9e1L
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S E Case @secase.bsky.social · 08/03/2026
idk I’ve seen a bajillion kids movies where the kids parents die & let me tell you, having a convo with my kid about how anyone can die at any time & it doesn’t matter if they’re someone’s mom or dad is way harder than having a convo about how sometimes someone has two dads or whatever. And yet
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Nick Ainsworth @nick-ainsworth.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
Excited to share a new EdWorkingPaper on the relationship between family income and disability ID. 🧵 TLDR: Low-income students are much more likely to receive SPED services while high-income students are more likely to get 504 plan accommodations. edworkingpapers.com/ai26-1374
edworkingpapers.com
School-Based Disability Identification Varies by Student Family Income
Currently, 18 percent of K-12 students in the United States receive additional supports through the identification of a disability. Socioeconomic status is viewed as central to understanding who gets ...
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Linda Holmes @lindaholmes.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
Part of what is great about college for a lot of people (and I know this is not something everybody wants to do or is able to do) is that not every class you take is taken for your major, or because it’s a requirement.
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Robert Kelchen @robertkelchen.com · 19/02/2026
Well, this is a bit of a plot twist.
Tennessee’s House Higher Ed Subcommittee chair has withdrawn his bill to end tenure in public universities after saying he “stumbled into a little bit of the history” and “got a little deeper than I thought I would.”

“It got me to thinking about political lines, pendulums, they’re always moving … I kind of think that way about tenure,” Republican Justin Lafferty told his subcommittee Wednesday in a brief but wide-ranging explanation for dropping the bill.

According to a video of the meeting posted on the state General Assembly’s website, Lafferty said he learned tenure goes back to the 1600s or 1700s, “a time when there weren’t that many highly educated folks,” so “it was very important to keep the best and the brightest.”
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Steven R. Shaw, PhD @shawpsych.bsky.social · 14/02/2026
Now this is a movie plot!!! Someone understands grad school.
Movie description of the B horror move Death PhD. Gawdawful movie.
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Aaron Clauset @aaronclauset.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
My employer, Univ. Colorado will pay OpenAI $2M/year under the banner of “equity”. That’s 54 full scholarships / year. Plus, our IT will be able to read our chatGPT logs, and our chats can be requested under public records law. No thanks. Surveillance is not equity www.axios.com/local/boulde...
axios.com
CU signs $2M OpenAI deal for ChatGPT access
Students and faculty will gain access to ChatGPT Edu starting in March under a three-year deal.
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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 13/02/2026
In terms of what cures are being lost: - Epstein-Barr virus is perhaps the major trigger for multiple sclerosis - herpes simplex virus causes cold sores, genital herpes, infections in babies, deadly meningitis - shingles virus causes an intensely painful disease
"Moderna's CEO announced the company will no longer invest in new Phase 3 vaccine trials for infectious diseases: 'You cannot make a return on investment if you don't have access to the U.S. market. Vaccines for Epstein-Barr virus, herpes, and shingles have been shelved.”
9:12 AM
Feb 12, 2026
604.8K Views
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Zack Barnes @zbarnes.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
Someone testified to Congress that NAEP data dropped after states introduced one to one tech. Has that been published somewhere?
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angela yang @angelayang.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
so i talked to one of the bushes at the super bowl www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/...
nbcnews.com
What it was like to be a bush at Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl performance
The bushes on the field during the halftime show became a meme after the internet found out they were actually human performers.
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Morgan Polikoff @mpolikoff.bsky.social · 07/02/2026
"I find robust evidence that moratoriums [on fraternities] decrease alcohol offenses by 26 percent. Additionally, I find suggestive evidence that moratoriums decrease reports of sexual assault on the weekends by 29 percent." [FYI I was in a fraternity] jhr.uwpress.org/content/61/1...
jhr.uwpress.org
The Effect of Fraternity Moratoriums on Alcohol Offenses and Sexual Assaults
I exploit variation in timing from 44 temporary university-wide halts on all fraternity activity with alcohol (moratoriums) across 37 universities over 2014–2019. I construct a novel data set, merging...
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Jeff Greene @jeffgreene.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
"Targeting regional universities and community colleges reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of tenure—as if it were a privilege reserved for a select few rather than an essential working condition for all faculty responsible for teaching and research..." (1/2)
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Justin Hendrix @justinhendrix.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
A Minnesota woman observing ICE agents in her car was cornered on one-way streets. An agent approached, called her by name—citing facial recognition. Days later, her Global Entry and TSA privileges were revoked, with no explanation.
nytimes.com
How ICE Already Knows Who Minneapolis Protesters Are
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Zach Buchanan @zhbuchanan.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
I've been sent video from the end of the ICE raid at the Zipps on 32nd and Shea. It shows protesters -- on the sidewalk, impeding no one -- getting drive-by maced by an ICE agent from a truck as it rolls away down the road. Hard to see how such tactics are justifiable.
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