Podcast with Rebecca
May 7, 2025 — I was absolutely thrilled to chat with Rebecca Resnik about colleges and autistic children on her podcast, Cultivating Excellence Podcast – Podcast – Apple Podcasts. Check it out!
Updates, May 1, 2024
Hi all — Lots of exciting changes going on here with new publications, podcasts, and private ventures. Last week, I published an article about autism education in New Jersey with NJ Education Report. “Rethinking Autism Education in New Jersey” In March, I was a guest on the podcast: Lawyers, Guns, and Money. We talked about…
New Roles
I officially retired from traditional education journalism. It’s been an amazing adventure. My fellow writers and editors were patient and kind as I learned how to translate complex ideas for a mainstream audience (and unlearned the academic writing style). This career gave me access to a diversity of smart, interesting people. Kindergarten teachers, United State…
Why Studying Is So Hard, and What Teachers Can Do to Help
When psychology professors Angela Duckworth and Ethan Kross began working on a secondary school curriculum that merged the science of academic self-regulation and the latest research on student learning, they felt that a critical piece was missing: the development of good study habits. “That’s when they called me and said: ‘Would you be interested in…
After Social Isolation, Preparing Our Youngest Students to Thrive
When the school doors opened last fall at Bunche Montessori, early-grade teacher Katie Gerdts quickly realized it would be a tough year. “That moment when you go to redirect a child—normally not a big deal—and the child just flips out, throws their work,” she recalled, incredulously. “And it just kept happening over and over again…
Newsletters
These days, you can find me at three weekly newsletters. The Apt. 11D newsletter is a continuation of the blog — some politics, some personal, a whole lotta random. Subscribe here! The Great Leap newsletter is my story of how my son with autism and I are working together to help him transition to adulthood. The Educated Parent newsletter…
HuffPost: My Autistic Son Didn’t Have A Prom Date. What His Brother Did Next Was Beautiful.
by Laura McKenna, HuffPost Draped in black polyester robes, millions of high school seniors will march across a football field later this month to collect their diplomas ― the exit slip from the neighborhood school that dominated their lives for 15 years. It’s also a finish line of sorts for the tearful parents who believe…
Awareness Weeks Are Fine but People With Disabilities Need a Lot More Than That
The opinion piece in Education Post originally appeared in my newsletter. My son with autism is turning 19 in a couple weeks. In June, he’ll graduate from high school. I took a month-long break from writing education articles to find a place for a kid who doesn’t fit neatly into a box. Our tentative plan…
Opinion: 7 Tips for Parents Who Want to Speak Out at School Board Meetings and Be Effective Advocates for Students
Not happy with how things are going in your school district? Then make some good trouble! Thanks to NJ Education Report and The 74 for reprinting my tips for speaking at school board meetings. Many parents think the best way to help their kids survive a public school system with competing interests and dwindling resources is to volunteer for PTAs and…
Are We Facing a Mental Health Crisis for Boys?
While Niobe Way was working toward her PhD in counseling at Harvard University in the late 1980s, she was struck by the fact that boys frequently told her during therapy sessions that they wished they had better friendships. Decades later, Way, now a professor of developmental psychology at New York University and the author of Deep…
Laura McKenna, PhD 