Top Education Commentaries of 2017: Education Week's Most Viewed

To give a sense of which opinion essays our readers found most compelling in 2017, the editors at Education Week have compiled a list of our 10 most-viewed Commentaries. Below, they are ordered by the number of online visits they generated. Revisit these Commentaries and examine perspectives you may have missed in 2017.

1. 10 Disruptions That Will Revolutionize Education

Artificial intelligence, learning avatars, and other innovations will be game-changers for education in the coming years, writes researcher Peter W. Cookson Jr. (Oct. 10, 2017) | Filed Under: Business and Industry, Technology

2. Stop Teaching Students What to Think. Teach Them How to Think

To succeed in a world of automation will require being as unmachinelike as possible, writes basic-income advocate Scott Santens. (Sept. 26, 2017) | Part of a Special Report: Schools and the Future of Work

3. Forget Grit. Focus on Inequality

Educators should stop looking for cure-alls and start pursuing structural change, writes University of San Francisco professor Christine Yeh. (April 14, 2017) | Filed Under: School Climate, Health and Student Life

4. What the Standards-Based Movement Got Wrong

Three simple questions could modernize classroom instruction and correct the past mistakes of the standards movement, writes educator Jenny Froehle. (Nov. 28, 2017) | Filed Under: Curriculum and Instruction, Standards

5. Why Are Schools Still Peddling the Self-Esteem Hoax?

The "faux psychology" behind the self-esteem movement has been rebranded as social-emotional learning, insists Chester E. Finn Jr. (June 19, 2017) | Filed Under: Assessment, Accountability, and Achievement, Curriculum and Instruction

6. Yes, Race and Politics Belong in the Classroom

Ten tips for constructively engaging students on divisive political, social, racial, and economic issues, from H. Richard Milner IV. (Aug. 15, 2017) | Filed Under: Diversity, Immigrants, Safety and Violence

7. Five Myths About Transgender Students Educators Need to Unlearn

While many schools don’t discuss LGBT issues, teachers should play a role in shaping students’ understandings of their gender identity, writes Laura Erickson-Schroth. (July 10, 2017) | Filed Under: LGBT Issues, School Climate, Health, and Student Life

8. 'Is Social-Emotional Learning Really Going to Work for Students of Color?'

There is an urgency to expand the definition and practices of social-emotional learning in order to create equitable school environments for students of color, Dena Simmons writes. (June 7, 2017) | Part of a Special Report: Social-Emotional Learning: It Starts With Teachers

9. A Commentary by Betsy DeVos: 'Tolerating Low Expectations for Children With Disabilities Must End'

When it comes to educating students with special needs, "the minimum" is not an option, writes U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. (Dec. 8, 2017) | Filed Under: Betsy DeVos, Special Education

10. Discrimination in Gifted Education Must End

School administrators and teachers must create equal opportunities for minority and low-income students in gifted education, writes Harold O. Levy. (Jan. 4, 2017) | Filed Under: School Climate, Health, and Student Life, Diversity