Big Ideas About America's Schools: The Year's Most Memorable Educational Essays (2023)

learning loss Lack of teachers. The role of parents in the education of their children. Tutorships. Mental health student. The science of reading. Following the ESSER money.

There is a widespread consensus about the nature of the challenges facing America's schools, teachers, and students as the country cautiously and stumbles to return to normal in the wake of COVID-19. But as to what to do about these challenges, opinions are mixed and quite controversial.

That tension has spiked in our opinion pages over the past year, fueling debate and perhaps (we hope) guiding discussion about the best ways to help kids, schools, and educators bounce back when the pandemic finally recedes. These are the 18 best essays we published this year:

Schneider: Inside new data suggesting American education is still built on 'lies'

grade inflation: In March, the results of the latest High School Transcript Study were released, and unfortunately, wrote Mark Schneider, director of the Institute of Educational Sciences, they support the charge that schools routinely mislead their students. Many data points, if they were true reflections of reality, "should lead us to celebrate our students' success," but the evidence "shows a disconnect," he writes. "We see 'inflation' in grades and course titles, but stagnation in student performance."

Educator's point of view: I understand my students because I have been there:

Child poverty: When contributor Kristina Eisenhower was in fifth grade, her teacher told the class to take $1.25 to a pizza place. She had no money and she was afraid to ask her father, who worked 7 to 5 and could barely pay the bills. When she told her teacher that she only had 62 cents, she sent her to the cafeteria for lunch instead of celebrating with the class. Sixteen years later, that memory remains clear. But as an elementary school teacher at a Title I school, Eisenhower understands her students and her struggles. And no child who has ever passed through your classroom has had to miss a party, whether they brought money or not.

post secondary education: A recent survey asked a representative sample of 1,000 teens to compare their plans for graduate school before the COVID-19 pandemic with what their intentions are now, two years later. Your answers should refer to higher education institutions, because the next generation seems less interested in the traditional college track. Interest in enrolling in a four-year university fell 14%. And those students may never return. Contributors John Kristof and Colyn Ritter had the meltdown.

When grades and test scores don't add up, who can parents trust?

grade inflation: Contributor's daughter Alina Adams is an outstanding student at her New York public high school. But on one of the two state regents tests she took this year, she didn't even score well enough to qualify for "mastery" in the subject. Adams' daughter is not alone in this disconnect; it happens all over the country. Grade inflation has been a problem for decades, and with the cancellation of standardized tests due to COVID, it just got worse. But these scores are a kind of second opinion. They confirm the teacher's opinion of her child, or at least they should inspire the parents to take a closer look.

How 232 Schools Across America Are Challenging 5 Big Assumptions About Education

Innovative Schools: Many of the challenges facing schools, writes contributor Chelsea Waite, are actually long-lasting structural failures that predate COVID-19. “Fortunately, a wide range of communities are working to reinvent education in pursuit of their visions for thriving youth and families,” Waite writes. “Not all learning environments they are designing and redesigning look the same; in fact, far from it. But what they have in common is challenging key assumptions about education to create more equitable, joyful and welcoming learning environments that reflect community values ​​and priorities.” These learning environments are now the focus of a growing national effort called The Canopy Project, a data set that documents the practices of 232 schools with a long history of innovation.

New education calculator estimates COVID learning losses by district and costs of educating children

learning loss: Our friends at Georgetown University's Economics Lab have released a revealing new tool that will allow parents and policymakers in 8,000 school districts to estimate how much help area students will need to recover from COVID learning losses, how much may this acceleration of learning cost in the form of tutoring and how those costs compare to the federal aid funds recently allocated to the district. Read more about how these estimates are calculated and try the calculator for yourself; all you need is the name of the state and county.

New studies show that charter schools generate profits for all children in public schools

charter schools: Thirty years ago, when the charter school movement was just getting started, devotees of big-city school systems feared that these new options would drain critical funding, harm children left behind, and create a system in which race played a role. big role. central role, but often unrecognized, even more unfair. However, in recent years it has become increasingly clear that concerns about the damage inflicted by charter schools are misplaced, as evidenced by a pair of new studies that found large and statistically significant gains for all students enrolled. publicly as charter schools expand. Collaborators Michael J. Petrilli and David Griffith take stock of the new research.

The biggest blind spot in education: the role of parents in their children's learning

Country: The focus on tutoring, summer school and extended days to make up for lost learning reveals perhaps the biggest blind spot in education, says contributor Alejandro Gibes de Gac, because engaging families is the only comprehensive, cost-effective way and culturally responsive to increase instructional time and accelerate learning recovery. Parent involvement is the most powerful predictor of children's academic success, yet policymakers and administrators focus almost exclusively on improving schools, where students spend only 13% of their waking hours. Ignoring the role parents play in their children's learning leaves the door open for inequality to run rampant.

There's no "big stop" in K-12 education, but schools have specific job challenges

lack of teachers: Economists have called this the Great Quit: millions of employees leaving their jobs in search of better wages and better working conditions. Is this Big Quit happening in education? According to contributor Chad Aldeman, the data suggests the answer is no. While turnover rates are setting new records in the private sector, they appear to be quite normal in public education. This is not to say that there are not employment challenges in K-12, but these issues are less in magnitude than those facing the private sector and have much more to do with specific schools and specific roles within schools. Districts, Aldeman writes, must respond accordingly with solutions, including those that involve targeted salary increases, tailored to the real challenges schools face.

King & Davis: The science of reading gives children the best chance to close the literacy gap

read science: The new NAEP reading scores showed that the need for immediate and effective action has never been more urgent. While districts invest their federal COVID relief dollars in extended learning time and intensive tutoring, say taxpayers John B. King and Jacquelyn Davis, they should not neglect their collective responsibility to strengthen basic education for all children. The best lever to accelerate learning in America is to use the science of how children learn to read. The human brain is designed to speak and absorb language, but not to read. Most children need instruction in phonics, vocabulary, and basic knowledge to understand the written word.

Tutorships: Effective tutoring is one of the few educational interventions with a strong research base. Best Approach: Groups of four or fewer students meet several times a week with a trained and consistent tutor using a high-quality curriculum. But high-impact mentoring is hard to scale. How do you find enough qualified adults to work with millions of students in small group settings? And how can schools know if the high-tech learning products they buy are effective? In this essay, contributors Kevin Huffman and Janice Jackson describe a grant program that seeks to promote effective innovative strategies to improve student learning.

What if innovation, not more educators, is the solution to the teacher shortage?

rethink teaching: Amid the debate over looming teacher shortages, a key point is missed, says contributor Brian Greenberg: Even if schools could revert to the old one-teacher-in-class approach, they shouldn't. A better approach to the status quo is possible, and innovative educators are working on creative solutions that put more focus on each student, amplify the impact of the best educators, and reshape the role of the teacher. Here, the Silicon Schools Fund CEO points out some noteworthy developments.

What will $50 billion in COVID relief funds buy?

Federal Aid Funding: Nearly a year after Congress approved $122 billion in emergency COVID relief for middle and high schools through the American Rescue Plan, school districts and charter organizations have focused their spending on three priorities: recovery academic, staff, and school facilities and operations. A new analysis by FutureEd, an independent, nonpartisan think tank at Georgetown University's McCourt School of Public Policy, is the first to detail how $50 billion in emergency funding for elementary and secondary schools (ESSER III) they are flowing through 3,056 school districts and charter organizations. . educating 60% of the country's public school students. Contributors Bella DiMarco and Phyllis W. Jordan examine spending in seven main categories and 78 subcategories.

Parents need to know the truth about learning loss. NAEP proves it

learning loss: New NAEP scores quantify how catastrophic school policies and practices were in the pandemic era. But many leaders aren't mustering the political courage to talk to parents about the scope of the problem. Schools have obfuscated what learning loss means. Some states were slow to release test score data; in others, school officials downplay the importance of tests. This new round of data from NAEP, says contributor Andrew Rotherham, should put an end to any doubt about telling parents where things are and what needs to be done. Eliminate the last excuse for not providing honest accounting: now.

Higher education:While the pandemic has accelerated the national decline in college enrollment, the crisis has been building for decades. Although a college degree has increasingly become a prerequisite for stable, well-paying jobs, the cost in money and time has become increasingly prohibitive. Addressing these fundamental flaws, say contributors Dumaine Williams and Stephen Tremaine, means questioning some of the foundation. For example: Why should college education begin at age 18 and only after the student graduates from high school? In this essay, the dean and CEO of Bard Early Colleges describes programs across the country that start low-income students on the path to college while they are still in high school and provide tools to help them persist until graduation. .

Most students who dropped out of college during COVID want to return, but many can't

College Pipeline:A report from the National Student Clearinghouse shows that total post-high school enrollment dropped by approximately 685,000 students in the spring of 2022. Following COVID-19 losses and disruptions, US colleges and universities lost 1 .3 million students in the last two years. Why? A recent study by the Gallup-Lumina Foundation shows that while there is great demand and interest in higher education, many students cannot access or pay for it. In this essay, Lumina contributor Courtney Brown sheds some light on these barriers and what can be done about them.

A crisis in slow motion: Gen Z's battle against depression, addiction and hopelessness

Mental health: The mental health crisis among America's youth was a simmer now raging in the wake of COVID-19. New research from the Walton Family Foundation and Murmuration shows that more Americans born between 1997 and 2012 are struggling with depression, hopelessness, addiction and suicide than previous generations. The symptoms often go unnoticed, manifesting themselves in awkward silences at the dinner table and closed bedroom doors. But the pandemic has taken too heavy a toll to ignore. Contributor Caryl M. Stern, CEO of Walton, breaks down the numbers and points out some organizations with innovative ways to help.

Latino students will soon account for 30% of public school enrollment. Now what?

bilingual education: US schools enroll more than twice as many Latino students as in 1995, federal data suggests, and by 2030, Latinos will account for roughly 30% of public school enrollment. These students bring a rich diversity and a variety of strengths to the classroom, writes Conor Williams, 74 staff, but also a long history of segregation and poor service. Williams suggests three ways educators can meet the needs of this rapidly growing student demographic: diversify the teaching force, ensure broad access to bilingual education, and prioritize their enrollment in early childhood education programs.

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