education issues and solutions 2023

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New advances in technology are upending education, from the recent debut of new artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots like ChatGPT to the growing accessibility of virtual-reality tools that expand the boundaries of the classroom. For educators, at the heart of it all is the hope that every learner gets an equal chance to develop the skills they need to succeed. But that promise is not without its pitfalls.

“Technology is a game-changer for education – it offers the prospect of universal access to high-quality learning experiences, and it creates fundamentally new ways of teaching,” said Dan Schwartz, dean of Stanford Graduate School of Education (GSE), who is also a professor of educational technology at the GSE and faculty director of the Stanford Accelerator for Learning . “But there are a lot of ways we teach that aren’t great, and a big fear with AI in particular is that we just get more efficient at teaching badly. This is a moment to pay attention, to do things differently.”

For K-12 schools, this year also marks the end of the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funding program, which has provided pandemic recovery funds that many districts used to invest in educational software and systems. With these funds running out in September 2024, schools are trying to determine their best use of technology as they face the prospect of diminishing resources.

Here, Schwartz and other Stanford education scholars weigh in on some of the technology trends taking center stage in the classroom this year.

AI in the classroom

In 2023, the big story in technology and education was generative AI, following the introduction of ChatGPT and other chatbots that produce text seemingly written by a human in response to a question or prompt. Educators immediately worried that students would use the chatbot to cheat by trying to pass its writing off as their own. As schools move to adopt policies around students’ use of the tool, many are also beginning to explore potential opportunities – for example, to generate reading assignments or coach students during the writing process.

AI can also help automate tasks like grading and lesson planning, freeing teachers to do the human work that drew them into the profession in the first place, said Victor Lee, an associate professor at the GSE and faculty lead for the AI + Education initiative at the Stanford Accelerator for Learning. “I’m heartened to see some movement toward creating AI tools that make teachers’ lives better – not to replace them, but to give them the time to do the work that only teachers are able to do,” he said. “I hope to see more on that front.”

He also emphasized the need to teach students now to begin questioning and critiquing the development and use of AI. “AI is not going away,” said Lee, who is also director of CRAFT (Classroom-Ready Resources about AI for Teaching), which provides free resources to help teach AI literacy to high school students across subject areas. “We need to teach students how to understand and think critically about this technology.”

Immersive environments

The use of immersive technologies like augmented reality, virtual reality, and mixed reality is also expected to surge in the classroom, especially as new high-profile devices integrating these realities hit the marketplace in 2024.

The educational possibilities now go beyond putting on a headset and experiencing life in a distant location. With new technologies, students can create their own local interactive 360-degree scenarios, using just a cell phone or inexpensive camera and simple online tools.

“This is an area that’s really going to explode over the next couple of years,” said Kristen Pilner Blair, director of research for the Digital Learning initiative at the Stanford Accelerator for Learning, which runs a program exploring the use of virtual field trips to promote learning. “Students can learn about the effects of climate change, say, by virtually experiencing the impact on a particular environment. But they can also become creators, documenting and sharing immersive media that shows the effects where they live.”

Integrating AI into virtual simulations could also soon take the experience to another level, Schwartz said. “If your VR experience brings me to a redwood tree, you could have a window pop up that allows me to ask questions about the tree, and AI can deliver the answers.”

Gamification

Another trend expected to intensify this year is the gamification of learning activities, often featuring dynamic videos with interactive elements to engage and hold students’ attention.

“Gamification is a good motivator, because one key aspect is reward, which is very powerful,” said Schwartz. The downside? Rewards are specific to the activity at hand, which may not extend to learning more generally. “If I get rewarded for doing math in a space-age video game, it doesn’t mean I’m going to be motivated to do math anywhere else.”

Gamification sometimes tries to make “chocolate-covered broccoli,” Schwartz said, by adding art and rewards to make speeded response tasks involving single-answer, factual questions more fun. He hopes to see more creative play patterns that give students points for rethinking an approach or adapting their strategy, rather than only rewarding them for quickly producing a correct response.

Data-gathering and analysis

The growing use of technology in schools is producing massive amounts of data on students’ activities in the classroom and online. “We’re now able to capture moment-to-moment data, every keystroke a kid makes,” said Schwartz – data that can reveal areas of struggle and different learning opportunities, from solving a math problem to approaching a writing assignment.

But outside of research settings, he said, that type of granular data – now owned by tech companies – is more likely used to refine the design of the software than to provide teachers with actionable information.

The promise of personalized learning is being able to generate content aligned with students’ interests and skill levels, and making lessons more accessible for multilingual learners and students with disabilities. Realizing that promise requires that educators can make sense of the data that’s being collected, said Schwartz – and while advances in AI are making it easier to identify patterns and findings, the data also needs to be in a system and form educators can access and analyze for decision-making. Developing a usable infrastructure for that data, Schwartz said, is an important next step.

With the accumulation of student data comes privacy concerns: How is the data being collected? Are there regulations or guidelines around its use in decision-making? What steps are being taken to prevent unauthorized access? In 2023 K-12 schools experienced a rise in cyberattacks, underscoring the need to implement strong systems to safeguard student data.

Technology is “requiring people to check their assumptions about education,” said Schwartz, noting that AI in particular is very efficient at replicating biases and automating the way things have been done in the past, including poor models of instruction. “But it’s also opening up new possibilities for students producing material, and for being able to identify children who are not average so we can customize toward them. It’s an opportunity to think of entirely new ways of teaching – this is the path I hope to see.”

2023 education highlights: Keeping up the momentum to transform learning

International Day of Education 2023 dedicated to Afghan girls and women

UNESCO dedicated this year's International Day of Education on 24 January to girls and women in Afghanistan who have been deprived of their right to pursue secondary and higher education. The Organization renewed its call to immediately restore their fundamental right to education. “No country in the world should bar women and girls from receiving an education,” said UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay. “The international community has the responsibility to ensure that the rights of Afghan girls and women are restored without delay. The war against women must stop.” 

In Afghanistan’s Logar province, most girls and women are illiterate. Even before the decision of the de-facto authorities to suspend girls’ access to beyond primary education, most families did not let their girls go to school. Today, over 1,000 women and young girls aged 15 to 45 are learning how to read, write and calculate for the first time in their lives through UNESCO’s Community-based Basic General Literacy Classes. During UNESCO’s visit to two literacy classes , women and girls shared their motivations, challenges and inspirations for attending the classes. Nationwide, the Organization is currently reaching over 40,000 illiterate and semi-literate youth and adults – over 60% of whom are women – in 20 provinces. 

Supporting learners and teachers in Ukraine

UNESCO and Ukraine’s Ministry of Education and Science launched an online training in digital pedagogy for 50,000 teachers, while the education of many Ukrainian students is still disrupted by the war. They are also training 15,000 school psychologists to withstand the impact of the war on the mental health of Ukrainian learners and teachers. “Since February 2022, UNESCO has continuously supported Ukrainian teachers to ensure that students continue learning in the midst of war,” said UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Education Stefania Giannini. “I pay tribute to their work, resilience and continued dedication. As the new academic year has just begun, UNESCO reaffirms its commitment to them. Because education is the cornerstone on which Ukraine's future is built.”   Read more    

Monitoring country commitments made at the Transforming Education Summit

The latest UNESCO data shows that the global number of out-of-school children has risen by 6 million since 2021 and now totals 250 million. The figures, compiled by the Global Education Monitoring Report and the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, reveal that education progress continues to stagnate globally. The annual finance gap for helping low and lower-middle income countries achieve their national education targets is almost US $100 billion. UNESCO remains committed to supporting countries and partners to acquire the financing needed to meet their goals. The Organization is also monitoring country commitments made at the UN Transforming Education Summit in 2022 through its new dashboard . Read more

Urgent call for appropriate use of technology in learning and global guidance on generative AI in education

UNESCO’s 2023 Global Education Monitoring Report on technology in education highlights the lack of appropriate governance and regulation. It urges countries to set their own terms for the way technology is designed and used in education so that it never replaces in-person, teacher-led instruction, and supports the shared objective of quality education for all. The report proposes four questions that policy-makers and educational stakeholders should reflect upon as technology is being deployed in education. Read more

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools have far-reaching implications for education and research. Yet the education sector today is largely unprepared for the ethical and pedagogical integration of these powerful and rapidly evolving technologies, as UNESCO Assistant Director-General Stefania Giannini reiterated in her think piece . UNESCO developed the first-ever global guidance on GenAI in education. Launched during UNESCO’s flagship Digital Learning Week , it calls on countries to quickly implement appropriate regulations, policies, and human capacity development, for ensuring a human-centred vision of GenAI for education and research. Read more

UNESCO calls for an upgrade of teachers’ status to reduce the global shortage

“We must better value, better train and better support,” said UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay on World Teachers’ Day (5 October). UNESCO and the Teacher Task Force’s first global report shows that globally, 44 million teachers are still needed to achieve the goal of providing primary and secondary education for all by 2030. This includes a demand for seven out of ten teachers at the secondary level and a need to replace over half of the existing teachers leaving the profession. The problem is not only one of funding, but also the unattractiveness of the profession. Read more

UNESCO adopts landmark guidance on education’s cross-cutting role in promoting peace

On 20 November 2023, the 194 UNESCO Member States adopted the Recommendation on Education for Peace, Human Rights and Sustainable Development at UNESCO’s General Conference . This is the only global standard-setting instrument that lays out how education should be used to bring about lasting peace and foster human development through 14 guiding principles. For the past two years, UNESCO has been revising this visionary tool to ensure it responds to today's greatest challenges and future shocks. Read more  

UNESCO at COP28: Making education the long-term solution to the climate crisis

UNESCO is accelerating climate change education and greening initiatives through its coordinating role of the  Greening Education Partnership  and extensive work on  education for sustainable development . At COP28, UNESCO played a key role in the various dialogues on accelerating climate change education and emphasized the significance of sustainable learning in fostering long-term solutions for the climate crisis. The Organization presented at the COP the drafts of two new normative and groundbreaking resources: A global curriculum guidance for climate change education; and a green schools quality standards, which will be finalized and rolled-out next year. A major highlight of the gathering was launch of the Declaration for Climate Change and Education , focused on adaptation, mitigation and investment – which was signed and endorsed by 41 countries. Read more  

Exploring how rights should adapt as education evolves

The world has considerably changed since the key treaties on the right to education were conceived and adopted over half a century ago. Education can no longer be only confined to traditional classrooms and textbooks but has expanded to encompass lifelong and life-wide learning. UNESCO's Initiative on the evolving right to education launched its formal dialogue in December to explore how international human rights instruments can be reinforced and further developed to address today's needs and challenges. Read more  

Looking into 2024, the  International Day of Education will be celebrated on 24 January under the theme “learning for lasting peace”. The world is seeing a surge of violent conflicts paralleled by an alarming rise of discrimination, racism, xenophobia, and hate speech. An active commitment to peace is more urgent today than ever: Education is central to this endeavor, as underlined by the  UNESCO Recommendation on Education for Peace, Human Rights and Sustainable Development .

Key UNESCO publications on education in 2023

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Four of the biggest problems facing education—and four trends that could make a difference

Eduardo velez bustillo, harry a. patrinos.

In 2022, we published, Lessons for the education sector from the COVID-19 pandemic , which was a follow up to,  Four Education Trends that Countries Everywhere Should Know About , which summarized views of education experts around the world on how to handle the most pressing issues facing the education sector then. We focused on neuroscience, the role of the private sector, education technology, inequality, and pedagogy.

Unfortunately, we think the four biggest problems facing education today in developing countries are the same ones we have identified in the last decades .

1. The learning crisis was made worse by COVID-19 school closures

Low quality instruction is a major constraint and prior to COVID-19, the learning poverty rate in low- and middle-income countries was 57% (6 out of 10 children could not read and understand basic texts by age 10). More dramatic is the case of Sub-Saharan Africa with a rate even higher at 86%. Several analyses show that the impact of the pandemic on student learning was significant, leaving students in low- and middle-income countries way behind in mathematics, reading and other subjects.  Some argue that learning poverty may be close to 70% after the pandemic , with a substantial long-term negative effect in future earnings. This generation could lose around $21 trillion in future salaries, with the vulnerable students affected the most.

2. Countries are not paying enough attention to early childhood care and education (ECCE)

At the pre-school level about two-thirds of countries do not have a proper legal framework to provide free and compulsory pre-primary education. According to UNESCO, only a minority of countries, mostly high-income, were making timely progress towards SDG4 benchmarks on early childhood indicators prior to the onset of COVID-19. And remember that ECCE is not only preparation for primary school. It can be the foundation for emotional wellbeing and learning throughout life; one of the best investments a country can make.

3. There is an inadequate supply of high-quality teachers

Low quality teaching is a huge problem and getting worse in many low- and middle-income countries.  In Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, the percentage of trained teachers fell from 84% in 2000 to 69% in 2019 . In addition, in many countries teachers are formally trained and as such qualified, but do not have the minimum pedagogical training. Globally, teachers for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects are the biggest shortfalls.

4. Decision-makers are not implementing evidence-based or pro-equity policies that guarantee solid foundations

It is difficult to understand the continued focus on non-evidence-based policies when there is so much that we know now about what works. Two factors contribute to this problem. One is the short tenure that top officials have when leading education systems. Examples of countries where ministers last less than one year on average are plentiful. The second and more worrisome deals with the fact that there is little attention given to empirical evidence when designing education policies.

To help improve on these four fronts, we see four supporting trends:

1. Neuroscience should be integrated into education policies

Policies considering neuroscience can help ensure that students get proper attention early to support brain development in the first 2-3 years of life. It can also help ensure that children learn to read at the proper age so that they will be able to acquire foundational skills to learn during the primary education cycle and from there on. Inputs like micronutrients, early child stimulation for gross and fine motor skills, speech and language and playing with other children before the age of three are cost-effective ways to get proper development. Early grade reading, using the pedagogical suggestion by the Early Grade Reading Assessment model, has improved learning outcomes in many low- and middle-income countries. We now have the tools to incorporate these advances into the teaching and learning system with AI , ChatGPT , MOOCs and online tutoring.

2. Reversing learning losses at home and at school

There is a real need to address the remaining and lingering losses due to school closures because of COVID-19.  Most students living in households with incomes under the poverty line in the developing world, roughly the bottom 80% in low-income countries and the bottom 50% in middle-income countries, do not have the minimum conditions to learn at home . These students do not have access to the internet, and, often, their parents or guardians do not have the necessary schooling level or the time to help them in their learning process. Connectivity for poor households is a priority. But learning continuity also requires the presence of an adult as a facilitator—a parent, guardian, instructor, or community worker assisting the student during the learning process while schools are closed or e-learning is used.

To recover from the negative impact of the pandemic, the school system will need to develop at the student level: (i) active and reflective learning; (ii) analytical and applied skills; (iii) strong self-esteem; (iv) attitudes supportive of cooperation and solidarity; and (v) a good knowledge of the curriculum areas. At the teacher (instructor, facilitator, parent) level, the system should aim to develop a new disposition toward the role of teacher as a guide and facilitator. And finally, the system also needs to increase parental involvement in the education of their children and be active part in the solution of the children’s problems. The Escuela Nueva Learning Circles or the Pratham Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL) are models that can be used.

3. Use of evidence to improve teaching and learning

We now know more about what works at scale to address the learning crisis. To help countries improve teaching and learning and make teaching an attractive profession, based on available empirical world-wide evidence , we need to improve its status, compensation policies and career progression structures; ensure pre-service education includes a strong practicum component so teachers are well equipped to transition and perform effectively in the classroom; and provide high-quality in-service professional development to ensure they keep teaching in an effective way. We also have the tools to address learning issues cost-effectively. The returns to schooling are high and increasing post-pandemic. But we also have the cost-benefit tools to make good decisions, and these suggest that structured pedagogy, teaching according to learning levels (with and without technology use) are proven effective and cost-effective .

4. The role of the private sector

When properly regulated the private sector can be an effective education provider, and it can help address the specific needs of countries. Most of the pedagogical models that have received international recognition come from the private sector. For example, the recipients of the Yidan Prize on education development are from the non-state sector experiences (Escuela Nueva, BRAC, edX, Pratham, CAMFED and New Education Initiative). In the context of the Artificial Intelligence movement, most of the tools that will revolutionize teaching and learning come from the private sector (i.e., big data, machine learning, electronic pedagogies like OER-Open Educational Resources, MOOCs, etc.). Around the world education technology start-ups are developing AI tools that may have a good potential to help improve quality of education .

After decades asking the same questions on how to improve the education systems of countries, we, finally, are finding answers that are very promising.  Governments need to be aware of this fact.

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Consultant, Education Sector, World Bank

Senior Adviser, Education

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America’s education system is failing–but a growing school choice movement believes it has the solution

American students are in trouble. About a third of students in the youngest grades are behind on reading. Only 36% of fourth graders are proficient at grade-level math. The newest National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP)–the nation’s report card–shows eighth-graders’ history scores are the lowest on record since the assessment began in 1994. And what’s more, every single state experienced teacher shortages in at least one subject in 2022.

While many of these problems began before COVID-19, there’s no denying that the pandemic paused or reversed academic progress for kids across the country. The NAEP showed that for both fourth and eighth-grade students, reading scores declined in at least 30 states and jurisdictions , and math scores declined nearly everywhere from 2019 to 2022.

Perhaps most troubling is how the pandemic made existing achievement gaps worse. Stanford University researchers conducted a district-by-district analysis of the NAEP results, and found that students in low-income school districts and communities experienced the biggest learning losses.

How do we get American education back on track? A part of the solution will come from increasing the range of options that families have when choosing schools. The NAEP’s wake-up call shows that a one-size-fits-all approach isn’t working for all students.

School choice programs mean that students aren’t locked into attending a district public school based on home address. Instead, they provide parents with funds that can be used toward a broad range of options , including secular or religious private schools as well as charter schools, which are publicly funded schools that have greater autonomy.

School choice makes it possible for all students, regardless of economic background, to get an education that matches their needs and interests. Depending on the student, that could mean a smaller school, one that caters to learning differences, or one that focuses on arts, athletics, or science.

Charter schools generally outperform traditional public schools, especially in urban areas. A report from Stanford University found that students in urban charter schools received, on average, 40 additional learning days in math and 28 additional learning days in reading each year, compared to their counterparts in traditional public schools.

Meanwhile, the NAEP results showed that as a nationwide group, Catholic schools lost less ground during the pandemic than public schools, and even held steady in fourth-grade math and improved in eighth-grade reading . In fourth-grade math, t hey performed better than all state public school systems .

To make sure more students get the best education they can, my organization, the Daniels Fund, has committed to adding 100,000 seats to non-traditional schools by 2030, spread across the four states we serve: Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. This big bet will increase the attendance capacity of non-traditional schools in our region by nearly 30%.

Each new seat will allow another student to get an education of their choice. This could be in a charter school, private school, or home-school co-op. Our investment will also allow families to choose micro-schools (small educational programs independent of school districts), learning pods (parent-organized groups that use hired instructors), or hybrid schools (which combine in-person and online learning). We’ve observed that the most significant innovations in education today are happening within these alternative models.

We’re far from alone in our efforts. In 2020, 50CAN, a national educational advocacy organization that has secured 198 policy wins for students in 15 states, provided $335 million in direct aid to families in North Carolina and gave 10,000 more children access to multiple school options in the state. Excel in Ed, an education thought and action organization that develops policy recommendations for leaders around the country, identifies equitable funding for public charter schools as a key directive.

And we know that parents want choice. From 2009 to 2019, Colorado charter schools grew by more than 85% . Nationally, 1.4 million students left district public schools during the 2020-2021 school year, with 240,000 of them choosing charter schools .

This shouldn’t come as a surprise. After Denver began expanding school choice in 2009, graduation rates and achievement in English and math improved , according to a 2021 University of Colorado report.

Too many young people are falling behind in their education. It’s time to give them more options, so they can thrive in the learning environment that’s best for them.

Hanna Skandera is the president and CEO of the Daniels Fund and former Secretary of Public Education of New Mexico.

The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of  Fortune .

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The state of the global education crisis, a path to recovery.

The global disruption to education caused by the COVD-19 pandemic is without parallel and the effects on learning are severe. The crisis brought education systems across the world to a halt, with school closures affecting more than 1.6 billion learners. While nearly every country in the world offered remote learning opportunities for students, the quality and reach of such initiatives varied greatly and were at best partial substitutes for in-person learning. Now, 21 months later, schools remain closed for millions of children and youth, and millions more are at risk of never returning to education. Evidence of the detrimental impacts of school closures on children’s learning offer a harrowing reality: learning losses are substantial, with the most marginalized children and youth often disproportionately affected.

The State of the Global Education Crisis: A Path to Recovery charts a path out of the global education crisis and towards building more effective, equitable and resilient education systems.

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5 Big Challenges for Schools in 2023

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Newly sworn-in elected officials, from governors and lawmakers to state and local school board members, must now confront five big and often polarizing issues in the second half of the 2022-23 school year.

Policymakers on both sides of the political aisle will continue to focus on teacher retention, school safety, and academic recovery from the pandemic. But they’ll also work on more contentious topics, such as parents’ rights and LGBTQ students’ rights.

In a Jan. 11 Seat at the Table online discussion , Education Week Opinion Contributor Peter DeWitt, Assistant Managing Editor Stephen Sawchuk, Staff Writer Libby Stanford, and EdWeek Research Center Director Holly Kurtz took an in-depth look at how these issues are likely to play out for the rest of this school year and beyond.

1. Bans on teaching specific topics

In states with majority-Republican lawmakers, there has been more scrutiny over curriculum materials that some conservatives deem as teaching “ critical race theory ” and a push to ban certain books that deal with gender, sexuality, and racism. These policies are already affecting the way teachers talk about these topics with their students, and they will continue to affect what materials districts are purchasing and using in the classroom, Kurtz said.

2. Increasing calls for more parental control over what students learn

The last few years have seen an increase in parents’ rights groups that advocate for more parental control over what students learn in school. These groups—many borne out of conservative politics—have been leading the calls for banning certain topics and books. They’ve been campaigning to seat school board members who are sympathetic to their cause, Stanford said. However, there are survey results that show that a majority of educators and parents agree that parents have a lot of involvement in curriculum and other school operations already, Kurtz said. It’ll be interesting to see if there will be legislation introduced to make school board elections partisan, when traditionally they have been nonpartisan, Sawchuk said.

3. Addressing chronic staffing shortages

School districts across the country have been dealing with staffing shortages for teachers and a host of other jobs. Addressing the challenges with the teacher pipeline has become a more bipartisan issue, and educators will likely see more bills tackling that issue, Stanford said. In Congress, a bill introduced in December would incentivize states and school districts to increase the minimum K-12 teacher salary to $60,000 and provide yearly adjustments for inflation through new federal grants.

4. Using proposed changes to Title IX to protect LGBTQ students

The U.S. Department of Education, in June, announced proposed changes to Title IX , the federal sex-discrimination law, that would mean explicit protections for LGBTQ students. The proposed changes are expected to be finalized this year. However, the proposed changes do not say anything about whether transgender students have a right to participate in school-sponsored sports aligned with their gender identity—perhaps the most contentious issue within the broader debate over rights for transgender students. The Education Department plans to conduct a separate rule-making process about that issue this year, Stanford said.

5. Teaching about climate change

Schools are already suffering the consequences of climate change , but right now they aren’t doing much to teach students about the science of climate change and its implications for the world, Kurtz said. One of the most common reasons district leaders gave for that is that teaching about and addressing climate change was not in their state standards. So it will be interesting to see if more districts and states codify climate change education as part of their science standards, Kurtz said.

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Trade Schools Home > Articles > Issues in Education

Major Issues in Education: 20 Hot Topics (From Grade School to College)

By Publisher | Last Updated August 1, 2023

In America, issues in education are big topics of discussion, both in the news media and among the general public. The current education system is beset by a wide range of challenges, from cuts in government funding to changes in disciplinary policies—and much more. Everyone agrees that providing high-quality education for our citizens is a worthy ideal. However, there are many diverse viewpoints about how that should be accomplished. And that leads to highly charged debates, with passionate advocates on both sides.

Understanding education issues is important for students, parents, and taxpayers. By being well-informed, you can contribute valuable input to the discussion. You can also make better decisions about what causes you will support or what plans you will make for your future.

This article provides detailed information on many of today's most relevant primary, secondary, and post-secondary education issues. It also outlines four emerging trends that have the potential to shake up the education sector. You'll learn about:

• 13 major issues in education at the K-12 level
• 7 big issues in higher education
• 5 emerging trends in education

13 Major Issues in Education at the K-12 Level

1. Government funding for education

School funding is a primary concern when discussing current issues in education. The American public education system, which includes both primary and secondary schools, is primarily funded by tax revenues. For the 2021 school year, state and local governments provided over 89 percent of the funding for public K-12 schools. After the Great Recession, most states reduced their school funding. This reduction makes sense, considering most state funding is sourced from sales and income taxes, which tend to decrease during economic downturns.

However, many states are still giving schools less cash now than they did before the Great Recession. A 2022 article from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) notes that K-12 education is set to receive the largest-ever one-time federal investment. However, the CBPP also predicts this historic funding might fall short due to pandemic-induced education costs. The formulas that states use to fund schools have come under fire in recent years and have even been the subjects of lawsuits. For example, in 2017, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled that the legislature's formula for financing schools was unconstitutional because it didn't adequately fund education.

Less funding means that smaller staff, fewer programs, and diminished resources for students are common school problems. In some cases, schools are unable to pay for essential maintenance. A 2021 report noted that close to a quarter of all U.S. public schools are in fair or poor condition and that 53 percent of schools need renovations and repairs. Plus, a 2021 survey discovered that teachers spent an average of $750 of their own money on classroom supplies.

The issue reached a tipping point in 2018, with teachers in Arizona, Colorado, and other states walking off the job to demand additional educational funding. Some of the protests resulted in modest funding increases, but many educators believe that more must be done.

2. School safety

Over the past several years, a string of high-profile mass shootings in U.S. schools have resulted in dozens of deaths and led to debates about the best ways to keep students safe. After 17 people were killed in a shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida in 2018, 57 percent of teenagers said they were worried about the possibility of gun violence at their school.

Figuring out how to prevent such attacks and save students and school personnel's lives are problems faced by teachers all across America.

Former President Trump and other lawmakers suggested that allowing specially trained teachers and other school staff to carry concealed weapons would make schools safer. The idea was that adult volunteers who were already proficient with a firearm could undergo specialized training to deal with an active shooter situation until law enforcement could arrive. Proponents argued that armed staff could intervene to end the threat and save lives. Also, potential attackers might be less likely to target a school if they knew that the school's personnel were carrying weapons.

Critics argue that more guns in schools will lead to more accidents, injuries, and fear. They contend that there is scant evidence supporting the idea that armed school officials would effectively counter attacks. Some data suggests that the opposite may be true: An FBI analysis of active shooter situations between 2000 and 2013 noted that law enforcement personnel who engaged the shooter suffered casualties in 21 out of 45 incidents. And those were highly trained professionals whose primary purpose was to maintain law and order. It's highly unlikely that teachers, whose focus should be on educating children, would do any better in such situations.

According to the National Education Association (NEA), giving teachers guns is not the answer. In a March 2018 survey , 74 percent of NEA members opposed arming school personnel, and two-thirds said they would feel less safe at work if school staff were carrying guns. To counter gun violence in schools, the NEA supports measures like requiring universal background checks, preventing mentally ill people from purchasing guns, and banning assault weapons.

3. Disciplinary policies

Data from the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights in 2021 suggests that black students face disproportionately high rates of suspension and expulsion from school. For instance, in K-12 schools, black male students make up only 7.7 percent of enrollees but account for over 40% percent of suspensions. Many people believe some teachers apply the rules of discipline in a discriminatory way and contribute to what has been termed the "school-to-prison pipeline." That's because research has demonstrated that students who are suspended or expelled are significantly more likely to become involved with the juvenile justice system.

In 2014, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Department of Education issued guidelines for all public schools on developing disciplinary practices that reduce disparities and comply with federal civil rights laws. The guidelines urged schools to limit exclusionary disciplinary tactics such as suspension and expulsion. They also encourage the adoption of more positive interventions such as counseling and restorative justice strategies. In addition, the guidelines specified that schools could face a loss of federal funds if they carried out policies that had a disparate impact on some racial groups.

Opponents argue that banning suspensions and expulsions takes away valuable tools that teachers can use to combat student misbehavior. They maintain that as long as disciplinary policies are applied the same way to every student regardless of race, such policies are not discriminatory. One major 2014 study found that the racial disparities in school suspension rates could be explained by the students' prior behavior rather than by discriminatory tactics on the part of educators.

In 2018, the Federal Commission on School Safety (which was established in the wake of the school shootings in Parkland, Florida) was tasked with reviewing and possibly rescinding the 2014 guidelines. According to an Education Next survey taken shortly after the announced review, only 27 percent of Americans support federal policies that limit racial disparities in school discipline.

4. Technology in education

Technology in education is a powerful movement that is sweeping through schools nationwide. After all, today's students have grown up with digital technology and expect it to be part of their learning experience. But how much of a role should it play in education?

Proponents point out that educational technology offers the potential to engage students in more active learning, as evidenced in flipped classrooms . It can facilitate group collaboration and provide instant access to up-to-date resources. Teachers and instructors can integrate online surveys, interactive case studies, and relevant videos to offer content tailored to different learning styles. Indeed, students with special needs frequently rely on assistive technology to communicate and access course materials.

But there are downsides as well. For instance, technology can be a distraction. Some students tune out of lessons and spend time checking social media, playing games, or shopping online. One research study revealed that students who multitasked on laptops during class scored 11 percent lower on an exam that tested their knowledge of the lecture. Students who sat behind those multitaskers scored 17 percent lower. In the fall of 2017, University of Michigan professor Susan Dynarski cited such research as one of the main reasons she bans electronics in her classes.

More disturbingly, technology can pose a real threat to student privacy and security. The collection of sensitive student data by education technology companies can lead to serious problems. In 2017, a group called Dark Overlord hacked into school district servers in several states and obtained access to students' personal information, including counselor reports and medical records. The group used the data to threaten students and their families with physical violence.

5. Charter schools and voucher programs

School choice is definitely among the hot topics in education these days. Former U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos was a vocal supporter of various forms of parental choice, including charter schools and school vouchers.

Charter schools are funded through a combination of public and private money and operate independently of the public system. They have charters (i.e., contracts) with school districts, states, or private organizations. These charters outline the academic outcomes that the schools agree to achieve. Like mainstream public schools, charter schools cannot teach religion or charge tuition, and their students must complete standardized testing . However, charter schools are not limited to taking students in a certain geographic area. They have more autonomy to choose their teaching methods. Charter schools are also subject to less oversight and fewer regulations.

School vouchers are like coupons that allow parents to use public funds to send their child to the school of their choice, which can be private and may be either secular or religious. In many cases, vouchers are reserved for low-income students or students with disabilities.

Advocates argue that charter schools and school vouchers offer parents a greater range of educational options. Opponents say that they privatize education and siphon funding away from regular public schools that are already financially strapped. The 2018 Education Next survey found that 44 percent of the general public supports charter schools' expansion, while 35 percent oppose such a move. The same poll found that 54 percent of people support vouchers.

6. Common Core

The Common Core State Standards is a set of academic standards for math and language arts that specify what public school students are expected to learn by the end of each year from kindergarten through 12th grade. Developed in 2009, the standards were designed to promote equity among public K-12 students. All students would take standardized end-of-year tests and be held to the same internationally benchmarked standards. The idea was to institute a system that brought all schools up to the same level and allowed for comparison of student performance in different regions. Such standards would help all students with college and career readiness.

Some opponents see the standards as an unwelcome federal intrusion into state control of education. Others are critical of the way the standards were developed with little input from experienced educators. Many teachers argue that the standards result in inflexible lesson plans that allow for less creativity and fun in the learning process.

Some critics also take issue with the lack of accommodation for non-traditional learners. The Common Core prescribes standards for each grade level, but students with disabilities or language barriers often need more time to fully learn the material.

The vast majority of states adopted the Common Core State Standards when they were first introduced. Since then, more than a dozen states have either repealed the standards or revised them to align better with local needs. In many cases, the standards themselves have remained virtually the same but given a different name.

And a name can be significant. In the Education Next 2018 survey, a group of American adults was asked whether they supported common standards across states. About 61 percent replied that they did. But when another group was polled about Common Core specifically, only 45 percent said they supported it.

7. Standardized testing

During the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) years, schools—and teachers—were judged by how well students scored on such tests. Schools whose results weren't up to par faced intense scrutiny, and in some cases, state takeover or closure. Teachers' effectiveness was rated by how much improvement their students showed on standardized exams. The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which took effect in 2016, removed NCLB's most punitive aspects. Still, it maintained the requirement to test students every year in Grades 3 to 8, and once in high school.

But many critics say that rampant standardized testing is one of the biggest problems in education. They argue that the pressure to produce high test scores has resulted in a teach-to-the-test approach to instruction in which other non-tested subjects (such as art, music, and physical education) have been given short shrift to devote more time to test preparation. And they contend that policymakers overemphasize the meaning of standardized test results, which don't present a clear or complete picture of overall student learning.

8. Teacher salaries

According to 2021-22 data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), in most states, teacher pay has decreased over the last several years. However, in some states average salaries went up. It's also important to note that public school teachers generally enjoy pensions and other benefits that make up a large share of their compensation.

But the growth in benefits has not been enough to balance out the overall low wages. An Economic Policy Institute report found that even after factoring in benefits, public-sector teachers faced a compensation penalty of 14.2 percent in 2021 relative to other college graduates.

9. The teaching of evolution

In the U.S., public school originated to spread religious ideals, but it has since become a strictly secular institution. And the debate over how to teach public school students about the origins of life has gone on for almost a century.

Today, Darwin's theory of evolution through natural selection is accepted by virtually the entire scientific community. However, it is still controversial among many Americans who maintain that living things were guided into existence. A pair of surveys from 2014 revealed that 98 percent of scientists aligned with the American Association for the Advancement of Science believed that humans evolved. But it also revealed that, overall, only 52 percent of American adults agreed.

Over the years, some states have outright banned teachers from discussing evolution in the classroom. Others have mandated that students be allowed to question the scientific soundness of evolution, or that equal time be given to consideration of the Judeo-Christian notion of divine creation (i.e., creationism).

Some people argue that the theory of intelligent design—which posits that the complexities of living things cannot be explained by natural selection and can best be explained as resulting from an intelligent cause—is a legitimate scientific theory that should be allowed in public school curricula. They say it differs from creationism because it doesn't necessarily ascribe life's design to a supernatural deity or supreme being.

Opponents contend that intelligent design is creationism in disguise. They think it should not be taught in public schools because it is religiously motivated and has no credible scientific basis. And the courts have consistently held that the teaching of creationism and intelligent design promotes religious beliefs and therefore violates the Constitution's prohibition against the government establishment of religion. Still, the debate continues.

10. Teacher tenure

Having tenure means that a teacher cannot be let go unless their school district demonstrates just cause. Many states grant tenure to public school teachers who have received satisfactory evaluations for a specified period of time (which ranges from one to five years, depending on the state). A few states do not grant tenure at all. And the issue has long been mired in controversy.

Proponents argue that tenure protects teachers from being dismissed for personal or political reasons, such as disagreeing with administrators or teaching contentious subjects such as evolution. Tenured educators can advocate for students without fear of reprisal. Supporters also say that tenure gives teachers the freedom to try innovative instruction methods to deliver more engaging educational experiences. Tenure also protects more experienced (and more expensive) teachers from being arbitrarily replaced with new graduates who earn lower salaries.

Critics contend that tenure makes it difficult to dismiss ineffectual teachers because going through the legal process of doing so is extremely costly and time-consuming. They say that tenure can encourage complacency since teachers' jobs are secure whether they exceed expectations or just do the bare minimum. Plus, while the granting of tenure often hinges on teacher evaluations, 2017 research found that, in practice, more than 99 percent of teachers receive ratings of satisfactory or better. Some administrators admit to being reluctant to give low ratings because of the time and effort required to document teachers' performance and provide support for improvement.

11. Bullying

Bullying continues to be a major issue in schools all across the U.S. According to a National Center for Education Statistics study , around 22 percent of students in Grades 6 through 12 reported having been bullied at school, or on their way to or from school, in 2019. That figure was down from 28 percent in 2009, but it is still far too high.

The same study revealed that over 22 percent of students reported being bullied once a day, and 6.3 percent reported experiencing bullying two to ten times in a day. In addition, the percentage of students who reported the bullying to an adult was over 45 percent in 2019.

But that still means that almost 60 percent of students are not reporting bullying. And that means children are suffering.

Bullied students experience a range of emotional, physical, and behavioral problems. They often feel angry, anxious, lonely, and helpless. They are frequently scared to go to school, leading them to suffer academically and develop a low sense of self-worth. They are also at greater risk of engaging in violent acts or suicidal behaviors.

Every state has anti-bullying legislation in place, and schools are expected to develop policies to address the problem. However, there are differences in how each state defines bullying and what procedures it mandates when bullying is reported. And only about one-third of states call for school districts to include provisions for support services such as counseling for students who are victims of bullying (or are bullies themselves).

12. Poverty

Student poverty is a growing problem. Data from the National Center for Education Statistics show that as of the 2019-2020 school year, low-income students comprised a majority (52 percent) of public school students in the U.S. That represented a significant increase from 2000-2001, when only 38 percent of students were considered low-income (meaning they qualified for free or discounted school lunches).

The numbers are truly alarming: In 39 states, at least 40 percent of public school enrollees were eligible to receive free or reduced-price lunches, and 22 of those states had student poverty rates of 50 percent or more.

Low-income students tend to perform worse in school than their more affluent peers. Studies have shown that family income strongly correlates to student achievement on standardized tests. That may be partly because parents with fewer financial resources generally can't afford tutoring and other enrichment experiences to boost student achievement. In addition, low-income children are much more likely to experience food instability, family turmoil, and other stressors that can negatively affect their academic success.

All of this means that teachers face instructional challenges that go beyond students' desires to learn.

13. Class size

According to NCES data , in the 2017-2018 school year, the average class size in U.S. public schools was 26.2 students at the elementary level and 23.3 students at the secondary level.

But anecdotal reports suggest that today, classrooms commonly have more than 30 students—sometimes as many as 40.

Conventional wisdom holds that smaller classes are beneficial to student learning. Teachers often argue that the size of a class greatly influences the quality of the instruction they are able to provide. Research from the National Education Policy Center in 2016 showed smaller classes improve student outcomes, particularly for early elementary, low-income, and minority students.

Many (but not all) states have regulations in place that impose limits on class sizes. However, those limits become increasingly difficult to maintain in an era of budget constraints. Reducing class sizes requires hiring more teachers and constructing new classrooms. Arguably, allowing class sizes to expand can enable districts to absorb funding cuts without making reductions to other programs such as art and physical education.

7 Big Issues in Higher Education

1. Student loan forgiveness

Here's how the American public education system works: Students attend primary and secondary school at no cost. They have the option of going on to post-secondary training (which, for most students, is not free). So with costs rising at both public and private institutions of higher learning, student loan debt is one of the most prominent issues in education today. Students who graduated from college in 2022 came out with an average debt load of $37,338. As a whole, Americans owe over $1.7 trillion in student loans.

Currently, students who have received certain federal student loans and are on income-driven repayment plans can qualify to have their remaining balance forgiven if they haven't repaid the loan in full after 20 to 25 years, depending on the plan. Additionally, the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program allows qualified borrowers who go into public service careers (such as teaching, government service, social work, or law enforcement) to have their student debt canceled after ten years.

However, potential changes are in the works. The Biden-Harris Administration is working to support students and make getting a post-secondary education more affordable. In 2022, the U.S. Department of Education provided more than $17 billion in loan relief to over 700,000 borrowers. Meanwhile, a growing number of Democrats are advocating for free college as an alternative to student loans.

2. Completion rates

The large number of students who begin post-secondary studies but do not graduate continues to be an issue. According to a National Student Clearinghouse Research Center report , the overall six-year college completion rate for the cohort entering college in 2015 was 62.2 percent. Around 58 percent of students completed a credential at the same institution where they started their studies, and about another 8 percent finished at a different institution.

Completion rates are increasing, but there is still concern over the significant percentage of college students who do not graduate. Almost 9 percent of students who began college in 2015 had still not completed a degree or certificate six years later. Over 22 percent of them had dropped out entirely.

Significant costs are associated with starting college but not completing it. Many students end up weighed down by debt, and those who do not complete their higher education are less able to repay loans. Plus, students miss out on formal credentials that could lead to higher earnings. Numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that in 2021 students who begin college but do not complete a degree have median weekly earnings of $899. By contrast, associate degree holders have median weekly wages of $963, and bachelor's degree recipients have median weekly earnings of $1,334.

Students leave college for many reasons, but chief among them is money. To mitigate that, some institutions have implemented small retention or completion grants. Such grants are for students who are close to graduating, have financial need, have used up all other sources of aid, owe a modest amount, and are at risk of dropping out due to lack of funds. One study found that around a third of the institutions who implemented such grants noted higher graduation rates among grant recipients.

3. Student mental health

Mental health challenges among students are a growing concern. A survey by the American College Health Association in the spring of 2019 found that over two-thirds of college students had experienced "overwhelming anxiety" within the previous 12 months. Almost 45 percent reported higher-than-average stress levels.

Anxiety, stress, and depression were the most common concerns among students who sought treatment. The 2021 report by the Center for Collegiate Mental Health (CCMH) noted the average number of appointments students needed has increased by 20 percent.

And some schools are struggling to keep up. A 2020 report found that the average student-to-clinician ratio on U.S. campuses was 1,411 to 1. So, in some cases, suffering students face long waits for treatment.

4. Sexual assault

The Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that more than 75 percent of sexual assaults are not reported to law enforcement, so the actual number of incidents could be much higher.

And the way that colleges and universities deal with sexual assault is undergoing changes. Title IX rules makes sure that complaints of sexual assault or harassment are taken seriously and ensuring the accused person is treated fairly.

Administrators were also required to adjudicate such cases based on a preponderance of evidence, meaning that they had to believe that it was more likely than not that an accused was guilty in order to proceed with disciplinary action. The "clear and convincing" evidentiary standard, which required that administrators be reasonably certain that sexual violence or harassment occurred, was deemed unacceptable.

Critics argued that the guidelines failed to respect the due process rights of those accused of sexual misconduct. Research has found that the frequency of false sexual assault allegations is between two and 10 percent.

In 2017, the Trump administration rescinded the Obama-era guidelines. The intent was to institute new regulations on how schools should handle sexual assault allegations. The changes went into effect on August 14, 2020, defining sexual harassment more narrowly and only requiring schools to investigate formal complaints about on-campus incidents officially filed with designated authorities, such as Title IX coordinators. The updated guidelines also allow schools to use the clear and convincing standard for conviction.

Victims' rights advocates were concerned this approach would deter victims from coming forward and hinder efforts to create safe learning environments.

The Biden administration is expected to release their proposed revisions to Title IX in October 2023 which could see many of the Trump administration changes rescinded.

5. Trigger warnings

The use of trigger warnings in academia is a highly contentious issue. Trigger warnings alert students that upcoming course material contains concepts or images that may invoke psychological or physiological reactions in people who have experienced trauma. Some college instructors provide such warnings before introducing films, texts, or other content involving things like violence or sexual abuse. The idea is to give students advance notice so that they can psychologically prepare themselves.

Some believe that trigger warnings are essential because they allow vulnerable people to prepare for and navigate difficult content. Having trigger warnings allows students with post-traumatic stress to decide whether they will engage with the material or find an alternative way to acquire the necessary information.

Critics argue that trigger warnings constrain free speech and academic freedom by discouraging the discussion of topics that might trigger distressing reactions in some students. They point out that college faculty already provide detailed course syllabi and that it's impossible to anticipate and acknowledge every potential trigger.

In 2015, NPR Ed surveyed more than 800 faculty members at higher education institutions across the U.S. and found that around half had given trigger warnings before bringing up potentially disturbing course material. Most did so on their own initiative, not in response to administrative policy or student requests. Few schools either mandate or prohibit trigger warnings. One notable exception is the University of Chicago, which in 2016 informed all incoming first-year students that it did not support such warnings.

6. College accreditation

In order to participate in federal student financial aid programs, institutions of higher education must be accredited by an agency that is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. By law, accreditors must consider factors such as an institution's facilities, equipment, curricula, admission practices, faculty, and support services. The idea is to enforce an acceptable standard of quality.

But while federal regulations require accreditors to assess each institution's "success with respect to student achievement," they don't specify how to measure such achievement. Accreditors are free to define that for themselves. Unfortunately, some colleges with questionable practices, low graduation rates, and high student loan default rates continue to be accredited. Critics argue that accreditors are not doing enough to ensure that students receive good value for their money.

7. College rankings

Every year, prospective college students and their families turn to rankings like the ones produced by U.S. News & World Report to compare different institutions of higher education. Many people accept such rankings as authoritative without truly understanding how they are calculated or what they measure.

It's common for ranking organizations to refine their methodologies from year to year and change how they weigh various factors—which means it's possible for colleges to rise or fall in the rankings despite making no substantive changes to their programs or institutional policies. That makes it difficult to compare rankings from one year to the next, since things are often measured differently.

For colleges, a higher ranking can lead to more visibility, more qualified applicants, and more alumni donations (in short: more money). And the unfortunate reality is that some schools outright lie about test scores, graduation rates, or financial information in their quest to outrank their competitors.

Others take advantage of creative ways to game the system. For example, U.S. News looks at the test scores of incoming students at each institution, but it only looks at students who begin in the fall semester. One school instituted a program where students with lower test scores could spend their first semester in a foreign country and return to the school in the spring, thus excluding them from the U.S. News calculations.

Rankings do make useful information about U.S. colleges and universities available to all students and their families. But consumers should be cautious about blindly accepting such rankings as true measures of educational quality.

5 Emerging Trends in Education

1. Maker learning

The maker movement is rapidly gaining traction in K-12 schools across America. Maker learning is based on the idea that you will engage students in learning by encouraging interest-driven problem solving and hands-on activities (i.e., learning by doing). In collaborative spaces, students identify problems, dream up inventions, make prototypes, and keep tinkering until they develop something that makes sense. It's a do-it-yourself educational approach that focuses on iterative trial and error and views failure as an opportunity to refine and improve.

Maker education focuses on learning rather than teaching. Students follow their interests and test their own solutions. For example, that might mean creating a video game, building a rocket, designing historical costumes, or 3D-printing an irrigation system for a garden. It can involve high-tech equipment, but it doesn't have to. Repurposing whatever materials are on hand is an important ideal of the maker philosophy.

There is little hard data available on the maker trend. However, researchers at Rutgers University are currently studying the cognitive basis for maker education and investigating its connection to meaningful learning.

2. Moving away from letter grades

Many education advocates believe that the traditional student assessment models place too much emphasis on standardization and testing. They feel that traditional grading models do not sufficiently measure many of the most prized skills in the 21st-century workforce, such as problem-solving, self-advocacy, and creativity. As a result, a growing number of schools around the U.S. are replacing A-F letter grades with new assessment systems.

Formed in 2017, the Mastery Transcript Consortium is a group of more than 150 private high schools that have pledged to get rid of grade-based transcripts in favor of digital ones that provide qualitative descriptions of student learning as well as samples of student work. Some of the most famous private institutions in America have signed on, including Dalton and Phillips Exeter.

The no-more-grades movement is taking hold in public schools as well. Many states have enacted policies to encourage public schools to use something other than grades to assess students' abilities. It's part of a larger shift toward what's commonly known as mastery-based or competency-based learning, which strives to ensure that students become proficient in defined areas of skill.

Instead of letter grades, report cards may feature phrases like "partially meets the standard" or "exceeds the standard." Some schools also include portfolios, capstone projects, or other demonstrations of student learning.

But what happens when it's time to apply to college? It seems that even colleges and universities are getting on board. At least 85 higher education institutions across New England (including Dartmouth and Harvard) have said that students with competency-based transcripts will not be disadvantaged during the admission process.

3. The rise of micro-credentials

Micro-credentials, also known as digital badges or nanodegrees, are mini qualifications that demonstrate a student's knowledge or skills in a given area. Unlike traditional college degrees that require studying a range of different subjects over a multi-year span, micro-credentials are earned through short, targeted education focused on specific skills in particular fields. They tend to be inexpensive (sometimes even free) and are typically taken online.

Some post-secondary schools are developing micro-credentialing partnerships with third-party learning providers, while other schools offer such solutions on their own. A 2020 Campus Technology article stated 70 percent of higher education institutions offer some type of alternative credentialing.

Micro-credentials can serve as evidence that students have mastered particular skills, but the rigor and market worth of such credentials can vary significantly. Still, they are an increasingly popular way of unbundling content and providing it on demand.

4. Flipped classrooms

A growing number of schools are embracing the notion of flipped learning. It's an instructional approach that reverses the traditional model of the teacher giving a lecture in front of the class, then sending students home to work through assignments that enhance their understanding of the concepts. In flipped learning, students watch lecture videos or read relevant course content on their own before class. Class time is devoted to expanding on the material through group discussions and collaborative learning projects (i.e., doing what was traditionally meant as homework). The instructor is there to guide students when questions or problems arise.

Provided that all students have access to the appropriate technology and are motivated to prepare for each class session, flipped learning can bring a wide range of benefits. For example, it allows students to control their own learning by watching lecture videos at their own pace; they can pause, jot down questions, or re-watch parts they find confusing. The model also encourages students to learn from each other and explore subjects more deeply.

Flipped learning is becoming widespread in all education levels, but it is especially prevalent at the college level. In a 2017 survey , 61 percent of college faculty had used the flipped model in some or all of their classes and another 24% of instructors were considering trying it.

5. Social-emotional learning

There is a growing consensus that schools are responsible for fostering students' social and emotional development and their cognitive skills. Social-emotional learning (SEL) focuses on helping students develop the abilities to identify their strengths, manage their emotions, set goals, show empathy, make responsible decisions, and build and maintain healthy relationships. Research has shown that such skills play a key role in reducing anti-social behavior, boosting academic achievement, and improving long-term health.

Every state has developed SEL competencies at the preschool level. The number of states with such competencies for higher grades is growing.

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The global education challenge: Scaling up to tackle the learning crisis

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Alice albright alice albright chief executive officer - global partnership for education @alicealbright.

July 25, 2019

The following is one of eight briefs commissioned for the 16th annual Brookings Blum Roundtable, “2020 and beyond: Maintaining the bipartisan narrative on US global development.”

Addressing today’s massive global education crisis requires some disruption and the development of a new 21st-century aid delivery model built on a strong operational public-private partnership and results-based financing model that rewards political leadership and progress on overcoming priority obstacles to equitable access and learning in least developed countries (LDCs) and lower-middle-income countries (LMICs). Success will also require a more efficient and unified global education architecture. More money alone will not fix the problem. Addressing this global challenge requires new champions at the highest level and new approaches.

Key data points

In an era when youth are the fastest-growing segment of the population in many parts of the world, new data from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) reveals that an estimated 263 million children and young people are out of school, overwhelmingly in LDCs and LMICs. 1 On current trends, the International Commission on Financing Education Opportunity reported in 2016 that, a far larger number—825 million young people—will not have the basic literacy, numeracy, and digital skills to compete for the jobs of 2030. 2 Absent a significant political and financial investment in their education, beginning with basic education, there is a serious risk that this youth “bulge” will drive instability and constrain economic growth.

Despite progress in gender parity, it will take about 100 years to reach true gender equality at secondary school level in LDCs and LMICs. Lack of education and related employment opportunities in these countries presents national, regional, and global security risks.

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September 12, 2017

Esther Care, Patrick Griffin

April 11, 2017

Among global education’s most urgent challenges is a severe lack of trained teachers, particularly female teachers. An additional 9 million trained teachers are needed in sub-Saharan Africa by 2030.

Refugees and internally displaced people, now numbering over 70 million, constitute a global crisis. Two-thirds of the people in this group are women and children; host countries, many fragile themselves, struggle to provide access to education to such people.

Highlighted below are actions and reforms that could lead the way toward solving the crisis:

• Leadership to jump-start transformation. The next U.S. administration should convene a high-level White House conference of sovereign donors, developing country leaders, key multilateral organizations, private sector and major philanthropists/foundations, and civil society to jump-start and energize a new, 10-year global response to this challenge. A key goal of this decadelong effort should be to transform education systems in the world’s poorest countries, particularly for girls and women, within a generation. That implies advancing much faster than the 100-plus years required if current programs and commitments remain as is.
• A whole-of-government leadership response. Such transformation of currently weak education systems in scores of countries over a generation will require sustained top-level political leadership, accompanied by substantial new donor and developing country investments. To ensure sustained attention for this initiative over multiple years, the U.S. administration will need to designate senior officials in the State Department, USAID, the National Security Council, the Office of Management and Budget, and elsewhere to form a whole-of-government leadership response that can energize other governments and actors.
• Teacher training and deployment at scale. A key component of a new global highest-level effort, based on securing progress against the Sustainable Development Goals and the Addis 2030 Framework, should be the training and deployment of 9 million new qualified teachers, particularly female teachers, in sub-Saharan Africa where they are most needed. Over 90 percent of the Global Partnership for Education’s education sector implementation grants have included investments in teacher development and training and 76 percent in the provision of learning materials.
• Foster positive disruption by engaging community level non-state actors who are providing education services in marginal areas where national systems do not reach the population. Related to this, increased financial and technical support to national governments are required to strengthen their non-state actor regulatory frameworks. Such frameworks must ensure that any non-state actors operate without discrimination and prioritize access for the most marginalized. The ideological divide on this issue—featuring a strong resistance by defenders of public education to tap into the capacities and networks of non-state actors—must be resolved if we are to achieve a rapid breakthrough.
• Confirm the appropriate roles for technology in equitably advancing access and quality of education, including in the initial and ongoing training of teachers and administrators, delivery of distance education to marginalized communities and assessment of learning, strengthening of basic systems, and increased efficiency of systems. This is not primarily about how various gadgets can help advance education goals.
• Commodity component. Availability of appropriate learning materials for every child sitting in a classroom—right level, right language, and right subject matter. Lack of books and other learning materials is a persistent problem throughout education systems—from early grades through to teaching colleges. Teachers need books and other materials to do their jobs. Consider how the USAID-hosted Global Book Alliance, working to address costs and supply chain issues, distribution challenges, and more can be strengthened and supported to produce the model(s) that can overcome these challenges.

Annual high-level stock take at the G-7. The next U.S. administration can work with G-7 partners to secure agreement on an annual stocktaking of progress against this new global education agenda at the upcoming G-7 summits. This also will help ensure sustained focus and pressure to deliver especially on equity and inclusion. Global Partnership for Education’s participation at the G-7 Gender Equality Advisory Council is helping ensure that momentum is maintained to mobilize the necessary political leadership and expertise at country level to rapidly step up progress in gender equality, in and through education. 3 Also consider a role for the G-20, given participation by some developing country partners.

Related Content

Jenny Perlman Robinson, Molly Curtiss Wyss

July 3, 2018

Michelle Kaffenberger

May 17, 2019

Ramya Vivekanandan

February 14, 2019

• “263 Million Children and Youth Are Out of School.” UNESCO UIS. July 15, 2016. http://uis.unesco.org/en/news/263-million-children-and-youth-are-out-school.
• “The Learning Generation: Investing in education for a changing world.” The International Commission on Financing Global Education Opportunity. 2016. https://report.educationcommission.org/downloads/.
• “Influencing the most powerful nations to invest in the power of girls.” Global Partnership for Education. March 12, 2019. https://www.globalpartnership.org/blog/influencing-most-powerful-nations-invest-power-girls.

Global Education

Global Economy and Development

Elyse Painter, Emily Gustafsson-Wright

January 5, 2024

Online only

9:00 am - 10:00 am EST

Nariman Moustafa

October 20, 2023

Suspensions in schools are on the rise. But is that the best solution for misbehaving kids?

Hearing the phone ring during school hours used to send Destiny Huff into panic mode. 

She worried it would be her son’s school calling to say he was suspended again – a constant reality for Huff and her husband when her son began kindergarten at a Louisiana school in 2021. 

Huff said her 5-year-old son “would come back from suspension – the school day started at 7:45 – and by 9 o’clock, they'd already called me and he’d been suspended again.”

As schools struggle with behavioral issues and teacher shortages in the wake of COVID-19, pre-pandemic efforts to curb zero-tolerance school discipline measures that remove students from their classrooms have largely stalled, with more students being sent home for yelling in class, fighting on campus or talking back to the teacher. But many experts said time in the classroom is vital for students still reeling from the impacts of remote learning and such measures could make it even harder for families, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds, to help their child learn. 

“Discipline is becoming a real issue again and some things that we were hoping were getting better are starting to look like they might be getting worse,” said Jason Okonofua, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, who has studied discipline in K-12 schools. 

Experts have also expressed concern over what they call “soft suspensions,” which can include practices such as forcing children to spend time in seclusion rooms, constantly sending a child home from school early and requiring students to do virtual learning as a disciplinary measure. 

These practices are generally not recorded as suspensions, but are all detrimental to a child's learning, said Cheryl Poe, founder of Advocating 4 Kids, a nonprofit that advocates for neurodiverse students in public schools.

“The child is still removed out of the educational setting,” she said. “Those should count as missing seat instruction hours.”

Suspensions are growing in some states

Although the U.S. suspension rate has lowered from its peak of 7% in 2010, it plateaued at around 5% for the years leading up to 2018 – the most recent national data available from the Civil Rights Data Collection , a required survey by the U.S. Department of Education administered to public schools nationwide every other school year. 

The COVID-19 pandemic shut down schools nationwide in March 2020 and largely closed schools the following academic year, making more recent data collection difficult. Since then, agencies, school districts and states have been trying to catch up. 

More: Distracted students and stressed teachers: What an American school day looks like post-COVID

More recent analysis of state-level data does show some troubling trends. 

The Center for Civil Rights Remedies at the University of California, Los Angeles, which researches social science issues relating to equity, analyzed California data from the 2019-20 school year. It projected what suspension rates would have been if the school year wasn’t cut short by COVID-19 and found that rates continued to stagnate. 

In many school districts – including Elk Grove Unified in Sacramento County and Oakland Unified School District in the Bay Area – there seemed to be an uptick in suspensions prior to the school closures, leading researchers to determine that if the school year had continued, suspension rates might have gone up in the state.

“Despite the strides that California has made in this area, there are many districts where there is no progress – that things have gotten worse,” said Dan Losen, a former director of the center who co-wrote the analysis.

In New York City Public Schools, more suspensions were issued during the first half of the 2022 to 2023 school year, a 27% increase from the same period in 2021 . An analysis of data from schools in Washington, D.C., also found that in-school suspensions increased by 16% during the 2021 to 2022 school year. 

Three years after schools shut down because of COVID-19, educators have been under pressure to get kids up to speed on the academic and social skills lost during the pandemic. Many students are still struggling with the mental and physical trauma that COVID-19 took on them, a time when they lost family members , witnessed or experienced abuse and spent countless hours on their screens in isolation. 

Many educators have leaned on school discipline to handle student misbehavior by suspending or expelling kids and sending them out of the classroom. In late May, the Biden administration issued a letter urging public schools to follow civil rights guidance and avoid discriminatory school discipline measures. 

More: American classrooms need more educators. Can virtual teachers step in to bridge the gap?

Why are children suspended from schools?

Huff’s son, who was suspended three times within two weeks, had never had drastic behavioral issues, she said. However, that changed in August 2021, when he began attending an elementary school in the Vernon Parish School District in Louisiana. 

“He started to really have some behaviors that we had never seen before,” Huff said, including throwing things and yelling when he would get upset, but not hurting others. 

Ellen Reddy, an advocate who fights against suspensions in Mississippi, said children are often suspended for subjective reasons that haven’t changed since she first got involved in this advocacy over two decades ago. Reddy said the children she works with get suspended for various reasons that can range from fights at school to getting on the wrong school bus home. 

“They’re still suspending kids for the very same thing – disobedience, talking back, getting out of their seat, going to the bathroom without permission,” Reddy said. “We should be asking more questions versus just right away suspending kids.”

States consider harsher discipline policies 

Several states, including Arizona and Nevada , have attempted to bring back harsher disciplinary policies , while others are utilizing practices like seclusion rooms and forcing misbehaving students into remote learning. 

Houston Independent School District, the largest district in Texas, drew criticism in late July when it announced they would be eliminating 28 school libraries and repurposing them into “team centers” where educators can host kids for discipline.

In a statement to USA TODAY, the district said these centers are a vital “hub of differentiated or personalized instruction.” Officials stressed a one-size-fits-all approach is not enough to “eliminate the persistent achievement gaps that have adversely impacted" disadvantaged students.

“When necessary, the Team Center will provide students who are struggling or disrupting the traditional classroom environment ... the opportunity to get necessary care and engagement while they access their classroom instruction remotely to ensure they do not lose even a few minutes of learning time,” the school district wrote.

Katherine Wiley, an assistant professor of education at Howard University in Washington, D.C., said removing a student from their classroom in any way is still harmful because “we take them away from their peers, from instruction and we essentially stigmatize them by putting them into a different part of the school building.” 

A recent police and Department of Education investigation into McAuliffe International School, a middle school in Denver, found the school placed multiple students of color into seclusion rooms – reportedly referred to by the staff as “incarceration rooms” – without proper supervision last school year. An administrator would either lock the door or hold the door closed while the student was inside. 

The room at McAuliffe has “a bolt on the outside of the door and padlocks on the window,” said Pamela Bisceglia, executive director of AdvocacyDenver, an advocacy organization for people with disabilities. 

Who gets removed from school the most?

Students with disabilities received nearly a quarter out-of-school suspensions during the 2017-18 school year, almost double the demographic’s overall share of student enrollment of 13%, according to the Department of Education’s Civil Rights Data Collection. 

Black students were also disproportionately suspended, only making up 15% of student enrollment, but receiving 38% of out-of-school suspensions that same school year.

These disparities are worse for Black students with disabilities, who only account for 2% of the total student population but make up nearly 9% of out-of-school suspensions.

Okonofua, the UC Berkeley professor, co-wrote a study in April and found that school discipline rates fluctuate greatly throughout the school year and spike during the beginning of the year and after major school breaks. The data analysis also found Black students experience the steepest escalation of discipline compared to any other demographic.

Keith Howard, a civil rights and education law attorney based in Washington, D.C., said race is often intersected with poverty and disability status, making Black children with disabilities from low-income families the most susceptible to school discipline. 

“I've been doing this for a long time and so I've seen a lot of good kids getting pushed out of schools for really small reasons and they don't really have any recourse,” Howard said. 

Research shows that children’s behavior does not vary based on their race or ethnicity. Rather, “adults' responses to their behaviors are different and they are discriminatory,” which causes disproportionate discipline rates, said Paige Joki, a staff attorney at the Education Law Center in Pennsylvania. 

Normal adolescent behavior, like their tendency to take risks and experiment, is often criminalized for students of color, said Kristin Henning, law professor and director of the Juvenile Justice Clinic and Initiative at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. 

“Everything you know – all the stereotypes tell you that Black children are angry and violent and threatening. So you're looking at these behaviors through that racially biased lens,” Henning said.

‘Not a safe space for him’

Huff and her family still carry the trauma from their experience, even after moving to a new school in Georgia last academic year, where Huff said her son “is doing great and is comfortable.” 

“The school psychologist said something really important for us to hear – that he doesn’t understand that school can be a safe space,” Huff said. 

Negative encounters with school authority at a young age can cause detrimental impacts to a child’s perception of law enforcement – views that are largely shaped for people during their adolescent years, Henning said. 

After her son’s third suspension, Huff, a licensed mental health specialist, and her husband – fearing their son could be permanently removed from the school- contacted the district’s superintendent.

“It was a trickle effect from there. They basically went into hyperdrive of saying ‘we’re sorry you experienced this,’” Huff said. Her son was eventually evaluated and diagnosed with autism and she said their “whole perspective, our whole world, shifted.” 

Suspensions largely impact a student’s academic achievement and increase the likelihood they’ll interact with the justice system, said Abigail Novak, an assistant professor in the Department of Criminal Justice and Legal Studies at the University of Mississippi. 

Novak’s 2019 study found that children who are suspended by age 12 are more likely to report justice system involvement at age 18. 

“I don't see the utility or the effectiveness of pushing a child out of education that is already at risk. It doesn't make sense,” Howard said. “You're just getting rid of the problem and that problem becomes a community problem.”

4 educator reflections on the 2023-2024 school year

Educators offer insight into what worked and where they found success in their schools and classrooms this year.

Key points:

• Student engagement and achievement remain paramount for educators
• 4 ways to encourage play in education
• Educators love their edtech, but want more training
• For more news on teaching, visit eSN’s Innovative Teaching hub

The end of the school year naturally inspires a period of reflection among educators, particularly as we close the door on a year that saw challenges around equity, continued learning gaps, and uncertain funding with ESSER’s impending expiration.

But it’s not all bad–educators found success as they dedicated their efforts to improving student engagement and achievement, creating community-based approaches to learning, and inspiring students to become lifelong learners.

Here’s what educators have to say about the 2023-2024 school year:

Improving engagement and test scores with phenomena-based curricula April Pence, Edison High School

Last year was my first time using phenomena-based units aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) in chemistry. As with any big change, there were some ups and downs, but overall I saw greater engagement. This year, with the support of my team, I’ve improved my timing, which has smoothed the bumps I encountered last year, and engagement is even greater. I feel like my students understand chemistry better, our school is testing well above the state average in science, and I’ve even had more students asking about how they can continue in the sciences than in previous years because they feel more comfortable with the material.

I know that, as a teacher, I bring energy into the classroom, but so do my students–and when they are excited about the topic, we all get energized. I am definitely one of those teachers who loves classroom discussion, so I didn’t have to change much to bring more of it into the classroom, but since I began using Kognity’s phenomena-based curricula, I’ve been able to adapt instruction to share more real-life examples and experiences. We have been discussing wildfires, for example, and connecting them to combustion by discussing what fuels and limits a fire, and also connecting them to climate change.

My students talk more than they used to in class because they know I will ask the same driving question about every topic throughout the unit. They know what to expect, and start thinking, “How does this all connect?” before I even ask. They’re more willing to think ahead and link their ideas to each concept instead of waiting for me to prod them forward.

I was terrified of the switch to phenomena-based curricula and NGSS, but two years on the other side of it, I would tell other teachers who are about to make the change not to be afraid. If you work into it gradually, have a collaborative team, and are willing to put in some work, it makes a big positive difference in the long run, and it won’t just be better for your students. It has renewed my excitement for teaching because my students feel connected to the material. I have more confidence in my instruction because they aren’t always asking, “Why are we learning this?” Students already see the connection and understand why it’s important. April Pence is science teacher and co-department coordinator at Edison High School in Huntington Beach, Calif. She can be reached at [email protected] .

A culture of continuous learning Wendy W. Amato, K12 Coalition–Teaching Channel

As the 2023–2024 school year winds down, I find myself thinking about how educators are models for students, whether or not they are in a classroom. When we commit to participating in a culture of continuous learning, we are living out phrases like, “It’s okay not to know,” “Everyone has things they are still learning,” or ,“We all make mistakes.” We also get to show our own curiosity, struggles, and successes, which are all natural parts of learning, regardless of our stage in life or the role we play.

Continuous learning doesn’t always mean being enrolled as a student in a formal class. Learning is about growth, reflection, and improvement. It is anchored in exploring new ideas, testing our knowledge, and applying information in new contexts. Learning can happen in many ways! Some of my favorite ways include using video for self-reflection and for peer feedback. Even a few moments of video can provide rich substance that can accelerate my learning as an educator. I can evaluate how clearly I give directions, how purposefully I manage time, how meaningfully I relay the significance of the work, or whether I call on students equitably.

Ultimately, though, good teaching is really only measured in student learning outcomes. As I reflect on the past school year, my advice for teachers is to prioritize the work that makes the greatest impact on your students’ progress toward their learning goals. Is it more important for them to get their work in by a certain deadline than it is for them to take the time to understand the concepts? Is it more important to finish all the problems, rather than getting through them with accuracy? And as you ask yourself all these questions, remember to breathe. Remember that it’s okay to pause when you need to, to ask for help, and to make changes that support not only continuous learning but also your long-term wellness.

Wendy W. Amato is the chief academic officer for K12 Coalition—Teaching Channel . She holds a PhD in curriculum and instruction from the University of Virginia, where she continues as an instructor in the School of Education and Human Development. Prior to her doctoral work, she served as an administrator and classroom teacher in a K–12 program. Her publications, presentations, and research interests center on culturally sustaining pedagogies and teacher formation. She drinks a lot of coffee and plays pickleball. She can be reached at [email protected] .

Making school engaging for today’s students (and teachers) Nancy Chung, Orchard Hills School

This year I’ve observed the lasting impact of the year-and-a-half of remote learning. During that time, students didn’t have the opportunity to develop strong learning routines and academic stamina. As a result, many of them seem to crave constant stimulation and entertainment to stay engaged. In response, I’ve adapted my teaching approach to make assignments more interactive. By weaving technology and art into my lessons across the curriculum, I am tapping into more modalities of learners and gaining more interest.

It has taken a good bit of trial and error to find what truly yields results, and I’ve had to be adaptable and flexible in finding the most effective ways to foster student growth.

These days, I’m assigning far less homework and have shifted away from busywork toward more purposeful and enriching activities. I’ve significantly reduced my reliance on physical documents, transitioning the majority of my assignments to digital formats. This has not only streamlined processes but also increased student engagement by offering them a more appealing way to learn. To help my students develop essential skills like critical thinking, collaborative teamwork, effective communication, and creativity, I actively promote various small-group activities. I get my students fired up about digital storytelling. We start by mapping everything out–everyone gets a specific role in the team. Then they put together a tight little storyboard to visualize their story. After that, it’s showtime! They bring that storyboard to life by producing a short film to teach their topic to the rest of the class. It’s a fun way for them to get creative, work together, and really dig deep into the subject matter.

As I’ve made these changes, I’ve discovered significant advantages. Spending less time grading piles of busywork has left me more energy to enhance my teaching and enabled me to craft interactive lessons tailored to my students, creating a more engaging learning experience for all. My students are diving deeper into understanding the standards in a fun memorable way, making this a win-win situation for all.

Nancy Chung is a 5th-grade teacher at Orchard Hills School and host of The Schoolyard Podcast by School Specialty . She can be reached at [email protected] .   

Using disruption as an opportunity to build a community-based approach to math Courtney Smith, Heritage Elementary School

At Heritage Elementary, a K-5 school in Tustin, CA, our 2023–2024 academic year was interrupted when a nearby fire forced us to temporarily close our campus and relocate students and teachers to various host sites. When we were finally able to return to campus, we greeted students and teachers with a number of newly implemented strategies.

These included deeper integration of ST Math , which has been a game-changer. As the principal, I’ve observed a significant surge in student engagement and math achievement levels across all grade levels. Students are not just passively learning math; they’re actively participating.

The shift towards deeper understanding and application of math concepts is palpable across the board. When introduced to new topics, students draw from their experiences, demonstrating a solid grasp of the material.

To further reinforce this commitment to engagement and learning beyond the traditional classroom setting, we’re building a community-based math culture through initiatives like the “ST Math Lunch Bunch,” where I meet with students each Friday to guide them on their math journey as they eat lunch and complete puzzles, and a special recognition during our Friday flag ceremony for students who have completed 100 percent of their math puzzles.

With students more independently engaged in their learning, teachers have found themselves with increased opportunities for targeted interventions and individualized support. This shift has translated into tangible improvements, as evidenced by the correlation between ST Math usage and higher STAR growth points.

Looking ahead, I anticipate these positive trends to continue into the next school year. With continued focus on personalized instruction, I foresee further advancements in student achievement and overall academic growth across all grade levels.

My advice to educators facing the sort of disruption we have is to use it as a catalyst for student engagement and learning. By leveraging innovative technology tools effectively and creating intentional learning environments, educators can empower students across all grade levels to take ownership of their learning journey, ultimately leading to improved outcomes and academic success.

Courtney Smith is the principal of Heritage Elementary School in the Tustin Unified School District (TUSD). She began her career in TUSD teaching in a magnet school for 20 years. She has also been an instructional coach and an intervention specialist. Among her many accomplishments, Smith was named TUSD Teacher of the Year and Orange County Teacher of the Year in 2016, was a California Teacher of the Year nominee in 2017, and was named a 2024 top five leader in Orange County by OC Parenting Magazine. She can be reached at [email protected] .

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The Student Loan Restart

What the supreme court's rejection of student loan relief means for borrowers.

Cory Turner

In one of the most anticipated decisions of its current term, the U.S. Supreme Court has struck down President Biden's sweeping plan to discharge some or all federal student loan debt for tens of millions of Americans.

In a 6-3 decision, the high court ruled that the Biden Administration did not have authority under a 2003 federal law to forgive hundreds of billions of dollars of student debt.

"The HEROES Act allows the Secretary [of Education] to 'waive or modify' existing statutory or regulatory provisions applicable to financial assistance programs under the Education Act," the ruling states, "but does not allow the Secretary to rewrite that statute to the extent of canceling $430 billion of student loan principal."

In a decision written by Chief Justice John Roberts, the court ruled in favor of Missouri and five other states, who had argued that the Administration had overstepped its authority to forgive some student loans.

The "modifications" by the Department of Education, Roberts wrote, "created a novel and fundamentally different loan forgiveness program" that "expanded forgiveness to nearly every borrower in the country."

The high court's decision comes after a tumultuous year for federal student loan borrowers, who were told in August by President Biden that the U.S. government would cancel up to $20,000 of debt for anyone who had received a Pell Grant to attend college, and up to $10,000 for the vast majority of remaining borrowers.

That August announcement came after months of speculation that the president would act, and its warm reception by younger voters may have contributed to Democrats' better-than-expected showing in the midterm elections. But the proposal was also beset by a host of Republican legal challenges that ultimately led to the Supreme Court stepping in.

While much can be said about the court's decision – and no doubt will be in the coming days – here are five things to know about what it will and won't mean for borrowers and the country.

1. Millions of borrowers are feeling collective disappointment

Biden's plan would have provided relief to most federal student loan borrowers – as many as 43 million people. That's roughly one in eight Americans. Nearly half of those borrowers, roughly 20 million, could have had their student loans erased completely.

A look inside the legal battle to stop Biden's student loan relief

Whatever you think of Biden's proposal, in this moment, the collective disappointment and perhaps disillusionment of so many Americans is palpable and worth acknowledging.

"I feel like it's back to business as usual," says borrower Kurt Panton, with a long sigh. "What else can I do? Go back to paying the student loan that I have been paying for 20-plus years."

Panton took out federal student loans to pay his way through college and dutifully made monthly payments from late 2003 until March 2020, when the pandemic payment pause began.

"There is this mental weight that you carry with a student loan, knowing that [it'll be with you] as far as you can go into your foreseeable future," says Panton, who became a father late last year and says the money he's saved not paying down his loans over the pause has helped support his young family. "I haven't been having crazy parties for the last three years because I'm not paying back my student loans. You know, I'm not eating a goose for dinner every night."

"It's really tragic that student loan borrowers have been stuck in this position as political pawns," says Persis Yu of the Student Borrower Protection Center, "and now are victims to a politicized court that is willing to jeopardize their financial security for political gain."

The Student Borrower Protection Center is one of a handful of advocacy groups that have been vocal in their support of debt relief, and have put pressure on President Biden to be as generous as possible. The NAACP also pushed hard for relief.

"I see it as an unfortunate reality that in a country where we bail out Fortune 100 companies, where we bail out banks that have not been good actors, that this Supreme Court would allow that to happen, and yet," says Derrick Johnson, the NAACP's president and CEO, the court would choose to leave millions of borrowers "stuck in a vicious cycle of debt."

In the lead-up to the court's decision, Johnson sent a letter to Biden , advising him, in the case of an unfavorable ruling, to "pursue all legal pathways" to erase student loan debts.

"Let us be clear," Johnson warned, "absent further, swift action in the wake of an unfavorable ruling from the Court, Black voters stand to be incredibly disillusioned by an Administration who failed to deliver on key campaign promises but succeeded in widening the racial wealth gap."

2. It's a win for Republicans who opposed Biden's loan cancellation plan

Not everyone is disappointed with the court's decision.

Joe Biden's student loan forgiveness plan will cost $400 billion, budget office says

Many Republicans had fiercely opposed Biden's plan, calling it an abuse of executive power and an enormously expensive handout to college-educated Americans. The Congressional Budget Office estimated the debt relief plan would cost about $400 billion over the next 30 years.

"I'm very pleased that the Supreme Court is following the Constitution," says Rep. Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, the Republican chairwoman of the House education committee. "What the president has done is take on the role of Congress by deciding through a rule to appropriate money from the taxpayers to people who willingly took on a debt. And I think what he has done is totally illegal."

While Republican opposition was fierce, a majority of the public (55%) supported forgiving up to $10,000 per person in federal student loan debt, according to a June 2022 NPR/Ipsos poll .

3. Borrowers will soon have to start repaying their loans again – and it could get ugly

Tens of millions of borrowers who had hoped to have some or all of their federal student loans erased will soon be asked to resume repayment.

Senate passes GOP-led resolution to block Biden's student loan relief plan

Recent legislation to prevent the federal government from defaulting on its debts included a requirement that borrowers begin repaying their student loans at the end of August. Though even before that legislation, the Biden Administration had committed to a similar timeline .

According to an Education Department spokesperson, student loan interest will resume on Sept. 1, and payments will be due starting in October.

The problem now is, most borrowers are out of the habit. In fact, many have never had to make a student loan payment. According to federal data , roughly 7 million federal student loan borrowers are 24 years old or younger, which means they were at most 21, and in many cases still in college, when the current payment pause began in March 2020.

Making matters worse, many older borrowers will have a new loan servicing company – not to mention they may have forgotten their online portal passwords; some may not have even checked their balances in months, if not years. Those days are coming to an end.

At greatest risk of falling through the restart cracks are borrowers who were given a chance at a so-called "fresh start" during the pandemic . For these roughly 7.5 million borrowers who are in default, the department is offering protections from involuntary collections on their accounts and the chance to regain access to flexible repayment plans. But, to benefit and get out of default, these "fresh start" borrowers must opt-in to the program and contact their loan servicer.

According to the department , these defaulted borrowers are disproportionately likely to be economically vulnerable, first-generation college students. And there is considerable concern among advocates about the department's ability to communicate these opportunities to borrowers in default, and borrowers' willingness to return to repayment after years of default.

That concern stems, in part, from NPR reporting in January that revealed serious funding shortfalls inside Federal Student Aid (FSA), the Education Department office tasked with managing the government's student loan portfolio.

Exclusive: New Biden student loan plan unveiled amid agency funding crisis

At the very moment FSA and its loan servicers will have to navigate an unprecedented flood of borrowers returning to the system, the agency is actually cutting costs and services.

4. "It is possible that loan servicers may be overwhelmed"

After a political fight between Democrats and Republicans over Biden's debt relief plan, Congress flat-funded FSA for this year, making it all but impossible for it to keep up with its many student loan responsibilities.

Already, the agency has quietly delayed an effort, promised by the Biden administration, to review the loans of millions of borrowers who were unfairly set back by years of mismanagement around income-driven repayment plans. Promised in May, that review has been extended into 2024 .

And that review is a logistical cakewalk compared to the Everest of helping millions of borrowers – whose loans have been paused for more than three years – navigate the return to repayment.

Many borrowers' financial situations have changed, and their repayment options will need to change as well. Call centers will need more and better-trained workers in anticipation of the months-long onslaught of calls they'll face from confused and anxious borrowers.

Instead, however, the Education Department has cut funding to loan servicers, according to multiple sources familiar with the cuts, and is allowing them to scale back call center hours .

"We are fully committed to supporting student loan borrowers as they successfully navigate returning to repayment," says a department spokesperson in a statement to NPR. But the statement also acknowledges: "the Department is deeply concerned about the lack of adequate annual funding made available to Federal Student Aid this year. As the Department has repeatedly made clear, restarting repayment requires significant resources to avoid unnecessary harm to borrowers, such as cuts to servicing."

Industry experts outside the Education Department are more blunt.

"It is possible that loan servicers may be overwhelmed with a high volume of inquiries," says the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) in a warning to borrowers . "It is possible you may not reach your servicer via phone the first time you call, and you may need to call a few times before getting connected."

"The consequences of returning to repayment under the current funding system are going to be disastrous," says borrower advocate Persis Yu, who points out that the student loan system functioned poorly even when it was fully funded and there was no need to help borrowers return to repayment.

Yu warns, unless Congress gives FSA more funding, this transition could be a "trainwreck."

On this point there is even some bipartisan agreement.

Foxx, the House education committee chairwoman, says she too worries about the return to repayment because the department is "terribly managed." But, she says, "I don't think there's much sympathy to give more money to the department... It's using its money inappropriately, using people inappropriately. And something has to be done about that."

5. Student loan debt is growing to keep up with college costs — and Biden's plan wouldn't have changed that

Before publishing this story, I pre-wrote two different versions: one if the court had preserved Biden's debt relief plan, another in case it scrapped it. Both versions had the same ending.

Biden's debt relief plan, as generous as it was, would have done nothing to address the growing levels of student loan debt borrowers are taking on. The U.S. government will continue to issue loans to help Americans afford college, even as colleges raise prices, forcing Americans to take out even more loans.

"I recognize that our current system is broken," U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona told lawmakers in May.

Foxx echoes that sentiment: "The system is totally broken and has been broken for a long, long time," she says, highlighting Republican efforts at one fix that would limit interest on student loans.

The inflation-adjusted cost of college has nearly doubled since 1990 , from about $15,000 a year to $29,000 in 2020. And students are using loans to keep up. Between 1995 and 2017, federal student loan debt "increased more than sevenfold, from $187 billion to $1.4 trillion (in 2017 dollars)," according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

The Biden administration does have a plan to address that brokenness, and it hinges on a newly proposed, much more forgiving income-driven repayment plan – one that has drawn praise from borrower advocates and sharp criticism from Republicans.

Even if the administration is able to roll out this new plan, though, it's unclear how quickly it could be available to borrowers returning to repayment.

What's more, implementing a new income-driven repayment plan that is radically different from the status quo will require incredible investment and support for borrowers. Again, loan servicers' call center employees are the voice of the federal student loan program, and the system will need more of them, and they'll need more training to implement any new repayment plan. The fact that servicers are being told to slash service right now is not a hopeful sign.

Edited by: Nicole Cohen and Steve Drummond Visual design and development by: LA Johnson

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Blog The Education Hub

https://educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2024/05/16/new-rshe-guidance-what-it-means-for-sex-education-lessons-in-schools/

New RSHE guidance: What it means for sex education lessons in schools

R elationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) is a subject taught at both primary and secondary school.  

In 2020, Relationships and Sex Education was made compulsory for all secondary school pupils in England and Health Education compulsory for all pupils in state-funded schools.  

Last year, the Prime Minister and Education Secretary brought forward the first review of the curriculum following reports of pupils being taught inappropriate content in RSHE in some schools.  

The review was informed by the advice of an independent panel of experts. The results of the review and updated guidance for consultation has now been published.   

We are now asking for views from parents, schools and others before the guidance is finalised. You can find the consultation here .   

What is new in the updated curriculum?  

Following the panel’s advice, w e’re introducing age limits, to ensure children aren’t being taught about sensitive and complex subjects before they are ready to fully understand them.    

We are also making clear that the concept of gender identity – the sense a person may have of their own gender, whether male, female or a number of other categories   – is highly contested and should not be taught. This is in line with the cautious approach taken in our gu idance on gender questioning children.  

Along with other factors, teaching this theory in the classroom could prompt some children to start to question their gender when they may not have done so otherwise, and is a complex theory for children to understand.   

The facts about biological sex and gender reassignment will still be taught.  

The guidance for schools also contains a new section on transparency with parents, making it absolutely clear that parents have a legal right to know what their children are being taught in RSHE and can request to see teaching materials.   

In addition, we’re seeking views on adding several new subjects to the curriculum, and more detail on others. These include:   

• Suicide prevention  
• Sexual harassment and sexual violence  
• L oneliness  
• The prevalence of 'deepfakes’  
• Healthy behaviours during pregnancy, as well as miscarriage  
• Illegal online behaviours including drug and knife supply  
• The dangers of vaping   
• Menstrual and gynaecological health including endometriosis, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and heavy menstrual bleeding.  

What are the age limits?   

In primary school, we’ve set out that subjects such as the risks about online gaming, social media and scams should not be taught before year 3.   

Puberty shouldn’t be taught before year 4, whilst sex education shouldn’t be taught before year 5, in line with what pupils learn about conception and birth as part of the national curriculum for science.  

In secondary school, issues regarding sexual harassment shouldn’t be taught before year 7, direct references to suicide before year 8 and any explicit discussion of sexual activity before year 9.  

Do schools have to follow the guidance?  

Following the consultation, the guidance will be statutory, which means schools must follow it unless there are exceptional circumstances.   

There is some flexibility w ithin the age ratings, as schools will sometimes need to respond to questions from pupils about age-restricted content, if they come up earlier within their school community.   

In these circumstances, schools are instructed to make sure that teaching is limited to the essential facts without going into unnecessary details, and parents should be informed.  

When will schools start teaching this?  

School s will be able to use the guidance as soon as we publish the final version later this year.   

However, schools will need time to make changes to their curriculum, so we will allow an implementation period before the guidance comes into force.     

What can parents do with these resources once they have been shared?

This guidance has openness with parents at its heart. Parents are not able to veto curriculum content, but they should be able to see what their children are being taught, which gives them the opportunity to raise issues or concerns through the school’s own processes, if they want to.

Parents can also share copyrighted materials they have received from their school more widely under certain circumstances.

If they are not able to understand materials without assistance, parents can share the materials with translators to help them understand the content, on the basis that the material is not shared further.

Copyrighted material can also be shared under the law for so-called ‘fair dealing’ - for the purposes of quotation, criticism or review, which could include sharing for the purpose of making a complaint about the material.

This could consist of sharing with friends, families, faith leaders, lawyers, school organisations, governing bodies and trustees, local authorities, Ofsted and the media.  In each case, the sharing of the material must be proportionate and accompanied by an acknowledgment of the author and its ownership.

Under the same principle, parents can also share relevant extracts of materials with the general public, but except in cases where the material is very small, it is unlikely that it would be lawful to share the entirety of the material.

These principles would apply to any material which is being made available for teaching in schools, even if that material was provided subject to confidentiality restrictions.

Do all children have to learn RSHE?  

Parents still have the right to withdraw their child from sex education, but not from the essential content covered in relationships educatio n.  

You may also be interested in:

• Education Secretary's letter to parents: You have the right to see RSHE lesson material
• Sex education: What is RSHE and can parents access curriculum materials?
• What do children and young people learn in relationship, sex and health education

Tags: age ratings , Gender , Relationships and Sex Education , RSHE , sex ed , Sex education

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Possible Futures: How En-ROADS Can Help Investors Quantify Climate Risk

How Rubén Lozano Aguilera is driving sustainability at Google

Beyond the Ivory Tower: The Professor Who Shows En-ROADS to Everyone

MIT Sloan Sustainability Initiative

Sustainability

Top 3s of 2023 | Our 2023 Impact Report

May 15, 2024

2023 was such an exciting year for the Sustainability Initiative.  

MIT Sloan Sustainability Initiative 2023 Impact Report

Access our full impact report or check out some of the highlights, below.  .

Aggregate Confusion Project

ACP researchers Florian Berg, Julian Kölbel, and Roberto Rigobon have continued to advance what has become our core message: ESG information is valuable to investors when we can separate the signal from the noise; greater transparency about ESG rating will make this a lot easier. Behind the scenes, we also built new data sets on carbon emissions and ESG reporting that will fuel the next wave of our research and impact.

MIT Climate Pathways Project

The En-ROADS and C-ROADS interactive climate simulators helped advance evidence-based climate change solutions, and the MIT Climate Pathways Project nearly doubled its reach to leaders in the public and private sectors in 2023, including main stage En-ROADS events with Professor John Sterman at ChangeNOW and Andrew (Drew) Jones at the Thomson Reuters Foundation Trust Conference.

Owning Impact Project

The Owning Impact Project was spearheaded by MIT Sloan Sustainability Initiative Director Jason Jay, and supported by Jess Daggers, Alex Hannant, Alban Yau as well as  other key collaborators at the TransCap Initiative, TWIST, University of Zurich’s Center for Sustainable Finance and Private Wealth, and MIT Sloan faculty members. The team’s research harnessed the power of systemic investing, exploring how financial capital might be allocated to enable transformative change.

MIT Sloan Sustainability Initiative Education

We restructured our Sustainable Business Lab (S-Lab) into two courses: Business Strategies for a Sustainable Future, focused on teaching fundamental strategies to solve complex environmental and social challenges; and Sustainable Business Lab (S-Lab), now solely focused on thesemester-long project. Jason Jay also took a new approach to educational paradigms by using AI like ChatGPT in his Innovating for Impact course.. 

Sustainability Lunch Series 

We had a dynamic year for our Sustainability Lunch Series, welcoming guests to speak on a wide variety of topics like diversity in venture capital, corporate political engagement, the energy transition, the food supply chain, and more, featuring speakers like Kam Redlawsk, Bianca Tylek, and Erin Baumgartner.  

MIT Sloan Sustainability Initiative Alumni Engagement

Our alumni community continues to inspire us and drive positive change in sustainability. We hosted an alumni panel during 2023 Reunion, welcomed back several alumni to campus as guest speakers during our Sustainability Lunch Series, and hosted alumni events in both NYC and San Francisco.

MIT Sloan Sustainability Initiative Advisory Board

This group of seasoned professionals provide us guidance on matters of strategy, fundraising, and execution, drawing on their extensive expertise and that of their personal and professional networks. Thank you to Caroline Brown, Kathryn Carlson, Carolyn duPont, Michael Even, Ed Fish, Diana Ganz, Marine Graham, Bill Hilliard, John McEvoy, Ajay Mehta, Cecilia Melin, David Miller, Nicole Obi, Keishin Sasaki, Michael Sonnenfeldt, and Raymond Wood for your dedication and commitment to the MIT Sloan Sustainability Initiative Advisory Board.

Interested in seeing what we've done in past years? Check out all of our previous annual reports below:

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From Car-sharing To Edtech, Meet The Innovators On The Under 30 Asia: Consumer Technology List

This story appears in the June 2024 issue of Forbes Asia. Subscribe to Forbes Asia

Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia

Entrepreneurs on this year’s Consumer Technology list are utilizing AI for various applications and offering solutions to daily problems.

F riends Johnson Lim and Toh Ting Feng saw opportunity during the pandemic as people avoided public transport and demand for car-sharing services spiked. Launched in 2021, their startup GetGo is today the largest car-sharing service in Singapore by revenue, with over 200,000 active users who book an average of three trips a month from 1,600 locations across the city-state.

Lim is one of the entrepreneurs who landed a spot on this year’s 30 Under 30 Asia: Consumer Technology list. They are offering solutions to daily problems through tech innovations while building a sustainable business.

Forbes Asia

Buying a car is a huge financial commitment in Singapore. A hybrid Toyota sedan, for example, costs about $150,000​​, six times its retail price in Japan, thanks to high government taxes on car purchases to keep their numbers down. GetGo says its customers don’t own a car but occasionally need one to run errands or take the kids places. “While cars are expensive in Singapore, people do still need to drive,” Lim says. GetGo was profitable from its start and in 2023, revenue climbed 50% to over S$70 million ($51 million) over the previous year. The families of Lim and Toh, 41, work in auto-related businesses such as finance and trading. GetGo primarily leases its 3,000 vehicles, the bulk of which are supplied by companies owned by the two families.

By 2030, GetGo aims to expand its fleet to 10,000 vehicles. Treis, a French investment group based in Singapore, invested S$20 million in February 2023. Beyond the, the company is eyeing Seoul, Sydney, Taipei and Tokyo. “We’re looking for cities with developed transport infrastructure, just like Singapore,” says Lim.

AI to the rescue

This year’s list also hosts entrepreneurs who have developed AI-powered tools for various use cases ranging from helping the blind and identifying fake products to even potentially saving lives.

Kush Jain learned about the difficulties facing the visually impaired while volunteering in 2018 at a school in Bangalore. He cofounded ORama AI, a company that developed a smart glove to help the blind or people with reduced vision learn to read Braille. Using AI, an embedded camera and a speaker, the product traces finger movements and reads out the Braille dots that are touched. Since its founding in early 2022, ORama AI has raised half a million dollars in funding.

Yoshio Aihara, founder of IVA

Founded in 2019 by Yoshio Aihara , Tokyo-based IVA provides an AI-enhanced service called Fake Busters to authenticate items sold online, ranging from Air Jordans to Hermes bags. With over 1.5 million appraisals under its belt, investors, including online marketplace Mercari, have provided ¥800 million ($5.3 million) in funding to date. The service’s fees start at ¥550 ($3.67) to assess items via customer photos or from those obtained online. For those sent in, starting at ¥3,300, it provides an authenticity guarantee and tag with serial number for verified goods.

In Hong Kong, Josua Chan , Max Lee and Jerry Ng cofounded LifeSparrow Solutions in 2022. The startup’s AI technology focuses on search-and-rescue operations, especially related to hiking, a popular pastime in the hilly city. Its system helps find missing hikers by analyzing drone images of hiking trails and reduces the search time by two-thirds. LifeSparrow raised HK$2 million ($256,000) from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University—Chan and Lee's alma mater—and the Hong Kong government’s Hong Kong Science Park.

Improving Education

As the need for remote education has largely winded down after the pandemic, some startups are now emerging to enhance the education experience mainly offline.

Strive cofounders Pulkit Agarwal and Tamir Shklaz , for example, aim to make math fun for kids through code. Through mainly one-on-one online classes, the Singapore-based startup teaches students to code games, apps, and animation in ways that align with the math they are studying in school, such as coding the game Pong to learn about vectors. Established in 2020, Strive raised $1.3 million in seed funding led by Y Combinator early last year.

Evan Heng, founder of Zenith.

Another edtech entrepreneur on the list is Evan Heng , who founded the Singapore-based education company Zenith Education Studio in 2019 to help junior college students improve their academics. Heng then launched Zenith Academy to help primary school students improve their English, math and science skills. Zenith now offers a hybrid program that includes classes of ten brick-and-mortar branches with a gamified online education platform. Zenith raised $1.4 million in seed funding led by Trihill Capital and East Ventures in July 2023 to fuel expansion of the company, which is now called Zenith Learning Group.

–Additional reporting by Jonathan Burgos

Check out our complete 2024 30 Under 30 Asia: Consumer Technology list here , and the full 2024 30 Under 30 Asia coverage, click here .

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