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What’s It Like To Be a Teacher in America Today?

3. problems students are facing at public k-12 schools, table of contents.

• Problems students are facing
• A look inside the classroom
• How teachers are experiencing their jobs
• How teachers view the education system
• Satisfaction with specific aspects of the job
• Do teachers feel trusted to do their job well?
• Likelihood that teachers will change jobs
• Would teachers recommend teaching as a profession?
• Reasons it’s so hard to get everything done during the workday
• Staffing issues
• Balancing work and personal life
• How teachers experience their jobs
• Lasting impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
• Major problems at school
• Discipline practices
• Policies around cellphone use
• Verbal abuse and physical violence from students
• Addressing behavioral and mental health challenges
• Teachers’ interactions with parents
• K-12 education and political parties
• Acknowledgments
• Methodology

We asked teachers about how students are doing at their school. Overall, many teachers hold negative views about students’ academic performance and behavior.

• 48% say the academic performance of most students at their school is fair or poor; a third say it’s good and only 17% say it’s excellent or very good.
• 49% say students’ behavior at their school is fair or poor; 35% say it’s good and 13% rate it as excellent or very good.

Teachers in elementary, middle and high schools give similar answers when asked about students’ academic performance. But when it comes to students’ behavior, elementary and middle school teachers are more likely than high school teachers to say it’s fair or poor (51% and 54%, respectively, vs. 43%).

Teachers from high-poverty schools are more likely than those in medium- and low-poverty schools to say the academic performance and behavior of most students at their school are fair or poor.

The differences between high- and low-poverty schools are particularly striking. Most teachers from high-poverty schools say the academic performance (73%) and behavior (64%) of most students at their school are fair or poor. Much smaller shares of teachers from low-poverty schools say the same (27% for academic performance and 37% for behavior).

In turn, teachers from low-poverty schools are far more likely than those from high-poverty schools to say the academic performance and behavior of most students at their school are excellent or very good.

Among those who have been teaching for at least a year, about eight-in-ten teachers say the lasting impact of the pandemic on students’ behavior, academic performance and emotional well-being has been very or somewhat negative. This includes about a third or more saying that the lasting impact has been very negative in each area.

Shares ranging from 11% to 15% of teachers say the pandemic has had no lasting impact on these aspects of students’ lives, or that the impact has been neither positive nor negative. Only about 5% say that the pandemic has had a positive lasting impact on these things.

A smaller majority of teachers (55%) say the pandemic has had a negative impact on the way parents interact with teachers, with 18% saying its lasting impact has been very negative.

These results are mostly consistent across teachers of different grade levels and school poverty levels.

When we asked teachers about a range of problems that may affect students who attend their school, the following issues top the list:

• Poverty (53% say this is a major problem at their school)
• Chronic absenteeism – that is, students missing a substantial number of school days (49%)
• Anxiety and depression (48%)

One-in-five say bullying is a major problem among students at their school. Smaller shares of teachers point to drug use (14%), school fights (12%), alcohol use (4%) and gangs (3%).

Differences by school level

Similar shares of teachers across grade levels say poverty is a major problem at their school, but other problems are more common in middle or high schools:

• 61% of high school teachers say chronic absenteeism is a major problem at their school, compared with 43% of elementary school teachers and 46% of middle school teachers.
• 69% of high school teachers and 57% of middle school teachers say anxiety and depression are a major problem, compared with 29% of elementary school teachers.
• 34% of middle school teachers say bullying is a major problem, compared with 13% of elementary school teachers and 21% of high school teachers.

Not surprisingly, drug use, school fights, alcohol use and gangs are more likely to be viewed as major problems by secondary school teachers than by those teaching in elementary schools.

Differences by poverty level

Teachers’ views on problems students face at their school also vary by school poverty level.

Majorities of teachers in high- and medium-poverty schools say chronic absenteeism is a major problem where they teach (66% and 58%, respectively). A much smaller share of teachers in low-poverty schools say this (34%).

Bullying, school fights and gangs are viewed as major problems by larger shares of teachers in high-poverty schools than in medium- and low-poverty schools.

When it comes to anxiety and depression, a slightly larger share of teachers in low-poverty schools (51%) than in high-poverty schools (44%) say these are a major problem among students where they teach.  

About two-thirds of teachers (66%) say that the current discipline practices at their school are very or somewhat mild – including 27% who say they’re very mild. Only 2% say the discipline practices at their school are very or somewhat harsh, while 31% say they are neither harsh nor mild.

We also asked teachers about the amount of influence different groups have when it comes to determining discipline practices at their school.

• 67% say teachers themselves don’t have enough influence. Very few (2%) say teachers have too much influence, and 29% say their influence is about right.

• 31% of teachers say school administrators don’t have enough influence, 22% say they have too much, and 45% say their influence is about right.
• On balance, teachers are more likely to say parents, their state government and the local school board have too much influence rather than not enough influence in determining discipline practices at their school. Still, substantial shares say these groups have about the right amount of influence.

Teachers from low- and medium-poverty schools (46% each) are more likely than those in high-poverty schools (36%) to say parents have too much influence over discipline practices.

In turn, teachers from high-poverty schools (34%) are more likely than those from low- and medium-poverty schools (17% and 18%, respectively) to say that parents don’t have enough influence.

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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.

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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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.

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• “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.

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Driving a global movement to transform education: Key moments of 2022

2022 was a year that witnessed major milestones in the global movement to transform education. Against a backdrop of an alarming learning, and budgetary crisis, UNESCO’s call for a global mobilization to place education at the top of the political agenda resonated across the world with renewed national and global commitments. And three UNESCO World Conferences focusing on early childhood, higher education and lifelong learning further set out a common vision and pledges to drive progress in the next decade. Here are some key moments and themes that have marked this ‘transformative’ year in education.

The turning point: Why we must transform education now

Our current global education system is failing to provide quality learning for everyone throughout life and help us shape peaceful, just, and sustainable societies. UNESCO data shows that worldwide, 244 million children and youth are out of school. There is a crisis in foundational learning, literacy and numeracy skills among young learners. It is estimated that 60% of children globally are unable to read and understand a simple text by the age of ten. The COVID-19 pandemic, which triggered the largest disruption to education in history, has deepened a pre-existing crisis of inclusion, quality and relevance

It has never been more crucial to reimagine the way we learn, what we learn and how we learn, as outlined in UNESCO’s flagship Futures of Education Report, which called for a new social contract for education. The turning point is now. That is why the United Nations Secretary-General convened the Transforming Education Summit in September in New York to rally world leaders and put education at the top of the political agenda. Youth advocates were involved throughout the process leading to the Summit and adopted the Youth Declaration  on their common vision for transforming education.

At the Summit, more than 130 countries committed to rebooting their education systems and accelerating action to end the learning crisis. To build momentum for the Summit , UNESCO hosted a Pre-Summit in June that was attended by 154 education ministers and vice-ministers and 1,800 participants. It provided a forum for countries to present preliminary outcomes of national consultations and to have multilateral discussions on new commitments.

Connected, inclusive and green: How UNESCO wants to transform education

UNESCO has been mobilizing and consulting all stakeholders and partners to galvanize the transformation of every aspect of learning, including an urgent call to increase education funding. An estimated US$200 billion additional education finance is required annually to get low- and lower-middle-income countries on track to achieve SDG 4.

Recent UNESCO findings reveal that around half of the 100 countries reviewed had no mention of climate change in their national curriculum. And nearly one-third of school-age children - 463 million - are without access to distance learning. That is why at the Transforming Education Summit, UNESCO put the spotlight on key initiatives to accelerate action:  

• Getting every learner climate-ready : Building on the knowledge and practice accumulated in Education for Sustainable Development, a new Greening Education Partnership aims to deliver strong, coordinated and comprehensive action that will prepare every learner to acquire the knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes to tackle climate change and to promote sustainable development.
• Expanding public digital learning : A Global Initiative on Public Digital Learning will map and analyze existing public platforms and content; help countries create and strengthen national platforms; identify and share best practices; and establish international norms and standards to guide the development of platforms. The initiative aims to ensure that every learner, teacher, and family can easily access, find, and use high-quality and curriculum-aligned digital education content to advance their learning.
• Fast-tracking gender equality in education : UNESCO and partners launched a Call to Action to catalyze cooperation and transformative action on gender equality in and through education , together with a Global Platform to drive leadership and accountability.
• Improving access for crisis-affected children and youth : UNESCO together with partners presented a Commitment to Action to improve access and learning outcomes for children and youth affected by crises ; to support teachers and to increase financing across humanitarian and development instruments. It stresses a holistic approach across health and social sectors.

Why early childhood care and education matters

The right to education begins at birth. But new UNESCO data shows that 1 out of 4 children aged 5 have never had any form of pre-primary education. This represents 35 million out of 137 million 5-year-old children worldwide. Despite research that proves the benefits of early childhood care and education , only half of all countries guarantee free pre-primary education around the world. UNESCO’s World Conference on Early Childhood Care and Education took place in Tashkent, Uzbekistan in November. With the adoption of the Tashkent Declaration, countries committed to invest at least 10% of total education spending on pre-primary education and to ensure that salaries and working condition of pre-school personnel are at least at par with those of primary education teachers.  

Higher education: How to unleash the talent of the next generation

Higher education is evolving at a very rapid pace around the world. The number of students in universities and higher education institutions has more than doubled globally in the last two decades to 235 million. And it’s expected to double again in the next decade, along with international student mobility. With our planet’s growing sustainability challenges, large scale digitization and increasing inequalities, it’s clear that new knowledge and skills are needed today. That is why higher education must be transformed in order unleash the talent of the next generation. The UNESCO World Conference Higher Education that took place in Barcelona, Spain last May presented a roadmap that outlines key principles and transitions to reorient higher education in the decade ahead.

The right to lifelong learning: Why adult education matters

There are 771 million illiterate adults globally today and many more do not have the adequate skills and knowledge needed to navigate through our increasingly digital 21st century demands. While participation in adult education is improving in some places, access to learning opportunities remains profoundly unequal. To advance the world’s commitment to the right to lifelong learning , UNESCO convened the International Conference on Adult Education in Marrakech, Morocco in June. With the adoption of the Marrakech Framework for Action, over 140 countries committed to translating the vision of a right to lifelong learning into reality. The Framework will guide the development of adult learning and education over the coming decade.

Looking ahead

To ensure commitments are translated into concrete plans, the SDG4 High-Level Steering Committee has set up new indicators measuring green and digital education at the national level, and calls on countries to build on the Sustainable Development Goal benchmarking process by setting national targets for both. These benchmarks will measure the progress that each country intends to achieve by 2025 and 2030.

In 2023, UNESCO calls for maintaining strong political mobilization around education and chart the way to translate commitments and global initiatives into action. The International Day for Education , celebrated worldwide on 24 January, will be the year’s first event to ensure that education is at the top of governments’ agendas in a context of a global recession, growing inequalities and the climate crisis.

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The global education crisis – even more severe than previously estimated

Ellinore carroll, joão pedro azevedo, jessica bergmann, matt brossard, gwang- chol chang, borhene chakroun, marie-helene cloutier, suguru mizunoya, nicolas reuge, halsey rogers.

In our recent   The State of the Global Education Crisis: A Path to Recovery report (produced jointly by UNESCO, UNICEF, and the World Bank), we sounded the alarm: this generation of students now risks losing $17 trillion in lifetime earnings in present value, or about 14 percent of today’s global GDP, because of COVID-19-related school closures and economic shocks. This new projection far exceeds the $10 trillion estimate released in 2020 and reveals that the impact of the pandemic is more severe than previously thought . 

The pandemic and school closures not only jeopardized children’s health and safety with domestic violence and child labor increasing, but also impacted student learning substantially. The report indicates that in low- and middle-income countries, the share of children living in  Learning Poverty  – already above 50 percent before the pandemic – could reach 70 percent largely as a result of the long school closures and the relative ineffectiveness of remote learning.

Unless action is taken, learning losses may continue to accumulate once children are back in school, endangering future learning.

Figure 1. Countries must accelerate learning recovery

Severe learning losses and worsening inequalities in education

Results from global simulations of the effect of school closures on learning are now being corroborated by country estimates of actual learning losses. Evidence from Brazil , rural Pakistan , rural India , South Africa , and Mexico , among others, shows substantial losses in math and reading. In some low- and middle-income countries, on average, learning losses are roughly proportional to the length of the closures—meaning that each month of school closures led to a full month of learning losses (Figure 1, selected LMICs and HICs presents an average effect of 100% and 43%, respectively), despite the best efforts of decision makers, educators, and families to maintain continuity of learning.

However, the extent of learning loss varies substantially across countries and within countries by subject, students’ socioeconomic status, gender, and age or grade level (Figure 1 illustrates this point, note the large standard deviation, a measure which shows data are spread out far from the mean). For example, results from two states in Mexico show significant learning losses in reading and in math for students aged 10-15. The estimated learning losses were greater in math than reading, and they disproportionately affected younger learners, students from low-income backgrounds, and girls.

Figure 2. The average learning loss standardized by the length of the school closure was close to 100% in Low- and Middle-Income countries, and 43% in High-Income countries, with a standard deviation of 74% and 30%, respectively.

While most countries have yet to measure learning losses, data from several countries, combined with more extensive evidence on unequal access to remote learning and at-home support, shows the crisis has exacerbated inequalities in education globally.

• Children from low-income households, children with disabilities, and girls were less likely to access remote learning due to limited availability of electricity, connectivity, devices, accessible technologies as well as discrimination and social and gender norms.
• Younger students had less access to age-appropriate remote learning and were more affected by learning loss than older students. Pre-school-age children, who are at a pivotal stage for learning and development, faced a double disadvantage as they were often left out of remote learning and school reopening plans.
• Learning losses were greater for students of lower socioeconomic status in various countries, including Ghana , Mexico , and Pakistan .
• While the gendered impact of school closures on learning is still emerging, initial evidence points to larger learning losses among girls, including in South Africa and Mexico .

As a result, these children risk missing out on much of the boost that schools and learning can provide to their well-being and life chances. The learning recovery response must therefore target support to those that need it most, to prevent growing inequalities in education.

Beyond learning, growing evidence shows the negative effects school closures have had on students’ mental health and well-being, health and nutrition, and protection, reinforcing the vital role schools play in providing comprehensive support and services to students.

Critical and Urgent Need to Focus on Learning Recovery

How should decision makers and the international community respond to the growing global education crisis?

Reopening schools and keeping them open must be the top priority, globally. While nearly every country in the world offered remote learning opportunities for students, the quality and reach of such initiatives varied, and in most cases, they offered a poor substitute for in-person instruction. Stemming and reversing learning losses, especially for the most vulnerable students, requires in-person schooling. Decision makers need to reassure parents and caregivers that with adequate safety measures, such as social distancing, masking, and improved ventilation, global evidence shows that children can resume in-person schooling safely.

But just reopening schools with a business-as-usual approach won’t reverse learning losses. Countries need to create Learning Recovery Programs . Three lines of action will be crucial:

• Consolidating the curriculum – to help teachers prioritize essential material that students have missed while out of school, even if the content is usually covered in earlier grades, to ensure the curriculum is aligned to students’ learning levels. As an example, Tanzania consolidated its curriculum for grade 1 and 2 in 2015, reducing the number of subjects taught and increasing time on ensuring the acquisition of foundational numeracy and literacy.
• Extending instructional time – by extending the school day, modifying the academic calendar to make the school year longer, or by offering summer school for all students or those in need. In Mexico , the Ministry of Public Education announced planned extensions to the academic calendar to help recovery. In Madagascar , the government scaled up an existing two-month summer “catch-up” program for students who reintegrate into school after having left the system.
• Improving the efficiency of learning – by supporting teachers to apply structured pedagogy and targeted instruction. A structured pedagogy intervention in Kenya using teachers guides with lesson plans has proven to be highly effective. Targeted instruction, or aligning instruction to students’ learning level, has been successfully implemented at scale in Cote D’Ivoire .

Finally, the report emphasizes the need for adequate funding. As of June 2021, the education and training sector had been allocated less than 3 percent of global stimulus packages. Much more funding will be needed for immediate learning recovery if countries are to avert the long-term damage to productivity and inclusion that they now face.

Learning Recovery as a Springboard to an Accelerated Learning Trajectory

Accelerating learning recovery has benefits that go well beyond short-term gains:  it can give children the necessary foundations for a lifetime of learning, and it can help countries increase the efficiency, equity, and resilience of schooling. This can be achieved if countries build on investments made and lessons learned during the crisis—most notably, with a focus on six areas:

• Assessing student learning so instruction can be targeted to students’ learning levels and specific needs.
• Investing in digital learning opportunities for all students, ensuring that technology is fit for purpose and focused on enhancing human interactions.
• Reinforcing support that leverages the role of parents, families, and communities in children’s learning.
• Ensuring that teachers are supported and have access to practical, high-quality professional development opportunities, teaching guides and learning materials. 
• Increasing the share of education in the national budget allocation of stimulus packages and tying it to investments mentioned above that can accelerate learning.
• Investing in evidence building - in particular, implementation research, to understand what works and how to scale what works to the system level.

It is time to shift from crisis response to learning recovery. We must make sure that investments and actions for learning recovery lay the foundations for more efficient, equitable, and resilient education systems—systems that truly deliver learning and well-being for all children and youth. Only then can we ensure learning continuity in the face of future disruption.

The report was produced as part of the  Mission: Recovering Education 2021 , through which the  World Bank ,  UNESCO , and  UNICEF  are focused on three priorities: bringing all children back to schools, recovering learning losses, and preparing and supporting teachers.

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Bridget Long, dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, addresses the impact of the COVID-19 crisis in the field of education.

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With the closing of schools, the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed many of the injustices facing schoolchildren across the country, from inadequate internet access to housing instability to food insecurity. The Gazette interviewed Bridget Long, A.M. ’97, Ph.D. ’00, dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Saris Professor of Education and Economics, regarding her views on the impact the public health crisis has had on schools, the lessons learned from the pandemic, and the challenges ahead.

Bridget Long

GAZETTE:   The pandemic exposed many inequities that already existed in the education landscape. Which ones concern you the most?

LONG:   Persistent inequities in education have always been a concern, but with the speed and magnitude of the changes brought on by the pandemic, it underscored several major problems. First of all, we often think about education as being solely an academic enterprise, but our schools really do so much more. Immediately, we saw children and families struggling with basic needs, such as access to food and health care, which our schools provide but all of a sudden were removed. We also shifted our focus, once we had to be in lockdown, to the differences in students’ home environments, whether it was lack of access to technology and the other commitments and demands on their time in terms of family situations, space, basic needs, and so forth. The focus had to shift from leveling the playing field within school or within college to instead what are the differences in inequities inside students’ homes and neighborhoods and the differences in the quality and rigor and supports available to students of different backgrounds. All of this was just exacerbated with the pandemic. There are concerns about learning loss and how that will vary across different income groups, communities, and neighborhoods. But there are also concerns about trauma and the mental health strain of the pandemic and how the strain of racial injustice and political turmoil has also been experienced — no doubt differently by different parts of population. And all of that has impacted students’ well-being and academic performance. The inequities we have long seen have become worse this year.

GAZETTE:   Now that those inequities have been exposed, what can leaders in education do to navigate those issues? Are there any specific lessons learned?

LONG:   Something that many educators already understood is that one size does not fit all. This is why education is so complex and why it has been so challenging to bring about improvements because there’s no silver bullet. The solution depends on the individual, the community, and the classroom.

At first, the public health crisis underscored that we needed to meet students where they are. This has been a long-held lesson among experienced education professionals, but it became even more important. In many respects, it butted up against some of our systems, which tried to come up with across-the-board approaches when instead what we needed was a bit of nimbleness depending on the context of the particular school or classroom and the individual needs of students.

Where you have seen some success and progress is where principals and teachers have been proactive and creative in how they can meet the needs of their students. What’s underneath all of this, regardless of whether we’re face-to-face or on technology, is the importance of people and personal connections. Education is a labor-intensive industry. Technology can help us in many respects to supplement or complement what we do, but the key has always been individual personal connection. Some teachers have been able to connect with their students, whether by phone or on Zoom, or schools, where they put concerted effort into doing outreach in the community to check on families to make sure they had basic needs. Some schools were able to understand what challenges their students were facing and were somewhat flexible and proactive to address those challenges, especially if they already had strong parental engagement. That’s where you have continued to see progress and growth.

“In many respects, this crisis forced the entire field to rethink our teaching in a way that I don’t know has happened before.”

GAZETTE:   You spoke about concerns about learning loss. What can we do to avoid a lost year?

LONG:   One of the difficulties is that the experience has differed tremendously. For some students, their parents have been able to supplement or their schools have been able to react. The hope is that they will not lose much learning time, while other students effectively haven’t been in school for almost a year; they have lost quite a bit of ground. As a teacher, you can imagine your students come back to school, and all of a sudden, students of the same chronological age are actually in very different places, depending on their individual family situation and what accommodations were able to be made. I think there’s a great deal we can do to try to address that. First of all, we have to have some understanding of what gains students have made as well as things they haven’t learned yet. That means taking a moment to see where a student is in their learning. The second thing is to make sure we’re capturing the lessons learned from this pandemic by identifying places where teachers and schools used a combination of technology, outreach, personal instruction, and tutors and mentors, and helped students make progress in their learning. We need to share those lessons more broadly so that other districts can see examples that have worked.

As we look ahead, I think it will take extending learning time to close the gaps. Schools will have to decide whether that is after school, weekends, or summer, and whether or not that’s going to involve the teachers themselves, or if it’s going to be using the best tools that are out there, such as videos and technology platforms that students and families use themselves. There has already been talk by some districts of extending the school year into summer or having summer-camp-type programs to give students additional time to work through some of the material.

The other important piece is partnerships. Schools oftentimes work with members of the community or nonprofit organizations, and that’s a really important layer in our system. After-school programs, enrichment programs, tutors, and mentors are essential, and we really want to continue with that expanded sense of capacity and partnership. It’s going to have an impact on all of us if we lose a generation, or if this generation goes backwards in terms of their learning. It certainly is in all of our best interests to try to contribute to the solution.

GAZETTE:   Many parents gained renewed appreciation of the work teachers do. Do you think the pandemic would lead to a reappraisal of the profession?

LONG:   Certainly, in the beginning, there was so much more appreciation for what teachers do. As parents needed to start doing homeschooling, there was a new understanding of just how difficult teaching is. Imagine having a classroom with different personalities, different strengths and assets, and also different weaknesses, and somehow being nimble enough to continue that class moving forward. As time has gone on, I worry a little bit about the level of contentiousness in some communities as schools haven’t reopened. There is the balancing act between caring for children’s learning and the fact that we have to make sure that the adults are safe and supported. You hear stories of teachers trying to teach from home while they are also homeschooling their own children. I would hope that coming out of this would be an appreciation of the amazing things teachers do in the classroom, as well as also some acknowledgement that these are people who are also living through a devastating pandemic with all the stress and strain that every individual is going through.

One other point is that given that we know that teachers do more than just academics, we need to make sure our teachers are trained to be able to provide social emotional support to students. As some of the students come back into the classroom, we need to acknowledge that they may be dealing with devastating losses, or the frustration of being kept inside, or the violence that is happening in their homes and neighborhoods. It’s very hard to learn if you’re first dealing with those kinds of issues. Our teachers already do so much, and we need to support them more and provide even more training to help them address that wide-ranging set of challenges their students may be facing even before they can get to the learning part.

“Something that many educators already understood is that one size does not fit all. This is why education is so complex and why it has been so challenging to bring about improvements because there’s no silver bullet.”

GAZETTE:   Are there any silver linings in education brought on by the pandemic?

LONG:   The first one is when we all needed to pivot last spring, and especially this fall, many educators took a moment to pause and reflect on their learning goals and priorities. There was a great deal of discussion, both in K‒12 and higher education, to think carefully and deliberately about the ways in which we could make sure our teaching was engaging and active and how we could bring in different voices and perspectives. In many respects, this crisis forced the entire field to rethink our teaching in a way that I don’t know has happened before. The second silver lining is the innovation and creativity. Because there wasn’t necessarily one right answer, you saw a lot of experimentation. We have seen an explosion of different approaches to teaching, and many more people got involved in that process, not just some small 10 percent of the teaching force. We’ve identified new ways of engaging with our students, and we’ve also increased the capacity of our educators to be able to deliver new ways of engagement. From this process, my hope is that we’ll walk away with even more tools and approaches to how we engage our students, so that we can then make choices about what to do face-to-face, how to use technology, and what to do in more of an asynchronous sort of way. But key to this is being able to share those lessons learned with others, how you were able to still maintain connection, how you were better able to teach certain material, and perhaps even build better relationships with parents and families during this process. Just the innovation, experimentation, and growth of instructors in many places has been very positive in so many respects.

GAZETTE:   In which ways do you think the education system should be transformed after this year? How should it be rebuilt?

LONG:   First, we’ve all had to understand that education and schools are not a spot on a map. They are actually communities; they have to include families, nonprofit organizations, and community-based organizations. For a university in particular, it’s not just about coming to campus; it’s actually about the people coming together, and how they are involved in learning from each other. It’s great to push on this reconceptualization and to be clear that education is an exchange of information, of perspective, of content, and making connections, regardless of the age of the student. The crisis has also forced us to go back to some of the fundamentals of what do we need students to learn, and how are we going to accomplish those goals. That has been a very important discussion for education. And the third part is realizing that education is not a one-size-fits-all. The best educators use multiple methods and approaches to be able to connect with their students, to be able to present material, and to provide support. That’s always been the case. How do we meet students where they are? That framing is one that I hope will not go away because all students have the potential to learn, and it’s a matter of how to personalize the learning experience to meet their needs, how we notice and provide supports to help learners who are struggling. That really is at the core of education, and I hope that we will take away that lesson as we look ahead.

GAZETTE:   What do you think the role of higher education should be in this new educational landscape?

LONG: Higher education has an incredibly important role, and in particular given the economic recession. Traditionally, this is when many more people go into higher education to learn new skills, given what’s happening in the labor market. We have yet to see what the long-term impact is going to be, but in the short term, one thing we’ve noticed is that college enrollments are down. That’s very alarming and may have to do with how suddenly and how quickly the pandemic affected society. The first thing that higher education is going to have to think about is increasing proactive outreach — how to connect with potential students and how to help them get into programs that are going to give them skills necessary for this changing economy. Unfortunately, they’ll be doing this in a context where students are going to have greater needs, and where it’s not quite clear if funding from state and local governments is going to be declining. That’s the challenge that higher education will have to face. While it’s an amazing instrument in helping individuals further their skills or retool their skills, we need to make investments and make sure individuals can actually access the training available in our colleges and universities.

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GAZETTE:   What are your hopes for the Biden administration in the area of education?

LONG:   Government has a very important role in education, but it has to be balanced with the importance of local control and the fact that the context of every community is slightly different. Certainly, as we’ve been in the middle of a public health crisis, this has been incredibly challenging for schools. Schools had been trying to continue providing food and health care and connect with their students and, all of a sudden, they had to become experts in public health and buildings. This is something that falls under the purview of the federal government. Having access to the best doctors, the best public health officials, and people who think about buildings, and how to make things safe, the government needs to put that information together to give guidance to schools, principals, and teachers. It’s the government that can say, “Here are the risks, and here are the things you can do to mitigate those risks. Here are the conditions that are necessary for buildings. Here is what we know in terms of preventing spread, and here is what we know about the impact on children of different ages, and how we can protect the adults.” That kind of guidance would be incredibly helpful, as you have all of these individual school districts trying to sort through complex information and what the science says and how it applies to their particular context. Guidance is No. 1.

No. 2 is data. It’s very important having some understanding about where we stand in terms of learning loss, what we need to prioritize, and what areas of the country perhaps need more help than others. The other key component is to gauge what lessons have been learned and share the best practices across all school districts. The idea is to use the federal government as a central information bank with proactive outreach to schools. Government also plays a critical role in funding the research that will document the lessons from this pandemic.

It’s going to be incredibly helpful to have a more active federal government. As we have a better sense about where our students are the most vulnerable, and what are the kinds of high-impact practices that would be most beneficial, it’s going to be critical having the funding to support those kinds of investments because they will most certainly pay off. That possibility, I’m much more optimistic about now.

This interview has been condensed and edited for length and clarity

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Mon, Sep 2, 2024

Upcoming Challenges for The Independent School Sector

Simon Stibbons

There has been a plethora of media coverage surrounding the flagship policy, ending the VAT exemption for independent schools and their current charitable status is nuanced. It is unclear whether a legislative change will need to be made to distinguish between independent schools, universities and academies, leaving governors, headteachers and parents nervously awaiting clarification as to what and when any policy change could be introduced.

The Institute of Fiscal Studies suggests that ending the VAT exemption for private schools will raise £1.6 billion, enough to fund an additional 6,500 teachers in the public school system. When delving into the detail, the headline figure assumes a 3%-7% reduction in private school attendance, which may be acutely underestimated and does not account for the cost of educating such students within the state system, at an estimated cost of up to £0.3 million. 1

The assumed reduction in school pupils is at odds with independent research that indicates that the effect of a change in policy would range from ‘tough’ to ‘catastrophic’ for independent schools as parents struggle to afford private education, resulting in a large number of pupils being required to be educated by the state. 2

The Labour party is relying upon falling birth rates since 2013 to mitigate the increase in demand within the state school sector, with capacity assumed to be available to absorb displaced students.

Contrary to such views, a survey by the National Governors Association cites that 58% of schools do not have falling numbers of pupils and 35% of schools do not envision this to become a problem3, with governors reporting that students from independent schools are turned away and are spending extended periods of time out of the education system.

Overall, the policy could displace 75,000 students by September 2025 3 , with 35% of which is expected to be as a result of the forced closure of independent schools that are no longer deemed to be viable 4 . Over the course of secondary education, this is expected to contribute to a significant reduction in VAT earned on fees of £0.5 million, further eroding the headline benefit of £1.6 billion 4 . This does not include the impact of potential unemployment costs to the taxpayer or insolvencies of operators within the education supply chain.

The media portrayal of super wealthy parents opting to educate their children privately is a far cry from reality. The circumstances of parents are more varied than what media reports and parents are often making considerable sacrifices. While parents of pupils at the most exclusive schools may be resilient to price increases, it is likely that this level of increase would deter some parents from choosing the private sector for their children.

The potential introduction of VAT compounds the challenges faced by parents against the current backdrop of rising inflation and the cost-of-living crisis, with fees increasing by an average of 8% last year in line with inflation, as necessary for schools to simply stand still. Based upon average annual day fees of £18K, as reported by the Independent Schools’ Council, the combination of VAT and similar inflationary pressures would result in a further potential increase in fees of £5K per pupil, which may be a step too far for many parents 5 .

Given the 5 to 7-year operating cycle of a school, a poor intake can result in lower revenue over a full cycle, as few students move from state schools after the initial intake. With half of all private schools having fewer than 285 pupils and one quarter having fewer than 153 pupils, every student matters.

With the current uncertainty, it is vital that scenario planning starts now to allow stakeholders to effectively manage the potential loss of students and to take appropriate mitigating actions. For schools facing cashflow issues, a reliance on fundraising from alumni is one possible solution, especially as donations are not taxed, albeit this may only be an effective solution for the more prestigious independent schools. Early engagement with networks is important to deliver an effective solution as many strategies will take time to implement.

Good systems and processes for chasing late payers will become more critical than ever. Schools should look to invoice in advance where possible and engage in regular communication with parents who have struggled to make payments previously, with payment plans formalized, when required.

In extreme cases, governors may consider changing the operating model of their schools. There are more schools merging or forming groups than ever before as the sector becomes consolidated. The 256 single-sex schools may consider becoming co-ed schools, whilst those attached to loss making nurseries or sixth forms may choose to streamline their operations. It should be noted that it is unclear if these changes will affect special educational needs and disabilities schools (“SEND”).

There will be a lot of uncertainty if the VAT rules change for private schools, however, proactive and robust financial modelling can identify potential future shortfalls and stress points. Finance teams should ensure that they understand VAT reclaim rules and that debtors are up to date, with a policy in place for those in arrears.

After delving into the details, the headline grabbing £1.6 billion of VAT generated under the policy change may be reduced by up to 50% and therefore may not be as lucrative as it first appears. Not only does the change create significant turmoil and upheaval for parents and students alike, against the backdrop of a challenging wider macro-economic environment, the policy change poses significant stresses on independent schools. In the worst case, this may result in a wave of school closures and at best, trigger schools to make drastic changes in their operating environment necessary to remain viable.

Kroll has strong connections with the Department of Education and is well-placed to advise and provide workable solutions to institutions. Please contact us if you require support.

Sources: 1 IFS - https://ifs.org.uk/publications/tax-private-school-fees-and-state-school-spending 2 Baines Cutler - https://www.bainescutler.com/media/2umbzz1c/isc-vat-full-report-1018-for-circulation.pdf 3 The Times - https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/priced-out-of-private-education-and-turned-away-by-the-local-school-bzfrctr33#:~:text=Priced%20out%20of%20private%20education%20%E2%80%94%20and%20turned%20away%20by%20the%20local%20school,-Governors%20are%20spending&text=State%20school%20governors%20have%20reported,no%20longer%20afford%20the%20fees. 4 Baines Cutler - https://www.bainescutler.com/media/zjyd2znt/vat-in-10-tweets-baines-cutler.pdf 5 Independent School Census 2024 - isc_census_2024_15may24.pdf

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• ‘The challenges facing nurse education must be tackled’

STEVE FORD, EDITOR

• You are here: Opinion

04 September, 2024 By Steve Ford

The start of the new academic year is nearly upon us, which means students and educators all over the country are preparing to join or return to their higher education institutions.

To coincide with the start of term, many of the articles in this issue of Nursing Times are dedicated to education and some of the factors affecting it, including the difficulties faced by the sector.

“Acceptances for nursing nationally are down year on year since 2021”

Recent Universities and Colleges Admissions Service figures show that 22,260 students have now accepted an offer to study nursing across the UK for 2024-25, while 3,770 have accepted an offer to study midwifery. The numbers reveal a mixed picture and have fluctuated since A-Level results day.

As of 30 August, acceptances for nursing nationally are down year on year since 2021, despite increases in Scotland and Wales. The challenge very much remains in the post-pandemic world of ensuring that nursing and midwifery are seen as attractive courses that will lead to fulfilling, valuable careers.

Likewise, the education sector, on which we rely to provide those courses, is facing its own problems, especially due to financial pressures.

To help tackle these issues, nurse degree apprenticeships are being tried. These are a fairly new route into nursing for those for whom full-time education does not fit.

While controversial to some, they are vital to others, so Nursing Times has tried to bust some of the myths about them. We have spoken to nurse apprentices and education leaders to understand their direct experiences. We have also looked into the current and future policy landscape affecting them.

Our clinical practice section looks at leadership in education, specifically the principles of coaching and reverse mentorship through the perspectives of both students and lecturers.

Further articles discuss the pros and cons of study breaks and the value of patient narratives , based on the reflections of students who have engaged with personal stories of health and illness.

Last but not least, three of our Nursing Times student editors have shared their views on the current struggles for students , being an introvert at university and learning from reports on birth trauma .

Also, don’t miss our supplement on high-quality continence care, produced in partnership with Essity. The four-part series focuses on guidelines, gender access and care value.

Related articles

• The role of apprenticeships in growing the nursing workforce
• Narratives: a powerful tool in nurse education and practice
• Leadership education through a student–lecturer partnership
• ‘Taking a break in study is a difficult choice for a student to make’
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Teachers' Day 2024: 10 Challenges Teachers Face In Their Classrooms

Teaching is a noble yet challenging profession. teachers face issues like inadequate infrastructure, classroom management, and mental health concerns, but their dedication shapes future generations..

By Devyani Mungali

Teachers' Day 2024: Teaching has always been considered a noble profession. And rightly so. Teachers dedicate their lives to shaping young minds, imparting knowledge, nurturing youth and inspiring future generations. The role of a teacher and school is very important in the lives of the children, especially when it comes to imparting values and culture at the grass-root level. Teachers need to love their students and love teaching. Then all the other things fall in place. Education should be all-encompassing. Good education has the potential to develop humans into good people who are empathetic and sensitive. Learning is a continuous process and teachers also learn from their students.

However, while teaching children may seem like an ideal profession, the reality is far more complex and challenging. Classroom teachers face a multitude of challenges that can hamper their teaching quality, their well-being and overall job satisfaction. These challenges can vary depending upon the age group that is being taught.

10 Challenges Teachers Face In Their Classrooms

Challenges can be specific to skills, students, infrastructure or technology. Some of the challenges that teachers face are:

• Lack of infrastructure and basic facilities – while most private schools don’t face these issues, there are many schools in rural India or even budget schools in urban settings that don’t have the enabling infrastructure to provide high quality education. In rural settings, it is very difficult to find specialist resources like special educators, counselors and teachers to teach new technologies and pedagogies. Teachers also may have insufficient teaching material where they have to thus rely on their own resources to supplement their teaching.
• Discipline management in the classroom – Maintaining order and discipline in the classroom becomes a huge challenge for any teacher, especially with large or disruptive classes. Classroom management is one of the biggest challenges for any teacher because there is a diverse room full of students with different personalities, abilities and needs. The teachers have to strike the perfect balance between being authoritative and approachable, while ensuring that the students feel safe and respecting their personal boundaries.
• Variety of Learning Needs – Teachers have to deal with students coming from different backgrounds, with different learning styles, personalities and needs, which can pose a huge challenge. Teachers have limited time at hand so they have to adapt with high level of creativity and patience.  
• Mental and Emotional health of children – Teachers have a huge role to play in this since the child spends maximum time in school. Teachers need to encourage the child to openly communicate with teachers and parents, without having to worry about repercussions. Teachers have to create a safe space for children to be able to openly communicate. Schools may take the help of professional counsellors for the same.  
• Mental and Emotional health of teachers - Teachers face tremendous work and family pressures on a daily basis, because they have to navigate complex, emotional landscapes. Teachers have to find the right work–life balance, which often gets neglected. Majority of the teachers are women who need to handle different roles at home, all with competing relationship pressures. The nature of teaching is that it is emotionally and cognitively demanding. Teachers also may face burnout and stress, which may impact their performance while teaching. Acknowledging that teachers are human beings too and thus providing counsellors to safeguard their mental health, is an excellent solution.   
• Teachers also need to handle adolescence and puberty related challenges such as peer pressure and pressure from parents for the child to perform well. Open workshops and parent discussions could help deal with this challenge.
• Handling disruptive behavior in class such as bullying or other disciplinary challenges – Teachers need to be sensitive to why the child is indulging in this behavior. Is it some kind of issues that the child is facing at home? Immediate punitive action may not be the solution at such times. It is thus advised to counsel the child with the help of experts.
• Keeping up with the latest changes in technology – Teachers need to constantly up-skill themselves. Changes in technology can be a challenge as well as an opportunity. Staying current with curriculum developments, technological advancements, and teaching methodologies is another challenge. Teachers must commit to ongoing professional development, often in their own time, to remain effective.
• Sustained student engagement – Students may find some subjects difficult or uninteresting. Teachers have to consistently encourage students to take interest and participate by using innovative techniques, and make learning relevant and enjoyable.
• Supporting students with special needs - Building trust by establishing positive relationships with students with special needs, helps foster a supportive learning environment.

In conclusion, teaching is a complex and demanding profession that requires passion, dedication, and resilience. There is so much of potential in each and every child that is waiting to be discovered and nurtured. While the challenges faced by teachers are significant, it is essential to acknowledge and address them so as to empower educators with the proper tools to impart good education. The need of the hour is to work together in creating a more inclusive and positive learning environment for all.

(The Author is the Founder and Director of Sanskriti Group of Schools)

[ Disclaimer : The opinions, beliefs, and views expressed by the various authors and forum participants on this website are personal and do not reflect the opinions, beliefs, and views of ABP News Network Pvt Ltd.]

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The California-based Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium is a member-led public organization that provides assessment systems to educators working in K-12 and higher education. The organization, which was founded in 2010, partners with state education agencies to develop innovative, standards-aligned test assessment systems. Smarter Balanced supports educators with tools, lessons and resources including formative, interim and summative assessments, which help educators to identify learning opportunities and strengthen student learning.

Smarter Balanced is committed to evolution and innovation in an ever-changing educational landscape. Through a collaboration with IBM Consulting® , it aims to explore a principled approach for the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in educational assessments. The collaboration was announced in early 2024 and is ongoing.

Defining the challenge

Traditional skills assessments for K-12 students, including standardized tests and structured quizzes, are criticized for various reasons related to equity. If implemented responsibly, AI has the transformative potential to offer personalized learning and evaluation experiences to enhance fairness in assessments across student populations that include marginalized groups. Thus, the central challenge is to define what responsible implementation and governance of AI looks like in a school setting.

As a first step, Smarter Balanced and IBM Consulting created a multidisciplinary advisory panel that includes experts in educational measurement, artificial intelligence, AI ethics and policy, and educators. The panel’s goal is to develop guiding principles for embedding accuracy and fairness into the use of AI for educational measurement and learning resources. Some of the advisory panel’s considerations are outlined below.

Leading with human-centered design

Using design thinking frameworks helps organizations craft a human-centric approach to technology implementation. Three human-centered principles guide design thinking: a focus on user outcomes, restless reinvention and empowerment of diverse teams. This framework helps ensure that stakeholders are strategically aligned and responsive to functional and non-functional organizational governance requirements. Design thinking enables developers and stakeholders to deeply understand user needs, ideate innovative solutions and prototype iteratively.

This methodology is invaluable in identifying and assessing risks early in the development process, and facilitating the creation of AI models that are trustworthy and effective. By continuously engaging with diverse communities of domain experts and other stakeholders and incorporating their feedback, design thinking helps build AI solutions that are technologically sound, socially responsible and human-centered.

Incorporating diversity

For the Smarter Balanced project, the combined teams established a think tank that included a diverse set of subject-matter experts and thought leaders. This group comprised experts in the fields of educational assessment and law, neurodivergent people, students, people with accessibility challenges and others.

“The Smarter Balanced AI think tank is about ensuring that AI is trustworthy and responsible and that our AI enhances learning experiences for students,” said think tank member Charlotte Dungan, Program Architect of AI Bootcamps for the Mark Cuban Foundation.

The goal of the think tank is not to simply incorporate its members’ expertise, viewpoints and lived experiences into the governance framework in a “one-and-done” way, but iteratively. The approach mirrors a key principle of AI ethics at IBM: the purpose of AI is to augment human intelligence , not replace it. Systems that incorporate ongoing input, evaluation and review by diverse stakeholders can better foster trust and promote equitable outcomes, ultimately creating a more inclusive and effective educational environment.

These systems are crucial for creating fair and effective educational assessments in grade school settings. Diverse teams bring a wide array of perspectives, experiences and cultural insights essential to developing AI models that are representative of all students. This inclusivity helps to minimize bias and build AI systems that do not inadvertently perpetuate inequalities or overlook the unique needs of different demographic groups. This reflects another key principle of AI ethics at IBM:  the importance of diversity in AI isn’t opinion, it’s math.

Exploring student-centered values

One of the first efforts that Smarter Balanced and IBM Consulting undertook as a group was to ascertain the human values that we want to see reflected in AI models. This is not a new ethical question, and thus we landed on a set of values and definitions that map to IBM’s AI pillars , or fundamental properties for trustworthy AI:

• Explainability: Having functions and outcomes that can be explained non-technically
• Fairness: Treating people equitably
• Robustness: Security and reliability, resistance to adversarial attacks
• Transparency: Disclosure of AI usage, functionality and data use
• Data Privacy: Disclosure and safeguarding of users’ privacy and data rights

Operationalizing these values in any organization is a challenge. In an organization that assesses students’ skill sets, the bar is even higher. But the potential benefits of AI make this work worthwhile: “With generative AI, we have an opportunity to engage students better, assess them accurately with timely and actionable feedback, and build in 21st-century skills that are actively enhanced with AI tools, including creativity, critical thinking, communication strategies, social-emotional learning and growth mindset,” said Dungan. The next step, now underway, is to explore and define the values that will guide the use of AI in assessing children and young learners.

Questions the teams are grappling with include:

• What values-driven guardrails are necessary to foster these skills responsibly?
• How will they be operationalized and governed, and who should be responsible?
• What instructions do we give to practitioners building these models?
• What functional and non-functional requirements are necessary, and at what level of strength?

Exploring layers of effect and disparate impact

For this exercise, we undertook a design thinking framework called Layers of Effect, one of several frameworks IBM® Design for AI has donated to the open source community Design Ethically . The Layers of Effect framework asks stakeholders to consider primary, secondary and tertiary effects of their products or experiences.

• Primary effects describe the intended, known effects of the product, in this case an AI model. For example, a social media platform’s primary effect might be to connect users around similar interests.
• Secondary effects are less intentional but can quickly become relevant to stakeholders. Sticking with the social media example, a secondary effect might be the platform’s value to advertisers.
• Tertiary effects are unintended or unforeseen effects that become apparent over time, such as a social media platform’s tendency to reward enraging posts or falsehoods with higher views.

For this use case, the primary (desired) effect of the AI-enhanced test assessment system is a more equitable, representative and effective tool that improves learning outcomes across the educational system.

The secondary effects might include boosting efficiencies and gathering relevant data to help with better resource allocation where it is most needed.

Tertiary effects are possibly known and unintended. This is where stakeholders must explore what potential unintended harm might look like.

The teams identified five categories of potential high-level harm:

• Harmful bias considerations that do not account for or support students from vulnerable populations that may need extra resources and perspectives to support their diverse needs.
• Issues related to cybersecurity and personally identifiable information (PII) in school systems that do not have adequate procedures in place for their devices and networks.
• Lack of governance and guardrails that ensure AI models continue to behave in intended ways.
• Lack of appropriate communications to parents, students, teachers and administrative staff around the intended use of AI systems in schools. These communications should describe protections against inappropriate use, and agency, such as how to opt out.
• Limited off-campus connectivity that might reduce access to technology and the subsequent use of AI, particularly in rural areas.

Initially applied in legal cases, disparate impact assessments help organizations identify potential biases. These assessments explore how seemingly neutral policies and practices can disproportionately affect individuals from protected classes, such as those susceptible to discrimination based on race, religion, gender and other characteristics. Such assessments have proven effective in the development of policies related to hiring, lending and healthcare. In our education use case, we sought to consider cohorts of students who might experience inequitable outcomes from assessments due to their circumstances.

The groups identified as most susceptible to potential harm included:

• Those who struggle with mental health
• Those who come from more varied socioeconomic backgrounds, including those who are not housed
• Those whose dominant language is not English
• Those with other non-language cultural considerations
• Those who are neurodivergent or have accessibility issues

As a collective, our next set of exercises is to use more design thinking frameworks such as ethical hacking to explore how to mitigate these harms. We will also detail minimum requirements for organizations seeking to use AI in student assessments.

In conclusion

This is a bigger conversation than just IBM and Smarter Balanced. We are publicly publishing our process because we believe those experimenting with new uses for AI should consider the unintended effects of their models. We want to help ensure that AI models that are being built for education are serving the needs not just of a few, but for society in its entirety, with all its diversity .

“We see this as an opportunity to use a principled approach and develop student-centered values that will help the educational measurement community adopt trustworthy AI. By detailing the process that is being used by this initiative, we hope to help organizations that are considering AI-powered educational assessments have better, more granular conversations about the use of responsible AI in educational measurement.”  — Rochelle Michel, Deputy Executive Program Officer, Smarter Balanced.

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Continuous adaptation, improvement vital to ensure effective, inclusive education system, says Dr Mah

Monday, 02 Sep 2024

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Peng Liyuan, spouses of African leaders attend meeting on women's education

Higher education transformation to meet future needs, chinese families seeking to escape a competitive education system have found a haven in thailand.

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia's education system faces the challenge of balancing international standards while addressing local challenges, says Datuk Dr Mah Hang Soon.

The MCA deputy president said, in a statement Monday (Sept 2), that it was imperative to take action and tackle the issues affecting the quality of education in the country.

"The quality of teaching remains a critical concern. We need to ensure that a comprehensive system is in place for professional development and teachers must stay up to date with modern teaching methods and educational technology," he said, adding that this was especially true for rural areas.

Dr Mah also said Malaysia should focus on student-centred learning that helps create a more engaging and effective educational journey for students.

"As the country advances, a commitment to continuous adaptation and improvement is crucial. By regularly updating strategies and addressing challenges, Malaysia can create a more effective and inclusive education system," he said.

The full text of Dr Mah's statement can be read below:

*Education is the Next Step for Development*

Malaysia's education system faces the challenge of balancing international standards while addressing local challenges. As new parents tackle schooling systems in an effort to select the best path for their children, it is imperative for us to take action and tackle issues that affect our educational quality.

The quality of teaching remains a critical concern. We need to ensure that a comprehensive system is in place for professional development: teachers must stay up to date with modern teaching methods and educational technology. This is especially true for rural areas, which often lag behind urban regions.

Implementing programmes to provide these areas with equitable access to quality education and resources is essential for reducing disparities and promoting fairness across the country.

Rigid structures in the curriculum also pose as a problem. Rigidity restricts a student’s ability to explore their interests or develop a broad range of skills.

We should also be focusing on student-centred learning that helps create a more engaging and effective educational journey for our students.

Methods like project-based learning and hands-on activities can help students become more involved and better understand the material.

Additionally, moving away from memorisation tactics and standardised tests to turn towards more well-rounded assessments can offer a clearer picture of students' overall skills and knowledge.

Furthermore, to build a strong national identity, it is crucial to promote unity among various types of schools, including SMK (Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan), SK (Sekolah Kebangsaan), and vernacular schools. Balancing the needs of these diverse institutions is essential for creating an inclusive and effective education system that supports both cultural unity and diversity.

Providing equal resources and opportunities to all schools, such as fair allocation of funds, infrastructure development, and access to technology, helps close gaps and strengthens Malaysia’s multicultural society.

As the country advances, a commitment to continuous adaptation and improvement is crucial. By regularly updating strategies and addressing emerging challenges, Malaysia can create a more effective and inclusive education system, paving the way for a brighter future for every student.

DATUK DR MAH HANG SOON

MCA Deputy President

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Spanberger Urges Evaluation of Arbitrary Education Requirements for Federal Contractors & Emphasizes Skills-Based Hiring

The Congresswoman’s Effort Is Supported by Northern Virginia Community College & the Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce

WOODBRIDGE, Va. — U.S. Representative Abigail Spanberger today urged the federal government to evaluate arbitrary education and experience requirements that exclude many skilled workers — including those who gained their skills at community colleges, through apprenticeships, and by enrolling in other training programs — from supporting government contracts.

As demand for qualified technical talent continues to rise, a growing number of American workers are choosing to forego a traditional four-year college degree in favor of community college and on-the-job training. Many Fortune 500 companies have dropped bachelor’s degree requirements for an increasing percentage of their middle-skill and high-skill jobs in recent years in an effort to recruit additional workers and diversify their workforces. However, the federal government continues to impose bachelor’s degree requirements on workers supporting federal contracts.

In a letter to Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Deputy Administrator for Federal Procurement Policy Lesley Field, Spanberger urged the agency to apply recent findings focused on creating skills-based hiring assessments for federal jobs to an evaluation of hiring requirements for federal contract services. Additionally, the Congresswoman underscored the vital contributions of the federal acquisitions workforce to Virginia’s economy. She also expressed how strict degree requirements for federal contract work are keeping Virginians out of the workforce and blocking local businesses from hiring skilled workers to support their contract work.

“The majority of workers today have developed their skills through alternative routes outside of the traditional four-year college degree, such as community college, apprenticeships, and on-the-job experience,” wrote Spanberger. “­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­I represent many of these highly skilled individuals in Virginia who wish to enter the acquisitions workforce — as well as many small businesses who wish to hire these individuals to support their contract work with the federal government. However, unnecessarily strict minimum education requirements imposed by federal agencies in these contracts keep qualified workers from being matched with employers who need them.”

Spanberger continued , “The important work OPM has undertaken to promote skill-based hiring in the federal workforce is encouraging, and the federal government should continue to build upon this success by including contractors.”

The Congresswoman’s effort to improve skills-based hiring in federal contracting is supported by several local institutions and organizations whose students and members would benefit from these changes — including Northern Virginia Community College and the Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce.

“The federal government has an opportunity to strengthen and deepen its talent pool for contractors by joining the national trend of emphasizing skills-based hiring. NOVA is the largest public higher education institution in Virginia and the largest provider of talent in our region. Yet, the four-year degree requirement attached to many government contracts means Northern Virginia contractors are losing out on highly skilled NOVA grads,” said Dr. Anne M. Kress, President, Northern Virginia Community College. “NOVA joins in encouraging the government to think ‘outside the degree’ to widen the talent pathway and close the workforce gap in areas critical to national security and essential services.”

“Federal contracting is crucial to the workforce pipeline in Northern Virginia, and it’s integral to our region’s economy. Our region is home to many highly skilled workers, and local businesses are eager to hire them,” said Julie Coons, President & CEO, Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce. “However, outdated federal requirements mandating a traditional four-year college degree for contract employees disqualify many individuals with extensive on-the-job experience or skills training from contributing to federal government work. We support Congresswoman Spanberger’s efforts to promote skills-based hiring, strengthen our local workforce, and help our businesses succeed.”

Click here to read the letter, and the full letter text is below.

Dear Administrator Field,

Thank you for your leadership at the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) and for your important work overseeing our nation’s federal contracting system. As the Representative for Virginia’s Seventh District, I am proud to represent many small businesses who contract with the federal government, as well as many individuals who work to support the federal government as contract employees.

I write to request information about government-wide federal procurement policies on agencies’ inclusion of minimum education requirements in their solicitations for proposed contractor personnel. The majority of workers today have developed their skills through alternative routes outside of the traditional four-year college degree, such as community college, apprenticeships, and on-the-job experience. However, federal contracts too often exclude skilled and qualified candidates from participating in the workforce due to their strict minimum education requirements for a bachelor’s degree. I represent many of these highly skilled individuals in Virginia who wish to enter the acquisitions workforce — as well as many small businesses who wish to hire these individuals to support their contract work with the federal government. However, unnecessarily strict minimum education requirements imposed by federal agencies in these contracts keep qualified workers from being matched with employers who need them.

As you know, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) released the “Federal Workforce Competency Initiative (FWCI) Competency Handbook” last year in compliance with Executive Order 13932, Modernizing and Reforming the Assessment and Hiring of Federal Job Candidates . This Executive Order calls on agencies to increase the use of skills- and competency-based hiring for employment with the federal government instead of overly relying on educational requirement. The handbook identified core competencies for occupations across the federal government, based on data gathered through government-wide surveys OPM conducted in 2021, to support agency human resources professionals in using skill-based assessments and other competency models to replace educational degree requirements in their hiring and workforce planning.

The important work OPM has undertaken to promote skill-based hiring in the federal workforce is encouraging, and the federal government should continue to build upon this success by including contractors. As such, I request responses to the following questions:

• What is the prevalence of minimum education requirements for a bachelor’s degree for proposed contractor personnel in contract solicitations across the federal government? Please provide a breakdown by agency of the percentage of contract solicitations which included such minimum education requirements in the past year. Please include any additional details that may be helpful to understand these data and the current landscape.
• How might the core competencies and findings from OPM’s government-wide surveys be translated to occupations in federal contract services?
• If OPM’s findings cannot be translated, what resources and support does OFPP need to identify core competencies and skill-based models for hiring in federal contract services?
• Would it be feasible to expand Federal Acquisition Regulation 39.104 — which prohibits federal agencies from describing any minimum educational requirement for proposed contractor personnel when acquiring information technology services, unless the contracting officer determines that the needs of the agency cannot be met without that requirement — to include other contract services across the federal government?

Thank you for your commitment to ensuring our federal government can operate at its best through the support of contractors. Ensuring that arbitrary educational degree requirements do not impede highly skilled individuals from entering the federal acquisitions workforce is crucial to enabling our federal agencies to function at their strongest and most efficient levels. I look forward to your response.

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Former Banker Launches Free Financial Education Platform for Veterans

Hong Kong - September 4, 2024 —

Felix Prehn , a former investment banker, has traded in his Wall Street career to support a cause close to his heart: financial education for veterans and active service members. Through his new venture, Goat Academy, Prehn aims to equip those who serve our country with the tools and knowledge they need for long-term financial success.

The idea for Goat Academy was born during a chance encounter in South Korea. While traveling, Prehn met John, a Black Hawk medivac pilot, who shared how many of his fellow soldiers fell victim to predatory investment advisors. This conversation struck a chord with Prehn, highlighting the stark contrast between his sophisticated financial background and the lack of financial literacy among many service members.

"I realized that while I had access to complex financial strategies, many veterans lacked even basic financial education," Prehn explains. "It didn't sit right with me that these brave individuals, who risk everything for our country, could be so easily taken advantage of financially."

Goat Academy offers a comprehensive, free financial education course accessible through its website. The curriculum draws from Prehn's extensive experience in the finance sector, covering everything from basic budgeting to advanced investment strategies. However, Prehn emphasizes that the course is designed to be practical and easy to understand, cutting through the often confusing jargon of the financial world.

Prehn's approach is informed by his own early missteps in investing. At 18, he invested $10,000 in biotech funds without proper guidance, resulting in significant losses. This experience taught him the importance of reliable information and sound strategy in investing.

"We focus on simple, proven investment methods," Prehn says. "Our goal is to help veterans build wealth over time, not just save and budget. We teach them how to choose good stocks or index funds and the power of holding onto investments for the long term."

Beyond just numbers, Goat Academy addresses the emotional aspects of investing. Prehn acknowledges the anxiety that can come with market fluctuations and aims to equip veterans with both the knowledge and mental resilience needed to navigate financial markets confidently.

"Financial freedom isn't just about having money," Prehn emphasizes. "It's about creating the life you want. For me, that includes working with rescue dogs at my animal shelter. We want to help veterans use money as a tool for happiness, not a source of stress."

Goat Academy stands as a beacon of support for the military community, offering a path to financial empowerment and resilience. By providing this free education, Prehn hopes to give back to those who have given so much for their country.

To learn more about Goat Academy's mission and courses, watch their introductory video: https://youtu.be/3NkgrW2b52w?si=bPnxgg4L9Vndwjnl

Contact Info: Name: Felix Prehn Email: Send Email Organization: Goat Academy Website: https://goatacademy.org

Release ID: 89140253

Should you come across any errors, concerns, or inconsistencies within this press release's content, we urge you to reach out without delay by contacting [email protected] (it is important to note that this email is the authorized channel for such matters, sending multiple emails to multiple addresses does not necessarily help expedite your request). Our committed team will promptly address your feedback within 8 hours and take appropriate measures to resolve any identified issues or guide you through the removal process. Providing accurate and dependable information remains our utmost priority.

5 Big Technology Challenges Teachers and Administrators Will Face This School Year

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The 2022-23 school year is shaping up to be a big year of challenges and transitions for educational technology. Schools are facing increasing threats of cyberattacks, they are struggling to figure out how to use all the new technology they acquired during the pandemic in meaningful ways, and they are trying to figure out how to help students become more thoughtful and responsible digital citizens.

The list of ed-tech challenges facing schools this year is a long one. But here are five big ones:

The threat of a cyberattack is now a real one for everyone

Attacks on school districts are growing more sophisticated and the hackers are demanding higher sums of money , said Doug Levin, the national director of the K12 Security Information Exchange. Vendors who work with K-12 schools are also increasingly likely to be the target of an attack .

And, to complicate matters, insurance companies are raising insurance rates for districts and asking them to put in place a long list of safety measures—such as multi-factor authentication for use of tech tools—before even offering a policy to a district.

Education technology leaders are keenly aware of these issues. For the fifth year in a row, members of the Consortium for School Networking, the association that represents district ed-tech leaders, listed cybersecurity as their number one concern. And an overwhelming proportion—83 percent—of CoSN member districts surveyed in June said that they will be expanding cybersecurity initiatives this school year. What’s more, nearly two thirds—62 percent—will be spending more on cybersecurity this fiscal year, up from about a third who reported budget increases in 2020.

This could be the school year that at least one school district finds itself unsure of how it will continue to serve students following an attack, Levin predicted.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if this school year, we see a school district that experiences a significant cybersecurity incident” that turns into an “existential crisis,” he said, “because they will not be able to restore their systems or they won’t have the funding necessary to continue operations, and they’re not going to have insurance to bail them out.”

Making effective use of all the new digital learning tools

Even though most districts have put the brakes on their virtual or hybrid learning programs or scaled them back significantly after the return to in-person learning, they should still be thinking about how to continue to make use of all the new devices purchased during the pandemic, said Joseph South, the chief learning officer at the International Society for Technology in Education.

Case-in-point: During the pandemic, virtual meetings gave busy parents a new option for connecting with their child’s school and teacher . There’s no reason that shouldn’t continue, South said. What’s more, with remote technology, schools can bring in experts in nearly any field to speak to their classes, or connect their kids with peers in schools around the globe.

“One of the things that I really hope that we hang on to as we move out of remote learning, is the power of technology to expand that learning community around the child and give them lots of resources,” South said.

Putting in place plans to sustain the expanded use of technology

Billions in federal pandemic relief money allowed school districts to purchase millions of new laptops, tablets, hotspots, and even 3D printers and interactive whiteboards. There was a huge jump in the number of districts offering 1-to-1 computing programs. Some school systems tripled or even quadrupled their fleet of devices.

The problem: Those devices are only going to last so long—maybe four or five years—and it’s highly unlikely the feds will kick in another hundred billion or so for districts to replace them. While some districts are already crafting sustainability plans, plenty of others are not paying attention to that looming problem .

It can be tough to get district leaders focused on a problem that won’t become obvious for a few more years, said Keith Krueger, the executive director of the Consortium for School Networking.

“People have a lot of money coming into the system over this coming school year, and then there’s going to be a huge cliff,” Krueger said. Given that reality, “I think getting the attention of the superintendent and chief financial officer and the school board, it’s hard.”

Creating effective professional development when teachers are feeling ‘tech fatigue’

If sustainability is the looming challenge ahead, professional development is the perennial issue all tech leaders must think about every year, experts said.

The good news: The vast majority of teachers—nearly 90 percent—said their tech skills improved during the pandemic, with almost half of teachers saying that they got “a lot” better with tech, according to an Education Week Research Center survey taken in March of 2021 .

The bad news: Educators—and even students—aren’t necessarily in a good state of mind to tackle more technology use. They’re still exhausted from having to master so much, so quickly. In fact, an Education Week survey, taken in December of 2021 showed that nearly two-thirds of educators said they were experiencing some form of “tech fatigue.”

Part of the problem: The professional development that many teachers experienced during the pandemic was the educational equivalent of “emergency PD,” South said. “It was like someone busting out a first aid kit to stop the bleeding.”

Now, teachers need to learn how to master teaching with digital tools in more meaningful, effective, and sophisticated ways. “They need to be really focused on how to use those technologies in the most effective ways possible,” South said. The upside: Once teachers figure out how to use the tools to improve student learning, they’ll have made a lasting shift, he emphasized.

Some of the technologies that districts purchased during the pandemic are “gonna wear out and get obsolete and disappear, and then the investment is gone,” South said. “But if you invest in the capacity of the teachers, then your investment is permanent and sustained, no matter what technology comes next.”

Teaching students to use the internet in healthy and responsible ways

Some teachers have been tempted to scale back their students’ use of technological tools—and limit screen time—due to concerns about the overuse of technology over the past few years.

But taking that approach too far would be a mistake, South warned.

Instead of a list of “don’ts” when it comes to technology—particularly social media—schools need to give students a list of do’s, South said, such as, “Do use technology to become informed. Do use technology to develop a balanced view of the world. Do use technology to create inclusive spaces.”

“When the entire conversation about digital citizenship is focused on how scary the internet is, and all the bad things that can happen on it, we’re really creating fear around a technology that’s extremely powerful for doing good,” he said.

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