Scientific theory has had a rough time in America’s public schools.
Almost 100 years ago, science teacher John Scopes was convicted of violating a Tennessee law that prohibited teaching the theory of evolution. Although his conviction was overturned on a technicality in 1927, laws banning classes on Darwin’s theory stuck around for another 40 years. They were ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1968.
Just four years ago, following the murder of George Floyd, almost every college and university in the U.S. had at least one diversity, equity, and inclusion – or DEI – program. Many had existed long before. These programs ranged from DEI-related degrees and professional training to resources for culturally, linguistically, and neurologically diverse students. But in the last year and a half in almost every state, 159 institutions have reduced or eliminated these programs.
New legislation in states like Texas and Florida have banned DEI programs outright. In other states, institutions are shuttering programs preemptively to avoid political pressure. This will have lasting effects.
My grandmother’s name was Mrs. Zola Jackson.
As one of the handful of Black teachers in Mississippi during the Jim Crow era of racially segregated public schools, she faced a daunting challenge in providing a first-class education to students considered second-class citizens.
Scientific theories to justify racism. Laws and Supreme Court decisions that denied Black people equal rights. The imperialist view that Anglo-Saxons were called upon by God to civilize the “savages” of the world.
These topics might all sound like material from a course on systemic racism or critical race theory, which includes the idea that racism is embedded in America’s legal systems and policies.
The founders of the United States were intentionally building a nation based on the ideals of the Enlightenment, a movement centered on individual happiness, knowledge, and reason. This new approach to defining a country – rather than basing it on language, ethnicity, or geographic proximity – meant the new United States would have to educate its citizenry with the ideas, skills, and values necessary to build and grow their democracy.
As a result, the founders called for schools to be established and funded. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and others believed it was the responsibility of the government to provide that education. Jefferson believed that education would serve as the moral foundation of the nation and redress the effect of poverty because education would be available to all children.
The COVID-19 pandemic, with its multiple waves of remote, hybrid, and in-person education, increased students’ needs for support, revealed political minefields in teaching, and heightened labor tensions for educators. And in the 2021-2022 school year, staffing shortages have made all of that worse, as our work details.
Our long-term research with hundreds of teachers and school administrators reveals that persistent staffing shortages are leading professionals to feel burned out and to worry about students missing learning opportunities.
Parents can watch their kids draw and paint at home or perform in school music concerts and dance recitals. But they may not know how their school arts program compares with others around the country.
As a music education professor and a researcher who studies arts education policies, I know that access to and the quality of arts programs vary greatly among states, districts, and even schools within the same district.
Additionally, I see that disruptions from the pandemic are threatening the already tenuous status of the arts in public schools.
Proponents of charter schools insist that they are public schools “open to all students.” But the truth is more nuanced. As an education policy researcher – and as an author of a new book about charter schools I wrote with fellow researcher Wagma Mommandi – I have discovered that charter schools are not as accessible to the public as they are often made out to be.
This finding is particularly relevant in light of the fact that charter school enrollment reportedly grew at a rapid rate during the pandemic. Specifically, according to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, enrollment increased 7% from 2019-20 to 2020-21. The organization says that is the biggest enrollment jump in a half-decade.
World Teachers’ Day, held on October 5 each year since 1994, is an annual event to reflect on the progress teachers have made.
But in many countries, including the United States, the professional status of teachers has declined in the last decade.
For example, studies in Britain, Japan, and Hong Kong show an erosion of teacher autonomy and public confidence in teachers, which leads to teachers feeling disempowered and demoralized. Job satisfaction has also deteriorated among teachers in the U.S., where teacher education itself has become a target of policymakers who think it requires higher standards and greater state control.
