[alach11]

This is devastating. Whatever you think about covid lockdowns and remote education, it's clear that something drastic has happened. The question is... is there anything we can do to fix it? I'd hate to be a high school teacher right now.

Also, I was surprised and disappointed by the lack of graphs in the article. The actual report has some illustrative ones: https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/highlights/ltt/2023/

[toomuchtodo]

https://www.chalkbeat.org/2023/3/6/23624340/teacher-turnover...

https://www.edweek.org/leadership/behind-the-stats-3-former-...

https://lifeafterteaching.com/

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/why-teachers-in-america-ar...

https://www.edweek.org/leadership/the-latest-perk-schools-ar...

[rngname22]

Disempower the administrators and parents that won't let teachers do their jobs. Vote for school district officials and attend meetings and question why they won't let teachers dictate policy as opposed to administrators, standards-makers, or boards that don't have teaching experience or no longer teach.

[lo_zamoyski]

The administration today is about as untrustworthy as it gets, having become a vector of ideology. Parents are responsible for their children, and their primary teachers, not administrators, not teachers, and so they have more than just a say, but the deciding say; all other authority are deputized. I seriously doubt that parents are the primary reason for the mediocrity of education standards, but even if they were, it is parents that must be convinced that a curriculum is good. This is non-negotiable.

There are also plenty of counterexamples of parents, fed up with the poor quality of the savage factory that is the public school, coming together to form new private schools that surpass the standards of public education. These parents may not be representative, perhaps, but laying the blame at the feet of parents while valorizing administration, I claim, doesn't reflect reality adequately and certainly not constructively. In general, I am favor of more school choice and local initiative which would free parents to pursue models of excellence that could then be copied by other parents and even public schools (fat chance).

[lockhouse]

Most teachers I’ve talked with wish that parents were more involved in their students education. Doing things like reading to your children starting from birth (or better yet in the womb), reviewing their homework, and discussing the importance of their grades and education in their long term success go a very long way.

[rngname22]

If you'd like to hear some of what I'm referring to, check out some anecadata here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Teachers/search/?q=parents&restrict...

[lockhouse]

Do you have an example of parents interfering in teachers ability to do their jobs?

[rngname22]

I've read countless, I started spending some time on the /r/nursing and /r/teachers subreddits during the pandemic to understand some of how it was affecting them and you learn quickly that parents often interfere in their children's learning, whether it be preventing punishments, doing their child's homework for them, not feeding them, threatening school districts with lawsuits such that school principals and administration force teachers to acquiesce to whatever the student's parents want, getting mad if the teacher is being a better parent to the student than the parent themself etc.

Doing a search on the sub for 'parents' is a good start: https://www.reddit.com/r/Teachers/search/?q=parents&restrict...

[lockhouse]

Wow, that is wild. Thank you.

[nunez]

I have none...well aside from the law that passed in Florida and Texas earlier this year that allows parents to see _and reject_ lesson plans if they don't like them.

My educator wife, however? There aren't enough minutes in the day to enumerate the inane BS she's put up with from students parents!

[damnesian]

Having kids and knowing parents of younger kids, I have thought about it and do have an idea. If a kid is doing great, their path remains the same. If they are lagging behind: make one monolithic math course that everyone enrolls in. Institute mentoring. The older kids help the younger. Remove any negative consequences of just trying (that is to say no one will fail)- use only positive incentives. Maybe a scholarship fund for kids who help others.

Remote school was a disaster for younger kids. All schools- public or private- are bureaucracies with rigid hierarchies. The pandemic showed the cracks in many social institutions. Schools were no exception. With a more horizontal and open structure, schools could have responded more flexibly.

Also there should have been a massive social safety net similar to the Great Depression supporting families AND businesses during the worst of it so parents could just be with their families.

In a vertical market-based Capitalist social structure, there just is very little wiggle room and the system fights like hell to maintain its own homeostasis.

A pandemic is classic example of a situation that would benefit from Capitalism stepping aside and let Socialism handle the hard stuff during the crisis- until Capitalism can step back in. It doesn't have to be binary. To not embrace this kind of flexibility is like building a structure in an earthquake zone with no provision for movement. It's going to fail during times of stress.

[nunez]

> If they are lagging behind: make one monolithic math course that everyone enrolls in. Institute mentoring. The older kids help the younger. Remove any negative consequences of just trying (that is to say no one will fail)- use only positive incentives. Maybe a scholarship fund for kids who help others.

This is called an "integrated classroom" which is part of the "differentiated learning" pedagogy [1].

It has been around for a very long time.

Many schools have incorporated it into their curricula.

It is extremely difficult to build a successfully integrated classroom. The kids who need more help will slow down the kids who need less, which can decrease performance in both groups.

Educators with integrated classrooms need to construct several variations of a single lesson plan to mitigate this.

Given that education is amongst the lowest-paying professions in the US (less well-paying than restaurant work, after tips!), and given that many schools have been stripped of funding and other resources that can help alleviate this potential burden, I hope you can see why implementing this suggestion is easier said than done.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Differentiated_instruction

[shortrounddev2]

If you think that test scores are that important, maybe. They're not reliable indicators