I鈥檝e been writing annual roundups of the best and worst education news for the past 12 years.
Here鈥檚 a look at my choices for the education highlights and lowlights from the past 12 months (not listed in any priority). And do let me know on X (formerly Twitter) , on BlueSky , or via email at lferlazzo@educationweek.org what you agree or disagree with or what you think I鈥檓 missing. Chances are I鈥檓 missing a lot!
The Best Education News of 2024
- Voters wherever they were on the ballot in November. In all their supposed post-election 鈥渟oul-searching,鈥� perhaps Democrats should reflect on and strategize on how they can make more central parts of their campaigns.
- that student academic achievement can be substantially increased by renovating HVAC systems, removing toxic materials on school grounds, and replacing roofs. Who would have thought our teachers and students could benefit from having healthy air, not roasting in the summer, drinking water from lead-free pipes, and not having to scatter buckets around our rooms to catch leaks could all increase student learning? Perhaps more districts and states can use these findings to emulate California, in November?
- of parents with children in K-12 public schools with the quality of education their kids are receiving. This contrasts with those few, but loud, critics who are proclaiming the . I guess we teachers must be doing something right (at least, when we鈥檙e ).
- continues to find that new immigrant students cause no harm to the academic achievement of existing students and, in fact, may help them. Unfortunately, these will likely not hinder attacks on the r, including those without documents, to attend public school in the United States.
- Another found what most educators already know: Teachers鈥� strikes result in increased wages and don鈥檛 negatively impact student academic achievement. Though this particular research couldn鈥檛 find this conclusion, I can speak from direct experience that our recent strike in Sacramento also has resulted in flowing toward directly support of students.
- There was a . More importantly, there was a big increase in fights against them鈥攂y by , and by .
- Even are reinforcing previous findings that standardized-test scores are not the be-all-end-all in determining the effectiveness of teachers and schools. Teachers have known for years that there are other ways to assess student success, and a lot of educators who might not have great VAM (value-added measurement) scores related to standardized-test results may be very good at these other student-success markers. Perhaps district leaders might catch up to our (and researchers鈥�) knowledge?
- Millions of teachers, classified staff, and principals worked extremely hard to create positive learning conditions for tens of millions of students to learn and flourish in the face of many challenges.
The Worst Education News of 2024
- We all now have a newly-elected President Donald Trump to look forward to. We have a new secretary of education, if confirmed by the Senate, who her daughter on TV (scripted or not). The pair of them want to dissolve the federal Department of Education, and many of his key supporters want to roll back access to free school lunches. As writer Adam Serwer has pointed out,
- The Arizona school voucher program was a disaster, with millions in resulting in a . Arizona lawmakers created the program even though voters had rejected it. One can only wonder if other Republican-led states will learn from Arizona鈥檚 fiasco or decide to emulate it.
- School shootings . In the face of them, most states and the U.S. Supreme Court ignore the obvious solution of sensible gun control and instead choose to respond with ridiculous measures like and selling classroom .
- Bill Gates, Sal Khan, and tons of artificial intelligence companies continue to of AI , and many educators and (even Los Angeles Unified from a fraudulent company) are falling for it. save time in creating materials and assist English-language learners in pronunciation practice. Those are not nothing. Why can鈥檛 AI proponents be happy with that?
- It鈥檚 another year, and finding that black girls are punished more often and more severely than students of other races in schools. finds the same thing. It would be nice if schools actually did something to change the situation.
- The separation of church and state 鈥攚hether it鈥檚 a approved in Texas or Louisiana鈥檚 attempts to post the in all classrooms or Oklahoma purchasing . What could go wrong?
- Chronic absenteeism continues to be up from pre-pandemic levels, though it seems to be on the downward (slightly) and it Many strategies districts are taking to combat it . Perhaps they should learn from those who are having success by focusing on building and strengthening relationships. Who would have thought?
- The new FAFSA rollout was a disaster, with many students鈥� or delayed, particularly those . Didn鈥檛 any of the DoE staff remember/learn from the initial Obamacare website disaster?
- Based on , students are still being negatively impacted by the COVID epidemic. They seem to be recovering, but slowly. We should obviously all be concerned about this and we teachers can see the epidemic鈥檚 impact in our classrooms. At the same time, however, let鈥檚 remember the point made in the 鈥淏est News鈥� section: Researchers continue to find that test scores are not the only and, in some cases, not even the best indicators of long-term student success.
- Teacher , research found that our salaries have been , and neither parents or educators Apart from those things, we teachers are doing great!
