63% of educators consider leaving profession — from k12dive.com by Anna Merod
Dive Brief:
- Thirty percent of surveyed educators said they plan to leave the education profession within the next three years, while another 33% said they would “maybe” do the same, according to a report released Wednesday by Horace Mann Educators Corp., a financial services company that focuses on educators.
- For those thinking of leaving, the largest share — 42% — said they would retire. Another 28% said they would consider the private sector, and 10% would move to another public sector position, the survey found.
- What would keep teachers in education? Respondents largely said higher salaries (57%), followed by improved parent or community support (42%), and better school or district leadership (41%).
From DSC:
Ouch! At one of our daughter’s schools (where she teaches third grade and is in her first year of teaching), many teachers left even before Christmas. As but one example of a flawed system, our daughter and other teachers are required to be there way before school begins (for early dropoffs) and way after school ends (for late pickups). If our society doesn’t start valuing teachers, all Americans are going to pay the price eventually.
And a heads up to the faculty and staff members working in higher education. These students are coming your way.
And then they’ll be at your doorsteps corporate world.
Bottom line: We all should care about what’s going on — or what’s NOT going on — in the PreK-12 learning ecosystem!
What is college for? Gov. Shapiro raises the question. Higher ed leaders are listening. — from The Philadelphia Inquirer by Will Bunch; with thanks to Ray Schroeder out on LinkedIn for the resource
Pa.’s new governor Josh Shapiro’s first move was to question the need of a college diploma as a job credential. U.S. universities, pay attention.
Excerpt:
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — What is college actually for?
No one expected this to be the initial question raised by Pennsylvania’s new governor, Josh Shapiro, in his first full day on the job. While he may not have stated it explicitly, this was the essence of the Democrat’s very first executive order, which opened up some 92% of job listings in state government — about 65,000 in all — to applicants who don’t have a four-year college degree.
In branding degree requirements for many jobs as “arbitrary” and declaring “there are many different pathways to success,” the Keystone State’s new chief executive was tugging at the shaky Jenga block that has undergirded the appalling rise of a $1.75 trillion student debt bomb in the U.S. and led, arguably, to a college/non-college divide driving our nation’s bitter politics. The notion is this: You can’t make it in 21st-century America without that most expensive piece of sheepskin: the college diploma.
So the $64,000 question (OK, $80,000 … for one year on some elite private campuses) is this: If you don’t need the credential, do you actually need college?
Something is clearly gained by giving America’s young people more career options that won’t contribute to that $1.75 trillion college debt bomb. But are we talking enough about what could be lost in a new system that not only devalues the university but also seems to ratify a dubious idea — that higher education is almost solely about careerism, and not the wider knowledge and critical-thinking skills that come from liberal arts learning?
From DSC:
To me — and to many other parents and families — it all boils down to the price tag of obtaining a liberal arts education. It’s one thing to get a liberal arts education at $5K per year. It’s another thing when the pricetag runs at $40K and above (per year)! Most people ARE FORCED to question the ROI of a liberal arts education. They simply have to.
On a relevant tangent here…many inside the academy have traditionally looked with disdain at the corporate world. The thinking went something like this:
Business! Ha! We are not a business! Students are not customers. Don’t ever compare us to the corporate world.
- Where else can you pay tens of thousands of dollars for something and not be treated as a customer?! Don’t you typically expect value on your own purchases and positive returns on your investments?
- How will you collaborate with the corporate world if you look upon them with disdain?!
But now that colleges and universities enrollments are not doing so well, perhaps there will be more openness to change and towards developing more impactful collaborations.
How to recover from a bad homeschool day — from raisinglifelonglearners.com by Colleen Kessler
Excerpt:
Last week, we had a rough day in a big (and I mean *explosively big*) way, and I decided it was important to tell you about it.
The Haunting Questions of a Bad Homeschool Day
What do you do when you’ve had a tough day – the kind of day where where everything seems to go wrong or take extra time, and by the end of the day you realize you’ve accomplished little or no school work? One of those days where you’re wondering if your kids might just be better off in public school because you feel like you’re failing them in a hundred different ways?
I’m going to tell you about my day that went just about like that.
“Exhausted majority” wants to rethink K-12 education— from axios.com by Stef W. Kight; via GSV
Excerpt:
Americans have drastically shifted some priorities on K-12 education since the start of COVID, a new study by Populace reveals.
Why it matters: There’s new pressure to change the existing model. Preparing students for college has fallen from 10th highest priority to 47th.
- The study demonstrates what Populace co-founder Todd Rose called an “exhausted majority” who just wants kids to learn to think for themselves and find a career “with meaning and purpose.”
The big picture: Americans have a warped understanding of what the majority prioritizes in education.
- U.S. adults overestimate the public’s desire for teachers to prepare kids for college, internships and only the highest-paying jobs. They also overestimate support for standardized processes and teaching social norms.
- They underestimate preferences to allow students to learn at their own pace and according to their own interests and for kids to come away with more holistic, practical skills.
Also relevant/see:
New Survey: America’s Families are Rethinking K-12 Education — from schoolchoiceweek.com by the National School Choice Week Team
Excerpt:
K-12 education in America is experiencing a once-in-a-generation transformation, as tens of millions of parents rethink their children’s education and make crucial decisions about how and where their children learn. From exploring their school choice options to expressing interest in nontraditional learning models, parents are eager to find better or supplementary learning environments for their children. Parents don’t see this a dichotomous; a majority of them are open to change even as two thirds of all parents (67.9 percent) remain largely satisfied with the schools their children attend.
What do we mean by rethinking? Parents choosing new schools, parents considering options more frequently, and parents seeking to round out their children’s education by thinking outside the box and exploring new or nontraditional learning options.
On a related note see:
- What Do Parents Prefer for their Children’s’ Schooling? — from michaelbhorn.substack.com by Michael Horn with Adam Newman and Christian Lehr of Tyton Partners
Closing the digital divide in Black America — from mckinsey.com
Five steps could help to bring broadband and digital equity to every Black household in the United States—urban and rural—while bolstering efforts to create a more inclusive economy.
Excerpt:
But broadband access is only part of a much bigger picture. Ensuring all Americans can fully participate in civic life and the digital economy requires affordable subscriptions, internet-enabled devices, applications, digital skills, and high-quality technical support. For example, while smartphone and tablet penetration are approximately equal among White, Black, and Hispanic and Latino adults in the United States, only 69 percent of Black Americans and 67 percent of Hispanic Americans have desktop or laptop computers, compared with 80 percent of White Americans (Exhibit 1).5 A 2020 OECD survey found that roughly half of Black workers had the advanced or proficient digital skills needed to thrive in our increasingly tech-driven economy, compared with 77 percent of White workers.6
A learning ecosystem is composed of people, tools, technologies, content, processes, culture, strategies, and any other resource that helps one learn. Learning ecosystems can be at an individual level as well as at an organizational level.
Some example components:
- Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) such as faculty, staff, teachers, trainers, parents, coaches, directors, and others
- Fellow employees
- L&D/Training professionals
- Managers
- Instructional Designers
- Librarians
- Consultants
- Types of learning
- Active learning
- Adult learning
- PreK-12 education
- Training/corporate learning
- Vocational learning
- Experiential learning
- Competency-based learning
- Self-directed learning (i.e., heutagogy)
- Mobile learning
- Online learning
- Face-to-face-based learning
- Hybrid/blended learning
- Hyflex-based learning
- Game-based learning
- XR-based learning (AR, MR, and VR)
- Informal learning
- Formal learning
- Lifelong learning
- Microlearning
- Personalized/customized learning
- Play-based learning
- Cloud-based learning apps
- Coaching & mentoring
- Peer feedback
- Job aids/performance tools and other on-demand content
- Websites
- Conferences
- Professional development
- Professional organizations
- Social networking
- Social media – Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook/Meta, other
- Communities of practice
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) — including ChatGPT, learning agents, learner profiles,
- LMS/CMS/Learning Experience Platforms
- Tutorials
- Videos — including on YouTube, Vimeo, other
- Job-aids
- E-learning-based resources
- Books, digital textbooks, journals, and manuals
- Enterprise social networks/tools
- RSS feeds and blogging
- Podcasts/vodcasts
- Videoconferencing/audio-conferencing/virtual meetings
- Capturing and sharing content
- Tagging/rating/curating content
- Decision support tools
- Getting feedback
- Webinars
- In-person workshops
- Discussion boards/forums
- Chat/IM
- VOIP
- Online-based resources (periodicals, journals, magazines, newspapers, and others)
- Learning spaces
- Learning hubs
- Learning preferences
- Learning theories
- Microschools
- MOOCs
- Open courseware
- Portals
- Wikis
- Wikipedia
- Slideshare
- TED talks
- …and many more components.
These people, tools, technologies, etc. are constantly morphing — as well as coming and going in and out of our lives.
Discovering Autism and Community Later in Life — from aane.org by Brenda Dater, Executive Director
Excerpt:
This month we are discussing autism and aging. Many older adults in AANE’s community were children in the 1950s, 60s and 70s when the diagnosis of autism as we understand it today didn’t exist. Some were misdiagnosed with conditions like childhood schizophrenia, but many were just harmfully labeled as odd or having behavior problems. Because of the lack of awareness and understanding about autism, many have come to their diagnosis, or self-understanding, in their fifties, sixties, seventies and beyond, often after many years of being misunderstood or not fitting in at school, work, or socially. The stories they tell about feeling relief to have an explanation for their experience and finally…finally feeling like they belong warms my heart.
37 predictions about edtech’s impact in 2023 — from eschoolnews.com by Laura Ascione
What edtech trends will take top billing in schools and districts in the new year?
Excerpts:
School districts will begin to offer microschool options. With 65% of K-12 parents backing school choice, school districts will realize that in order to stay competitive and meet the needs of students and parents, adopting and offering innovative learning models is key. One of the shifts the industry can expect to see in the coming years is school districts offering mircoschool options within the district itself. While historically independent learning institutions, microschools will be adopted within school districts that are responsive to this need for choice and evolving learning needs of students.
—Carlos Bortoni, Principal, Industry Advisor, K-12 Education, Qualtrics
…
In 2023, educators nationwide will benefit from the most recent wave of edtech consolidation. The various services and products acquired by consolidators over the last year or two will be integrated into increasingly comprehensive platforms offering instructional content, assessments, and classroom tools all in one place. As this occurs, the power and effectiveness of those edtech resources will grow as they begin to work in concert with each other seamlessly. The combination of these resources will empower administrators, teachers, families, and students to better leverage edtech’s ability to improve learning.
–Kelli Campbell, President, Discovery Education
From DSC:
Vision is key here…not just data. If data provided all of the answers, being an effective, impactful leader/administrator would be far easier.
Also from Laura Ascione, see:
- Most high school grads feel their skills aren’t up to par — from eschoolnews.com
Family, friends, and educators help students make decisions, develop confidence, and identify personal aptitudes as they leave high school
Local private colleges slash tuition prices as enrollment declines — from news.yahoo.com by Jason Law
Excerpts:
“By reducing the published price, we certainly would hope that more people would apply,” Alexander said. “If they see a sticker price of $60,000 or more, there’s research out there that says 60% of them don’t take the next step to apply or figure out if they can afford it.”
…
One of the most frustrating aspects for consumers, the Hechinger Report found, is the difference between a school’s sticker price—its published tuition cost–and the actual price a student will pay after scholarships and institutional aid are subtracted.
“Many families are not aware that some students do not pay the full sticker price for college. Only 18% of college-bound families agree that the amount families actually pay is lower than the price advertised by the school,” a 2022 Sallie Mae College Confidence report found.
Student Loan Debt: 2022 Statistics and Outlook — from investopedia.com by Daniel Kurt, Thomas Brock, and Amanda Jackson; with thanks to Ray Schroeder for posting this on LinkedIn
The numbers are staggering—and still on the rise
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- The total amount of outstanding student loan debt in the United States is $1.77 trillion.
- Soaring college costs and pressure to compete in the job marketplace are big factors for student loan debt.
- Student loans are the most common form of educational debt, followed by credit cards and other types of credit.
- Delinquency statistics may be understated because of the relief provided to student loan borrowers by the White House.
- Borrowers who don’t complete their degrees are more likely to default.
Congress to Boost Pell Grant by $500 — from insidehighered.com by Katherine Knott
While the draft spending plan for fiscal year 2023 provides more funding for several programs, higher education groups and advocates had hoped for higher increases.
14 charts this year that helped us better understand COVID’s impact on students, teachers, & schools — from the 74million.org by Kevin Mahnken
Excerpt:
By the end of last year, a steady trickle of research had already begun to reveal the harm wrought by prolonged school closures and the transition to virtual instruction. But this fall brought the most definitive evidence yet of the scale of learning lost over more than two years of COVID-disrupted schooling: fresh testing data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, sometimes called the Nation’s Report Card, pointing to severe declines in core subjects.
From DSC:
While not minimizing the impact of the “learning loss” that is often written about, I do wonder if maybe the types of learning going on during the pandemic weren’t captured on a standardized test. Maybe the types of learning that our youth and families learned about help set them up for our present VOCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity) world. And for a future where change doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon.
Some of the types of learning that might not show up on the standardized tests include:
- Dealing with life’s challenges and tumultuous changes
- Being flexible
- Adapting
- The importance of having sufficient Internet connections and the corresponding hardware and software to keep on learning remotely
- Where or to whom does one go to for help?
Also, as has been said elsewhere, bashing online learning or virtual instruction is often unfair. The remote learning that teachers and faculty members were thrust into lacked appropriate instructional design. Many teachers and faculty members hadn’t yet been trained on how to put together solid online-based courses and/or to use the tools that are required to offer such courses. Also, many in society didn’t have Internet access (or insufficient access), a quiet place to study and/or participate in online-based learning.
Thriving education systems, thriving youth — from events.economist.com by Economist Impact
Some of the key topics to be discussed include:
- What are the challenges in how we measure learning outcomes today, and how does this need to transform?
- What is a learning ecosystem? What does a successful learning ecosystem look like?
- What factors enable the development of thriving learning ecosystems?
- Who are the key stakeholders that make up the learning ecosystem? How do different stakeholders see their role in the learning ecosystem?
- Which national policies need to be in place to support effective education ecosystems?
- What information and data do we need to assess how well learning ecosystems are performing?
- What data do we need to collect so that we don’t perpetuate traditional approaches to defining and measuring success?
How to Receive Feedback With a Growth Mindset — from neuroleadership.com by the NeuroLeadership Institute
Excerpt:
A growth mindset can help us view feedback as a good thing, which ultimately makes performance reviews more effective. After all, we want to learn, grow, and improve our skills. People with a fixed mindset view criticism as an attack on their self-worth. Growth mindset, by contrast, leaves room for the possibility that we all have blind spots — and that your manager may have valuable insights on how you can hone your skills. Feedback, in other words, isn’t personal. A manager may critique our performance, but a growth mindset helps keep us from tying our performance to our identity.
…
The beauty of growth mindset is that it’s self-reinforcing. As you gain more confidence in your own ability to learn and grow, each feedback conversation becomes easier than the last. You become more capable of discussing high-stakes issues with honesty and transparency because neither side feels threatened.
Michigan flags 112 low-performing schools for intensive intervention — from mlive.com by Matthew Miller
Excerpt:
“These are the urban high minority districts, right? So they were the ones that had the highest death rates, the highest case rates, the highest income and economic hits because of the pandemic,” she said. “We know that all of this goes into what we label as school quality even though it’s about so much more than the school or the district.”
From DSC:
I surely hope that what’s going on in the image below isn’t what’s going on within the state of Michigan (as well as other states) — but I have my fears/concerns in that regard. Though admittedly, my focus here isn’t so much about the financial pictures, but rather it has to do with the straight-jacketing of the teachers and students by legislators in Lansing (and other state capitals). If I were to redraw this image, I would have legislators in (far-away) Lansing seated in comfortable chairs and offices while frazzled/overworked educators are straight-jacketed in the classrooms.
We have too many standardized tests and too many one-size-fits-all methods of “doing school” that aren’t coming from the people on the front lines. Those same people, given the right environment, could unleash a far greater amount of joy, wonder, relevance, creativity, and counsel — for themselves as well as for their students.
.
.
The ‘Digital Equity’ Students Need to Learn May Not Come Without Community Outreach — from edsurge.com by Daniel Mollenkamp
Excerpt:
And that means, more than ever, getting an education requires access to fast, reliable internet. But while the infrastructure to make sure that everyone can use the internet has improved in the last couple of years, the process isn’t complete.
If we want to keep the digital divide from growing, experts say, it’ll mean districts thinking about themselves as just one part of the larger community composed of families, nonprofits, businesses—all of them potential partners in expanding internet access for students.
.
Missing an Opportunity: Ed Dept. Criticized by GAO for Teacher Shortage Strategy — from the74million.org by Marianna McMurdock
In recent report, GAO finds key recruitment, retention challenges impacting the profession, and why current federal strategy lacks teeth to succeed
Excerpt:
The challenge of cost of entry into the profession and concerns of return on investment, the GAO report found, is also significantly straining the country’s supply of teachers. Compounding the financial reality, many candidates fear being overworked and mistreated.
“The COVID-19 pandemic laid bare teachers’ discontent with aspects of their jobs, including a lack of support for their safety and value as professionals and an increasingly disrespectful and demanding workplace culture—and exacerbated teacher shortages nationwide,” the GAO stated, pulling data from focus groups held throughout the pandemic.
Addendum on 12/10/22:
- What is Snopes and How Can It Be Used to Teach? Tips & Tricks — from techlearning.com by Luke Edwards
Snopes is a fact-checking website that can help students in education to better navigate online media
The incredible shrinking future of college — from vox.com by Kevin Carey
Excerpt:
The future looks very different in some parts of the country than in others, and will also vary among national four-year universities, regional universities like Ship, and community colleges. Grawe projects that, despite the overall demographic decline, demand for national four-year universities on the West Coast will increase by more than 7.5 percent between now and the mid-2030s. But in states like New York, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Louisiana, it will decline by 15 percent or more.
Higher ed’s eight-decade run of unbroken good fortune may be about to end.
Demand for regional four-year universities, per Grawe, will drop by at least 7.5 percent across New England, the mid-Atlantic, and Southern states other than Florida and Texas, with smaller declines in the Great Plains. Community colleges will be hit hard in most places other than Florida, which has a robust two-year system with a large Latino population.
The next generation of higher education leaders will take scarcity as a given and “return on investment” as both sales pitch and state of mind.
The decline of American higher education — from youtube.com by Bryan Alexander and Kevin Carey
Most Colleges Omit or Understate Net Costs in Financial-Aid Offers, Federal Watchdog Finds — from chronicle.com by Eric Hoover
Excerpt:
Nine out of 10 colleges either exclude or understate the net cost of attendance in their financial-aid offers to students, according to estimates published in a new report by the Government Accountability Office. The watchdog agency recommended that Congress consider legislation that would require institutions to provide “clear and standard information.”
The lack of clarity makes it hard for students to decide where to enroll and how much to borrow.
The report, published on Monday, paints a troubling picture of an industry that makes it difficult for consumers to understand the bottom line by presenting insufficient if not downright misleading information. Federal law does not require colleges to present financial-aid offers in a clear, consistent way to all students.
Higher ed faces ‘deteriorating’ outlook in 2023, Fitch says — from highereddive.com by Rick Seltzer
Dive Brief (excerpt):
- U.S. higher education faces a stable but deteriorating credit outlook in 2023, Fitch Ratings said Thursday, taking a more pessimistic view of the sector’s future than it had at the same time last year.
- Operating performance at colleges and universities will be pressured by enrollment, labor and wage challenges, according to the bond ratings agency. Colleges have been able to raise tuition slightly because of inflation, but additional revenue they generate generally isn’t expected to be enough to offset rising costs.
Merger Watch: Don’t wait too long to find a merger partner. Closure does not benefit anybody. — from highereddive.com by Ricardo Azziz
Leaders fail students, employees and communities when they embrace a strategy of hope in the face of overwhelming evidence.
Excerpt:
While not all institutions can (or should be) saved, most institutional closures reflect the failure of past governing boards to face the fiscal reality of their institution — and to plan accordingly and in a timely manner. Leaders should always consider and, if necessary, pursue potential partnerships, mergers, or consolidations before a school has exhausted its financial and political capital. The inability or unwillingness of many leaders to take such action is reflected in the fact that the number of institutional closures in higher education far outweighs the number of successful mergers.
In fact, the risk of closure can be predicted. In a prior analysis several coauthors and I reported on a number of risk factors predictive of closure, noting that most schools at risk for closure are small and financially fragile, with declining enrollment and limited resources to mount significant online programs. While there are many clear signs that a school is at risk for closure, the major challenge to mounting a response seems to be the unwillingness of institutional leaders to understand, face and act on these signs.
What can colleges learn from degrees awarded in the fast-shrinking journalism field? — from highereddive.com by Lilah Burke
Bachelor’s degrees offer solid payoffs, while grad programs post mixed returns, researchers find. But many students don’t go on to work in the field.
Excerpt:
Journalism jobs are hard to find. But it’s nice work when you can get it.
That’s the takeaway from a new report from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce on the payoff of journalism programs. An analysis of federal education and labor data reveals that journalism and communication bachelor’s degrees offer moderate payoff to their graduates, but only 15% of majors end up working in the field early in their careers. Newsroom employment has declined 26% since 2008, and researchers predict it will fall 3% over the next nine years.
Addendum on 12/10/22:
A Sectorwide Approach to Higher Ed’s Future — from insidehighered.com by Sylvia M. Burwell
Institutions must seek ways to differentiate themselves even as they work together to address common challenges facing all of higher education, writes Sylvia M. Burwell.We have to think differently about the future of higher education. And rather than limit our work to what one type of institution or program can achieve, we should look across the entire higher education sector.
A sectorwide [insert DSC: system-wide] approach is needed because the economics of higher education are not going to hold.
…
To evolve our thinking on these questions, we should focus on the value proposition of higher education and market differentiation.