By JOHN RICHARD SCHROCK
This is the year that e-cigarette and vape pen use exploded into a major middle and high school crisis. Well before the CDC’s attention was called to fatal cases related to vaping using THC and related additives, school teachers and administrators witnessed a massive spread of vaping on their campuses, often feeling helpless. While the industry hides behind the “it’s an alternative to tobacco” argument, many states are taking action to curtail or outlaw vaping at schools and school-related events in accord with their state legal framework. However, lurking behind the scenes is the ever-expanding legalization of marijuana and its implications for both teacher performance and student discipline.
Across the country, teachers breathed with some relief as the penalties on schools and pressure on teachers from No Child Left Behind were partially lifted under ESSA. More states ditched common core and other standardized one-size-fits-all mandated curricula, although there is a long way to go to restore full teacher professional judgement allowing teachers to treat unique students in unique ways. Education publications and websites finally spoke openly of the harm done by standardized external assessments.
Mayor Bill de Blasio faced a backlash to his plan to “integrate” the highly selective and specialized New York high schools by curtailing the admissions exam that determined who was admitted. The mayor blamed the “tabloid media” for the successful opposition. Had his plan been approved, the number of Asian-American students would have been cut in half. Despite being a small minority in New York, their study ethic results in the majority of students in these elite schools being Asian-American.
In an action likely to spread to other states, California prohibited schools from suspending K–8 students. Senate Bill 419 made it illegal for both public and charter schools to suspend students for "willful defiance," defined as “disrupting school activities or otherwise refusing to follow the valid authority of school personnel.” The rationale is that suspension ends the student’s learning and contributes to the school-to-prison pipeline.
Meanwhile, and not unrelated, teacher shortages continued to grow, even in Oklahoma where a massive increase was made to teacher salaries. Discussions nationwide mostly failed to realize that the removal of professional decision-making from classroom teachers and their treatment as test-prep assembly line workers is a major deterrent to the next generation becoming teachers; they witnessed this de-professionalization as K–12 students. Combined with increasing discipline problems, as noted with the suspension policies above, it is less likely that competent college students will pursue teaching. Salaries are a factor, but they come in third.
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) again showed stagnant or declining scores. Negative results from “The Nation’s Report Card” were used to fit various interpretations. Secretary DeVos incorrectly claimed that NAEP showed two thirds of students were not reading at grade level and used that to promote her school choice agenda. The National Council on Teacher Quality pointed to static scores as indicating poor teacher education programs, which is probably partially correct. While scores did go down for most minorities, the scores went up significantly for Asian-American students---again.
High school graduation rates continue to rise despite valid assessments showing a decrease in student performance. A wide variety of creative school administrative actions have forced widespread grade inflation and contribute in part to some teachers with integrity leaving the classroom. The real victims are the good students who cross the stage to receive a diploma they earned only to be followed by classmates who also receive that diploma for sub-minimal academic performance.
Teacher strikes are back. Despite the U.S. Supreme Court's June 2018 ruling on Janus v. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees finding that requiring non-union members to pay agency fees is unconstitutional, teacher unions have not lost power. In January 2019, Los Angeles teachers went on strike, then Chicago and Indiana teachers did likewise in the fall. Smaller classes, counselors for troubled students and other school quality issues were as important as wages.
Economically poor students and communities are now the supposed cause of underperformance, with critics blaming poverty for any and all achievement gaps. Condemning any "innate ability" as reflecting teachers’ “fixed mindset,” advanced courses formed by ability grouping are condemned on the premise anyone can learn to do anything if the teacher only has a “growth mindset.”
Finally, ed-tech companies are ramping up their propaganda promoting conversion from print to digital media despite evidence showing costly electronic media are less effective and contribute to falling scores. Broadband has now become nearly universal, but is not delivering the digital miracles promised. The prior parent generation who themselves did not have a computerized childhood easily succumbed to this digital hype. This new generation of parents who grew up with technology and the Internet are considerably more skeptical of the techno-hype and are more supportive of a growing number of schools that are taking away student cell phones and considering a return to printed media.