Our 10 Most Popular K-12 Stories of 2022
As we march ahead into a brand new 12 months, EdSurge is reflecting on the tales we shared and the largest hits of 2022.
We printed quite a few tales concerning the plight of lecturers at this time, together with investigations into the experiences of educators whose psychological well being considerations are pushing them out of the occupation and the lives of lecturers who work a number of jobs to cowl their primary wants. We dove into the position of lecturers in edtech decision-making and the use of proof within the growth of studying applied sciences. We explored new efforts by faculty districts to handle employees shortages and different ongoing fallout from the pandemic, together with four-day faculty weeks and extra versatile, better-paying educating packages.
Our readers’ favourite tales included some of the aforementioned items plus some others, spanning first-person essays from classroom lecturers to deeply reported tales from our employees journalists.
What emerges from our listing of most-read tales of 2022 is a transparent theme: Teaching is in disaster. The beneath headlines embrace phrases akin to burnout, demoralization, psychological well being, breakdown, give up, resign, leaving, resist and survive.
In 2023 we search to unpack these advanced, persistent challenges—and unearth some hopeful options, too. Thank you, as at all times, for studying.
The 10 Most Popular K-12 Stories, in Descending Order
10. Educators Don’t Need To Cope. They Need To Resist.
By Jennifer Yoo-Brannon
As an educational coach, Jennifer Yoo-Brannon’s conversations with educators have gotten more and more troublesome not too long ago, as extra lecturers break down in entrance of her and overtly ponder leaving the occupation. But somewhat than serving to them to manage, she writes that her hope for each educator is to discover a group of resistance after they want it. What schooling actually wants, she says, is for lecturers to flock collectively, affirm one another’s experiences and problem the system when it doesn’t serve them.
9. Concerned Parents and Lawmakers: Here’s What You’ll Really See in My Classroom
By Jennifer Yoo-Brannon
When a proposed invoice in Iowa advised placing cameras in school rooms, trainer and 2021-22 Voices of Change writing fellow Jennifer Yoo-Brannon questioned what such units would truly seize. The fact, she realized, is that she usually deviates from lesson plans and works exterior her job duties, to organize her college students “to change the world, to navigate the unpredictable with critical thinking and resilience.” In this piece, she describes what dad and mom and lawmakers would actually see inside her classroom.
8. Our Nation’s Teachers Are Hustling to Survive
By Emily Tate Sullivan
We all knew trainer pay was low, however do you know that almost one in 5 lecturers has a second job through the faculty 12 months? During a four-month investigation co-published with Mother Jones, EdSurge reporter Emily Tate Sullivan spoke to greater than 30 lecturers who double as rideshare drivers, quick meals staff, bartenders and actual property brokers. Through these in depth interviews, in addition to knowledge evaluation of research together with never-before-published analysis on lecturers’ exterior jobs, Tate Sullivan explains how and why this dynamic has change into commonplace within the U.S..
7. Principals Are on the Brink of a Breakdown
By Emily Tate Sullivan
About 85 p.c of faculty principals say they’re experiencing job-related stress, and almost half are coping with burnout after going through trauma personally, or absorbing trauma from their employees, college students and households over the previous two-and-a-half years. EdSurge spoke with a handful of principals about what faculty has been like for them not too long ago, and what methods they use—or might use—to enhance their psychological well being and well-being.
6. The School Hall Pass Is Going Digital. Is That a Good Thing?
By Jeffrey R. Young
A rising quantity of colleges have adopted digital corridor cross methods which have introduced digital innovation to the seemingly easy course of of college students getting a cross to go to the lavatory, the library or another workplace. But some digital-privacy advocates fear that digital corridor passes might create oppressive faculty environments.
5. Can Four-Day School Weeks Keep Teachers From Leaving?
By Nadia Tamez-Robledo
In a bid to staunch trainer burnout and entice new expertise, some faculty districts have moved to undertake four-day faculty weeks. At least one has discovered a technique to give lecturers an additional break day whereas conserving college students in class all week. Could a shorter work week stop educators from quitting?
4. Teaching Broke My Heart. That’s Why I Resigned.
By Natalie Parmenter
After 10 mostly-good years within the classroom, the 2021-22 faculty 12 months was greater than Natalie Parmenter might—or needed to—take, she writes for EdSurge. Though she beloved her college students and felt educating was her calling, she was drained of how politicized the job had change into and annoyed with the fixed expectation that she ought to do extra with much less. So, with a damaged coronary heart, Parmenter resigned.
3. Teaching Must Get More Flexible Before It Falls Apart
By Simon Rodberg
Can the educating occupation survive the troublesome interval we’re in now, following years of pandemic fatigue and many years of being undervalued? Not except it will get extra versatile, argues writer and former educator Simon Rodberg. Teachers want extra time for themselves, and which may contain altering how the varsity day seems. He shares his outside-the-box solutions in an essay.
2. The Mental Health Crisis Causing Teachers to Quit
By Stephen Noonoo
Lesley Allen had panic assaults at work. So did Stephanie Hughes. And Holly Allen. What do all three have in frequent? They’re former lecturers who left their jobs after experiencing a psychological well being disaster—they usually’re removed from alone. In a characteristic co-published with The New Republic, we take a look at the unbelievable pressure going through at this time’s lecturers, and what meaning for the long run of schooling.
1. America’s Teachers Aren’t Burned Out. We Are Demoralized.
By David Stieber
In his 15-year educating profession, David Stieber has misplaced college students to gun violence, seen 7-year olds beg to maintain colleges from closing and taped up damaged asbestos tiles that couldn’t be eliminated. This work hasn’t burned him out, per se, however he is demoralized by systemic injustice and inequity. Teachers, he writes, don’t simply need fixes. They need to be half of discovering options.
