secondary education in usa

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Understanding the American Education System

The American education system offers a rich field of choices for international students. There is such an array of schools, programs and locations that the choices may overwhelm students, even those from the U.S. As you begin your school search, it’s important to familiarize yourself with the American education system. Understanding the system will help you narrow your choices and develop your education plan.

The Educational Structure

Primary and secondary school.

Prior to higher education, American students attend primary and secondary school for a combined total of 12 years. These years are referred to as the first through twelfth grades.

Around age six, U.S. children begin primary school, which is most commonly called “elementary school.” They attend five or six years and then go onto secondary school.

Secondary school consists of two programs: the first is “middle school” or “junior high school” and the second program is “high school.” A diploma or certificate is awarded upon graduation from high school. After graduating high school (12th grade), U.S. students may go on to college or university. College or university study is known as “higher education.”

Grading System

Just like American students, you will have to submit your academic transcripts as part of your application for admission to university or college. Academic transcripts are official copies of your academic work. In the U.S. this includes your “grades” and “grade point average” (GPA), which are measurements of your academic achievement. Courses are commonly graded using percentages, which are converted into letter grades.

The grading system and GPA in the U.S. can be confusing, especially for international students. The interpretation of grades has a lot of variation. For example, two students who attended different schools both submit their transcripts to the same university. They both have 3.5 GPAs, but one student attended an average high school, while the other attended a prestigious school that was academically challenging. The university might interpret their GPAs differently because the two schools have dramatically different standards.

Therefore, there are some crucial things to keep in mind:

• You should find out the U.S. equivalent of the last level of education you completed in your home country.
• Pay close attention to the admission requirements of each university and college, as well as individual degree programs, which may have different requirements than the university.
• Regularly meet with an educational advisor or guidance counselor to make sure you are meeting the requirements.

Your educational advisor or guidance counselor will be able to advise you on whether or not you must spend an extra year or two preparing for U.S. university admission. If an international student entered a U.S. university or college prior to being eligible to attend university in their own country, some countries’ governments and employers may not recognize the students’ U.S. education.

Academic Year

The school calendar usually begins in August or September and continues through May or June. The majority of new students begin in autumn, so it is a good idea for international students to also begin their U.S. university studies at this time. There is a lot of excitement at the beginning of the school year and students form many great friendships during this time, as they are all adjusting to a new phase of academic life. Additionally, many courses are designed for students to take them in sequence, starting in autumn and continuing through the year.

The academic year at many schools is composed of two terms called “semesters.” (Some schools use a three-term calendar known as the “trimester” system.) Still, others further divide the year into the quarter system of four terms, including an optional summer session. Basically, if you exclude the summer session, the academic year is either comprised of two semesters or three quarter terms.

The U.S. Higher Education System: Levels of Study

• First Level: Undergraduate

"The American system is much more open. In Hong Kong you just learn what the teacher writes on the board. In America, you discuss the issues and focus more on ideas."

Paolo Kwan from Hong Kong: Studying English and Business Administration at Sierra College in California

A student who is attending a college or university and has not earned a bachelor’s degree, is studying at the undergraduate level. It typically takes about four years to earn a bachelor’s degree. You can either begin your studies in pursuit of a bachelor’s degree at a community college or a four-year university or college.

Your first two years of study you will generally be required to take a wide variety of classes in different subjects, commonly known as prerequisite courses: literature, science, the social sciences, the arts, history, and so forth. This is so you achieve a general knowledge, a foundation, of a variety of subjects prior to focusing on a specific field of study.

Many students choose to study at a community college in order to complete the first two years of prerequisite courses. They will earn an Associate of Arts (AA) transfer degree and then transfer to a four-year university or college.

A “major” is the specific field of study in which your degree is focused. For example, if someone’s major is journalism, they will earn a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism. You will be required to take a certain number of courses in this field in order to meet the degree requirements of your major. You must choose your major at the beginning of your third year of school.

A very unique characteristic of the American higher education system is that you can change your major multiple times if you choose. It is extremely common for American students to switch majors at some point in their undergraduate studies. Often, students discover a different field that they excel in or enjoy. The American education system is very flexible. Keep in mind though that switching majors may result in more courses, which means more time and money.

• Second Level: Graduate in Pursuit of a Master’s Degree

Presently, a college or university graduate with a bachelor’s degree may want to seriously think about graduate study in order to enter certain professions or advance their career. This degree is usually mandatory for higher-level positions in library science, engineering, behavioral health and education.

Furthermore, international students from some countries are only permitted to study abroad at a graduate level. You should inquire about the credentials needed to get a job in your country before you apply to a postgraduate university in the USA.

A graduate program is usually a division of a university or college. To gain admission, you will need to take the GRE (graduate record examination). Certain master’s programs require specific tests, such as the LSAT for law school, the GRE or GMAT for business school, and the MCAT for medical school.

Graduate programs in pursuit of a master’s degree typically take one to two years to complete. For example, the MBA (master of business administration) is an extremely popular degree program that takes about two years. Other master’s programs, such as journalism, only take one year.

The majority of a master’s program is spent in classroom study and a graduate student must prepare a long research paper called a “master’s thesis” or complete a “master’s project.”

• Third Level: Graduate in Pursuit of a Doctorate Degree

Many graduate schools consider the attainment of a master’s degree the first step towards earning a PhD (doctorate). But at other schools, students may prepare directly for a doctorate without also earning a master’s degree. It may take three years or more to earn a PhD degree. For international students, it may take as long as five or six years.

For the first two years of the program most doctoral candidates enroll in classes and seminars. At least another year is spent conducting firsthand research and writing a thesis or dissertation. This paper must contain views, designs, or research that have not been previously published.

A doctoral dissertation is a discussion and summary of the current scholarship on a given topic. Most U.S. universities awarding doctorates also require their candidates to have a reading knowledge of two foreign languages, to spend a required length of time “in residence,” to pass a qualifying examination that officially admits candidates to the PhD program, and to pass an oral examination on the same topic as the dissertation.

Characteristics of the U.S. Higher Education System

Classroom Environment

Classes range from large lectures with several hundred students to smaller classes and seminars (discussion classes) with only a few students. The American university classroom atmosphere is very dynamic. You will be expected to share your opinion, argue your point, participate in class discussions and give presentations. International students find this one of the most surprising aspects of the American education system.

Each week professors usually assign textbook and other readings. You will be expected to keep up-to-date with the required readings and homework so you can participate in class discussions and understand the lectures. Certain degree programs also require students to spend time in the laboratory.

Professors issue grades for each student enrolled in the course. Grades are usually based upon:

• Each professor will have a unique set of class participation requirements, but students are expected to participate in class discussions, especially in seminar classes. This is often a very important factor in determining a student’s grade.
• A midterm examination is usually given during class time.
• One or more research or term papers , or laboratory reports must be submitted for evaluation.
• Possible short exams or quizzes are given. Sometimes professors will give an unannounced “pop quiz.” This doesn’t count heavily toward the grade, but is intended to inspire students to keep up with their assignments and attendance.
• A final examination will be held after the final class meeting.

Each course is worth a certain number of credits or credit hours. This number is roughly the same as the number of hours a student spends in class for that course each week. A course is typically worth three to five credits.

A full-time program at most schools is 12 or 15 credit hours (four or five courses per term) and a certain number of credits must be fulfilled in order to graduate. International students are expected to enroll in a full-time program during each term.

If a student enrolls at a new university before finishing a degree, generally most credits earned at the first school can be used to complete a degree at the new university. This means a student can transfer to another university and still graduate within a reasonable time.

Types of U.S. higher education

Xujie Zhao from China: Studying Computer Networking at Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston

1. State College or University

A state school is supported and run by a state or local government. Each of the 50 U.S. states operates at least one state university and possibly several state colleges. Many of these public universities schools have the name of the state, or the actual word “State” in their names: for example, Washington State University and the University of Michigan.

2. Private College or University

These schools are privately run as opposed to being run by a branch of the government. Tuition will usually be higher than state schools. Often, private U.S. universities and colleges are smaller in size than state schools.

Religiously affiliated universities and colleges are private schools. Nearly all these schools welcome students of all religions and beliefs. Yet, there are a percentage of schools that prefer to admit students who hold similar religious beliefs as those in which the school was founded.

3. Community College

Community colleges are two-year colleges that award an associate’s degrees (transferable), as well as certifications. There are many types of associate degrees, but the most important distinguishing factor is whether or not the degree is transferable. Usually, there will be two primary degree tracks: one for academic transfer and the other prepares students to enter the workforce straightaway. University transfer degrees are generally associate of arts or associate of science. Not likely to be transferrable are the associate of applied science degrees and certificates of completion.

Community college graduates most commonly transfer to four-year colleges or universities to complete their degree. Because they can transfer the credits they earned while attending community college, they can complete their bachelor’s degree program in two or more additional years. Many also offer ESL or intensive English language programs, which will prepare students for university-level courses.

If you do not plan to earn a higher degree than the associate’s, you should find out if an associate’s degree will qualify you for a job in your home country.

4. Institute of Technology

An institute of technology is a school that provides at least four years of study in science and technology. Some have graduate programs, while others offer short-term courses.

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Education Statistics: Facts About American Schools

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Corrected : An earlier version of this article incorrectly described how many public school students attend suburban schools. It is a plurality of students.

How many K-12 public schools, districts, and students are there? What does the American student population look like? And how much are we, as a nation, spending on the education of these youth?

These data points can give perspective to the implications and potential impact of education policies. The Education Week library provides answers to these questions, and some other enlightening facts, below.

This page will be updated when new federal data becomes available. Federal data is typically released several years after it is collected.

SCHOOLS AND DISTRICTS

How many schools are there in the U.S.?

There are 128,961 public and private K-12 schools in the U.S., according to 2019-20 data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Here’s how they break down:

• All: 128,961
• Prekindergarten, elementary, and middle schools: 88,909
• Secondary and high schools: 27,155
• Other, ungraded, and not applicable/not reported: 12,897

Here’s what this looks like in chart form:

How many are traditional public schools, public charter schools, or private schools?

While charter schools are often the topic of debate, they make up only a small portion of all schools.

• Traditional public schools: 90,922 (2019-20, Source )
• Public charter schools: 7,547 (2019-20, Source )
• Private schools: 30,492 (2019-20, Source )

For more on charters, including how they work and who oversees them, read this explainer .

Among public schools, how many high schools are there in the U.S.?

• Total public schools: 98,469
• Secondary and high schools: 23,529
• Middle schools: 16,264
• Elementary schools: 52,322
• Prekindergarten: 1,453
• Other, ungraded, and not applicable/not reported: 4,901

(2019-20, Source )

What is the average public school size?

The average public school enrollment is 555 students , according to data from 2021. That’s up 29 students from the average school size in 2015, according to NCES .

What is the average public school size by type of location?

• City: 562 students
• Suburban: 637 students
• Town: 437 students
• Rural: 367 students

(2021, Source )

How many schools offer online courses?

According to 2020-21 NCES data , 28.7 percent of public schools , including charters, offered at least one course entirely online before the pandemic. Almost a third (30.6 percent) of charter schools offered an entire course online, versus 28.5 percent of traditional public schools.

How many virtual schools are there?

According to 2019-20 NCES data , there are 691 virtual schools in the U.S. The NCES defines virtual schools as “having instruction during which students and teachers are separated by time and/or location and interact via internet-connected computers or other electronic devices.”

How many school districts are there?

There are 13,318 regular school districts in the U.S. (2021-22, Source )

Note: Regular districts exclude regional education service agencies and supervisory union administrative centers, state-operated agencies, federally operated agencies, and other types of local education agencies, such as independent charter schools.

What is the most common size for a school district?

In 2021-22 , the plurality of regular school districts (23.9 percent) had 1,000 to 2,499 students enrolled . In the 1979-80 school year, in contrast, small school districts were the largest category, making up 26.5 percent of all districts.

How has the size of school districts changed over time?

The number of regular school districts in the U.S. decreased from 15,944 in 1979-80 to 13,318 in 2021-22 . In that time, the percent of districts that were large (over 25,000 students) grew from 1.1 percent of districts to 2 percent. The percent of very small districts (with enrollment under 300 students), decreased from 26.5 percent to 19.2 percent in that same period.

Where are the largest school districts in the U.S.?

Big cities like New York and Los Angeles lead the list of the largest school districts, as identified by NCES in 2021 . But the rest of the top 10 may surprise you:

How many students attend public schools?

In America’s public schools, there are over 49 million students , based on federal projections for the fall of 2023.

How many students attend charter schools?

According to data from two years earlier , over 3.64 million students, or 7.5 percent of all public school students, attend charter schools.

How many students attend private schools? What are the religious affiliations of those schools?

In total, almost 5.5 million students attend private schools, according to 2021 NCES data.

• 33.4% of those in Catholic schools
• 25.5% in nonsectarian (non-religious) schools
• 13.4% in un-affiliated religious schools
• 14.3% in conservative Christian schools
• 13.6% in other religiously affiliated schools

How many students are homeschooled?

The COVID-19 pandemic led to a huge increase in the rates of home schooling in the U.S. Even after the first year of the pandemic, in the 2020-21 school year, 5.4 percent of all students were home-schooled , according to the August 2021 Household Pulse Survey .

In 2019, only 3.23 percent of all students were home-schooled, according to NCES 2019 data.

So who are the nation’s home schoolers? This overview of home schooling includes more information on the topic.

Where do most students attend school—the city, the suburbs or rural areas?

According to 2021 data , a plurality of public school students attend suburban schools, but enrollment in urban schools is not far behind.

• Suburban: 38.9% of public school students
• City: 29.8% of public school students
• Rural: 20% of public school students
• Town: 10.8% of public school students

Meanwhile, as of 2019-20, most private school students attend schools in the city .

• City: 42.7% of private school students
• Suburban: 40.4% of private school students
• Rural: 10.8% of private school students
• Town: 6.1% of private school students

What are the demographics of public school students?

Here’s a racial breakdown of the student population in American public schools, as of 2021 :

• White students: 45.2%
• Hispanic students: 28.4%
• Black students: 14.9%
• Asian students: 5.4%
• Two or more race students: 4.7%
• American Indian/Alaska Native students: 0.9%
• Pacific Islander students: 0.4% Note: Percentages do not total 100 because of rounding.

The 2015-16 school year was the first in which the majority of public schoolchildren were minorities. For a look back at what that milestone meant for schools, revisit this story from 2014 .

How many students have internet access at home?

As of 2021, 97.1 percent of children ages 3-18 lived in a household with internet access . However, of the 97.1 percent, 4.5 percent only had internet through a smartphone. In 2021, 2.9 percent of children ages 3-18 lived in a household with no internet at all, down significantly from 5.4 percent in 2019.

How many students graduate high school?

The national graduation rate is 87 percent , according to 2019-20 NCES data .

How has that changed over time?

The graduation rate has increased by 8 percentage points from 2010-2011 to 2019-20 .

What’s behind record rises in U.S. graduation rates? More on that here .

How many students graduate in my state?

Hover over a state in this interactive map to see its graduation rate in 2019-20 , broken down by demographic groups:

TEACHERS AND PRINCIPALS

How many teachers are there in the U.S.?

In America’s public schools there will be 3.2 million full-time-equivalent teachers in the fall of 2024, according to federal projections .

How many principals are there?

There are 91,900 public school principals in the U.S., according to 2020-21 numbers from NCES .

What percent of teachers are women?

Teaching continues to be a profession dominated by women. According to 2020-21 numbers from NCES, 76.8 percent of teachers are female , while 23.2 percent are male.

What are the racial demographics of teachers?

When it comes to race, America’s public school teachers look very different from its student population.

• 79.9% White
• 9.4% Hispanic
• 1.6% Two or more races
• 0.4% American Indian/Alaska Native
• 0.2% Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander

(2020-21, Source )

For a more detailed look at the profile of America’s teaching force, including how many say they’re likely to leave the profession, see the results of the most recent Merrimack College Teacher Survey .

Who are U.S. public school principals?

Like teachers, most American principals are white and female.

• 77.1% White
• 10.4% Black
• 9.3% Hispanic
• 1.3% Two or more races
• 0.6% American Indian/Alaska Native
• 0.3% Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander

Another finding from recent federal data : Charter school principals are more diverse. Only 66.6 percent of charter school principals are white, compared with 78.2 percent of traditional school principals. 16.1 percent of charter principals are Black and 13.2 percent are Hispanic, while only 9.8 percent of traditional school principals are Black and 8.9 percent are Hispanic.

What’s the average U.S. teacher salary?

The estimated average annual salary for teachers is $66,397 , according to 2021-22 data from NCES .

Of course, teacher salaries vary widely from state to state. Although its findings differ from the federal data, the National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers’ union, releases an annual ranking of state salaries. Here are 2022-23 numbers .

How does that compare with principals’ salaries?

According to 2020-21 data , the average public school principal salary is $105,900 .

How big are the teachers’ unions?

According to NCES data from 2017-18 , 69.4 percent of teachers are members of a union.

In July 2023, the National Education Association had about 2.3 million full-time-equivalent members who are active educators or, retirees, or community allies .

As of June 2023, the American Federation of Teachers had about 1. 7 million members .

What is the average student to teacher ratio in schools?

On average, in the fall of 2024, there will be 15.2 students assigned to a single teacher in public schools, NCES projections show.

The state with highest student to teacher ratio is, as of 20 21 , Arizona , with 22.2 students for each teacher. The state with lowest student to teacher ratio? Vermont , with 10.5 students for each teacher.

Note: The pupil/teacher ratio includes teachers for students with disabilities and other special teachers, while these teachers are generally excluded from class size calculations.

SUPERINTENDENTS

What are the demographics of school superintendents?

A 2023 survey conducted by AASA , The School Superintendents Association, found that 89 percent of superintendents identify as white , and 73 percent identify as men. The median age of superintendents is 52 years old. There are more younger male superintendents than female ones—37 percent of male superintendents were between the ages of 30 and 50, while only 29 percent of female superintendents fell in that age range.

What’s the average tenure of a big-city superintendent?

47.5 percent of all superintendent have 5 or fewer years of experience in the position, according to a 2023 survey conducted by AASA .

What’s the average superintendent salary?

The average superintendent salary was $156,468 in 2023, according to a 2023 survey conducted by AASA . That’s a slight decrease from 2022, when superintendents made on average $158,670.

For more facts about superintendents, read more about the survey.

SCHOOL SPENDING

How much does the U.S. spend on K-12 education?

In 2020-21, $809 billion was spent on public elementary and secondary education by local, state, and federal agencies. State and local governments provided about 89 percent of the funding, while the federal government chipped in around 10.5 percent. The federal government’s share of education funding was higher than normal due to pandemic relief aid. In 2019-20, only 7.5 percent of total school funding came from the federal government.

For more on where money for education comes from and how it’s spent, see this article .

How much is spent per pupil?

In fiscal year 2021, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau , on average the nation spent $14,347 to educate each student . Adjusted for inflation, education funding per pupil nationwide has risen by about $1,800 in the last decade.

These expenditures varied state to state. New York has the highest per-pupil expenditures in the nation at $26,571. At the other end of the scale, Idaho spent the least at $9,053 per student.

Hover over a state to see its per-pupil spending:

Want to see more education statistics?

Take a look at our special education statistics page .

Email [email protected] with your suggestions or feedback.

Education Issues, Explained

Sources: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics; U.S. Department of Commerce, Census Bureau; The Broad Center; Education Week Research Center, 2021.

How to Cite This Article Riser-Kositsky, M. (2019, January 3). Education Statistics: Facts About American Schools. Education Week . Retrieved Month Day, Year from https://www.edweek.org/leadership/education-statistics-facts-about-american-schools/2019/01 A version of this article appeared in the January 16, 2019 edition of Education Week as Education Statistics

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US Education System

US education system is quite similar to that in other countries. It consists of three main stages: primary education (kindergarten and elementary school), secondary education (middle school and high school), and further education (tertiary or higher education).

Compulsory education in the country includes elementary school, middle school, and high school education. It is for children from the age of 5 to the age of 18. The first year of compulsory education is associated with the elementary school, also known in the US as primary school, grade school or grammar school. Elementary education is followed by secondary education. The secondary school in the US is often divided into junior high school (middle school) and senior high school (high school).

Post-secondary education in the US, represented by tertiary education and higher education sectors, is optional. The post-secondary education sector in the US offers a wide range of programs, including non-degree programs that lead to certificates and diplomas and associate, bachelor, first professional, master, advanced intermediate, and research doctorate degrees.

Primary School

Primary education in the US is for children from the age of 5. Its first stage is associated with attending a kindergarten. Elementary school includes grades from K to 6. After elementary school, students have to attend middle or junior high school. Most of the elementary schools in the US are coeducational, which means that classes are mixed boys and girls.

The curriculum of elementary school varies depending on the organization, educational aims of individual schools and local communities. To pass from one grade to another, a student in the US has to gain specified skills. It means that the promotion is based on student’s achievements. Most of the US schools today use testing as a mean of determining whether a child is ready to move to the next grade. There are some exceptional cases when a student is required to repeat a year.

The main aim of the primary education in the US is to provide a child with instruction in the fundamental skills, including reading, writing, mathematics, social studies such as history and geography, crafts, music, science, art and physical education. The last few years of elementary school also include learning foreign languages. Nevertheless, there are some schools and districts where foreign language classes start at the high school only.

Each student of the elementary school in the US is given some homework. It is worth to mention that the amount of homework in the US is much lower in comparison to many other countries. Nevertheless, the amount of homework increases with higher grades.

Successful students of elementary schools in the US can take part in Gifted Education Programs created for those who do not see regular curriculum as challenging.

Secondary School

Depending on a district, secondary school students can attend a middle school until grade 8 before transferring to a senior high school to study until grade 12, or attend a combined junior-senior high school. The same to primary school sector, secondary education in the US is coeducational. It is worth to mention that in comparison to most high schools in the world, high schools in the US are quite larger. Regional high schools in the country often have a population of over 2000 students.

Secondary school curriculum generally includes learning such subjects as English, mathematics, general science, health, physical education and social studies or social sciences. In some high schools, students are tracked for academic subjects and the most successful students have an opportunity to take enriched classes in several academic subjects. Such notion is known as the ‘fast track’. It is interesting to know that the best students can also take some college level classes available at the last two years of high school.

In addition to mandatory subjects mentioned before, each student can choose some optional subjects known as ‘electives’. Those ‘electives’ supplement student’s future education and career plans. For example, students who have plans to go on to college or university elect courses with an emphasis on academic sciences, higher mathematics, advanced English literature, composition, social sciences and foreign languages. Generally, secondary schools offer a wide range of subjects from which students can choose a program which will lead to college or university entrance, as well as a career in business or industry.

Each student in the US receives a high school diploma after the successful completion of the 12th grade. It is worth to mention that the process of graduation is associated with all stages of compulsory education, including even pre-school education. Starting from high school, graduation is associated with ceremonies that celebrate the new stage of student’s life with caps, gowns, diplomas, and speeches by staff and students. Such ceremonies are known in the US as ‘commencements’. Americans are very enthusiastic about life-cycle events and that is why commencements usually mean great celebrations. Nearly every student of American school dreams to be chosen as the ‘valedictorian’. It is considered as an honor for students to give the valedictorian oration or farewell speech at the graduation ceremony.

Post-Secondary Education

After a student completes 12 years of elementary and secondary education, it is possible to go directly to work or to continue the study. All those who want to continue their study have to receive high school diploma or to pass General Education Development tests (GED).

The higher education sector in the USA is represented by such educational institutions as four-year colleges, universities, community colleges, professional institutes, and performing and visual arts schools. It is important to know that post-secondary educational institutions in the US differ from their overseas counterparts in a number of ways. The most notable difference is represented by the grading system. The higher education sector in the US offers an enormous diversity of subjects, programs, and college degree levels.

There are four-year colleges where students can get a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts studies, as well as there are universities which offer the same programs. Both four-year colleges and universities also offer undergraduate programs. Big universities offer undergraduate programs specialized majors, such as business, science, technology, engineering, math, pre-med, fine arts, and design. Degrees and graduate programs in these and other majors are also available in universities. There is also a chance to get a combined bachelor/master degree offered by big universities. While normally the completion of such programs takes six or eight years, combined programs last for five years. Such programs are available in the fields of teaching, law, medicine, and business.

There are also post-secondary institutions in the US that do not grant bachelor’s degrees. These are two-year community colleges and specialized professional institutes.

Specialized professional institutes offer training courses in such fields as computer technology, fashion design, cosmetology, physical therapy, business studies, fine art, photography, audio/visual technology, and theater arts.

Two-year community colleges offer college level courses in a variety of subjects, starting from philosophy to pre-med. Education is such colleges is often less expensive than education if four-year colleges or universities. Two-year colleges provide their students with associate’s degree known as the ‘degree instead of bachelor’s’. After a student completes two-year college program, it is possible to continue education and to apply for a four-year college or university.

Facts About Education in the US

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​Why School Absences Have ‘Exploded’ Almost Everywhere

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By Sarah Mervosh and Francesca Paris

Sarah Mervosh reports on K-12 education, and Francesca Paris is a data reporter.

In Anchorage, affluent families set off on ski trips and other lengthy vacations, with the assumption that their children can keep up with schoolwork online.

In a working-class pocket of Michigan, school administrators have tried almost everything, including pajama day, to boost student attendance.

And across the country, students with heightened anxiety are opting to stay home rather than face the classroom.

In the four years since the pandemic closed schools, U.S. education has struggled to recover on a number of fronts, from learning loss , to enrollment , to student behavior .

But perhaps no issue has been as stubborn and pervasive as a sharp increase in student absenteeism, a problem that cuts across demographics and has continued long after schools reopened.

Nationally, an estimated 26 percent of public school students were considered chronically absent last school year, up from 15 percent before the pandemic, according to the most recent data, from 40 states and Washington, D.C., compiled by the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute . Chronic absence is typically defined as missing at least 10 percent of the school year, or about 18 days, for any reason.

Source: Upshot analysis of data from Nat Malkus, American Enterprise Institute. Districts are grouped into highest, middle and lowest third.

The increases have occurred in districts big and small, and across income and race. For districts in wealthier areas, chronic absenteeism rates have about doubled, to 19 percent in the 2022-23 school year from 10 percent before the pandemic, a New York Times analysis of the data found.

Poor communities, which started with elevated rates of student absenteeism, are facing an even bigger crisis: Around 32 percent of students in the poorest districts were chronically absent in the 2022-23 school year, up from 19 percent before the pandemic.

Even districts that reopened quickly during the pandemic, in fall 2020, have seen vast increases.

“The problem got worse for everybody in the same proportional way,” said Nat Malkus, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, who collected and studied the data.

Victoria, Texas reopened schools in August 2020, earlier than many other districts. Even so, student absenteeism in the district has doubled.

Kaylee Greenlee for The New York Times

The trends suggest that something fundamental has shifted in American childhood and the culture of school, in ways that may be long lasting. What was once a deeply ingrained habit — wake up, catch the bus, report to class — is now something far more tenuous.

“Our relationship with school became optional,” said Katie Rosanbalm, a psychologist and associate research professor with the Center for Child and Family Policy at Duke University.

The habit of daily attendance — and many families’ trust — was severed when schools shuttered in spring 2020. Even after schools reopened, things hardly snapped back to normal. Districts offered remote options, required Covid-19 quarantines and relaxed policies around attendance and grading .

Source: Nat Malkus, American Enterprise Institute . Includes districts with at least 1,500 students in 2019. Numbers are rounded. U.S. average is estimated.

Today, student absenteeism is a leading factor hindering the nation’s recovery from pandemic learning losses , educational experts say. Students can’t learn if they aren’t in school. And a rotating cast of absent classmates can negatively affect the achievement of even students who do show up, because teachers must slow down and adjust their approach to keep everyone on track.

“If we don’t address the absenteeism, then all is naught,” said Adam Clark, the superintendent of Mt. Diablo Unified, a socioeconomically and racially diverse district of 29,000 students in Northern California, where he said absenteeism has “exploded” to about 25 percent of students. That’s up from 12 percent before the pandemic.

U.S. students, overall, are not caught up from their pandemic losses. Absenteeism is one key reason.

Why Students Are Missing School

Schools everywhere are scrambling to improve attendance, but the new calculus among families is complex and multifaceted.

At South Anchorage High School in Anchorage, where students are largely white and middle-to-upper income, some families now go on ski trips during the school year, or take advantage of off-peak travel deals to vacation for two weeks in Hawaii, said Sara Miller, a counselor at the school.

For a smaller number of students at the school who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, the reasons are different, and more intractable. They often have to stay home to care for younger siblings, Ms. Miller said. On days they miss the bus, their parents are busy working or do not have a car to take them to school.

And because teachers are still expected to post class work online, often nothing more than a skeleton version of an assignment, families incorrectly think students are keeping up, Ms. Miller said.

Sara Miller, a counselor at South Anchorage High School for 20 years, now sees more absences from students across the socioeconomic spectrum.

Ash Adams for The New York Times

Across the country, students are staying home when sick , not only with Covid-19, but also with more routine colds and viruses.

And more students are struggling with their mental health, one reason for increased absenteeism in Mason, Ohio, an affluent suburb of Cincinnati, said Tracey Carson, a district spokeswoman. Because many parents can work remotely, their children can also stay home.

For Ashley Cooper, 31, of San Marcos, Texas, the pandemic fractured her trust in an education system that she said left her daughter to learn online, with little support, and then expected her to perform on grade level upon her return. Her daughter, who fell behind in math, has struggled with anxiety ever since, she said.

“There have been days where she’s been absolutely in tears — ‘Can’t do it. Mom, I don’t want to go,’” said Ms. Cooper, who has worked with the nonprofit Communities in Schools to improve her children’s school attendance. But she added, “as a mom, I feel like it’s OK to have a mental health day, to say, ‘I hear you and I listen. You are important.’”

Experts say missing school is both a symptom of pandemic-related challenges, and also a cause. Students who are behind academically may not want to attend, but being absent sets them further back. Anxious students may avoid school, but hiding out can fuel their anxiety.

And schools have also seen a rise in discipline problems since the pandemic, an issue intertwined with absenteeism.

Dr. Rosanbalm, the Duke psychologist, said both absenteeism and behavioral outbursts are examples of the human stress response, now playing out en masse in schools: fight (verbal or physical aggression) or flight (absenteeism).

“If kids are not here, they are not forming relationships,” said Quintin Shepherd, the superintendent in Victoria, Texas.

Quintin Shepherd, the superintendent in Victoria, Texas, first put his focus on student behavior, which he described as a “fire in the kitchen” after schools reopened in August 2020.

The district, which serves a mostly low-income and Hispanic student body of around 13,000, found success with a one-on-one coaching program that teaches coping strategies to the most disruptive students. In some cases, students went from having 20 classroom outbursts per year to fewer than five, Dr. Shepherd said.

But chronic absenteeism is yet to be conquered. About 30 percent of students are chronically absent this year, roughly double the rate before the pandemic.

Dr. Shepherd, who originally hoped student absenteeism would improve naturally with time, has begun to think that it is, in fact, at the root of many issues.

“If kids are not here, they are not forming relationships,” he said. “If they are not forming relationships, we should expect there will be behavior and discipline issues. If they are not here, they will not be academically learning and they will struggle. If they struggle with their coursework, you can expect violent behaviors.”

Teacher absences have also increased since the pandemic, and student absences mean less certainty about which friends and classmates will be there. That can lead to more absenteeism, said Michael A. Gottfried, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education. His research has found that when 10 percent of a student’s classmates are absent on a given day, that student is more likely to be absent the following day.

Absent classmates can have a negative impact on the achievement and attendance of even the students who do show up.

Is This the New Normal?

In many ways, the challenge facing schools is one felt more broadly in American society: Have the cultural shifts from the pandemic become permanent?

In the work force, U.S. employees are still working from home at a rate that has remained largely unchanged since late 2022 . Companies have managed to “put the genie back in the bottle” to some extent by requiring a return to office a few days a week, said Nicholas Bloom, an economist at Stanford University who studies remote work. But hybrid office culture, he said, appears here to stay.

Some wonder whether it is time for schools to be more pragmatic.

Lakisha Young, the chief executive of the Oakland REACH, a parent advocacy group that works with low-income families in California, suggested a rigorous online option that students could use in emergencies, such as when a student misses the bus or has to care for a family member. “The goal should be, how do I ensure this kid is educated?” she said.

Relationships with adults at school and other classmates are crucial for attendance.

In the corporate world, companies have found some success appealing to a sense of social responsibility, where colleagues rely on each other to show up on the agreed-upon days.

A similar dynamic may be at play in schools, where experts say strong relationships are critical for attendance.

There is a sense of: “If I don’t show up, would people even miss the fact that I’m not there?” said Charlene M. Russell-Tucker, the commissioner of education in Connecticut.

In her state, a home visit program has yielded positive results , in part by working with families to address the specific reasons a student is missing school, but also by establishing a relationship with a caring adult. Other efforts — such as sending text messages or postcards to parents informing them of the number of accumulated absences — can also be effective.

Regina Murff has worked to re-establish the daily habit of school attendance for her sons, who are 6 and 12.

Sylvia Jarrus for The New York Times

In Ypsilanti, Mich., outside of Ann Arbor, a home visit helped Regina Murff, 44, feel less alone when she was struggling to get her children to school each morning.

After working at a nursing home during the pandemic, and later losing her sister to Covid-19, she said, there were days she found it difficult to get out of bed. Ms. Murff was also more willing to keep her children home when they were sick, for fear of accidentally spreading the virus.

But after a visit from her school district, and starting therapy herself, she has settled into a new routine. She helps her sons, 6 and 12, set out their outfits at night and she wakes up at 6 a.m. to ensure they get on the bus. If they are sick, she said, she knows to call the absence into school. “I’ve done a huge turnaround in my life,” she said.

But bringing about meaningful change for large numbers of students remains slow, difficult work .

Nationally, about 26 percent of students were considered chronically absent last school year, up from 15 percent before the pandemic.

The Ypsilanti school district has tried a bit of everything, said the superintendent, Alena Zachery-Ross. In addition to door knocks, officials are looking for ways to make school more appealing for the district’s 3,800 students, including more than 80 percent who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. They held themed dress-up days — ’70s day, pajama day — and gave away warm clothes after noticing a dip in attendance during winter months.

“We wondered, is it because you don’t have a coat, you don’t have boots?” said Dr. Zachery-Ross.

Still, absenteeism overall remains higher than it was before the pandemic. “We haven’t seen an answer,” she said.

Data provided by Nat Malkus, with the American Enterprise Institute. The data was originally published on the Return to Learn tracker and used for the report “ Long COVID for Public Schools: Chronic Absenteeism Before and After the Pandemic .”

The analysis for each year includes all districts with available data for that year, weighted by district size. Data are sourced from states, where available, and the U.S. Department of Education and NCES Common Core of Data.

For the 2018-19 school year, data was available for all 50 states and the District of Columbia. For 2022-23, it was available for 40 states and D.C., due to delays in state reporting.

Closure length status is based on the most in-person learning option available. Poverty is measured using the Census Bureau’s Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates. School size and minority population estimates are from NCES CCD.

How absenteeism is measured can vary state by state, which means comparisons across state lines may not be reliable.

An earlier version of this article misnamed a research center at Duke University. It is the Center for Child and Family Policy, not the Center of Child and Family Policy.

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What Changes to the U.S. Education System Are Needed to Support Long-Term Success for All Americans?

With the pandemic deepening inequities that threaten students’ prospects, the vice president of the Corporation’s National Program provides a vision for transforming our education system from one characterized by uneven and unjust results to one that puts all students on a path to bright futures 

At no point in our nation’s history have we asked so much of our education system as we do today. We ask that our primary and secondary schools prepare all students, regardless of background, for a lifetime of learning. We ask that teachers guide every child toward deeper understanding while simultaneously attending to their social-emotional development. And we ask that our institutions of higher learning serve students with a far broader range of life circumstances than ever before.

We ask these things of education because the future we aspire to requires it. The nature of work and civic participation is evolving at an unprecedented rate. Advances in automation, artificial intelligence, and social media are driving rapid changes in how we interact with each other and what skills hold value. In the world our children will inherit, their ability to adapt, think critically, and work effectively with others will be essential for both their own success and the well-being of society.

At Carnegie Corporation of New York, we focus on supporting people who are in a position to meet this challenge. That includes the full spectrum of educators, administrators, family members, and others who shape young people’s learning experiences as they progress toward and into adulthood. Our mission is to empower all students with the tools, systems, knowledge, and mindsets to prepare them to fully participate in the global economy and in a robust democracy.

All of our work is geared toward transforming student learning. The knowledge, skills, and dispositions required for success today call for a vastly different set of learning experiences than may have sufficed in the past. Students must play a more active role in their own learning, and that learning must encompass more than subject-matter knowledge. Preparing all children for success requires greater attention to inclusiveness in the classroom, differentiation in teaching and learning, and universal high expectations.

This transformation needs to happen in higher education as well. A high school education is no longer enough to ensure financial security. We need more high-quality postsecondary options, better guidance for students as they transition beyond high school, and sufficient supports to enable all students to complete their postsecondary programs. Preparing students for lifelong success requires stronger connections between K–12, higher education, and work.

The need for such transformation has become all the more urgent in the face of COVID-19. As with past economic crises, the downturn resulting from the pandemic is likely to accelerate the erosion of opportunities for low-skilled workers with only a high school education. Investments in innovative learning models and student supports are critical to preventing further inequities in learning outcomes. 

An Urgent Call for Advancing Equity 

The 2020–21 school year may prove to be the most consequential in American history. With unfathomable speed, COVID-19 has forced more change in how schools operate than in the previous half century.

What is most concerning in all of this is the impact on the most underserved and historically marginalized in our society: low-income children and students of color. Even before the current crisis, the future prospects of a young person today looked very different depending on the color of her skin and the zip code in which she grew up, but the pandemic exposed and exacerbated long-standing racial and economic inequities. And the same families who are faring worst in terms of disrupted schooling are bearing the brunt of the economic downturn and disproportionately getting sick, being hospitalized, and dying.

Our mission is to empower all students with the tools, systems, knowledge, and mindsets to prepare them to fully participate in the global economy and in a robust democracy.

Every organization that is committed to educational improvement needs to ask itself what it can do differently to further advance the cause of educational equity during this continuing crisis so that we can make lasting improvements. As we know from past experience, if the goal of equity is not kept front and center, those who are already behind through no fault of their own will benefit the least. If ever there were a time to heed this caution, it is now.

We hope that our nation will approach education with a new sense of purpose and a shared commitment to ensuring that our schools truly work for every child. Whether or not that happens will depend on our resolve and our actions in the coming months. We have the proof points and know-how to transform learning, bolster instruction, and meet the needs of our most disadvantaged students. What has changed is the urgency for doing so at scale.

Our starting place must be a vision of equal opportunity, and from there we must create the conditions that can actually ensure it — irrespective of how different they may look from the ones we now have. We need to reimagine the systems that shape student learning and put the communities whose circumstances we most need to elevate at the center of that process. We need to recognize that we will not improve student outcomes without building the capacity of the adults who work with them, supporting them with high-quality resources and meaningful opportunities for collaboration and professional growth. We need to promote stronger connections between K–12, higher education, and employment so that all students are prepared for lifelong success.

The pandemic has deepened inequities that threaten students’ prospects. But if we seize this moment and learn from it, if we marshal the necessary resources, we have the potential to transform our education system from one characterized by uneven and unjust results to one that puts all students on a path to bright futures.

In a pandemic-induced moment when the American education system has been blown into 25 million homes across the country, where do we go from here?

We Must Learn to Act in New Ways

These are not controversial ideas. In fact, they constitute the general consensus about where American education needs to go. But they also represent a tall order for the people who influence the system. Practically everyone who plays a part in education must learn to act in new ways.

That we have made progress in such areas as high school completion, college-going rates, and the adoption of college- and career-ready standards is a testament to the commitment of those working in the field. But it will take more than commitment to achieve the changes in student learning that our times demand. We can’t expect individuals to figure out what they need to do on their own, nor should we be surprised if they struggle to do so when working in institutional structures designed to produce different outcomes. The transformation we seek calls for much greater coordination and a broader set of allies than would suffice for more incremental changes.

Our starting place must be a vision of equal opportunity, and from there we must create the conditions that can actually ensure it — irrespective of how different they may look from the ones we now have.

Our best hope for achieving equity and the transformation of student learning is to enhance adults’ ability to contribute to that learning. That means building their capacity while supporting their authentic engagement in promoting a high-quality education for every child. It also means ensuring that people operate within systems that are optimized to support their effectiveness and that a growing body of knowledge informs their efforts.

These notions comprise our overarching strategy for promoting the systems change needed to transform student learning experiences on a large scale. We seek to enhance adult capacity and stakeholder engagement in the service of ensuring that all students are prepared to meet the demands of the 21st century. We also support knowledge development and organizational improvement to the extent that investments in these areas enhance adult capacity, stakeholder engagement, and student experiences.

Five Ways We Invest in the Future of Students

These views on how best to promote systems change in education guide our philanthropic work. The strategic areas of change we focus on are major themes throughout our five investment portfolios. Although they are managed separately and support different types of initiatives, each seeks to address its area of focus from multiple angles. A single portfolio may include grants that build adult capacity, enhance stakeholder engagement, and generate new knowledge.

New Designs to Advance Learning

Preparing all students for success requires that we fundamentally reimagine our nation’s schools and classrooms. Our public education system needs to catch up with how the world is evolving and with what we’ve come to understand about how people learn. That means attending to a broader diversity of learning styles and bringing what happens in school into greater alignment with what happens in the worlds of work and civic life. We make investments to increase the number of innovative learning models that support personalized experiences, academic mastery, and positive youth development. We also make investments that build the capacity of districts and intermediaries to improve learning experiences for all students as well as grants to investigate relevant issues of policy and practice.

Pathways to Postsecondary Success

Lifelong success in the United States has never been more dependent on educational attainment than it is today. Completing some education beyond the 12th grade has virtually become a necessity for financial security and meaningful work. But for that possibility to exist for everyone, we need to address the historical barriers that keep many students from pursuing and completing a postsecondary program, and we must strengthen the options available to all students for education after high school. Through our investments, we seek to increase the number of young people able to access and complete a postsecondary program, with a major focus on removing historical barriers for students who are first-generation college-goers, low-income, or from underrepresented groups. We also look to expand the range of high-quality postsecondary options and to strengthen alignment between K–12, higher education, and the world of work.

Leadership and Teaching to Advance Learning

At its core, learning is about the interplay between teachers, students, and content. How teachers and students engage with each other and with their curriculum plays a predominant role in determining what students learn and how well they learn it. That’s not to say that factors outside of school don’t also greatly impact student learning. But the research is clear that among the factors a school might control, nothing outweighs the teaching that students experience. We focus on supporting educators in implementing rigorous college- and career-ready standards in math, science, and English language arts. We make investments to increase the supply of and demand for high-quality curricular materials and professional learning experiences for teachers and administrators.

Public Understanding

As central as they are to the education process, school professionals are hardly the only people with a critical role to play in student learning. Students spend far more time with family and other community members than they do at school. And numerous stakeholders outside of the education system have the potential to strengthen and shape what happens within it. The success of our nation’s schools depends on far more individuals than are employed by them. 

We invest in efforts to engage families and other stakeholders as active partners in supporting equitable access to high-quality student learning. We also support media organizations and policy research groups in building awareness about key issues related to educational equity and improvement.

Integration, Learning, and Innovation

Those of us who work for change in education need a new set of habits to achieve our vision of 21st-century learning. It will take more than a factory-model mindset to transform our education system into one that prepares all learners for an increasingly complex world. We must approach this task with flexibility, empathy for the people involved, and an understanding of how to learn from what’s working and what’s not. We work to reduce the fragmentation, inefficiencies, and missteps that often result when educational improvement strategies are pursued in isolation and without an understanding of the contexts in which they are implemented. Through grants and other activities, we build the capacity of people working in educational organizations to change how they work by emphasizing systems and design thinking, iteration, and knowledge sharing within and across organizations.

Two recent surveys by Carnegie Corporation of New York and Gallup offer insights into how our education system can better help all Americans navigate job and career choices

Join Us in This Ambitious Endeavor

Our approach of supporting multiple stakeholders by pulling multiple levers is informed by our deep understanding of the system we’re trying to move. American education is a massive, diverse, and highly decentralized enterprise. There is no mechanism by which we might affect more than superficial change in many thousands of communities. The type of change that is needed cannot come from compliance alone. It requires that everyone grapple with new ideas.

We know from our history of promoting large-scale improvements in American education that advancements won’t happen overnight or as the result of one kind of initiative. Our vision for 21st-century education will require more than quick wins and isolated successes. Innovation is essential, and a major thrust of our work involves the incubation and dissemination of new models, resources, and exemplars. But we must also learn to move forward with the empathy, flexibility, and systems thinking needed to support people in making the transition. Novel solutions only help if they can be successfully implemented in different contexts.

Only a sustained and concerted effort will shift the center of gravity of a social enterprise that involves millions of adults and many tens of millions of young people. The challenge of philanthropy is to effect widespread social change with limited resources and without formal authority. This takes more than grantmaking. At the Corporation, we convene, communicate, and form coalitions. We provide thought leadership, issue challenges, and launch new initiatives. Through these multifaceted activities, we maximize our ability to forge, share, and put into practice powerful new ideas that build a foundation for more substantial changes in the future.

We encourage everyone who plays a role in education to join us in this work. Our strategy represents more than our priorities as a grantmaker. It conveys our strong beliefs about how to get American education to where it needs to be. The more organizations and individuals we have supporting those who are working to provide students with what they need, the more likely we are to succeed in this ambitious endeavor. 

LaVerne Evans Srinivasan is the vice president of Carnegie Corporation of New York’s National Program and the program director for Education.

TOP: Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, a lower-school substitute teacher works from her home in Arlington, Virginia, on April 1, 2020. Her role in the school changed significantly due to the pandemic. Whereas she previously worked part-time to support teachers when they needed to be absent from the classroom, amid COVID-19 she now helps teachers to build skills with new digital platforms so they can continue to teach in the best way for their students and their families. (Credit: Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images)

With Corporation support, Ahmad Sukkar researches the ways informal settlements might become a core element in reconstruction efforts in Syria and Lebanon

A selection of some of the notable books that have come out of the Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program since 2015

Open enrollment in Missouri public schools takes center stage in House education committee

State rep. brad pollitt said: "this bill allows the 899,000 students in the state of missouri in the public school system the opportunity to have a choice ...".

The perennial "open enrollment" bill took center stage Wednesday as the first proposal presented in 2024 to the House Committee on Elementary and Secondary Education.

This is the fourth year that state Rep. Brad Pollitt, a Republican from Sedalia, has pitched the policy change.

"This is the fourth year that I have brought this bill to the House of Representatives. It's passed out of the House the last three times and it's always been a close vote," he said in opening remarks. "There are a number of very pro -public education representatives that support this legislation."

Pollitt, a retired teacher and administrator with 34 years experience, argued — as he has in years past — that a child's address should not dictate which public school they attend.

If House Bill 1989 is approved, students will have the ability to transfer to a different district than where they are assigned and part of the money earmarked for their education will go to the new district. Districts use a mix of local tax revenue and state and federal funding to educate students.

"Local taxes stay local," he said of property taxes generated within a district. "State money follows the student."

Calling himself a "strong supporter of public schools," he said families ought to be able to decide which school is the best fit for their child.

"I believe that open enrollment is a step in the right direction in educational reform to offer choice and accountability within the public school system," he told the committee. "This is an opt-in bill where the decision is left in the hands of the local district if they want to opt in and receive students and they determine what grades they will take those students and in what programs."

The proposal includes a 3% cap on the number of students who can transfer out of most districts.

Under the plan, districts willing to accept students will notify the state by Dec. 1. Families must apply for a transfer by Feb. 1 and decisions will be made by April 1.

The bill includes a request for $80 million to help provide transportation for students who qualify for free or reduced price schools meals or who qualify for special education services.

"This bill allows the 899,000 students in the state of Missouri in the public school system the opportunity to have a choice within the very system that their parents pay taxes to," Pollitt said.

He gave the committee a preview of some of the concerns that will likely be raised.

"You'll hear things that this forces competition among school districts. I'm totally in favor of competing with our programs, with our sports," he said. "There's nothing in this bill that requires a school district to consolidate."

According to a 2022 report by the Education Commission of the States, at least 43 states have voluntary policies permitting inter-district open enrollment and 19 states require some level of open enrollment.

Access for special education students in question

State Rep. Kathy Steinhoff, a Democrat from Columbia, said she is highly skeptical that open enrollment will help the state's public education system.

"I appreciate the fact that this bill puts a lot of safeguards in place. It's very well thought out. It really considers so many things that make me fearful of an open enrollment bill that would be like the Wild Wild West," she said. "I can tell that you've really considered unintended consequences, but the idea of unintended consequences are the ones we haven't thought of."

Steinhoff and others asked how meeting the needs of students who qualify for special education services will be handled as part of the proposal. "You don't want a bill that ends up being challenged in court and then the bill falls apart."

Pollitt said under open enrollment, districts that accept transfers will not be required to add programs or teachers.

Steinhoff said she sees "merit to being able to give families some choices" but questioned if students with special needs or a history of discipline issues will be able to participate at the same level.

"It doesn't sound like it is allowing all Missouri students to have a choice, like certain special education students and certain students that have discipline records probably would not have the same opportunities," she said.

Representatives from the American Federation for Children and the Quality Schools Coalition told the committee they support the bill.

Teachers unions, school leaders question impact of proposal

Matt Michelson, director of education policy for the Missouri State Teachers Association, said the group opposes the bill. "Our members are deeply concerned about the prospects of consolidation that could happen under this bill, also increasing student mobility and the detrimental effects of student mobility."

He said open enrollment will increase the workload of administrators but noted the bigger issue was an existing issue of recruiting and retaining enough teachers.

Michelson said transportation funds requested in the open enrollment bill could be better spent elsewhere. "We know $80 million could go a really long way at addressing some of the low salaries we have across the state, and hopefully keep keeping high quality teachers in the classroom."

Mike Lodewegen, an advocate with the Missouri Council of School Administrators, said the group opposes the bill.

He argued districts that lose students due to open enrollment may have to cut staff and programs, which could hurt the students who remain in districts where they are assigned.

"Students leave for whatever reason, they may be performance-related, it may be familial-related, it may be ideological in nature. Those students leave and that money also follows that student," he said. "The students that are left are then forced to have to deal with the school that is left."

Michelson said the biggest impact may be on small districts "on the bubble." He pointed to the Halfway district, which is between Buffalo and Bolivar in Polk County.

He said with limited jobs in Halfway, parents who live in Halfway may be tempted to enroll students in the cities where they are employed. "What is the threshold that that community and that school is going to meet to say 'We no longer need a school, we no longer can have a school' and what does that mean for our rural communities?"

Otto Fajen, legislative director for the Missouri National Education Association, said the proper level of oversight is needed for open enrollment to work as intended.

"The tendency if you don't have the right guidelines for implementing it or monitoring it, for making sure that you're evaluating its impact, the tendency is for it to segregate and also to not have equitable opportunity for all students," Fajen said.

He said to win the support of MNEA, safeguards against "re-segregation" must be in place along with wording that ensures equitable access for students eligible for special education services.

"Those are two areas that still need work," he said.

More: Facing opposition, MO school board will not adopt social-emotional learning standards

Lisa Pannett, a lobbyist for ArmorVine, expressed concern that some of the requirements and procedures for how open enrollment would work in Missouri would be left to the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Pannett said ArmorVine, which promotes Christian principles of freedom and liberty, is worried the framework put in place could include diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.

"As conservatives, we should be concerned when we leave these things open to DESE. DESE has been a problem for us. They're the ones bringing in the woke agenda," she told the committee. "And when we allow DESE to come in and set these kinds of standards and guidelines, it's a problem."

Claudette Riley covers education for the News-Leader. Email tips and story ideas to [email protected].

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Stellar Employment Outcomes for Class of 2023

Since 1892, Colorado Law has provided students with a top-notch legal education, preparing them to enter the workforce with the skills, confidence, and expertise needed to make an impact. Every year, employers across the state and nation are impressed with our graduating class, and the past few years have been especially inspiring. We spoke with Todd Rogers, Assistant Dean for Career Development, about our graduates’ recent successes.  

“Post-grad employment success of Colorado Law students starts with securing quality jobs during law school,” said Todd Rogers, Assistant Dean for Career Development. “Our students consistently seek out growth opportunities in their summer and academic-year work. Because of this, they graduate with a portfolio of experiences that flatten their learning curves. They’re a hardworking group, confident yet humble, and hungry to improve!” 

The class of 2023’s employment stats are just one testament to Colorado Law’s dedication to ensuring the success of our students long after they walk out the doors of Wolf Law.  

95% (163/171) of the class of 2023 reported post-graduate employment 

90% (154/171) of 2023 graduates reported full-time jobs lasting one year or more that either require bar passage or for which a JD is an advantage. 

84% (144/171) of 2023 graduates reported full-time, long-term jobs requiring bar passage.     

These impressive statistics are owed in part to our exceptional career development team. Colorado Law's Career Development Office (CDO) specializes in connecting law students with employers both during the academic year and the summer. Starting with 1L Orientation, where career and professional development is a central theme, the CDO encourages students to take an intentional and creative approach to planning their careers. The team includes six dedicated professionals with experience helping students and alumni succeed in the current employment climate. 

“My role, and the role of our entire Career Development team at Colorado Law, is to support our students’ career explorations in a positive atmosphere,” Rogers said. “We emphasize a long-term outlook, and consistently prepare students to secure and excel in summer, fall, and spring work. At its best, job-hunting during law school is empowering and reveals meaningful insights about what makes someone tick. And when the law school jobs fall into place, the post-grad job search can be relatively short!” 

The CDO organizes dozens of career panels, workshops, networking events, mock interviews, access to our robust alumni network, and individual advising sessions. Each counselor has a specialty area and is responsible for outreach and engagement with employers in that specialty. Additionally, the office works with a wide range of employers and offers counseling, resources, programming, and relationship building events to help students pursue opportunities with law firms in private practice, organizations in the public sector, business employers, judges across the country, and nontraditional employers who value the skills students develop in law school. 

“The [employment] process often includes exploring career options with attorneys at events such as the CDO’s Morning Coffee series and lunchtime Intro to Practice (fall) and Deep Dives (spring) events,” Rogers explained. “Through these targeted networking opportunities, Colorado Law students gain exposure to a wide variety of career opportunities, which they in turn can discuss and brainstorm with CDO counselors.”  

In addition to these ongoing career development and networking opportunities, Colorado Law also has a successful mentoring program that connects participating students with the professional world beyond the law school building and expands their professional networks.  

“Our mentoring program gives each mentee the opportunity to build a relationship with a trusted advisor as the student defines their professional identity and navigates law school and the early stages of their career.” said Alexia McCaskill, Senior Director for Professional Development. “Colorado Law students are intentional in how they prepare themselves for the post-grad world both through the coursework they undertake and the hands-on experiences in which they engage during their time at Colorado Law. Additionally, they care about community and consistently exhibit what it means to be a good colleague to those around them.” 

The program is looking to connect with alums and other legal professionals interested in potentially mentoring our students. If you are interested in learning more about our mentoring program and getting involved, please contact Alexia McCaskill at [email protected] . 

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A 12-year-old student opens fire at a school in Finland, killing 1 and wounding 2 others

Associated Press

HELSINKI – A 12-year-old student opened fire at a secondary school in southern Finland on Tuesday morning, killing one and seriously wounding two other students, police said. The suspect was later apprehended.

Heavily armed police cordoned off the Viertola school — a large educational institution including lower and upper secondary schools with a total of about 800 students — in the city of Vantaa, just outside the capital, Helsinki, after receiving a call about a shooting incident at 09:08 a.m.

Police said both the suspect and the victims were 12 years old.

One of the students had died instantly after being shot, Chief of Police Ilkka Koskimäki from the Eastern Uusimaa Police Department told a news conference. The other two were seriously wounded, he said.

The weapon used in the shooting was a registered handgun that was licensed to the suspect’s relative, Detective Inspector Kimmo Hyvärinen said.

The suspect was detained in the Helsinki area less than one hour after the shooting with a handgun in his possession, police said. He admitted to the shooting in an initial police hearing but there is no immediate word of the motive, police said, adding that the case is being investigated as a murder and two attempted murders.

Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Prime Minister Petteri Orpo offered condolences to the families of the victims in postings on X with both saying they were shocked over the shooting.

“What makes it particularly shocking is the age of the victim and the suspect,” Orpo said during a news conference later Tuesday. “I can assure you that this (shooting) will be carefully reviewed and conclusions will be drawn that this will not happen again."

The minimum age of criminal liability in Finland is 15 years, which means the suspect cannot be formally arrested. A suspect younger than 15 can only be heard by the police after which they will be handed over to Finland’s child welfare authorities.

In the past decades, Finland has witnessed two major deadly school shootings.

In November 2007, a 18-year-old student armed with a semi-automatic pistol opened fire at the premises of the Jokela high school in Tuusula, southern Finland, killing nine people. He was found dead with self-inflicted wounds.

Less than a year later, in September 2008, a 22-year-old student shot and killed 10 people with a semi-automatic pistol at a vocational college in Kauhajoki, southwestern Finland, before fatally shooting himself.

In the Nordic nation of 5.6 million, there are more than 1.5 million licensed firearms and about 430,000 license holders, according to the Finnish Interior Ministry. Hunting and gun-ownership have long traditions in the sparsely-populated northern European country.

Responsibility for granting permits for ordinary firearms rests with local police departments.

Following the school shootings in 2007 and 2008, Finland tightened its gun laws by raising the minimum age for firearms ownership and giving police greater powers to make background checks on individuals applying for a gun license.

The Interior Ministry said Finland will pay respects to the victims of the school shooting on Wednesday when all state agencies and institutions will lower the national flag to half staff. Private households are encouraged to join in the commemoration, the ministry said.

Associated Press writer Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark contributed to this report.

Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Local 10 News @ 9AM : Apr 02, 2024

1 killed, 2 injured in school shooting in finland, local 10 news @ 6am : apr 02, 2024, local 10 news @ 5am : apr 02, 2024, local 10 news @ 4:30am : apr 02, 2024.

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Steep rise in schools in England recruiting teachers from Jamaica

Exclusive: Schools following NHS and social care in recruiting from overseas as work visas for secondary school teachers double

Schools are following the NHS and social care providers by increasing their recruitment of teachers from overseas to fill vacancies, leaving classrooms empty in countries such as Jamaica .

Immigration figures show a jump in the number of skilled worker visas issued to teachers from abroad, while the government in England is using bonuses to boost the number of teacher trainees from overseas – at a time when Rishi Sunak said legal migration to the UK was “too high” and vowed to reduce it.

While the numbers remain modest compared with the NHS, the trend is rising steeply upwards and will continue rising as the increase in trainee teachers recruited overseas enter the workforce.

Last year nearly 1,100 work visas were issued to qualified secondary school teachers, double the 555 visas issued in 2022 and well above the 205 in 2021. So far this year, more than one in four applicants to teacher training courses in England have come from outside Europe.

Jamaica alone supplied 486 qualified teachers last year, twice as many as in 2022, as schools in England launched recruiting drives in a country with a population of just 2.8 million and suffering its own chronic shortages of qualified teachers.

Emiliana Vegas, a professor of practice at Harvard’s graduate school of education, said: “The reality is that, from the perspective of a Jamaican teacher, moving to the UK to work is economically a good idea. Salaries and working conditions are much better in the UK than in most low- and middle-income countries, like Jamaica.

“But for Jamaican society, it has the impact of pulling away scarce talent, thus perpetuating the challenge of raising education quality in Jamaica and similar countries and increasing the gaps in student learning between high- and low-income societies.”

Leighton Johnson, a headteacher and president of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association , said teacher shortages were so severe that some schools had vacancies unfilled for over a year, with the government allowing retired teachers, untrained specialists and even teachers on holiday to be hired.

In other cases, Jamaican schools were cutting subjects because they could not find qualified teachers, while others had resorted to sharing teachers.

“Schools have had to be very creative. Some in close proximity have been designing their timetables to ensure a teacher can serve two schools, and some schools are utilising technology where a teacher can be in one school and streamed to another so the students can benefit,” Johnson said.

“These are the extents that many schools have had to go to in order to make it work.”

While teachers from Jamaica are often sought by schools in the US, Canada and the Middle East, because of their training and language skills, Johnson said there had been increasingly “aggressive” recruitment by countries including England, using advertising, holding seminars or directly approaching teachers in Jamaica, with higher rates of pay being offered.

“What I know for a fact is that these recruiters, they network and once they have an individual from Jamaica, they employ these individuals, they employ teachers, to assist in the recruiting process. So they’ll say, get your colleagues to come, you be the testimonial, help us to recruit. And they become the point person, they are given a stipend or salary or some kind of remuneration, to get other teachers to come,” Johnson said.

Schools in England that have directly recruited from Jamaica include those in the Harris Federation academy chain, based around London.

Last year, Schools Week reported that the Harris Federation flew staff to the island to hold interviews , and hired 50 teachers mainly in science and maths. Dan Moynihan, the federation’s chief executive, said at the tim: “We recruit Jamaican teachers who are fantastic people, but we are having to do that because we can’t find teachers here.”

UK health and social care organisations cannot actively recruit qualified staff from countries on the World Health Organization’s “red list” , which includes Zimbabwe and Nigeria. But there are no similar barriers to hiring teachers: 60 UK work visas were issued to teachers from Nigeria last year, up from six in 2022, while Zimbabwe’s total rose from 11 to 59.

Daniel Kebede, the general secretary of the National Education Union, said: “The aggressive recruitment of teachers from other countries can have a significant impact on their ability to deliver good quality education to the children there and that is why the government needs to address the causes of not being able to recruit and retrain sufficient UK trained teachers.”

The focus on overseas recruitment comes as schools in England report acute teacher shortages in some subjects. Record numbers quit the profession last year and experts at the National Foundation for Educational Research have warned that teacher supply “is in a critical state that risks the quality of education”.

The Department for Education (DfE) in England has sought to meet its targets for trainee teachers by recruiting more from overseas , introducing a £10,000 “international relocation package” for physics and modern foreign languages teachers, as well as easing requirements for applicants from countries including Jamaica, India and others to gain qualified teacher status.

A DfE spokesperson said its international recruitment “aims to support the best qualified applicants from abroad to make valuable contributions” to its workforce.

“Our recruitment and retention strategy will always be focused domestically and schools in England now have more teachers than ever before with nearly 470,000 teachers in the workforce, a 27,000 increase on 2010,” the spokesperson said.

“We are focused on striking the right balance between acting decisively to tackle net migration, which we are clear is far too high, and retaining and developing highly skilled teachers.”

Paul Whiteman, the general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, warned against schools following the health and social care sectors in using “short-term, sticking plaster” solutions.

“Recruitment from overseas is workload intensive, costly, and bureaucratic for hard-pressed schools. Often, international teachers only stay a short time, as they may not be granted indefinite leave to remain or permitted to bring their families, adding to teacher churn which is bad for pupils,” Whiteman said.

“Ministers must do more to make teaching a more attractive and sustainable profession that will inspire people to commit to decades-long careers.”

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