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Our Best Education Articles of 2021

Our most popular education articles of 2021 explore how to navigate some of this year’s challenges—including grief, boredom, and isolation—while uplifting our capacity for connection, belonging, and healing. Several articles also highlight how character, conscience, and kindness can guide us toward greater meaning in our lives.

If you are looking for specific activities to support your students’ and colleagues’ social and emotional well-being in 2022, visit our  Greater Good in Education website, featuring  free  research-based practices, lessons, and strategies for cultivating kinder, happier, and more equitable classrooms and schools. And for a deeper dive into the science behind social-emotional learning, mindfulness, and ethical development, consider our suite of self-paced online courses for educational professionals, including our capstone course, Teaching and Learning for the Greater Good .

Here are the 12 best education articles of 2021, based on a composite ranking of pageviews and editors’ picks.

How to Help Students Feel a Sense of Belonging During the Pandemic , by Mary C. Murphy, Kathryn Boucher, and Christine Logel: Belonging and connection in the classroom contribute to success and well-being, particularly for marginalized students.

Four Ways Teachers Can Help Students Develop a Conscience , by Vicki Zakrzewski: How do kids develop a sense of right and wrong—and what can educators do to help them act on their conscience?

How to Help Students of Color Find Their Power , by Brandy Arnold: Project Wayfinder is helping Black and Latino students explore their identities and goals.

What a Children’s Book Taught Me (and My Students) About Grief , by Lauren McGovern: Teaching sixth graders about grief helped teacher Lauren McGovern after the loss of her son.

36 Questions That Can Help Kids Make Friends , by Jill Suttie: A question-and-answer exercise may help middle schoolers build friendships, including with kids of different ethnicities.

How to Make This Hard Transition Back to School With Your Students , by Amy L. Eva: Here are three ways educators can support their students (and each other) this fall.

A Different Way to Respond When Kids Do Something Wrong , by Joanne Chen: Restorative practices—taking responsibility, making amends, and seeking forgiveness—are an alternative to strict punishments and blame.

What Do Kids Mean When They Say They’re Bored at School? , by Rebecca Branstetter: Boredom can be a temporary emotion or a sign of a deeper issue, says a school psychologist.

How to Help Students Be the Best Version of Themselves , by Karen E. Bohlin and Deborah Farmer Kris: When students are facing challenges, educators can help them reflect on—and act on—what matters to them.

Four Character Strengths That Can Help Kids Learn , by Carol Lloyd: Research suggests that fostering character strengths can help children be better students.

How Educators Can Help Make a Kinder World , by Vicki Zakrzewski: By integrating character education, SEL, and mindfulness, schools can cultivate the inherent goodness in students.

Three Strategies for Helping Students Discuss Controversial Issues , by Lauren Fullmer and Laura Bond: Here are research-based ways to facilitate civil discourse in the classroom.

Bonus: Science of Happiness Podcast Episodes

Episode 94: How to Craft Your Life : When the world around you changes, so can your goals. Our guest, Patty Brown, tries a practice to tap into a new sense of purpose.

Episode 96: Don’t Be Afraid of Your Anger : What happens when we suppress our anger? And what if we tried to work with it instead? Our guest, Soraya Chemaly, tries a practice to harness her inner fierceness to care for herself.

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Our Best Education Articles of 2019

What a Children’s Book Taught Me (and My Students) About Grief

Our Best Education Articles of 2020

What Do Kids Mean When They Say They’re Bored at School?

How to Help Students Feel a Sense of Belonging During the Pandemic

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Collage of students who gave back-to-school tips to NPR. Top left: Selvam Antony, Bottom left: Gemma Stahl, Top right: Levi Chowske and Bottom right: Sophia Robinson Top left: Selvam Antony, Bottom left: Gemma Stahl, Top right: Levi Chowske and Bottom right: Sophia Robinson hide caption

Up First Newsletter

Here's back-to-school advice from elementary to high school students.

August 18, 2024 • NPR asked elementary to high school students heading back to school to weigh in on what they're doing to prepare for the upcoming school year. They answered the call with advice for their peers.

A teenage girl wearing a face mask, head scarf and long black robe, listens to a math teacher at a tutoring center in Kabul. The center was established by a women's rights activist to circumvent a Taliban ban on girls attending secondary school. The activist said she has informal permission by Taliban authorities to run the center as long as teenage girls abide by a strict dress code. Diaa Hadid/NPR hide caption

Goats and Soda

Many afghan men believe in women's rights. but they're afraid to speak out.

August 16, 2024 • Men rarely speak out to protest the Taliban's stripping away of the rights of girls and women. A new study finds that many believe those lost rights should be restored.

Columbia University President Minouche Shafik testifies during a House Committee on Education and the Workforce hearing about antisemitism on college campuses on April 17 in Washington, D.C. Drew Angerer/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Columbia University President Minouche Shafik resigns after 'period of turmoil'

August 14, 2024 • Shafik is the third Ivy League university president to leave her job following criticism over how she has handled campus protests regarding the Israel-Hamas war. She held the job for 13 months.

COLUMBIA'S PRESIDENT RESIGNS

Starting Your Podcast: A Guide For Students

New to podcasting? Don't panic.

Police and security stand outside the Center for Jewish Living at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., in early November, after antisemitic threats left the community on edge. Matt Burkhartt/Getty Images hide caption

A former Cornell student is sentenced to 21 months for threatening to kill Jews

August 13, 2024 • Patrick Dai admitted to posting anonymous threats against Jews on campus in October. His lawyer argued it was a "misguided attempt to highlight Hamas’ genocidal beliefs and garner support for Israel.”

The transition back to school can be overwhelming for kids. Explaining the changes and setting expectations can help them feel more prepared to take on the year. Urbazon/Getty Images hide caption

Snuggles, pep talks and love notes: 10 ways to calm your kid’s back-to-school jitters

August 12, 2024 • Teachers, pediatricians and child development experts share loving, creative advice on how to ease children (and their parents!) into a new school year.

Pro-Palestinian students and activists face police officers after protesters were evicted from the library at Portland State University in Portland, Ore., in May. John Rudoff/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

With a new semester, colleges brace for more antiwar protests from students

August 12, 2024 • The Israel-Hamas war has prompted some of the most volatile campus protests in decades. This summer, student organizers are rethinking strategies, as are counter-protesters and college administrators.

The statue of Alma Mater on the campus of Columbia University in New York. Diane Bondareff/AP hide caption

3 Columbia deans resign over texts that 'touched on ... antisemitic tropes'

August 8, 2024 • The three deans were texting sarcastic and mocking messages about students’ complaints of antisemitism during a panel discussion on Jewish life on campus last May.

Since the new FAFSA launched on Dec. 30, 2023, the form has only been available for short periods of time. That changed this week. On Tuesday, the U.S. Education Department said applicants will now have 24-hour access. Screenshot by NPR hide caption

The rollout for the updated FAFSA application has been delayed — again

August 8, 2024 • The availability of last year's application, and subsequently students' aid packages, was delayed several times while the Department of Education worked to update the form.

Back-to-school season can still be an opportunity for a refresh, even if you're not headed back to the classroom. Maria Korneeva/Getty Images/Moment RF hide caption

6 ways grown-ups can recreate that fresh, buzzy feeling of a new school year

August 6, 2024 • Refreshing ideas that harness the excitement of going back to school -- like learning new things, packing a school lunch and playing at recess -- updated for the adult version of you. 

Bloomington High School South science teacher Kirstin Milks leads a lesson on human-caused climate change and technologies that could help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Chris Elberfeld/WFYI hide caption

In the face of global warming, students are dreaming up a better climate future

August 5, 2024 • With heat waves and extreme weather becoming more and more common, one Indiana teacher wants to empower her students with information, and the creative freedom to imagine big ideas.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson led a news conference with Republican committee chairs, including House Education and the Workforce Committee Chair Virginia Foxx, on April 30 to decry reports of antisemitism happening at university protests across the country. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images hide caption

Columbia University threatened with subpoenas over U.S. House antisemitism investigation

August 1, 2024 • A Republican-led House committee says it would issue subpoenas to Columbia University to get documents it requested months ago for its investigation into reports of antisemitism on campus.

He has a badge and a gun — and he investigates school truancy

July 31, 2024 • When students miss lots of school without an excuse, it’s known as truancy — and in Madison County, Ind., it can lead to a visit from truancy investigator Mitch Carroll.

In one Indiana county, kids who miss school are paid a visit by the truancy officer

In 1994, young people wearing "True Love Waits" T-shirts hammer pledge cards stating they'll abstain from sex until marriage into the lawn of the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Richard Ross hide caption

30 years later, the evangelical purity movement still impacts sex education

July 31, 2024 • In 1994 on the National Mall, thousands of American teens pledged abstinence until marriage. The movement it created has influenced sex education in schools to this day.

30 years of Abstinence pledge

Code Switch

'not a badge of honor': how book bans affect indigenous literature.

July 31, 2024 • For some authors, finding their book on a "banned" list can feel almost like an accolade, putting them right there with classics like The Bluest Eye and To Kill a Mockingbird. But the reality is, most banned books never get the kind of recognition or readership that the most famous ones do.

U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland testifies during a Senate Energy and Natural Resources hearing in May. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images/Getty Images North America hide caption

Nearly a thousand children died at Indian boarding schools funded by the U.S.

July 30, 2024 • The investigation into abuse and mistreatment of Native children at the boarding schools for more than a century proposes $23 billion in funding aimed at healing.

[EMBARGO] Carrillo/Federal Indian Boarding Schools Final Report

Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., listens during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Dec. 7, 2023, in Washington. Mariam Zuhaib/AP hide caption

Robert Menendez Elementary School will change its name after the senator's conviction

July 28, 2024 • The New Jersey school will drop the Menendez name it adopted in 2013 now that the senator was found guilty of bribery.

Barb Ibrahim, left, drove half an hour to visit Amber and Matt Luman and their new daughter, Esserley. Ibrahim, a nurse of more than 30 years, is part of new program in Oregon that offers free home visits from a registered nurse for any family with a newborn. Cory Turner/NPR hide caption

Babies don’t come with instructions. But in Oregon, they now come with a nurse

July 23, 2024 • A new state program offers any family with a new baby a no-cost visit at home with a trained nurse. It’s Oregon’s response to the country’s dismal infant and maternal mortality rates.

Turner/ Newborn Home Visits

An ACT Assessment preparation book is seen in 2014 in Springfield, Ill. Seth Perlman/AP hide caption

The science section of the ACT exam will now be optional

July 19, 2024 • Students can now opt between several versions of the test: the ACT core exam (which includes reading, math and English), the ACT plus writing, the ACT plus science or the ACT plus science and writing.

President Biden speaks about student loan debt, April 8, 2024, in Madison, Wis. Evan Vucci/AP hide caption

Federal appeals court blocks remainder of Biden's student debt relief plan

July 19, 2024 • The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals granted a motion for an administrative stay filed by a group of Republican-led states seeking to invalidate the administration's entire student loan forgiveness plan.

‎ LA Johnson/NPR hide caption

35,000 more public servants see their student loan balances reduced or erased

July 18, 2024 • The Biden administration announced $1.2 billion in student loan forgiveness for borrowers who work in public service, including as firefighters, social workers and teachers.

Six-year-old Sam and his mother, Tabitha, attend a virtual class with Sam’s teacher of the deaf and hard of hearing. Cindy Elizabeth/for NPR hide caption

As discrimination complaints soar, parents of disabled students wait for help

July 16, 2024 • The Education Department is handling record numbers of discrimination cases, including those involving disability. The backlog leaves some families waiting for help.

More students with disabilities are facing discrimination in schools

Parents, students, and staff of Chino Valley Unified School District hold up signs in favor of protecting LGBTQ+ policies at Don Antonio Lugo High School, in Chino, Calif., in June 2023. California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law Monday barring school districts from passing policies that require schools to notify parents if their child asks to change their gender identification. Anjali Sharif-Paul/The Orange County Register/AP hide caption

California bans school rules requiring parents notification of child's pronoun change

July 16, 2024 • The law, which is the first in the nation, bans school rules requiring school staff to disclose a student's gender identity or sexual orientation to any other person without the child's permission.

Janet Johnson receives her college diploma from Kent Devereaux, president of Goucher College. Jenny Abamu/for NPR hide caption

Women don’t have equal access to college in prison. Here’s why

July 15, 2024 • Many people in prison rely on federal Pell Grants to pay for college courses. But in most states, women's prisons offer less access to Pell-eligible classes than men’s prisons do.

A Pennsylvania school district is grappling with the fallout caused after middle school students created fake TikTok accounts to impersonate their teachers and post lewd and offensive messages. Getty Images hide caption

A school district in Pa. says students made fake TikTok accounts to target teachers

July 9, 2024 • Middle school students in the town of Malvern impersonated teachers and posted crude and offensive language on fake accounts. The superintendent called the incidents a "gross misuse of social media."

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News and Comment

The Taliban said women could study — three years on they still can’t

Afghanistan is the only country in the world that stops its girls and women from attending schools and universities. And the Taliban show no sign of changing that.

• Miryam Naddaf

AI meets biology: a call for community governance

Risks from AI in basic biology research can be addressed with a dual mitigation strategy that comprises basic education in AI ethics and community governance measures that are tailored to the needs of individual research communities.

• Carina Prunkl

The Taliban ‘took my life’ — scientists who fled takeover speak out

Researchers from Afghanistan who found sanctuary around the world following the Taliban takeover in 2021 are struggling to settle in.

• Smriti Mallapaty

Illuminating the deaf experience at STEM conferences

Deaf professionals experience inequitable access at conferences, but conference hosts can learn to recognize and understand the contributing barriers. Establishing clear accessibility protocols can enhance organizational success and ensure a successful conference.

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Why we quit: how ‘toxic management’ and pandemic pressures fuelled disillusionment in higher education

A survey of former UK academics reveals an uncaring culture characterized by long working hours, despite management rhetoric about well-being.

• Adrian O’Dowd

Interventions in education

• Danyang Cheng

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New advances in technology are upending education, from the recent debut of new artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots like ChatGPT to the growing accessibility of virtual-reality tools that expand the boundaries of the classroom. For educators, at the heart of it all is the hope that every learner gets an equal chance to develop the skills they need to succeed. But that promise is not without its pitfalls.

“Technology is a game-changer for education – it offers the prospect of universal access to high-quality learning experiences, and it creates fundamentally new ways of teaching,” said Dan Schwartz, dean of Stanford Graduate School of Education (GSE), who is also a professor of educational technology at the GSE and faculty director of the Stanford Accelerator for Learning . “But there are a lot of ways we teach that aren’t great, and a big fear with AI in particular is that we just get more efficient at teaching badly. This is a moment to pay attention, to do things differently.”

For K-12 schools, this year also marks the end of the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funding program, which has provided pandemic recovery funds that many districts used to invest in educational software and systems. With these funds running out in September 2024, schools are trying to determine their best use of technology as they face the prospect of diminishing resources.

Here, Schwartz and other Stanford education scholars weigh in on some of the technology trends taking center stage in the classroom this year.

AI in the classroom

In 2023, the big story in technology and education was generative AI, following the introduction of ChatGPT and other chatbots that produce text seemingly written by a human in response to a question or prompt. Educators immediately worried that students would use the chatbot to cheat by trying to pass its writing off as their own. As schools move to adopt policies around students’ use of the tool, many are also beginning to explore potential opportunities – for example, to generate reading assignments or coach students during the writing process.

AI can also help automate tasks like grading and lesson planning, freeing teachers to do the human work that drew them into the profession in the first place, said Victor Lee, an associate professor at the GSE and faculty lead for the AI + Education initiative at the Stanford Accelerator for Learning. “I’m heartened to see some movement toward creating AI tools that make teachers’ lives better – not to replace them, but to give them the time to do the work that only teachers are able to do,” he said. “I hope to see more on that front.”

He also emphasized the need to teach students now to begin questioning and critiquing the development and use of AI. “AI is not going away,” said Lee, who is also director of CRAFT (Classroom-Ready Resources about AI for Teaching), which provides free resources to help teach AI literacy to high school students across subject areas. “We need to teach students how to understand and think critically about this technology.”

Immersive environments

The use of immersive technologies like augmented reality, virtual reality, and mixed reality is also expected to surge in the classroom, especially as new high-profile devices integrating these realities hit the marketplace in 2024.

The educational possibilities now go beyond putting on a headset and experiencing life in a distant location. With new technologies, students can create their own local interactive 360-degree scenarios, using just a cell phone or inexpensive camera and simple online tools.

“This is an area that’s really going to explode over the next couple of years,” said Kristen Pilner Blair, director of research for the Digital Learning initiative at the Stanford Accelerator for Learning, which runs a program exploring the use of virtual field trips to promote learning. “Students can learn about the effects of climate change, say, by virtually experiencing the impact on a particular environment. But they can also become creators, documenting and sharing immersive media that shows the effects where they live.”

Integrating AI into virtual simulations could also soon take the experience to another level, Schwartz said. “If your VR experience brings me to a redwood tree, you could have a window pop up that allows me to ask questions about the tree, and AI can deliver the answers.”

Gamification

Another trend expected to intensify this year is the gamification of learning activities, often featuring dynamic videos with interactive elements to engage and hold students’ attention.

“Gamification is a good motivator, because one key aspect is reward, which is very powerful,” said Schwartz. The downside? Rewards are specific to the activity at hand, which may not extend to learning more generally. “If I get rewarded for doing math in a space-age video game, it doesn’t mean I’m going to be motivated to do math anywhere else.”

Gamification sometimes tries to make “chocolate-covered broccoli,” Schwartz said, by adding art and rewards to make speeded response tasks involving single-answer, factual questions more fun. He hopes to see more creative play patterns that give students points for rethinking an approach or adapting their strategy, rather than only rewarding them for quickly producing a correct response.

Data-gathering and analysis

The growing use of technology in schools is producing massive amounts of data on students’ activities in the classroom and online. “We’re now able to capture moment-to-moment data, every keystroke a kid makes,” said Schwartz – data that can reveal areas of struggle and different learning opportunities, from solving a math problem to approaching a writing assignment.

But outside of research settings, he said, that type of granular data – now owned by tech companies – is more likely used to refine the design of the software than to provide teachers with actionable information.

The promise of personalized learning is being able to generate content aligned with students’ interests and skill levels, and making lessons more accessible for multilingual learners and students with disabilities. Realizing that promise requires that educators can make sense of the data that’s being collected, said Schwartz – and while advances in AI are making it easier to identify patterns and findings, the data also needs to be in a system and form educators can access and analyze for decision-making. Developing a usable infrastructure for that data, Schwartz said, is an important next step.

With the accumulation of student data comes privacy concerns: How is the data being collected? Are there regulations or guidelines around its use in decision-making? What steps are being taken to prevent unauthorized access? In 2023 K-12 schools experienced a rise in cyberattacks, underscoring the need to implement strong systems to safeguard student data.

Technology is “requiring people to check their assumptions about education,” said Schwartz, noting that AI in particular is very efficient at replicating biases and automating the way things have been done in the past, including poor models of instruction. “But it’s also opening up new possibilities for students producing material, and for being able to identify children who are not average so we can customize toward them. It’s an opportunity to think of entirely new ways of teaching – this is the path I hope to see.”

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Best Education Articles of 2020: Our 20 Most Popular Stories About Students, Remote Schooling & COVID Learning Loss This Year

This is the latest roundup in our “Best Of” series, spotlighting top highlights from this year’s coverage as well as the most popular articles we’ve published each month. See more of the standouts from across 2020 right here .

A ny student will forever remember 2020 as the year that the classrooms and campuses closed down. As coronavirus cases surged in the spring — and then again in the autumn — educators, families and district leaders did their best to pivot to a socially-distanced Plan B, building a new system of remote instruction overnight in hopes of maintaining learning and community.

Any education journalist will remember 2020 as the year that all the planned student profiles, school spotlights and policy investigations got thrown out the window as we scrambled to capture and process the disorienting new normal of virtual classrooms. Here at The 74, our top stories from the past nine months were dominated by our reporting in this area, by features that framed the challenges and opportunities of distance learning, that surfaced solutions and innovations that were working for some districts, and that pointed to the bigger questions of how disrupted back-to-back school years may lead to long-term consequences for this generation of students.

As we approach the new year, we’re continuing to report on America’s evolving, patchwork education system via our coronavirus education reporting project at The74Million.org/PANDEMIC . With school campuses open in some states and not others, with some families preferring in-person classes or remote learning alternatives, and with some individual classrooms being forced to close in rolling 14-day increments with new coronavirus breakouts, it’s clear that our education system will begin 2021 in a similar state of turmoil. (Get our latest reporting on schools and the pandemic delivered straight to your inbox by signing up for The 74 Newsletter )

But with the first vaccines being administered this month, we’re seeing our first glimpse of a light at the end of this chaotic tunnel — hope that the virus will quickly dissipate, that schools will fully reopen, and that we’ll then find a way to help all of America’s 74 million children catch up. Here are our 20 most read and shared articles of the year:

New Research Predicts Steep COVID Learning Losses Will Widen Already Dramatic Achievement Gaps Within Classrooms / By Beth Hawkins

Learning Loss: In the days immediately following the pandemic-related closure of schools throughout the country this past spring, researchers at the nonprofit assessment organization NWEA predicted that whatever school looks like in the fall, students will start the year with significant gaps. In June, they also began warning that the already wide array of student achievement present in individual classrooms in a normal year is likely to swell dramatically . In 2016, researchers at NWEA and four universities determined that on average, the range of academic abilities within a single classroom spans five to seven grades, with one-fourth on grade level in math and just 14 percent in reading. “All of this is in a typical year,” one of the researchers, Texas A&M University Professor Karen Rambo-Hernandez, told Beth Hawkins. “Next year is not going to look like a typical year.” Read the full story .

The issues of ‘COVID Slide’, learning loss and classroom inequity appeared regularly on the site through 2020. A few other notable examples from the year:

— Even Further Ahead: New data suggest pandemic may not just be leaving low-income students behind; it may be propelling wealthier ones even further ahead ( Read the full story )

— Teaching Time: How much learning time are students getting? In 7 of America’s largest school districts, less than normal — and in 3, they’re getting more ( Read the full story )

— Missing Students: Lost learning, lost students — COVID slide is not as steep as predicted, NWEA study finds, but 1 in 4 kids was missing from fall exams ( Read the full story )

— Learning Loss Research: Students could have lost as much as 232 days of learning in math during first four months of largely virtual schooling ( Read the full story )

— What History Tells Us: What lasting academic (and economic) effects could coronavirus shutdowns have on this generation of students? Some alarming data points from research on previous disasters ( Read the full analysis )

Parents (and Lawyers) Say Distance Learning Failed Too Many Special Education Students. As Fall Approaches, Families Wonder If Their Children Will Lose Another School Year / By Linda Jacobson

Special Education: A number of special education parents said their children didn’t receive services during school closures in the spring. That’s why, as Linda Jacobson reported over the summer, organizations such as the School Superintendents Association believed lawsuits and due process complaints were on the horizon, and that’s why they asked Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos to waive federal special education laws as long as schools are trying to teach students remotely . But experts warned The 74 that there’s no proof districts are facing more complaints than usual and that as long as districts communicate frequently with families they’re more likely to avoid complaints — even if schools remain closed. Boston University’s Nathan Jones, an expert on special education, also stressed that going into this fall, it was important to focus on strong academic interventions to help students regain what they’ve lost. Read the full story .

— From March: ‘Absolutely, I’m worried’ — For children with special needs, unprecedented coronavirus school closures bring confusion, uncertainty ( Read the full story )

When the Point of the Pod Is Equity: How Small Grants Are Empowering Parents of Underserved Students to Form Pandemic Microschools / By Beth Hawkins

Remote Learning: A six-child school with a focus on Black girl magic. Bilingual materials for a living-room preschool in an English-only state. Lessons rich with art and self-expression for six foster kids. A curriculum built for kids affected by incarceration. The first round of microschool grants announced by the National Parents Union are nothing like the pandemic pods described in one news story after another last summer: Wealthy parents banding together to hire a teacher or take turns overseeing distance learning. The young organization’s inaugural grants were intended to support families often failed by traditional schools , so perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that many of the winning proposals center on celebrating underserved students’ heritage or meeting specific, frequently overlooked needs. Beth Hawkins talks to several grantees about their kids and their plans. Read the full story .

— Case Study — Pods to Augment Remote Learning: In parks, backyards and old storefronts across Los Angeles, small groups offer children some of what they’ve lost in months of online instruction ( Read the full feature )

How Missing Zoom Classes Could Funnel Kids into the Juvenile Justice System — And Why Some Experts Say Now is the Time to Reform Truancy Rules / By Mark Keierleber

Discipline: In communities across the country, social workers are walking door to door in search of millions of students their schools have deemed “missing” — a stark reality as districts combat an absenteeism crisis amid the coronavirus pandemic. Despite longstanding “compulsory education” laws that require students to attend school or face punishment — including fines and incarceration in some states — many districts have avoided pushing students into the juvenile justice system for truancy during the pandemic. But as growing evidence suggest that such an approach is counterproductive, some experts worry about what could come next . “Pretty soon, I think that folks are going to start relying on the stick more than they have been,” said Rey Saldaña, CEO of the nonprofit Communities in Schools. “That’ll be the completely wrong conversation to have because these students don’t need truancy court, they don’t need fines.” Rather than being willfully defiant, truant students are often suffering from homelessness or violence, he said. “They need interventions, they don’t need to be seen by a judge.” Read the full report . 

— Related: Research shows changing schools can make or break a student, but the wave of post-COVID mobility may challenge the systems in ways we’ve never seen ( Read the full report ) 

— School Finance: Phantom students, very real red ink — Why efforts to keep student disenrollment from busting school budgets can backfire ( Read the full story )

— Disenrollment: As families face evictions & closed classrooms, data shows ‘dramatic’ spike in mid-year school moves ( Read the full story ) 

— Catholic Schools: A glimmer of hope in pandemic for nation’s ailing Catholic schools, but long-term worries persist ( Read the full story )

DeVos on the Docket: With 455 Lawsuits Against Her Department and Counting, Education Secretary is Left to Defend Much of Her Agenda in Court / By Linda Jacobson

Department of Education: No education secretary has ever been sued as much as Betsy DeVos. In four years, over 455 lawsuits have been filed against either DeVos or the U.S. Department of Education, according to The 74’s analysis of court filings and opinions. Many of the cases, involving multiple states and advocacy organizations, were filed in response to Trump administration moves to reverse Obama-era rules in the areas of civil rights and protections for student loan borrowers. DeVos has always been outspoken about lightening Washington’s footprint in education. But in her department’s effort to grab what one education attorney called “quick political wins,” judges — even Trump appointees — are finding flaws in its approach. One exception might be the revised Title IX policy, which has already sparked four lawsuits, but might be hard for a future administration to tear down. Linda Jacobson has the story .

A 2020 EDlection Cheat Sheet: Recapping the 48 Key Races, Winners and Campaign Issues That Could Reshape America’s Schools and Education Policy / By The 74 Staff

EDlection: A first-ever ballot proposition on sex education in Washington state that critics decried as “school porn” but voters approved. A school board election in New Orleans, in part a referendum on closing failing schools, that remained largely undecided the week after Election Day. A victory by former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, whose education background runs deep and who is one of the few Democrats to unseat a GOP incumbent for U.S. Senate. While a historic presidential race — and a test of our democracy — fixated the nation, education was on the ballot this unprecedented election cycle . Elected officials, particularly at the state level, will play a pivotal role in steering schools through the public health and economic crises of the pandemic. That’s why we’ve curated 48 federal, state and local races with key implications for students, teachers and families. Here’s the full rundown of the 2020 votes that mattered most to education, plus a full archive of our Election Week livechat, which included rolling updates on candidates, votes and the national conversation. Read the full roundup .

As COVID Creeps into Schools, Surveillance Tech Follows / By Mark Keierleber

Student Privacy: When an Ohio school district saw a “significant increase” in COVID-19 cases among students and staff, officials made the difficult call of reverting to remote learning. But when kids return to class, they’ll be wearing badges that will track their every move — part of a pilot program in contact tracing that allows the Wickliffe district to follow students for up to a month and identify who comes into contact with infected classmates. The badges and other high-tech gizmos, including UV light air purifiers and thermal-imaging cameras that purport to detect fevers, have come under fire from student privacy advocates. But company executives and school leaders made clear they’re not likely to go away anytime soon — even after the pandemic subsides . “After the initial pushback, people are going to adapt and deal with it,” Superintendent Joseph Spiccia told The 74’s Mark Keierleber. “Some people would be angry, and after that anger dissipates, I think people generally will end up complying and falling in line.” Read the full story .

— Case Study: ‘Don’t get gaggled’ — Minneapolis school district spends big on student surveillance tool, raising ire after terminating its police contract ( Read the full story )

An Education System, Divided: How Internet Inequity Persisted Through 4 Presidents and Left Schools Unprepared for the Pandemic / By Kevin Mahnken

Student Access: When the COVID-19 pandemic spread into American communities, schools adapted by switching to online classes. But millions of families with no or limited home internet can’t manage that transition, drastically diminishing educational opportunities for the students who need them most. Local leaders have embraced creative solutions, loaning out thousands of devices and dispatching Wi-Fi-equipped school buses into low-connectivity neighborhoods. But the question remains: Three decades after the internet’s emergence as a boundary-breaking technology, how are vast swaths of the United States still walled off from the social, economic and educational blessings that the internet provides ? The answer, told to The 74 by experts and policymakers who have worked around communications access since the birth of the internet, implicate both the public and private sectors in a prolonged failure to extend the benefits of modern technology to countless Americans. “I think the large-scale tolerance for inequity in this country gave rise to an inequitable telecommunications system,” said one. Read Kevin Mahnken’s report .

New Poll Reveals Parents Want One-on-One Distance Learning Support From Teachers — but Aren’t Getting Much of It / By Beth Hawkins

Parent Priorities: Polling data released this past May from the national nonprofit Learning Heroes found parents were engaged in their kids’ distance learning but wanted more contact with teachers, both for their kids and for themselves as at-home learning coaches. Nearly half of more than 3,600 parents surveyed said personal guidance would be extremely helpful, but just 15 percent have gotten it . Only 39 percent said they had a clear understanding of teachers’ expectations, and few were getting the texts and phone calls they said are the most effective means of communication. The poll illustrated new implications of a longstanding, fundamental lack of information, which previous Learning Heroes surveys have found feeds parents’ near-universal belief that their children are doing far better in school than they really are. As schools plan for eventual reopening, Learning Heroes President Bibb Hubbard told Beth Hawkins, they should carefully consider what parents say is working for them — because while families are giving schools and teachers the benefit of the doubt now, that may not last. “There’s a lot of grace right now,” Hubbard says. “But I think that’s going to change next fall.” Read the full report .

Displaced: The Faces of American Education in Crisis / By Laura Fay, Bekah McNeel, Patrick O’Donnell & Taylor Swaak

Displaced: No two experiences of this pandemic have been the same, particularly when it comes to school communities. When we launched this project in late May, it had been several months since COVID-19 shuttered districts across the country. In what would have been the final months of the 2019-20 academic year, tens of millions of students, educators and parents saw their lives upended overnight. Still half of America’s school employees aren’t teachers. When the coronavirus pandemic hit the United States, millions of other workers integral to the American education system were similarly uprooted . As the country (and its school communities) continued to navigate its way through a disaster for which it was grossly unprepared, a team from The 74 set out to track how life and work has changed for the diverse universe of characters who make our classrooms work. From parents to teachers, counselors and even district warehouse managers, the pandemic has been a time of unprecedented hardships and challenges. Here: Eight faces and unforgettable stories from across the country that begin to capture the real story of the pandemic’s impact on the wider community. See all eight profiles .

New Report Estimates School Closures’ Long-Term Impact on the U.S. Economy at More Than $14 Trillion / By Linda Jacobson

Skills Gap: A paper from economists Eric Hanushek of Stanford University and Ludger Woessmann of the University of Munich presents a sobering prediction of how school closures could impact the U.S. economy for the next 80 years. The paper estimates that the shutdowns could ultimately lead to losses ranging from $14.2 trillion for a third of the school year to almost $28 trillion for two-thirds . That’s because “learning loss will lead to skill loss, and the skills people have relate to their productivity,” writes international education expert Andreas Schleicher, of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The U.S., Schleicher said, was actually better positioned than many other nations to make the transition to remote learning. But looking ahead, he said the country could do a better job of directing education spending toward quality instruction and the students who need resources the most. Read our full report .

Exclusive: NYC Teachers Union Launches Its Own Investigation of School Building Air Quality Amid COVID Threat, UFT President Says / By Zoë Kirsch

School Safety: Looking to spur the New York City Department of Education to take preventative action on airborne COVID transmission in schools, the United Federation of Teachers announced this past summer that it was taking the longstanding issue of poor ventilation into its own hands. President Michael Mulgrew told The 74’s Zoë Kirsch in an exclusive interview this past August that the union was sending its own health and safety workers into 30 “red flag” schools with the worst ventilation systems to do their own air quality testing. The move came as the UFT escalated its criticism of the city’s school reopening plan, saying it failed to meet student and staff safety standards on several fronts. Less than half of New York City’s roughly 1,400 school buildings are equipped with heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, which maintain indoor air quality. “One of the biggest risk factors is time spent in underventilated spaces indoors. You want to control the emissions and removal,”said Joseph Allen, who runs the Healthy Buildings program at Harvard’s Chan School of Public Health and estimates that 90 percent of U.S. schools are underventilated. A 2000 NYC report said, “The UFT receives more complaints from its members about poor indoor air quality in schools than about any other health and safety issue.” Read the full report .

Texas’s Missing Students: Weeks After Closures, Schools in San Antonio Still Couldn’t Locate Thousands of Kids. How One Band Director Finally Tracked Down His Musicians / By Bekah McNeel

Absenteeism: In its race to locate every student before school adjourned for summer, San Antonio Independent School District relied on faculty members like high school band director Alejandro Jaime Salazar to track them down. It became a daily task for Salazar, as he used every tool at his disposal and relied on relationships forged before coronavirus shut the schools . That included asking student section leaders to make contact with other kids. Once located, Salazar said, “my main priority was to keep in contact with these kids every day.” He and other educators told The 74’s Bekah McNeel that the hunt for “missing” students revealed the increasing importance of student-teacher connection, engagement and relationships. Read the full profile .

The Achievement Gap Has Driven Education Reform for Decades. Now Some Are Calling It a Racist Idea / By Kevin Mahnken

Equity: For decades, education policy has been shaped largely by an extended discussion of racial achievement gaps, and the lingua franca of that discourse is testing data. A reform coalition of educators, politicians and activists has labored to narrow the academic disparity between white students and students of color, placing the goal at the heart of media debates and state accountability plans alike. But in recent years, influential figures have begun to shift away from the achievement gap. Some say it’s more responsible to focus on resource disparities between student groups, even if standardized testing is still a necessary component in school improvement efforts; others go even further, arguing that the notion of an achievement gap is a racist throwback to the age of eugenics . As reformers choose whether to preserve or abandon the idea, some in the Democratic Party — including former educator and soon-to-be-congressman Jamaal Bowman — have grown louder in their calls to abolish high-stakes testing. Read the full report .

New Data: College Enrollment for Low-Income High School Grads Plunged by 29% During the Pandemic / By Richard Whitmire

Higher Education: Author and 74 contributor Richard Whitmire describes the cratering of college enrollment rates among 2020 high school graduates as a tragedy whose outline is just becoming visible. That picture grew clearer and more distressing in December with the release of new data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center showing college enrollment declined for low-income students at nearly double the rate of higher-income students — 29.2 percent versus 16.9 percent. The decrease for all 2020 high school grads, measured for the first time since COVID-19 wreaked havoc on the nation’s schools, is also alarming: a nearly 22 percent drop this year versus a 2.8 percent drop for the class of 2019. The crucial difference, Whitmire writes, is that those from more affluent and middle-class backgrounds will likely make their way back to college once the pandemic subsides, while the trajectory for low-income students may have changed forever. Read the full report .

A Time of Reckoning for Race & Education in America: 5 Case Studies in How Students and School Leaders Are Pushing for Culturally Relevant Curriculum Amid the Pandemic / By Emmeline Zhao

Curriculum: The American education system was not designed to operate — much less thrive — without physical, in-person interaction. And when the novel coronavirus forced indefinite emergency school closures this spring, concern ballooned over how to educate America’s 74 million school-age children from afar. That, coupled with this summer’s protests demanding social justice, led The 74’s Pandemic Reporting Initiative to dispatch correspondents across the country to take a hard look at how existing curricula may not be conducive to closing the achievement gap , particularly from afar; how some schools are addressing these issues to adapt to changing times and challenging learning circumstances; and how educators are tackling these tough but critical issues. Read our full series that dives into curriculum in light of the pandemic and social justice movement, with reports out of New York, New Orleans, San Antonio, Cleveland and Washington, D.C. See the full series here .

Youth Suicide: The Other Public Health Crisis / By Mark Keierleber

Mental Health: Brad Hunstable believes his son died of the coronavirus — just not in the way one might expect. As COVID-19 shuttered schools nationwide and put students’ social lives on pause, Hayden committed suicide just days before his 13th birthday. His father blames that pandemic-induced social isolation — and a fit of rage — for his son’s death. Though the national youth suicide rate has been on the rise for years, students say the unprecedented disruption of the last few months has taken a toll on their emotional well-being . Researchers worry that a surge in depression and anxiety could drive a spike in youth suicide. Sandy Hook Promise, which runs an anonymous reporting tool, has seen a 12 percent increase in suicide-related reports since March. The issue became a political football ahead of this year’s election, with President Donald Trump and others citing rising rates of depression and suicide as reasons to relax COVID-19-related restrictions on in-person classes. Read the full report .

Using Tutors to Combat COVID Learning Loss: New Research Shows That Even Lightly Trained Volunteers Drive Academic Gains / By Kevin Mahnken

Personalized Learning: With a return to full-time, in-person schooling still weeks away in many areas, families are searching for any solution to deal with their children’s COVID-related learning losses. Now, a working paper circulated by the National Bureau of Economic Research suggests that tutoring programs — whether led by certified teachers, paraprofessionals, even parents — could play a significant role in getting students back on track . It’s a strategy that has already been embraced by parents blessed with the money and bandwidth to create small-scale learning pods, but experts suggest that supplementary instruction could be scaled up dramatically through the use of lightly trained volunteers and virtual learning platforms. Still, both the cost and the organizational challenges of expanding tutoring are great. “The logistics of setting this up on the kind of scale we need to to address the problem is more complicated than we initially realized,” said co-author Philip Oreopoulos of the University of Toronto. Read the full report .

Cleveland Schools Considering Bold Plan to Confront Coronavirus Learning Loss: A ‘Mastery’ Learning Initiative That Would Scrap Grade Levels, Let Kids Learn at Own Pace / By Patrick O’Donnell

Mastery Education: At the beginning of the summer, educators were grappling with the fact that when students come back to school, they will be at vastly different academic levels. So how can schools fairly decide which grade kids should be in? They can’t, said Cleveland school district CEO Eric Gordon — and maybe they shouldn’t try. His draft plan for reopening the district’s schools would instead put students in multi-age “grade bands,” under a mastery approach that lets them work at their own speed. Students would then have time to relearn skills they have lost and catch up without feeling like failures or being held back a grade. “We’ve got opportunities here to really test, challenge and maybe abandon some of these time-bound structures of education that have never really conformed to what we know about good child development,” Gordon said. Read the full report .

When Siblings Become Teachers: It’s Not Just Parents Who Find Themselves Thrust Into the Demanding Role of At-Home Educators / By Zoë Kirsch

Homeschooling: When the pandemic shuttered New York City schools, 22-year-old Lillian Acosta of Queens found herself suddenly relating to the experiences of her co-workers with kids, as they talked about the challenges inherent in remote learning. Lillian isn’t a parent, but for the last few weeks, she’s been assuming the responsibilities of one , spending hours a day — and paying $90 a day to a tutor — to make sure her 14-year-old brother gets through school. She isn’t alone: In Brooklyn, 17-year-old Melisa Cabascango coaches her little brother, and in the Bronx, Sarshevack “Sar” Mnahsheh sets up a makeshift classroom in his family’s apartment every morning. “I try to wake up early enough to check up on the little things,” says Sar, who works the night shift at a local grocery store. “I don’t try to be overbearing because I’m not a parent, but I have to make sure they’re up to par on the things they’re doing.” Lillian, Melisa and Sar are working overtime to fill the gap between what their siblings need and what the district is providing in this moment of crisis. They’re three of thousands of young people who are shouldering that burden in cities and towns across the country — and those in low-income communities of color are getting hit the hardest. Read the full feature .

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The 10 Most Significant Education Studies of 2020

We reviewed hundreds of educational studies in 2020 and then highlighted 10 of the most significant—covering topics from virtual learning to the reading wars and the decline of standardized tests.

In the month of March of 2020, the year suddenly became a whirlwind. With a pandemic disrupting life across the entire globe, teachers scrambled to transform their physical classrooms into virtual—or even hybrid—ones, and researchers slowly began to collect insights into what works, and what doesn’t, in online learning environments around the world.

Meanwhile, neuroscientists made a convincing case for keeping handwriting in schools, and after the closure of several coal-fired power plants in Chicago, researchers reported a drop in pediatric emergency room visits and fewer absences in schools, reminding us that questions of educational equity do not begin and end at the schoolhouse door.

1. To Teach Vocabulary, Let Kids Be Thespians

When students are learning a new language, ask them to act out vocabulary words. It’s fun to unleash a child’s inner thespian, of course, but a 2020 study concluded that it also nearly doubles their ability to remember the words months later.

Researchers asked 8-year-old students to listen to words in another language and then use their hands and bodies to mimic the words—spreading their arms and pretending to fly, for example, when learning the German word flugzeug , which means “airplane.” After two months, these young actors were a remarkable 73 percent more likely to remember the new words than students who had listened without accompanying gestures. Researchers discovered similar, if slightly less dramatic, results when students looked at pictures while listening to the corresponding vocabulary. 

It’s a simple reminder that if you want students to remember something, encourage them to learn it in a variety of ways—by drawing it , acting it out, or pairing it with relevant images , for example.

2. Neuroscientists Defend the Value of Teaching Handwriting—Again

For most kids, typing just doesn’t cut it. In 2012, brain scans of preliterate children revealed crucial reading circuitry flickering to life when kids hand-printed letters and then tried to read them. The effect largely disappeared when the letters were typed or traced.

More recently, in 2020, a team of researchers studied older children—seventh graders—while they handwrote, drew, and typed words, and concluded that handwriting and drawing produced telltale neural tracings indicative of deeper learning.

“Whenever self-generated movements are included as a learning strategy, more of the brain gets stimulated,” the researchers explain, before echoing the 2012 study: “It also appears that the movements related to keyboard typing do not activate these networks the same way that drawing and handwriting do.”

It would be a mistake to replace typing with handwriting, though. All kids need to develop digital skills, and there’s evidence that technology helps children with dyslexia to overcome obstacles like note taking or illegible handwriting, ultimately freeing them to “use their time for all the things in which they are gifted,” says the Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity.

3. The ACT Test Just Got a Negative Score (Face Palm)

A 2020 study found that ACT test scores, which are often a key factor in college admissions, showed a weak—or even negative —relationship when it came to predicting how successful students would be in college. “There is little evidence that students will have more college success if they work to improve their ACT score,” the researchers explain, and students with very high ACT scores—but indifferent high school grades—often flamed out in college, overmatched by the rigors of a university’s academic schedule.

Just last year, the SAT—cousin to the ACT—had a similarly dubious public showing. In a major 2019 study of nearly 50,000 students led by researcher Brian Galla, and including Angela Duckworth, researchers found that high school grades were stronger predictors of four-year-college graduation than SAT scores.

The reason? Four-year high school grades, the researchers asserted, are a better indicator of crucial skills like perseverance, time management, and the ability to avoid distractions. It’s most likely those skills, in the end, that keep kids in college.

4. A Rubric Reduces Racial Grading Bias

A simple step might help undercut the pernicious effect of grading bias, a new study found: Articulate your standards clearly before you begin grading, and refer to the standards regularly during the assessment process.

In 2020, more than 1,500 teachers were recruited and asked to grade a writing sample from a fictional second-grade student. All of the sample stories were identical—but in one set, the student mentions a family member named Dashawn, while the other set references a sibling named Connor.

Teachers were 13 percent more likely to give the Connor papers a passing grade, revealing the invisible advantages that many students unknowingly benefit from. When grading criteria are vague, implicit stereotypes can insidiously “fill in the blanks,” explains the study’s author. But when teachers have an explicit set of criteria to evaluate the writing—asking whether the student “provides a well-elaborated recount of an event,” for example—the difference in grades is nearly eliminated.

5. What Do Coal-Fired Power Plants Have to Do With Learning? Plenty

When three coal-fired plants closed in the Chicago area, student absences in nearby schools dropped by 7 percent, a change largely driven by fewer emergency room visits for asthma-related problems. The stunning finding, published in a 2020 study from Duke and Penn State, underscores the role that often-overlooked environmental factors—like air quality, neighborhood crime, and noise pollution—have in keeping our children healthy and ready to learn.

At scale, the opportunity cost is staggering: About 2.3 million children in the United States still attend a public elementary or middle school located within 10 kilometers of a coal-fired plant.

The study builds on a growing body of research that reminds us that questions of educational equity do not begin and end at the schoolhouse door. What we call an achievement gap is often an equity gap, one that “takes root in the earliest years of children’s lives,” according to a 2017 study . We won’t have equal opportunity in our schools, the researchers admonish, until we are diligent about confronting inequality in our cities, our neighborhoods—and ultimately our own backyards.

6. Students Who Generate Good Questions Are Better Learners

Some of the most popular study strategies—highlighting passages, rereading notes, and underlining key sentences—are also among the least effective. A 2020 study highlighted a powerful alternative: Get students to generate questions about their learning, and gradually press them to ask more probing questions.

In the study, students who studied a topic and then generated their own questions scored an average of 14 percentage points higher on a test than students who used passive strategies like studying their notes and rereading classroom material. Creating questions, the researchers found, not only encouraged students to think more deeply about the topic but also strengthened their ability to remember what they were studying.

There are many engaging ways to have students create highly productive questions : When creating a test, you can ask students to submit their own questions, or you can use the Jeopardy! game as a platform for student-created questions.

7. Did a 2020 Study Just End the ‘Reading Wars’?

One of the most widely used reading programs was dealt a severe blow when a panel of reading experts concluded that it “would be unlikely to lead to literacy success for all of America’s public schoolchildren.”

In the 2020 study , the experts found that the controversial program—called “Units of Study” and developed over the course of four decades by Lucy Calkins at the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project—failed to explicitly and systematically teach young readers how to decode and encode written words, and was thus “in direct opposition to an enormous body of settled research.”

The study sounded the death knell for practices that de-emphasize phonics in favor of having children use multiple sources of information—like story events or illustrations—to predict the meaning of unfamiliar words, an approach often associated with “balanced literacy.” In an internal memo obtained by publisher APM, Calkins seemed to concede the point, writing that “aspects of balanced literacy need some ‘rebalancing.’”

8. A Secret to High-Performing Virtual Classrooms

In 2020, a team at Georgia State University compiled a report on virtual learning best practices. While evidence in the field is "sparse" and "inconsistent," the report noted that logistical issues like accessing materials—and not content-specific problems like failures of comprehension—were often among the most significant obstacles to online learning. It wasn’t that students didn’t understand photosynthesis in a virtual setting, in other words—it was that they didn’t find (or simply didn't access) the lesson on photosynthesis at all.

That basic insight echoed a 2019 study that highlighted the crucial need to organize virtual classrooms even more intentionally than physical ones. Remote teachers should use a single, dedicated hub for important documents like assignments; simplify communications and reminders by using one channel like email or text; and reduce visual clutter like hard-to-read fonts and unnecessary decorations throughout their virtual spaces.

Because the tools are new to everyone, regular feedback on topics like accessibility and ease of use is crucial. Teachers should post simple surveys asking questions like “Have you encountered any technical issues?” and “Can you easily locate your assignments?” to ensure that students experience a smooth-running virtual learning space.

9. Love to Learn Languages? Surprisingly, Coding May Be Right for You

Learning how to code more closely resembles learning a language such as Chinese or Spanish than learning math, a 2020 study found—upending the conventional wisdom about what makes a good programmer.

In the study, young adults with no programming experience were asked to learn Python, a popular programming language; they then took a series of tests assessing their problem-solving, math, and language skills. The researchers discovered that mathematical skill accounted for only 2 percent of a person’s ability to learn how to code, while language skills were almost nine times more predictive, accounting for 17 percent of learning ability.

That’s an important insight because all too often, programming classes require that students pass advanced math courses—a hurdle that needlessly excludes students with untapped promise, the researchers claim.

10. Researchers Cast Doubt on Reading Tasks Like ‘Finding the Main Idea’

“Content is comprehension,” declared a 2020 Fordham Institute study , sounding a note of defiance as it staked out a position in the ongoing debate over the teaching of intrinsic reading skills versus the teaching of content knowledge.

While elementary students spend an enormous amount of time working on skills like “finding the main idea” and “summarizing”—tasks born of the belief that reading is a discrete and trainable ability that transfers seamlessly across content areas—these young readers aren’t experiencing “the additional reading gains that well-intentioned educators hoped for,” the study concluded.

So what works? The researchers looked at data from more than 18,000 K–5 students, focusing on the time spent in subject areas like math, social studies, and ELA, and found that “social studies is the only subject with a clear, positive, and statistically significant effect on reading improvement.” In effect, exposing kids to rich content in civics, history, and law appeared to teach reading more effectively than our current methods of teaching reading. Perhaps defiance is no longer needed: Fordham’s conclusions are rapidly becoming conventional wisdom—and they extend beyond the limited claim of reading social studies texts. According to Natalie Wexler, the author of the well-received 2019 book  The Knowledge Gap , content knowledge and reading are intertwined. “Students with more [background] knowledge have a better chance of understanding whatever text they encounter. They’re able to retrieve more information about the topic from long-term memory, leaving more space in working memory for comprehension,” she recently told Edutopia .

The Top 20 Education Next Articles of 2020

Education Next

Our annual look back at the year’s most popular Education Next articles is itself a popular article with readers. It’s useful as an indicator of what issues are at the top of the education policy conversation.

This year, as our list indicates, race and the Covid-19 pandemic dominated the discussion.

The top two articles of the year—“ ‘The 1619 Project’ Enters American Classrooms ,” by Naomi Schaefer Riley, and the “ The Better of the Two Big Antiracism Bestsellers ,” by John McWhorter—both tackled the intersection of race and education issues.

Seven of the others dealt with aspects of the novel coronavirus—“ How Will the Coronavirus Crisis Affect Children’s Learning? Unequally ,” “ A Blueprint for Back to School ,” “ Reopening Resilient Schools ,” “ The Rapid Rise of Pandemic Pods ,” “ How the Coronavirus Crisis May Improve Teacher Quality ,” “ The Stress of this Moment Might Be Hurting Kids’ Development ,” and “ A Survival Guide for Distance Teaching .”

Charter schools may be out of favor with the incoming presidential administration, but our readers maintain a lively interest in the topic. “ Charter Schools Show Steeper Upward Trend in Student Achievement than District Schools ” and “ Charter Schools and their Enemies ” both made the list.

Because the list operates on a calendar-year basis, articles posted late in the year are less likely to make the cut. One that nearly did, despite a November publication date, was Chester E. Finn, Jr.’s profile of outgoing U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander, who will be leaving office when Congress adjourns. “No one living today has had more far-reaching influence on American K-12 education,” Finn wrote in “ Leadership Makes a Difference: Lamar Alexander and K-12 Education .”

We could not have predicted either the pandemic or the post-George Floyd racial reckoning at this time last year. Who knows what 2021 will bring? We hope for our readers the year ahead is one of good health and of continued learning.

The full Top 20 Education Next articles of 2020 list follows:

1. “The 1619 Project” Enters American Classrooms Adding new sizzle to education about slavery—but at a significant cost. By Naomi Schaefer Riley

2. The Better of the Two Big Antiracism Bestsellers Kendi’s How To Be An Antiracist lacks subtlety, but it beats White Fragility. By John McWhorter

3. How Will the Coronavirus Crisis Affect Children’s Learning? Unequally. It’s not a vacation. There’s still half a semester of curriculum to learn. By Paul T. von Hippel

4. A Blueprint for Back to School What will it take to get schools ready? By John Bailey and Frederick Hess

5. Charter Schools Show Steeper Upward Trend in Student Achievement than District Schools First nationwide study of trends shows large gains for African Americans at charters By M. Danish Shakeel and Paul E. Peterson

6. The Rise of Dual Credit More and more students take college classes while still in high school. That is boosting degree attainment but also raising doubts about rigor. By Kelly Field

7. Reopening Resilient Schools With a hybrid learning model and proper safeguards, schools can successfully open By John Bailey

8. Teachers Need to Be Taught To Teach Students to Behave Many educators lack basic training in classroom management. By Tom Bennett

9. The Rapid Rise of Pandemic Pods Will the parent response to Covid-19 lead to lasting change? By Michael B. Horn

10. Miami-Dade County Public Schools Bucks the “Staffing Surge” Trend Lowered expenses, but not at the expense of student achievement By Michael Q. McShane

11. The Stubborn Myth of “Learning Styles” State teacher-license prep materials peddle a debunked theory By William Furey

12. Nudging and Shoving Students Toward Success What the research shows about the promise and limitations of behavioral science in education By Philip Oreopoulos

13. The Grade-Level Expectations Trap How lockstep math lessons leave students behind By Joel Rose

14. Charter Schools and Their Enemies At 90, Thomas Sowell reminds charter schools how to fight. And why. By Robert Pondiscio

15. Linking Social-Emotional Learning to Long-Term Success Student survey responses show effects in high school and beyond By C. Kirabo Jackson, Shanette C. Porter, John Q. Easton, Alyssa Blanchard, and Sebastián Kiguel

16. The Costs of Cutting School Spending Lessons from the Great Recession By C. Kirabo Jackson, Cora Wigger, Heyu Xiong

17. How the Coronavirus Crisis May Improve Teacher Quality Recession hiring boosts teacher quality and student learning By Martin R. West, Markus Nagler, Marc Piopiunik

18. Better School Counselors, Better Outcomes Quality varies, and can matter as much as with teachers By Christine Mulhern

19. The Stress of This Moment Might Be Hurting Kids’ Development But relationships, routines, and resilience can help By Pamela Cantor, M.D.

20. A Survival Guide for Distance Teaching Lessons in “fighting the tide of passivity” By Kathleen Porter-Magee

Congratulations to all of our authors!

— Education Next

P.S. You can find the Top 20 Education Next articles of 2019 here , 2018 here , 2017 here , 2016 here , 2015 here , 2014 here and 2013 here .

P.P.S. You can find the Top 10 Education Next blog posts of 2020 here.

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Summer 2024.

Vol. 24, No. 3

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Public school educators are calling for a post-pandemic reset. Can it be done?

Four years after COVID-19 forced schools to close, educators want an overhaul.

Four years after the coronavirus pandemic closed much of the nation's education system, thousands of the more than 50 million U.S. public school students and teachers are returning to school this month.

In interviews with ABC News, education experts suggest the impact school closures had on the public education model could leave students with long-term developmental issues from lost learning time.

It has already exacerbated issues such as chronic absenteeism and teacher burnout, and now the persistent problems public educators face are causing leaders, experts and caregivers to sound the alarm.

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One prominent educator told ABC that "public education is on life support." Another said the greatest current education challenge is the need for it to "reset," which the educator projected could take five to 10 years to achieve. And, polling suggests the American public also believes there could be grave consequences if nothing is done to fix public education.

Pew Research Center found about half of Americans think the public education system is going in the wrong direction. Eighty-two percent of people surveyed by Pew said it has been trending that way over the past five years -- even before the pandemic hit.

"It's needed restructuring for a while," STEM Equity Alliance Executive Director Arthur Mitchell told ABC News. "Education as it exists is unsustainable."

MORE: Teachers want the public to know their job is difficult, new survey finds

Mitchell shares the viewpoint of many educators ABC News spoke with -- that the issues facing school districts predate COVID-19. However, the pandemic exposed the need for an education reboot.

"The message that the pandemic sent was that you're not going to be successful teaching math and reading and science and social studies if kids haven't eaten, they haven't slept, they're worried about their dad's job or their grandmother's recent death," FutureEd Director Thomas Toch said.

'These kids aren't going to learn'

During his first year as Education Secretary in 2021, Miguel Cardona said the system is "missing the point" if school districts fail to restructure schools with better social and emotional support such as mental health resources.

Emphasizing the need for Social Emotional Learning (SEL) curriculums could serve as a start, according to Katie Kirby, a principal and experienced educator in Union City, New Jersey.

"These kids aren't going to learn," Kirby told ABC News, adding "All they're thinking about [is] the trauma that happened in their house. Or, even during COVID, just being isolated is a trauma."

"I feel like more could be done to address the mental health issues and social emotional things around, you know, not just the students but the teachers also," Kirby said about post-COVID schooling.

The New Jersey elementary school principal said more mental health practitioners and teachers will energize school communities.

Experts told ABC that innovative models, such as communities in schools, have worked with local agencies to provide positive SEL results over the years.

Toch said these communities in schools structure is a solution to the typical public education framework because it is a "difficult" time to grow up in America.

"We need to recognize that students need a range of supports in order to be successful academically," he said.

Due to the complexity of American children, Toch said the community is responsible for helping raise students.

"These models, at best, they are partnerships where other agencies are contributing resources to the partnership so that schools don't have to shoulder the entire burden, financial burden, of a more comprehensive model on behalf of the whole child."

Jonte Lee, a science teacher in the nation's capital, also said a reboot is enhanced by community partnerships.

MORE: Despite opposition, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Sanders the latest Republican to push 'school choice'

"We need parental support as well and we need other entities in the community to support [teachers]," he said. "It's like we support you, you support us -- we need to come together as a community and a culture."

Lee said a public education overhaul isn't necessary though. The system only needs minor "tweaks" such as hiring and paying more teachers, according to Lee.

"Hasn't the model been recreated multiple times?" Lee told ABC News, adding "When we say recreate the public school education model, it has already been recreated multiple times, which is why I believe in school choice, because 'this model may not work for me.'"

Injecting "choice" into education refers to a largely conservative movement that supports charter schools. Public charter schools are taxpayer funded and state-run, but the schools have the ability to turn students away, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Their curriculums are agreed upon or chartered by local or state government, which gives the school more freedom than a traditional public school.

In contrast, tuition-free public education is schooling provided under the public's supervision or direction, according to the Cornell Law School.

'Education is always about the economy'

With several school districts back in full swing this summer, experts told ABC News that challenges stretch beyond academic and social emotional learning.

"Education is always about the economy," Mitchell said. "We just don't discuss those two things together."

In the wake of an educator shortage, Mitchell described school vacancies as an economic issue since workforce trends have outpaced the public education sector. Therefore, leaders such as Cardona and Harvard Center for Education Policy Research Executive Director Dr. Christina Grant stress the need to make public high school a pathway to careers for students. Research supports these proposals. After graduation, adults are a "direct reflection" of the preparation given to them by the school system, according to Mitchell.

For the most part, experts said they believe some reconfiguring of the education system should occur. Christina Grant, who was Washington, D.C.'s state superintendent during the pandemic, said she fully supports large-scale adjustments such as adding high-impact tutoring for all, utilizing federal investments and resources, and rethinking the high school structure.

Meanwhile, many conservative policymakers are pushing to defund the U.S. Department of Education as a whole. They argue that the word "education" doesn't appear in the Constitution, so the individual states have to work through issues on a case-by-case basis.

At CEPR, Grant is researching evidence-based solutions for students across the country. She said intentional revisions are required for improving public education.

"The data is telling us that we have work to do," she told ABC News. "Do I think that that means we need a whole system overhaul? I don't think that you can eat a whole elephant at one time. I think you have to be laser-like focused on which chunks you would attack in which ways."

Toch warns changes, whether sweeping or incremental, could take up to a decade on a widespread scale.

He and Grant agree the roughly $190 billion in elementary and secondary school emergency relief from the federal government during COVID has been helpful in tackling these concerns -- particularly student recovery -- over the last three years. But the Biden administration's American Rescue Plan (ARP) money expires on Sept. 30.

With that deadline looming, Grant hopes more investments will move the needle.

"I do think that the federal government still has to make seismic commitments in public education because we are far from out of this," she said.

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The mediating role of self-efficacy in the relationship between past professional training and burnout resilience in medical education: a multicentre cross-sectional study

• Rebecca Erschens 1 ,
• Carla Schröpel 1 ,
• Anne Herrmann-Werner 1 , 2 ,
• Florian Junne 1 , 3 ,
• Lena Listunova 4 ,
• Andrea Heinzmann 5 ,
• Oliver Keis 6 ,
• Katrin Schüttpelz-Brauns 7 ,
• Sabine C. Herpertz 8 ,
• Kevin Kunz 5 ,
• Stephan Zipfel 1 , 9 &
• Teresa Festl-Wietek 2  

BMC Medical Education volume  24 , Article number:  875 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

96 Accesses

Metrics details

Meta-analyses indicate a high prevalence of burnout among medical students. Although studies have investigated different coping strategies and health interventions to prevent burnout, professional experience’s influence on burnout resilience as seldom been explored. Therefore, in our study we aimed to examine the self-efficacy’s mediating role in the relationship between past vocational training and burnout resilience. In the process, we also analysed the associations between study-related variables and burnout resilience.

In our cross-sectional study, we analysed the data of 2217 medical students at different stages of their university education (i.e. 1st, 3rd, 6th, 10th semester, and final year) at five medical faculties in Germany. The questionnaire included items addressing variables related to medical school, previous professional and academic qualifications, and validated instruments for measuring burnout and self-efficacy.

The overall prevalence of burnout was 19.7%, as defined by high scores for emotional exhaustion and notable values in at least one of the other two dimensions (cynicism or academic efficacy). Higher levels for self-efficacy ( p  < .001), having children ( p  = .004), and financing education with personal earnings ( p  = .03) were positively associated with burnout resilience, whereas having education financed by a partner or spouse ( p  = .04) had a negative association. In a mediation analysis, self-efficacy exerted a suppressor effect on the relationship between vocational training and burnout resilience (indirect effect = 0.11, 95% CI [0.04, 0.19]).

Conclusions

Self-efficacy’s suppressor effect suggests that the positive association between vocational training and burnout resilience identified in the mediation analysis disappears for students who have completed vocational training but do not feel efficacious. Those and other findings provide important insights into the psychological mechanisms underlying the development of burnout resilience in medical students and suggest the promotion of self-efficacy in medical education.

Peer Review reports

Introduction

The international literature on stress indicates that medical students are vulnerable to a range of psychological complaints. Recent meta-analyses additionally suggest that the prevalence of one such complaint—burnout—among medical students varies considerably, depending on factors such as the instrument used to measure it, its operationalisation, the stage of university education, the country of study and multiple other factors [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ]. In the context of medical school, stress is moderated by personal and training-related stressors as well as contextual curriculum-related factors. It can be managed or reduced via functional coping strategies, social support, mentoring, and specific health promotion interventions and tends to be perpetuated by dysfunctional behaviour [ 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 ]. An additional part of the discourse on stress is the recognition that challenges in professional identity formation may significantly contribute to stress among medical students [ 9 , 10 , 11 ].

Whether stress peaks during certain semesters or phases of study remains unclear. Some indications suggest a particularly high vulnerability to stress at the beginning at the end and in the transitional stages from preclinical to clinical study [ 4 , 12 , 13 ]. High school students and newly enrolled medical students interested in studying medicine are also subject to such stress [ 13 , 14 , 15 ].

Research has suggested that individual personality traits, including an excessive motivation to achieve and be recognised, low self-esteem, a pronounced willingness to overexert oneself, and neuroticism can somewhat predict stress as well as resilience [ 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 ]. Personality-related factors are indeed crucial in determining an individual’s ability to cope with stress during medical school.

In the context of medical study, investigating coping skills, particularly self-efficacy, is a worthwhile undertaking [ 20 ]. To that end, Albert Bandura’s theory of self-efficacy [ 21 , 22 ] provides a useful framework for understanding the beliefs of medical students. The theory suggests that an individual’s belief in their ability to perform certain actions affects their motivation and capacity to overcome challenges. Students with higher self-efficacy may be better equipped to handle the demanding nature of medical school and therefore be more resilient against burnout [ 21 , 22 ]. The international literature on medical students and other students in the health sciences provides clear evidence supporting self-efficacy’s role as a protective factor against burnout. Moreover, numerous studies have demonstrated that higher self-efficacy is associated with a lower susceptibility to burnout, in relationships that are consistent across cultural contexts and national education systems. According to the literature, students in medicine and the health sciences with a high level of self-efficacy demonstrate a heightened ability to cope with the demands of both study and clinical practice [ 20 , 23 , 24 ].

Analysing the role of different portfolios of competencies in combination with self-efficacy can afford profound insights into the different coping mechanisms of medical students. One example is academic and professional experience, which can characterise students in highly individual ways and influence their thoughts and actions during their studies as well as later in their professional lives [ 25 , 26 ].

In Germany, professional experience can be an advantage for admission to medical studies. Such experiences include vocational training and work experience in the medical field, volunteer work, participation in competitions and awards earned, results of validated aptitude tests, results of situational judgement tests, and even interviews [ 25 , 27 ]. However, research on the relationship between professional and academic qualifications earned and examination- and grade-based academic success in medical studies has shown heterogeneous results [ 26 ]. Nevertheless, the overall results seem to indicate that pre-existing qualifications do not provide an edge in academic success [ 25 , 28 , 29 ].

That ambiguity opens up the possibility of deepening the investigation into professional experience at a psychological level and illuminating the individual coping strategies of medical students. Per Bandura’s theory [ 21 , 22 ], an individual’s beliefs about their ability to cope with tasks significantly impact their actions and emotional well-being. Thus, pre-existing professional qualifications could serve as a starting point for examining the extent to which they influence the individual coping strategies of future medical students. A psychological perspective should also be integrated to gain a deeper understanding of the complex dynamics behind the apparent lack of any clear link between past professional qualifications and traditional parameters of medical study. Thus, in our study, we aimed to identify potential implications for promoting psychological resilience and self-efficacy among medical students.

The aim of our study was to investigate the relationship between preexisting professional and academic qualifications, self-efficacy, socio-demographic and medical school-related variables with resilience against burnout, or ‘burnout resilience’, among students at different stages of their university career. In particular, we wanted to answer the following research question:

How are different socio-demographic variables, medical school-related variables, professional and academic pre-qualifications, and self-efficacy associated with burnout resilience?

According to Bandura’s theory of self-efficacy [ 21 , 22 ], past professional training can provide a wealth of experience that strengthens an individual’s belief in their ability to cope with the demands of medical school and everyday clinical practice. Bandura’s theory therefore supports the assumption that medical students who have completed a vocational training program may have increased self-efficacy, because subject knowledge may positively influence students’ perceived self-efficacy [ 30 ]. The theory also emphasises the contextual transfer of self-efficacy. Students who have previously strengthened their self-efficacy in professional contexts could transfer those beliefs to medical school, which may help them to perceive their abilities as being equally effective for their studies and, in turn, could reduce their vulnerability to burnout.

Erikson’s theory of identity development [ 31 ] complements those considerations by examining psychodynamic processes in the context of self-discovery and emphasising the significance of identity formation during adolescence and beyond. The theory includes several stages, with the period between 20 and 40 years of age being a crucial stage for further identity development. Medical students with preexisting vocational qualifications may have already developed a more stable professional identity before studying medicine. In turn, that development could strengthen their self-image and support their orientation towards a professional future, which could consequently promote their burnout resilience. From a psychodynamic perspective, self-efficacy is not only viewed as a cognitive belief but also as an emotional foundation with deep roots in individual experiences. Recognising and incorporating past achievements in vocational training can enhance self-esteem and thus strengthen self-efficacy in medical school.

Schwarzer’s [ 32 ] consideration of psychological stress management highlights the importance of self-efficacy in coping with psychological stress. Medical students who perceive themselves as being more efficacious may be better equipped to handle the demands of their studies and have greater resilience against stress-related pressures. Therefore, we also sought to answer a second research question, as follows:

Does self-efficacy mediate the relationship between past vocational training and burnout resilience?

Materials and methods

Sample and procedure.

In our study, we conducted an online survey of medical students at five medical schools in Germany. The survey was part of a larger research project within the framework of ‘Studying Successfully in Baden-Württemberg – Funding Line 4: Aptitude and Selection’. Further research into the relationship between academic and professional pre-qualifications and the academic success of medical students from the third semester onwards has been conducted as part of the mentioned project and been published elsewhere [ 25 ]; thus, similarities may exist between the description of the study procedure and the descriptions of the sample. Three groups of participants were involved: (i) preclinical medical students (i.e. in their first and third semesters), (ii) clinical medical students (i.e. in their sixth and tenth semesters), and (iii) medical students in their final year. The survey was conducted anonymously online using EvaSys and not administered during high-stress exam periods.

The questionnaire comprised questions to collect socio-demographic data, including age, gender, marital status, and children, as well as questions about medical school, including current semester level, means of financing of medical study (multiple responses possible), undergraduate grade point average (GPA), and the country where the undergraduate GPA was earned. Participants were asked if they had completed vocational training (i.e. with final grades available) in the medical field before medical school or had other pre-qualifications, including volunteer work and/or any academic degrees.

Professional and academic pre-qualifications

Medical students answered questions about any practical experience that they had prior to medical school. They were also asked about any vocational training or volunteer work that they had completed and, if present, then about the specific field(s) in which they had gained experience. In Germany, depending on the medical school, work experience, volunteer work, and vocational training completed in the medical field may be advantageous for admission [ 25 , 27 ]. We also inquired about whether they had completed a degree in another subject before commencing medical school. On that count, we established three dichotomous variables based on the following definitions: vocational training was defined as professional training completed (i.e. with a grade) in the medical field, an academic degree was defined as a completed bachelor’s or master’s degree with a grade, and volunteer work was defined as having worked voluntarily for at least 11 consecutive months.

Student burnout

The Maslach Burnout Inventory Student Survey (MBI-SS), developed by Schaufeli et al. [ 33 ] for students and convert into a German version by Gumz et al. [ 34 ], comprises 15 items on three scales: Emotional Exhaustion (EE, 5 items), Cynicism (CY, 4 items), and Academic Efficacy (AE, 6 items). The items are rated on a 7-point Likert scale ranging from 0 ( never ) to 6 ( daily ), and Cronbach’s alphas for the scales ranges from α = 0.81 to α = 0.86 [ 34 ].

To operationalise burnout according to a more conservative definition (see [ 5 , 41 ]), we created a dichotomous variable such that burnout indicated having a high score for EE (i.e. score ≥ 16) and having notable values in at least one of the other two dimensions (i.e. CY score ≥ 10 or AE score ≤ 23).

Burnout resilience

In accordance with our definition of burnout, we defined burnout resilience as a complementary variable, which resulted in a dichotomous variable comprising the values burnout (0) and burnout resilience (1). It is essential to acknowledge that we do not consider burnout resilience to be a long-term concept, such as burnout recovery.

General self-efficacy

The General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSE) [ 35 ] is a validated inventory that measures an individual’s subjective beliefs and expectations regarding their ability to cope with challenging situations based on their own competencies. The GSE comprises 10 concise statements (e.g. ‘I can find a solution to any problem’ and ‘I always know how to act in unexpected situations’) with responses ranging from 1 (not at all true) to 4 (exactly true) on a 4-point Likert scale. The GSE produces a total score between 10 and 40 points, with higher scores indicating higher self-efficacy, and has shown high reliability, validity, and internal consistency [ 36 , 37 ]. The Cronbach’s alpha of the GSE ranges from 0.76 to 0.90 [ 36 , 37 ].

Statistical analysis

General and descriptive statistics.

We used SPSS version 28.0.0.0 (IBM, Armonk, NY, USA) for statistical analyses with significance set at α < 0.05. For descriptive analysis, means and frequencies were calculated for all socio-demographic variables, professional and academic qualifications, self-efficacy, burnout and burnout resilience, and for all individual scales of the MBI-SS. The variable of cynicism was found to significantly violate normal distribution, as revealed by graphical tests using histograms; therefore, medians were calculated along with means. Within the operationalisation of burnout and resilience to burnout, all MBI scales were included, but not as a metric sum score, but as a dichotomous variable (see description above). Other studies [ 5 , 41 ] have adopted or discussed a similar operationalisation and analysis strategy.

In addition, we analysed whether there were differences between semester levels on all scales of the MBI, burnout and burnout resilience, and self-efficacy. To identify differences between two groups, we conducted χ 2 -tests or independent t -tests; by contrast, to identify differences between more than two groups, we conducted a one-way ANOVA or χ 2 -tests. When homogeneity of variances could not be assumed using Levene’s test, we calculated Welch’s test or Welch’s ANOVA. We interpreted all effect sizes according to Cohen’s [ 38 ] guidelines. The effect sizes of η 2  = 0.01, Cramér’s V = 0.1 and | d | = 0.2 indicate a small effect. Similarly, effect sizes of η 2  = 0.06, V = 0.3 and | d | = 0.5 indicate a medium effect, while effect sizes of η 2  = 0.14, V = 0.5 and | d | = 0.8 indicate a large effect.

Logistic regression analysis

We conducted a logistic regression analysis to determine the impact of various socio-demographic variables, variables related to medical school, professional and academic pre-qualifications, and self-efficacy on burnout resilience. Figure  1 provides details about the variables analysed and their coding. The first category was chosen as the reference category for the categorical variables. Odds ratios ( OR ) were calculated to determine effect sizes; an OR of approximately 1.5 indicates a small effect, an OR of approximately 3.0 indicates a medium effect, and an OR of approximately 5.0 indicates a large effect. If any OR exceeds 1, then the value has to be inverted (1/ OR ) [ 39 ].

Independent variables (i.e. continuous and categorial) used in the regression analysis to predict burnout resilience 1 categories: 1rd semester, 3rd semester, 6th semester, 10th semester, final year. 2 lower values indicate better grades. 3 categories: multiple choice, financing studies by parents/relatives (0 = no, 1 = yes), financing studies by partner/spouse (0 = no, 1 = yes), financing studies by own earnings (0 = no, 1 = yes), financing studies by savings (0 = no, 1 = yes)

Mediation analysis

We conducted a mediation analysis using the PROCESS Macro by Hayes [ 40 ] to determine whether self-efficacy mediates the relationship between completing vocational training in the medical field before medical school and burnout resilience among medical students. Because the outcome variable was dichotomous, effect sizes could not be calculated. However, prior to conducting the mediation analysis, we also performed exploratory analyses by calculating descriptive statistics, Welch t -tests, and χ 2 -tests to examine the associations and effects among the three variables. The results of univariate analysis were used to better understand the effects of the mediation analysis.

Response rate and sample description

The final calculations were based on a sample size of 2217 medical students, with a response rate of 48.4%. A total of n  = 1422 women (64.7%), n  = 772 men (35.1%), and n  = 4 students (0.2%) who indicated ‘other’ for gender participated in the study. The mean age was 23.89 years ( SD  = 3.88) and ranged from 16 to 45 years. Overall n  = 316 medical students (14.3%) were in their 1st semester, n  = 432 (19.5%) were in their 3rd semester, n  = 619 (27.9%) were in their 6th semester, n  = 394 (17.8%) were in their 10th semester, and n  = 456 (20.6%) were in their final year.

Overall, n  = 531 students (24.0%) reported having completed vocational training in the medical field, with the majority being paramedics ( n  = 230, 43.3%), followed by nurses ( n  = 194, 36.5%). Meanwhile, n  = 133 students (6.0%) reported having completed an academic degree prior to starting medical school; most of those participants held a degree in a STEM - (abbr. for Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) subject ( n  = 46, 34.6%), followed by the medical field (e.g. dentistry, molecular medicine, and human biology; n  = 33, 24.8%) and psychology ( n  = 18, 13.5%). Beyond that, n  = 468 participants (21.2%) reported completing volunteer work prior to medical school, most often in healthcare ( n  = 182, 39%), followed by child and youth welfare ( n  = 48, 10.3%) and care for people with disability ( n  = 23, 4.9%).

Burnout among students at different semester levels

Using a rather conservative definition of burnout , (for an overview see Dyrbye and Shanafelt [ 41 ]), we calculated a burnout rate of 19.7% ( n  = 429) compared with an 80.3% ( n  = 1751) rate of burnout resilience. The highest percentage for burnout surfaced among medical students in their 3rd semester (22.3%) and the lowest percentage among students in their 10th semester (13.9%). Moreover, 31.0% of students reported scores of emotional exhaustion ≥ 16, with the highest percentage in the 3rd (42.5%) and 1st semester (41.2%) and the lowest percentage in the 10th semester (21.3%). Additionally, 22.7% of all students reported cynicism scores ≥ 10, with the highest percentage in the final year (29.6%) and the lowest percentage in the 1st semester (14.7%). Overall, 31.4% of the students reported low academic efficacy scores with ≤ 23, with the highest percentage in the 6th semester (35.8%) and the lowest percentage in the 1st semester (24.3%).

Results of self-efficacy

The mean sum score for self-efficacy was 30.96 ( SD  = 4.04) with a range from M  = 30.47 ( SD  = 4.48) for medical students in final year and M  = 31.23 ( SD  = 4.08) for medical students in their 10. Semester. Self-efficacy levels significantly differed between semesters, p  = .02 with η 2  = 0.005, which is below the threshold for a small effect size.

Table  1 displays the means, frequencies, and additional descriptive statistics of the Maslach Burnout Inventory and self-efficacy scores for students grouped by current semester level.

Results of logistic regression analysis for the sample

All assumptions for conducting a logistic regression analysis were met. The continuous variables exhibited a linear relationship with the dependent variable, and no outliers (i.e. studentised residuals ± 3 SD ) or multicollinearity (i.e. r  < .70) emerged between the independent variables. The analysis included 2002 participants from our sample, with 215 students excluded due to missing values. A logistic regression analysis was conducted to investigate the impact of various socio-demographic variables (i.e. age, gender, marital status, and having children), variables related to medical school (i.e. semester, undergraduate GPA, country of graduation, and financing of medical study), professional and academic pre-qualifications (i.e. vocational training, academic degree, and volunteer work), and self-efficacy on burnout resilience. The statistical model was significant, χ 2 (18) = 200.10, p  < .001, with a small effect size ( f 2  = 0.18) per Cohen’s [ 38 ] guidelines.

To answer our first research question, we found a significant positive association of resilience to burnout with having own children living in the same household, with financing studies with own income, and with higher levels of self-efficacy. The odds of reporting burnout resilience were higher for students who had their own children living in the same household ( p  = .004, OR  = 4.26) and for students who were financing their medical study with their own earnings ( p  = .03, OR  = 1.34). Additionally, higher levels of self-efficacy were associated with a greater chance of reporting burnout resilience ( p  < .001, OR  = 1.20). We found a significant negative association between burnout resilience and financing studies with the help of a partner or spouse. Having a partner or spouse finance medical study was found to decrease the chance of reporting burnout resilience ( p  = .04, OR  = 0.55, 1/ OR  = 1.82). However, there was no association with age, gender, marital status, semester level, undergraduate GPA, country of graduation, financing studies by parents/relatives, financing studies by savings, vocational training in the medical field, an academic degree or voluntary service.

Table  2 a presents all coefficients and OR s, while Table  2 b presents the means or frequencies of all variables analysed in the regression analysis.

When conducting our mediation analysis, we followed Baron and Kenny’s [ 42 ] four steps for establishing mediation. Because the dependent variable was dichotomous, it was impossible to calculate the total effect between vocational training and burnout resilience. However, Rucker et al. [ 43 ] have argued that a total effect is not necessary for mediation analysis. Our analysis included 2133 cases (i.e. with 84 missing values). Preliminary univariate analyses showed that, on average, self-efficacy was higher in the group that completed vocational training ( M  = 31.44, SD  = 3.71) than in the group without vocational training ( M  = 30.84, SD  = 4.13), Welch’s t (954.81) = − 3.12, p  = .002. However, the effect size was very small ( d  = − 0.15). The group with burnout resilience had a higher average self-efficacy ( M  = 31.55, SD  = 3.73) than the group with symptoms of burnout ( M  = 28.64, SD  = 4.41), with a medium effect size ( d  = − 0.75) determined using Welch’s t test, t (569.10) = − 12.43, p  < .001. No significant association appeared between burnout resilience and the completion of vocational training, χ 2 (1) = 3.72, p  = .05. Of all 516 medical students with vocational training, 77.5% ( n  = 400) indicated burnout resilience. Similarly, of all 1617 medical students without vocational training, 81.4% ( n  = 1316) indicated burnout resilience.

To test the assumptions of our logistic regression analysis, we examined the linear relationship between the metric variable of self-efficacy and the dichotomous dependent variable. We found no outliers (i.e. studentised residuals ± 3 SD ). After including the mediator in the model, vocational training significantly predicted self-efficacy (β = 2.08, p  = .002), which in turn significantly predicted burnout resilience (β = 0.18, p  < .001). After the mediator was incorporated into the model, the direct effect c’ remained significant (β = − 0.40, p  = .002). In line with our second research question, we found that the relationship between vocational training and burnout resilience was mediated by self-efficacy, with an indirect effect of 0.11 and a 95% CI of [0.04, 0.19]. Figure  2 provides an overview of the mediation process.

The mediation analysis according to Baron and Kenny’s [ 42 ] four steps showed that vocational training (0 = no, 1 = yes) predicted self-efficacy, which in turn predicted resilience to burnout (0 = no, 1 = yes). After including self-efficacy as a mediator variable in the model, the direct effect c’ remained significant 1 training (in the medical field) was one of three variables that we defined as professional and academic pre-qualifications (see Method section); in the mediation analysis we analysed exclusively the association with prior vocational training

** p  < .01, *** p  < .001

In our multicentre, cross-sectional study, we investigated how different socio-demographic variables and variables related to medical study, professional and academic qualifications, and self-efficacy relate to burnout resilience and whether self-efficacy mediates the relationship between past vocational training and burnout resilience. In this section, we present our findings and discuss their implications in the context of relevant international literature and theoretical models.

Burnout prevalence at different stages of university education

We employed a rather conservative definition of burnout , which we determined using high scores for emotional exhaustion in addition to notable values in at least one of two other dimensions (high scores for cynicism or low scores for academic efficiency). The overall burnout rate was 19.7%, with rates ranging from 13.9% for students in their 10th semester to 22.3% for students in their 3rd semester. The rate of emotional exhaustion was highest in the early stages and lowest in the 10th semester. The rate of cynicism was highest in the final year of study and lowest in the 1st semester. The 6th semester had the highest frequency of low academic efficiency, while the 1st semester had the lowest.

The study’s findings align with the heterogenous results in national and international literature on burnout among students [ 1 , 2 , 44 , 45 ]. Furthermore, the survey of burnout (resilience) across numerous semester groups offers insights into the prevalence and diverse manifestations of this construct throughout the course of the study. According to Lazarus and Folkman’s [ 46 ] stress model, our results suggest that emotional exhaustion among students during earlier semesters is due to the initial adjustment to the demands of studying. By contrast, students in later semesters may have already developed coping strategies that enable them to better manage stress. An increasing rate of cynicism in later semesters could indicate a process of disillusionment or negative adjustment to the academic environment. Festinger’s [ 47 ] concept of cognitive dissonance may explain that phenomenon. Beyond that, differences in academic efficiency may relate to developmental and maturational processes that influence self-concept and self-regulation, as described in Bandura’s self-efficacy theory [ 21 , 22 ]. The findings of the present study are in alignment with those reported in the most recent systematic literature review on burnout [ 2 ]. Those findings are valuable for developing targeted prevention and intervention strategies to promote students’ well-being and performance during their studies.

Relationship between burnout resilience with variables related to medical school

Our regression analysis to answer the first research question revealed no significant relationship between burnout resilience and age, gender, marital status, semester, country of graduation, means of financing medical study, vocational training completed in the medical field, university degree, or volunteer work before medical study. However, burnout resilience was positively related to a higher level of self-efficacy, having children of one’s own living in the same household, and financing one’s studies with one’s own income. By contrast, having a partner or spouse finance medical study was negatively associated with burnout resilience.

The results of our regression analysis offer valuable insights into the factors of burnout resilience among medical students. Other studies have also supported the relationship between higher levels of self-efficacy and burnout resilience in medical students, final year medical students and residents. These studies emphasise the significance of fostering self-efficacy in the initial stages of medical training and identifying indications of burnout in medical students. The inclusion of prevention programmes in the curriculum was also recommended in order to minimise the psychological burden on young professionals. [ 2 , 23 , 24 , 48 , 49 ].

According to Bandura’s self-efficacy theory, confidence in one’s abilities plays a central role in coping with stress and challenges [ 21 , 22 ]. Moreover, the study suggests a positive correlation between financing one’s own studies and burnout resilience, indicating that financial independence may contribute to a sense of control and stability. Those findings align with Julian Rotter’s control belief theory [ 50 ]. Conversely, the negative association between a partner or spouse financing studies and burnout resilience could indicate potential conflicts or dependencies within the partnership. The concept of interpersonal dynamics and stress transfer within relationships can shed light on this issue: Stress or conflict in one partner can affect the mental health and well-being of the other, leading to burnout [ 51 , 52 ]. Other studies have also demonstrated a correlation between stress and financial difficulties [ 53 , 54 ].

Concepts and analysis with focus on conflict moderation can explain why completing vocational training, volunteer work, or an academic degree in the medical field prior to studying medicine is not related to burnout resilience. The relationship between different domains of life, including work and education, and factors of mental health such as burnout resilience may moderated by the extent to which those areas conflict with each other and may be particularly relevant to understanding the experience of medical students, who often have high professional expectations and undergo intensive academic training associated with high demands and stress [ 2 , 16 , 55 , 56 , 57 ]. Individuals who have gained professional experience in the medical field may have developed perceptions or standards that do not always align with the requirements of medical school [ 26 ]. Conflict and a negative impact on burnout resilience can therefore arise when professional experience and the requirements of a medical curriculum clash. Although there may be no direct link between professional and academic qualifications in the medical field and burnout resilience, the potential conflict described warrants attention. The potential stress resulting from the conflict between professional expectations and the requirements of study may outweigh the potential benefits of preexisting professional experience for the burnout resilience of medical students. It is important to consider that dynamic when evaluating the impact of preexisting professional experience on burnout resilience [ 58 , 59 , 60 ].

Mediation analysis and the suppressor effect

The results of our mediation analysis to answer the second research question suggest that completing professional training in the medical field is associated with higher levels of self-efficacy. Increased self-efficacy was also positively associated with burnout resilience. Our findings suggest that self-efficacy mediates the relationship between vocational training and burnout resilience. They additionally indicate a suppressor effect of the mediator in that relationship given the opposite signs of the direct effect and the mediated effect [ 61 ]. Medical students who have undergone professional training in the medical field and who reported higher levels of self-efficacy also exhibited greater burnout resilience. Completing professional training may have increased their burnout resilience. However, the positive relationship between professional training and burnout resilience may disappear or even turn negative if students do not feel efficacious. A higher level of self-efficacy can help students to cope better with the demands of medical school, which may consequently increase their burnout resilience (see also [ 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 ]). Professional pre-medical training can therefore be viewed as a form of education that provides students with specific skills and competencies. As a result of their training, students may feel better equipped to face the challenges of studying medicine [ 30 ]. The conceptualisation of self-efficacy as the result of experiences and the acquisition of skills, as outlined in Bandura’s self-efficacy theory [ 21 ], supports that interpretation. However, the suppressor effect suggests that completing training does not automatically lead to higher self-efficacy, for only the combination of vocational training and higher self-efficacy yields burnout resilience. Self-efficacy’s importance as a mediating variable in stress management processes [ 62 ] is emphasised by its role in mediating the relationship between vocational training and burnout resilience and suggests that self-efficacy plays a crucial role in mitigating the negative effects of stressors and promoting resilience.

Strengths and limitations

The present study examined the relationship between self-efficacy, past professional experience and burnout resilience in 2217 undergraduate medical students in their first, third, sixth and tenth semester and in their final year of university education. A response rate of 48.4% was achieved. To the best of our knowledge, no other studies have been conducted that examine these relationships in a multicentre study at five medical faculties in Germany.

One of the study’s limitations was that the associations were analysed following a cross-sectional design. Therefore, the reported associations cannot be interpreted causally but only associatively. In future studies, researchers should use a longitudinal design to validate these relationships. It is also important to note that the students in the study reported their experience of burnout using a valid self-report instrument. No clinical interviews were conducted, nor were any assessments made by external sources.

Given the limited scope of this article, it is not feasible to delve into the comprehensive discourse surrounding the nature, operationalisation and classification of burnout within the context of classification systems such as the ICD-11 or the DSM-V. In addition, in the present study we used a dichotomous variable to define burnout and burnout resilience.

All three of the individual scales were considered in this process. We would like to point out that the MBI was not originally designed to provide an (additive) overall burnout score and that the emotional exhaustion, cynicism and academic efficacy scales should be considered individually [ 33 , 34 ]. In their systematic review, Erschens and colleagues discussed the pros and cons of burnout instruments and concepts [ 2 ]. In addition to the well-established MBI, the authors recommended the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI, [ 63 ]), the Work-Related Behaviour and Experience Patterns (AVEM, [ 64 ]), the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (OLBI, [ 65 ]) as alternatives to the MBI, depending on the specific aim of the study. Further studies should also analyse self-efficacy as a mediating variable and the effects on burnout resilience using other burnout measures or considering the single scales emotional exhaustion, cynicism and academic efficacy.

Our results indicate the association of burnout resilience, on the one hand, and certain socio-demographic variables and variables related to medical school on the other. In addition, our results suggest the suppressor effect of self-efficacy in the relationship between prior vocational training in the medical field and burnout resilience. Medical students are at increased risk of burnout early in their studies. In response, international research stresses the need for student health management that teaches and promotes resilience, self-care, and empathy, in addition to medical knowledge and skills. It is of significant importance to foster and cultivate healthy, competent, empathetic students able to excel as doctors in the future [ 16 ]. Measures to promote resilience in healthcare students should extend beyond educating them about stressors and resilience factors. According to a recent Cochrane review [ 7 ], various interventions can be employed, and experiential exercises, including maintaining a self-care and well-being diary, could be included in a well-being portfolio [ 66 ].

Jerusalem and Schwarzer [ 36 ] have identified three focal points for curricular interventions: motivated learning, competent social behaviour, and proactive action. To promote academic, social, and general self-efficacy, individualised motivational strategies should be employed, the classroom climate should be improved, and competencies such as problem-solving skills and learning strategies should be acquired. Further studies could investigate the transferability of that intervention-based approach to medical students. Along similar lines, Van Dinther et al. [ 67 ] have demonstrated the effectiveness of interventions aimed at promoting students’ self-efficacy, particularly those based on social cognitive theory.

Because self-efficacy can be strengthened by peer support [ 68 , 69 ], it may be beneficial to make the future study model more flexible and adaptable to students’ needs and thereby enable personalised teaching. The new admission regulations in Germany also allow for a more flexible design that integrates family and career into the degree program [ 70 ]. Further research is required to explore the link between professional training and the risk of burnout in medical studies in greater detail and to categorise it more effectively. In particular, the group of health professionals who will later work in a demanding environment involving direct or indirect contact with patients should receive training in maintaining their own mental health at an early stage. Beyond that, future intervention-based approaches should prioritise peer tutoring and personalised learning to educate and protect such a vulnerable group.

Overall, our study’s results provide important insights into the psychological mechanisms that modulate the relationship between vocational training, self-efficacy, and burnout resilience among medical students. The results highlight the importance of self-efficacy as a mediating variable and suggest that promoting it may be an effective strategy for improving burnout resilience among medical students.

Data availability

There are legal restrictions on the sharing of this de-identified dataset. The authors of the study received permission from the Medical Faculty of Tuebingen to collect the data only if they were not made publicly available without individual permission for specific questions (i.e. on request) due to the confidential nature of the data. Therefore, data are only available from the corresponding author: Dr. Rebecca Erschens or from Prof. Dr. med. Stephan Zipfel, Head of the Department for Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Medical University Hospital Tuebingen, Osianderstr. 5, 72076 Tuebingen/Germany.

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Acknowledgements

VSM-BW (’Verbund Studierendenauswahl Medizin in BW’) is a collaborative project within the initiative FESt-BW (’Fonds Erfolgreich Studieren in Baden-Wuerttemberg’), and we would like to thank all study participants as well as everyone who supported us on site the members of the FEST-BW study group (in alphabetical order): Kerstin Ahlborn, David Ambiel, Dorothee Amelung, Tobias Boeckers, Ana-Maria Bordes, Marianne Giesler, Petra Hahn, Lutz Hein, Augustin Kelava, Natalie Petersen, Tim Schaffland, Regina Sticker, Thomas Wieland, Tim Wittenberg. For biometric support we would like to thank Marina Pumptow.

This study was funded by the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts of the State of Baden-Württemberg (AZ:23-0421.918-4(18)/UNI TÜ, AZ: 0421.918-4/31/1, AZ: 23-0421.918-4/53/2) within the framework “Studying successfully in Baden-Württemberg - Funding Line 4 Aptitude and Selection. The funder was not involved in designing the study, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.

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Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany

Rebecca Erschens, Carla Schröpel, Anne Herrmann-Werner, Florian Junne & Stephan Zipfel

Tübingen Institute for Medical Education, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany

Anne Herrmann-Werner & Teresa Festl-Wietek

Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg, University Hospital Magdeburg, Leipziger Straße 44, 39120, Magdeburg, Germany

Florian Junne

Medical Faculty Heidelberg, Office of Students’ Affairs, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany

Lena Listunova

Medical Faculty, Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg, Office of the Dean of Studies, Freiburg, Germany

Andrea Heinzmann & Kevin Kunz

Office of the Dean of Studies, Medical Faculty, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany

Oliver Keis

Medical Education Research Department, Division for Study and Teaching Development, Medical Faculty Mannheim at Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany

Katrin Schüttpelz-Brauns

Department of General Psychiatry, Centre for Psychosocial Medicine, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany

Sabine C. Herpertz

Office of Students’ Affairs, University’s Faculty of Medicine, Tübingen, Germany

Stephan Zipfel

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Contributions

This research project was designed and conceptualised by RE, AH-W, SZ and TF-W, with substantial input from LL, SCH and KS-B. The authors FJ, AH and KK edited the theoretical framework and research questions. The authors RE, CS, LL, OK and TF-W were responsible for the collection of the data. RE, CS, and TF-W were responsible for the statistical analysis. The data was interpreted by the authors RE, CS, KS-B, AH-W, and SZ. RE and CS were responsible for the preparation of the figures and tables. The initial draft of the manuscript was prepared by RE. All authors have contributed substantially to the preparation of the manuscript in terms of substantial input, editing and approval of all versions.

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Correspondence to Rebecca Erschens .

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The study was approved by the Ethics Committees of the Faculty of Medicine at Tübingen University Hospital (No. 534/2019BO1). All methods were carried out according to the Declaration of Helsinki Association (2013). Participation in the study was voluntary and participants gave their informed consent (written or online). Book vouchers were distributed to participants as compensation.

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Erschens, R., Schröpel, C., Herrmann-Werner, A. et al. The mediating role of self-efficacy in the relationship between past professional training and burnout resilience in medical education: a multicentre cross-sectional study. BMC Med Educ 24 , 875 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-024-05854-9

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Received : 22 April 2024

Accepted : 01 August 2024

Published : 14 August 2024

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-024-05854-9

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Bangladesh crisis: Educational institutions reopen after a month of closure

The educational institutions in bangladesh were closed indefinitely on july 17 due to violence centring the student-led protests.

Updated - August 18, 2024 03:18 pm IST

Published - August 18, 2024 01:09 pm IST - Dhaka

School girls sit in a classroom, in Dhaka, on August 7, 2024, after former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled Bangladesh. | Photo Credit: AFP

Bangladesh on Sunday (August 18, 2024) reopened all educational institutions, including universities, secondary schools and colleges, across the country after more than a month of closure due to violence centring the student-led protests that led to the ouster of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

The educational institutions in Bangladesh were closed indefinitely on July 17 to ensure the safety of students in the wake of clashes that erupted during the recent movement demanding reform of the job quota system .

The Ministry of Education on Thursday (August 15, 2024) issued a directive to reopen the institutions under its jurisdiction. All the educational institutions reopened on Sunday, after a month of closure.

According to Somoy Television , a Bengali news channel based in Dhaka, “All concerned have been asked to take necessary steps to resume academic activities in all the educational institutions from August 18 following the instruction of Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus ,” a notification signed by Deputy Secretary Mosammat Rahima Akhtar, said on August 15.

In the morning, school students in uniform were seen going to their institutions, many accompanied by guardians, the Daily Star reported.

Archives: The 1971 war | The liberation of Bangladesh, 50 years ago

Many points of Dhaka city are witnessing severe traffic congestion due to the reopening of educational institutions. The working week is from Sunday to Thursday in Bangladesh.

Initially, classes were scheduled to resume on August 4 in all government primary schools, except in the 12 city corporations and Narsingdi municipality, but this was also postponed.

Meanwhile, the postponed Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) and equivalent examinations will be resumed from September 11. According to the revised routine, the exams will be completed on October 23.

Classes at public universities have been suspended since July 1 when teachers went on strike in protest of a new pension scheme.

After the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government on August 5, the educational institutions were declared open on August 7, but the academic activities could not be resumed fully due to the low attendance of students.

Related Topics

Bangladesh / unrest, conflicts and war / civil unrest / World

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