Education Week - March 15, 2023 - 2

Jaded With School,
More Americans
Are Skipping College
This is no fluke. College attendance has taken a
big hit.
Hundreds of thousands of young people who came
of age during the pandemic have eschewed college.
Many have turned to hourly jobs or careers that don't
require a degree, while others have been deterred by
high tuition and the prospect of student debt.
What first looked like a pandemic blip has turned
into a crisis. Nationwide, undergraduate college enrollment
dropped 8 percent from 2019 to 2022, with
declines even after returning to in-person classes, according
to the National Student Clearinghouse. The
slide in the college-going rate since 2018 is the steepest
on record, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics.
Economists say the impact could be dire.
Fewer college graduates could worsen labor shortages
in fields from health care to information technology.
For those who forgo college, it usually means
lower lifetime earnings-75 percent less compared
with those who get bachelor's degrees, according to
Georgetown University's Center on Education and
the Workforce. And when the economy sours, those
without degrees are more likely to lose jobs.
" It's quite a dangerous proposition for the strength
of our national economy, " said Zack Mabel, a Georgetown
researcher.
America's college-going rate was generally on the
upswing until the pandemic reversed decades of
progress. Rates fell even as the nation's population of
high school graduates grew, and despite economic upheaval,
which typically drives more people into higher
education.
Most states are still collecting data on recent college
rates, but early figures are troubling.
In Arkansas, for instance, the number of new high
school graduates going to college fell from 49 percent
to 42 percent during the pandemic. Kentucky slid by a
similar amount, to 54 percent.
Even more alarming are the figures for Black, Hispanic,
and low-income students, who saw the largest
slides in many states.
There's some hope the worst has passed. The number
of freshmen enrolling at U.S. colleges increased
slightly from 2021 to 2022. But that figure, along with
total college enrollment, remains far below pre-pandemic
levels.
The Most Popular Education Technology Tools
Don't Meet 'Evidence-Based' Requirements
Just because they're popular doesn't mean they're fit for the
classroom.
Only about a quarter of the most popular ed-tech tools in
schools meet Every Student Succeeds Act requirements, according
to a new report from LearnPlatform, an education
technology company that helps districts measure the use and
effectiveness of their digital products.
The report examines how the 100 most accessed tools stack
up based on key factors, such as data privacy, interoperability,
federally aligned evidence, and other indicators.
When the pandemic hit, many companies provided products
to schools and teachers for free. And schools used them even
if companies didn't provide evidence of standards alignment,
because educators needed something that would help engage
their students.
The average number of technology products that districts
access in a given month has almost tripled over the last several
years, but oftentimes, the efficacy of those products aren't
clearly shown.
Federal, state, and district policies are increasingly asking
companies to show evidence of alignment to ESSA. Large districts,
such as Los Angeles and Chicago, are now requiring
evidence information from vendors during the purchasing
process.
At the start of the pandemic in 2020, Congress passed Elementary
and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds to
help districts recover from the pandemic. The term " evidencebased "
was used 17 times in the first 20 pages of the bill, which
shows there's more desire for proof that a tech tool works, said
LearnPlatform co-founder Karl Rectanus.
" With tech-enabled learning here to stay, understanding
which tools are effective, interoperable, compliant, accessible,
and safe are table stakes, " he said. " While not ubiquitous, this
report indicates that the use of evidence is taking flight across
education. "
For the report, LearnPlatform analyzed data on more than
11,000 products based on the engagement of 2.8 million students
and more than 320,000 educators.
Warming Up
Ballet dancer Artem
Bilokon, 16, stretches
at the barre during
class at the Rock
School for Dance
Education in
Philadelphia. He is
from Ukraine. The
school offers classes
for children 3 and older.
Teachers Worry a Proposed Parents' Rights Bill
At the Federal Level Will Hurt, Not Help Schools
A GOP-sponsored parents' bill of rights purports to give parents
more power over what is taught in classrooms, but teachers worry
it would drive a wedge between schools and families.
The measure spells out five rights: to know what children are
being taught, be heard by school leaders, see budgets and spending,
protect their child's privacy, and keep their children safe.
While the bill appears straightforward-and even details rights
parents already largely have at the local level-some teachers
worry it will push parents to fear and distrust educators and drive
teachers out of the profession.
It would " make teachers' jobs harder by creating a narrative
of teachers as shadowy bureaucrats or petty tyrants suppressing
parents, " said Chris Dier, a history teacher at Benjamin Franklin
High School in New Orleans and the 2020 Louisiana teacher of
the year.
Rep. Julia Letlow, R-La., and other lawmakers supporting the
bill say parents were " disheartened " by what they saw when students
participated in virtual learning during the pandemic. In
some cases, parents argued that schools were indoctrinating students
with political agendas related to race, gender identity, and
sexuality.
Most districts already give parents and families access to curriculum
and books when they ask for it, teachers say.
" This claim of indoctrination and teachers hiding things from
parents, I think it's a little bit of a red herring, " said Ben Hodge,
a performing arts teacher at Central York High School in York
County, Pa. " At least in my experience, teachers have always been
able to be accessible to parents, and I don't know what these parents'
rights bills will do other than give more power and pathways
to things like book banning and elimination of resources. "
Teachers worry that restrictions on classroom materials and
how they can talk about issues like race, gender, and sexuality will
have negative long-term effects on society.
" The long-term consequence is that we have a society that
doesn't know how to engage difference and doesn't know how to
be with folks who are not exactly the same as them, " said Gerardo
Muñoz, a social studies teacher at the Denver Center for International
Studies at Baker and the 2021 Colorado teacher of the year.
BRIEFLY STATED CONTRIBUTORS: Associated Press, Lauraine Langreo, Arianna Prothero, and Libby Stanford. Edited by Karen Diegmueller.
2 | EDUCATION WEEK | March 15, 2023 | www.edweek.org
Jose F. Moreno/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP

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Education Week - March 15, 2023

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