Cover: The Science of Learning
Psychology teachers know a lot about how students’ minds work, especially when it comes to memory, learning, and social and emotional development. Their insights may help your students succeed.
Teaching With an Anti-Racist Lens
Many educators are teaching about race with honesty and transparency. Learn how they tackle this controversial subject.
You Keep What in Your Desk?
NEA Today took to Instagram to ask members what’s stashed in their desks—and we found more than a few surprises.
When Screen Time is All the Time
Hear from experts about what you can do to reduce students’ time online.
4 Things to Know About Partnering With Families of English Language Learners
42 National Teacher of the Year and bilingual education specialist Juliana Urtubey shares her strategies for engaging parents of ELL students.
Local Power
Labor-management collaboration succeeded in improving working conditions during the pandemic. Find out how and why it worked.
‘Grow Your Own’ Programs Create Pathways to Career Advancement
Many school districts are recruiting education support professionals to become teachers. These programs are a win-win for schools and employees.
Departments
First and Foremost
Fair Play for Trans Girls and Women in School Sports
Stigma Buster: Schools Look at Mental Health Days for Students
Educators Ready for Fall, But a Teacher Shortage Looms
Are you drowning in student debt?
Nearly half of all educators took out student loans to pay for college—and one in seven of them still owes more than $105,000, according to new NEA research on the burden of student debt on educators. NEA’s report, entitled Student Loan Debt Among Educators: A National Crisis, also shows that:
- Educators borrowed an average of $55,800—and still owe an average $58,700 because of low salaries and hefty interest rates—but those amounts vary, depending on age and race.
- It’s worse for young educators. Two of out three educators under the age of 35 borrowed for college, compared with 27 percent of those 61 and up. Additionally, nearly half of young educators borrowed more than $65,000, compared with 13 percent of educators 61 and over.
- This is a racial justice issue. Many Black families have been excluded from typical forms of generational wealth due to racism in housing and banking practices. More than half of Black educators (56 percent) took out student loans—with an average initial amount of $68,300—compared with 44 percent of White educators, who borrowed $54,300 on average. One in five of those Black educators still owes more than $105,000.
Inequitable Science Education
A report released in July by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) found that not enough students—particularly in low-income communities and communities of color—have adequate access to high quality science instruction.
According to the report, only 22 percent of U.S. high school graduates are proficient in science. The average American elementary classroom devotes less than 20 minutes per day to science, but nearly 90 minutes to English/language arts and nearly 1 hour to math—likely a result of the state accountability systems required by the No Child Left Behind Act, which expired in 2016.
In the report, NASEM calls on the federal government to elevate the profile of science education and encourages individual states to include science in their accountability systems for K–12 education. NASEM also urges Congress to include science as an indicator of academic achievement when it reauthorizes the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
Issues and Impact
What’s behind the latest attacks on teaching about race?
THE ANSWER IS PRIVATIZATION, AND OPPONENTS OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS ARE DRAWING FROM THE SAME PLAYBOOK AS ALWAYS
A hyperpartisan battle is being waged against efforts to provide students with an honest, rigorous education about race and racism in the United States. This is just the latest attack in a 50-year campaign to undermine public schools. In the past decade alone, far-right pundits and policymakers have
used topics such as climate change, gender identity, and race as key elements in their fabricated culture wars, often placing public schools in the middle. They’ve also pushed back against ethnic studies, bilingual education, and how schools serve transgender students.
But why? In the short term, ultra-conservative, big-money donors support candidates who use these issues to stoke voter fears and win elections. But they are also playing a long game: After fanning antipublic school sentiment, these policymakers move to cut public school budgets and push voucher schemes, another way to take resources out of public schools.
Today, this far-right, media-fueled campaign rages against an inclusive curriculum that ventures outside of White supremacist, heterosexual, male-dominated norms. Districts, schools, and even individual
educators—who provide honest, age-appropriate lessons on these topics—have become targets at school board meetings and in state legislatures.
In June, after more than 25 states introduced or passed laws to censor teachers from speaking honestly about race and racism, NEA President Becky Pringle wrote in a USA Today op-ed: “These dangerous
attempts to stoke fears and rewrite history not only diminish the injustices experienced by generations of Americans, they prevent educators from challenging our students to achieve a more equitable future.
These antics are government overreach that interferes with teachers’ ability to do their jobs and students’ ability to learn and grow.”
A new political action committee (PAC) launched in May—the first of its kind—will target school board
elections around the country. The PAC specifically funds candidates who are opposed to teaching students about systemic racism. And grassroots efforts are springing up nationwide to back candidates solely based on their opposition to teaching critical race theory. But you, in partnership with your union, can help thwart these harmful tactics. Read on to find out how.
“These dangerous attempts to stoke fears and rewrite history not only diminish the injustices experienced by generations of Americans, they prevent educators from challenging our students to achieve a more equitable future.”
-NEA PRESIDENT BECKY PRINGLE, IN USA TODAY
