The challenges of COVID may not only lead to increased principal turnover. They may also have soured some educators on the idea of moving up the K-12 ladder.
Schools in Arizona must now let students take a one- to two-minute moment of silence at the beginning of each school day. Whether they meditate, pray, or run through test questions in their head is up to them.
Even stricter measures have surfaced, including a Louisiana bill that would prevent educators from discussing sexual orientation through eighth grade, and a Tennesse proposal to bar instructional materials that "normalize" LGTBQ lifestyles.
More school districts are dropping mask mandates than are reinstating them as educators wait to see if the latest COVID wave will match past surges in severity.
The average K-12 student accessed 74 different ed-tech tools in the first half of the 2021-22 school year while the average teacher used 86, according to LearnPlatform.
As the Florida measure critics call the "Don't Say Gay" bill awaits final approval, a new curriculum transparency law requires schools to list library books and reading materials.
Students are using the speed and seeming anonymity of the internet to post threats of violence against their schools and classmates, resulting in panic, lockdowns and closed building.
Masks will once again be required in Philadelphia's schools as other large districts are also seeing an increase in COVID cases. Still, K-12 leaders elsewhere are dropping their mask mandates.
"School closures may ultimately prove to be the most costly policy decision of the pandemic era." That's the somber conclusion made by researchers taking a fresh look at the economic and other impacts of COVID.
