I’ve hit a point where studying consumes all my time. Even when I’m trying to relax or do something else, the guilt follows me and I’m constantly thinking about what I should be doing
I find it insane how the literacy rate is only dropping in America. I’m a high school senior applying to college and I have a near-perfect GPA, test scores and everything else but it still feels impossible for my peers and I to get into good colleges, as things are only getting more competitive. However on the flip side there are kids at my school studying basic algebra, and it’s just so sad to me. Especially because a lot of those kids look like me, and in some of my AP classes i can count on one hand the number of POC students. It genuinely breaks my heart because so many people are getting left behind, and will likely end up struggling in life as a result. It’s ridiculous that i engage in conversations about how competitive everything is, but also how low/behind a lot of people are.
I’ve been looking into the growth of alternative credit providers like Sophia Learning, Study.com and StraighterLine. A lot of people on Reddit talk about taking credits from courses from these companies. I’m curious how people working in higher education think about all of this.
From what I’ve read on Reddit, universities are actively encouraging students to take courses with these providers.
I wrote an article describing online institutions as finishing schools. That they are ceding the first two years of academic instruction to alternative credit providers that offer inexpensive self paced courses.
The feedback and pushback that I received was that what I wrote was hyperbole, that the usage from these providers was minimal and had reached maturity. That it helps with completion rates, it gives students momentum, but it’s not widely adopted with partner universities.
So for people working at colleges/universities:
- are you seeing greater acceptance or active encouragement of Sophia, Study.com, and StraighterLine
- do you think online institutions will eventually become comfortable outsourcing a much larger portion of general education? How far does this go?
Making your canvas look more appealing can help improve study motivation!
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Not sure about the flair.
Title, basically. On one hand my teacher complains about being so busy with other students (individual lessons), on the other he offers me (just me, as far as I am aware) extra lessons, if I would like, in the little free time he has during the day. I think he likes working with me, but it got me thinking, that while I was teaching (I am currently attending my second uni) I would never offer extra lessons when I felt I am extremely busy, as I would like to take a break and care a bit for my mental health.
Were you ever in a similar situation? What was your motivation? Was I a bad teacher for taking care of myself in this way lol?
I’ve read both of NHJ’s essays: the one that came out two weeks ago and the one from ten years ago.
A little background: I’m married to a New York City public school teacher. I'm married to a New York City school teacher for 26 years. I'm close friends with the principal. They both work at a low-income school. Because the school has Russian and Spanish language programs, about 30% of the kids live in shelters, and maybe another 65% live in public housing.
Before this, my wife taught at a school on the Upper West Side where all the kids came from two-income or two-parent homes.
The school she teaches at now is very rough. A parent physically attacked the PTA president.
Back to the NHJ article. She spent 8,500 words and left out the fact that the school is funded at $52,000 per pupil a year. Any reader with a heart and common sense would immediately assume the school is underfunded and “under-resourced.” That’s not the case.
I left a simple, good-faith comment on her Instagram about the missing funding figure, and a similar one on the New York Times Facebook page. I wasn’t trying to stir anything up.
About 30 people immediately piled on me and called me every name in the book for asking NHJ a question, so I had to delete the comments. It was awful.
My main question is: why don’t people in education policy listen to people like John McWhorter or Glenn Loury? I’ve watched their show on YouTube for years, and it’s been very insightful. John McWhorter wants schools to teach phonics.
It seems like everyone in progressive education policy is all about equity, which in practice has meant removing tests: dropping the SAT and graduate admissions tests. New York is phasing out the Regents as a graduation requirement. I have friends in San Francisco, where the district got rid of algebra in eighth grade, but parents fought to bring it back.
It just seems like we’re going to have this problem with schools forever. We’re always told the same thing: segregation and school funding. And we act like Title I doesn’t exist. New York City truly cares about its students. It spends so much per pupil, and it still feels almost futile.
hello, i am a french uni student who is studying english lit and i need to interview someone that works in a english field (as in teacher, translater, journalist, and so on) and was wondering if anyone here could perhaps help me.
it would be a short interview, around 15 to 20 minutes long where i would ask you questions about your field, why you chose this job and what you had to do (like studies for example) to qualify for it. i appreciate any and every answer, i don't have a specific job in mind however i would appreciate it if teachers could answer!
thank you so much for reading!
I am not sure if this is the right subreddit but how do you become a teacher's aid in Washington? (Preferred option with scholarships/grants if tuition is needed)
The Flynn Effect shows IQ gains of 15+ points per generation with environmental improvement. That suggests capacity wasn't the constraint—activation was. If we take that seriously, what does it mean that some populations have been systematically denied the kind of cognitively demanding work and education that builds skill across generations? Isn't that a mechanism worth exploring?
TL;DR: If two students are equally capable of earning a degree, but only one can afford to finish, are we measuring academic achievement or financial security? Research shows financial aid improves graduation rates. So how many capable students are we losing simply because they can’t afford to stay enrolled?
America may be confusing financial opportunity with academic achievement.
We spend an enormous amount of time measuring educational success in America.
We compare graduation rates between communities, states, income brackets, and school districts. We debate whether our schools are doing enough, whether students are prepared, and whether educational standards are slipping.
But there’s something missing from that conversation.
What happens when a student is academically capable of finishing college but financially incapable of staying there?
And why do we count that as an educational failure?
The Progress We’re Overlooking
High school graduation rates have improved considerably over the past decade, including among students from historically disadvantaged communities.
That’s encouraging. It suggests that more young people are successfully navigating the first major stage of their education.
But something interesting happens when we follow students beyond high school.
Getting into college and graduating from college are two entirely different accomplishments.
Students can complete high school, qualify for admission, and enroll in higher education, only to leave without earning a degree.
We often discuss these outcomes as if they reflect academic preparation, motivation, or personal responsibility.
Sometimes they do.
But what if we’re overlooking one of the largest variables?
Money.
Two Students, Two Different Realities
Imagine two students graduating from the same high school.
They have comparable grades, similar academic abilities, and the same ambition to earn a degree.
Both are accepted into college.
One comes from a household that can help cover tuition, housing, transportation, and unexpected expenses.
The other has to work 30 hours a week to afford the same opportunity.
Both students are expected to attend classes, complete assignments, prepare for exams, and maintain satisfactory grades.
But only one has the financial freedom to make education their primary responsibility.
If the second student struggles, reduces their course load, or eventually leaves college, what have we actually measured?
Academic ability?
Or financial security?
A student who has to work twice as hard just to remain enrolled isn’t necessarily less capable than a student who graduates with financial support.
Yet our statistics may treat them that way.
The Evidence Is Already There
Research has demonstrated that financial assistance can directly improve college completion.
A study of Florida’s need-based student grants found that qualifying for additional aid increased the likelihood of earning a bachelor’s degree within six years.
A randomized scholarship study in Nebraska found that generous financial support increased bachelor’s degree completion by approximately eight percentage points among applicants pursuing four-year degrees.
Other studies have found that additional grants can reduce students’ need to work while attending college.
These findings matter because they go beyond simply observing that wealthier students graduate more often.
They show that changing financial circumstances can change educational outcomes.
That raises a difficult question.
How many students have we labeled unsuccessful when the real problem was that they couldn’t afford to succeed?
Income Doesn’t Tell the Whole Story
Even comparing students from households with similar incomes doesn’t necessarily create a level playing field.
Two families earning $50,000 annually might have entirely different financial circumstances.
One may own a home, have savings, and carry little debt.
The other may be renting, supporting relatives, paying medical bills, or living without any financial safety net.
Their incomes are identical on paper.
Their ability to support a college student is not.
And when an unexpected expense arrives, that difference can determine whether a student stays enrolled.
This is why household income alone isn’t enough to measure educational opportunity.
We also need to consider accumulated wealth, debt, family responsibilities, housing stability, and the actual cost of attending college.
What Does Merit Really Mean?
I believe in merit.
I believe effort, preparation, and personal responsibility should matter.
But if we’re going to build an educational system around merit, shouldn’t we make sure we’re actually measuring it?
A student who completes college while working full-time has demonstrated considerable determination.
A student who leaves college because they can no longer afford tuition hasn’t necessarily demonstrated a lack of academic ability.
And a student whose family can comfortably cover every expense hasn’t necessarily demonstrated greater merit simply by graduating.
None of this means academic standards should be lowered.
Quite the opposite.
We should be removing financial obstacles so that academic standards, rather than financial circumstances, determine who succeeds.
That would give us a more accurate picture of the talent our country actually possesses.
The Cost of Wasted Potential
There is a legitimate debate about how much government should invest in higher education.
Public money is limited. Programs should be evaluated, and financial assistance should produce measurable results.
But there’s another cost we rarely discuss.
What does it cost the country when academically capable students never complete their education?
What happens when a potential engineer, teacher, nurse, scientist, or business owner leaves college because they cannot afford another semester?
We lose more than a graduate.
We lose the economic contributions, innovation, and opportunities that person might have created.
And that loss doesn’t disappear simply because it never appears in a government budget.
A Better Way to Measure Success
Instead of measuring only how many students enroll in college, we should examine how many academically prepared students complete their education.
We should compare students with similar academic preparation but different financial circumstances.
We should determine how much unmet financial need affects persistence, academic performance, and graduation.
And we should ask whether targeted financial assistance produces enough additional graduates to justify its cost.
Research already tells us that financial aid can improve completion rates.
The remaining question is how effectively we can identify students whose greatest obstacle isn’t academic ability but financial survival.
We don’t need to guarantee everyone a diploma.
We need to make sure capable students have a fair opportunity to earn one.
The Question We Should Have Been Asking
America spends a great deal of time debating why some students succeed and others don’t.
We examine school systems, communities, family backgrounds, and personal choices.
All of those things matter.
But perhaps we’re overlooking something much simpler.
If two students are equally capable of earning a degree, but only one can afford to finish, are we really measuring educational achievement?
Or are we measuring financial privilege?
A country that claims to reward merit should be deeply concerned when opportunity depends more on financial security than academic ability.
Because the real tragedy isn’t simply that some students don’t graduate.
It’s that some students could have graduated, and we never gave them a fair chance.
I'm a tenth grader taking CE physics and it is an absolute joke. Its nearing the end of term one and we are just getting to Newtons laws and it has the easiest grading scale I have ever seen with the grades changing every 20% so F: 0-20% D: 20-40% C: 40-60% B: 60-80% A: 80-100%. All that has been taught is distance velocity acceleration mass weight. I think physics used to be hard so they dumbed it down so anyone can easily pass the class.
The assignments are the most repetitive things ever for an entire month the assignments were only using a video analysis website that you just find a scale and add a bunch of dots and it finds the velocity and acceleration of an object but all that changed was the videos were of different things moving. Not to mention that the final test I completed in four minutes with 100% accuracy and even if you randomly guessed you would probably still get a D on the test.
I have a 7.22 CGPA in BTech CSE at tier 2 college, is it good enough or little bit bad ?
I was told off in assembly in front of the entire school for supposedly talking when I absolutely wasn't. They wanted me to stand up for the rest of the assembly, but I just walked out instead. It was still publicly embarrassing, which was exactly what they wanted, but I wasn't going to stand up in assembly and take that injustice.
A few asked me what had happened, and I explained the situation to them. But it's humiliating knowing that hundreds of students will have judgments of me, believing I was being defiant or disrespectful by walking out of the hall. They only witnessed the headmaster’s side of the situation by calling me out and telling me to stand up for talking during assembly even though I wasn't. Another student had said something to me, I turned to face him, but didn't actually speak. The headmaster thought I was the one talking.
I walked out of the hall, red faced, refusing to accept a punishment I knew was unfair. Secondary school BTW.
Parents have age ratings, Common Sense Media is helping a lot, but nothing says whether a title actually helps a kid grow.
So I've built the Marble Index to measure that. Does this respect his attention? Does it grow his creativity? Does it teach anything? Is it harmless? What about online safety?
You can score any content and see what it does to a kid. It's research-based, 100% free and collaborative.
Both raise questions about ethics and social responsibility but which presents the greater long-term risk to young people, and why?
Taiwan’s education isn’t about learning; it’s an industrial meat grinder. You’re conditioned to cram until midnight, chase credentials, and become an obedient cog in the tech machine. Any genuine passion—whether it’s dissecting Technical Death Metal or playing guitar—is treated as a defect. What sickens me most is the ruthless elitism it breeds: winners don't gain wisdom, just venomous arrogance toward anyone drowning in this pressure. They call it meritocracy; I call it collective Stockholm syndrome. I refuse to let this sterile factory define who I am.
Hello! I am a Finnish teacherstudent about to write my masters thesis about democracy education and citizenship studies for pupils aged 11-16(ish).
I am interested in doing an analysis of textbooks used for these ages mainly in different parts of Europe, pereferably the nordics, England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and German speaking countries.
My question is about what book series you use or recomend me to get to know?
What is the subject ”social studies” called in your country? When do pupils start studying this sibject?
Is there eBook resources in your country that I could acces?
Any help would be much appriciated!
these fees do not even make any f ing sense
You know, get rid of public education and privatize it all? It sure seems you want to. Please explain.
Hello,
I work in a self contained classroom for school aged autistic children. I like to think I’m alright at my job. It’s my 4th year special ed, 2nd in a self contained room. This is the first year things feel somewhat normal, and I’m able to really see the positive effects of the work we do (routines, expectations, patience, and overall making great progress).
However, some of our children have some very severe behavior. They are all great and fun, but when things go south with some of them, it really goes south. I do a great job at staying calm and not reacting/remaining neutral, but it’s just not enough sometimes and we are just waiting on the chaos to end to continue our day, if that even happens.
I want to get better at managing these situations and I’m wondering if there are any really good experts to follow or watch? (I love memes and funny reels but Ive been wanting to see someone who has actual experience and knowledge to share). Also any articles or journals that I could look at? My degree is not in education so I’m not privy to the science behind it, although I have learned a lot while on the job. So I’m basically saying I can understand a lot but I also don’t have a lot of the info most in education would have.
Lastly, if you have any of your own tips in this type of environment, I’d love to hear it!
