Nancy Bailey frames her latest post as a program to end truancy. But in fact, she lays out a bullet list of reforms that would make school what it’s supposed to be: a welcoming place to learn, to make friends, to expand your world, to learn how to work with others.
She writes:
School starts for students whose families rely on public education, which the Trump administration is trying to end. For years, however, school reforms have made schools less personable; as a result, school attendance has decreased, especially since the pandemic.
Why do kids reject school? Bullying, harassment, family problems, parental work schedules, mental health, illnesses, transportation, and residual effects of COVID might be issues that school districts must address.
Another reason is disengagement; public education has become impersonal, due to terrible school policies over the years, which may overlook the unique capabilities of individual students. If no welcome mat is rolled out to show children they’re valued, why would they care?
It wouldn’t be hard to fix the issues discouraging students from going to school. Teachers do their best, but poor schools, lacking resources or following poorly devised reforms, face a greater challenge in attracting students.
Here are a few considerations.
Provide safe schools with smaller class sizes.
School officials and communities must ensure student safety. Children and teens should not fear school.
Smaller class sizes (at least one homeroom) allow teachers to know students, enabling friendships, ending bullying, and better welcoming families.
Every school leader, teacher, and staff member should know the warning signs of students. Here’s one checklist. There are more online.
School gatherings like sports, plays, art exhibits, concerts, etc., help bring families and students together and show school pride in students’ achievements. The motto: Know and Care About Every Student!
Teachers and students need support.
Teachers and students also require support, counselors, school psychologists, social workers, and outside specialists to help when a child is facing trauma or a crisis. Resources and placement settings for children must be available.
End poor and over-assessment.
Pushing privatization, high-stakes standardized testing has been a tool used against public schools and teachers. Students aligned to tests focus on the same information, but much is excluded, and individual strengths may be overlooked. Parents have understood this for years!
Children judged harshly for poor test performance are left without options and safety nets, made to feel like failures.
Want to excite students about school? End repetitive high-stakes standardized tests!
Focus on child development.
Students are pushed to perform beyond their age and development. Kindergartners are expected to read earlier. High school studentsare expected to do college work.
Reduce pressure with a focus on what’s appropriate for the age and development of students.
Increase community support.
Community businesses supporting local public schools help students, teachers, and families. Too often, the focus is on the future workforce, getting students to do what companies want.
What’s most important is the student focus, helping young people to know that they belong, businesses are behind them, and that they have the freedom to choose what they do based on their interests and abilities.
Businesses can sponsor concessions at sports events, high school plays, or art shows, or they might work with teachers to tutor students. Acts like this tell students that the community believes in them and their achievements. They are proud of their public schools.
Offer a variety of extracurricular activities.
Extracurricular activities encompass a wide range of topics. (Prep Scholar (scroll) lists activities.)
In the Abbott Elementary episode “Wishlist,” the teacher Jacob tries to find what interests a student who seems disengaged. Most teachers work to unearth what students care about. This student eventually shares his interest in golf.
Extracurricular activities can bridge the gap between academic pursuits and leisure.
Insist that students have qualified teachers and staff.
Well-prepared teachers, counselors, paraprofessionals, psychologists, nurses, librarians, media specialists (including educational technologists), and administrators, fairly paid, comprise a school well-equipped to teach subjects and provide the support students need to learn effectively. These professionals should understand how to engage students in learning.
When school districts show disdain for teachers, water down credentials, or teachers face cuts or staff shortages, children don’t get the assistance they need. Students may learn incorrect information, or critical subjects essential for their future success may be omitted.
Establish school libraries with real librarians in everyschool.
Research indicates that children who attend public schools with school libraries tend to perform better academically. Sadly, many poor school districts have closed their school libraries.
How do children learn to read if a school doesn’t provide them access to books and enjoyable reading material?
Offer students socialization opportunities.
Understanding how to care for others essentially begins in school with integration, during school recess, where kids learn through free, supervised play and opportunities to interact with those who may look different and hold different beliefs.
We want students not to fear their fellow students, but to like them, not merely to tolerate them.
Develop innovative, nonstigmatizing special education programs.
Since 1975, public school teachers have worked to address the needs of students with disabilities. Ensuring that children have access to quality programs and well-qualified teachers who communicate effectively with parents is key.
Welcoming children with differences and embracing diversity is a strength of America’s public school system.
Reduce technology.
Over the years, a significant portion of school funding has been allocated to technology, yet we’re told that learning outcomes have not improved. Now, serious questions surround the implementation of AI in public schools.
Most parents want their children to rely less on screens and more on beneficial human connections, whether it be with their families or friends. It seems prudent to proceed slowly with AI and any technology. Help students work on human relationships.
Run a vibrant arts program.
Since NCLB, and even before, school districts cut art programs; yet, music, acting, dance, drawing, painting, and chorus give children a creative outlet to explore their interests. These classes are both fun and critical for learning, and they shouldn’t be made tougher or used for assessment. Nor should they be eliminated. The arts can lead to careers for many.
Children with mental health difficulties and the poor may thrive with the arts, and the arts can keep children in school.
Welcome students with lovely school facilities.
Studies have shown that clean, efficiently run school buildingswith a positive school climate can make a significant difference in student progress. Students don’t want to attend buildings that resemble prisons. The school should be clean, safe, and welcoming.
Schools should also ensure that there are few interruptions and that classrooms are conducive to learning with comfortable temperatures and quietness.
Ensure that students have a whole curriculum.
Public schools should offer a variety of instructional options starting at a young age to pique a child’s curiosity. Reading and math are important, but so are geography, science, history, civics, life skills, and the arts, all of which should have a place in public education.
Public schools have never been perfect, but they have educated the masses, and it’s reckless and irresponsible to dismantle them without proof that whatever replaces them will be better. If you want students to come to school, end harsh school reforms, and make public schools a personable, exciting place to be.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
All makes sense to me, only one thing missing – declare open season on all those private equity and hedge fund types scheming to engorge themselves further at the public trough. Seriously, ban them from public education (which of course entails legislation, and lobbyists, and connections, and payoffs, and we know where that heads…).
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I love Nancy’s work! She truly supports children, public education and public school teachers.
She mentions Ai and so many other issues that aft leadership supports? I think aft needs new leadership as Randi supports a lot of the things Nancy says needs to change.
another great piece by Nancy!
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What an “UP” post. Thank you Nancy for reminding everyone of where we must go.
More please. This is an entirely people positive vision of how to counteract the current infection running rampant through USA 🇺🇸 minds, hearts & institutions.
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Nancy Bailey understands that schools need to be responsive to the whole student. Schools must be everything she describes to reach all students, and they should be human driven to meet human needs. Quality public education requires public investment which is really an investment in our collective future. Nothing has as much potential for serving the diverse students as socialized, community directed public education that provides trained professionals, offers economy of scale to the local tax base and allows our young people to prepare for the future and help them figure out who they want to become. Every day I went to work as a public school teacher, I considered myself to be serving my students to the best of my ability, my school community, state and our country as well. An educated populace is key to a functioning democracy. Public schools are essential, and that is why the right wing extremists want to destroy them.
My grandson is a student in a Texas public school. Up until he was mostly one of those disaffected students, although he did not act out in class. He was bored to tears with the cyber instruction. Last year he started high school and joined the wrestling team. It was like a lightening strike for him. He became more responsible because he had to maintain grades to participate. He became more engaged, and his performance in school and standardized testing dramatically improved as he is basically an intelligent young man. I have this seen this same pattern with many of my former students that discover the arts, sports or a passion for a particular academic subject that contributes to their growth and academic improvement.
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“Understanding how to care for others essentially begins in school with integration, during school recess, where kids learn through free, supervised play and opportunities to interact with those who may look different and hold different beliefs.”
Nancy is so wise. I am convinced that our daughter learned to look deeply into literature when all the little group would divide up parts and play them in stories acted out during recess. Play is so important to the animal kingdom; why not humans too.
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Nancy Bailey understands that schools need to be responsive to the whole student. Schools must be everything she describes to reach all students, and they should be human driven to meet human needs. Quality public education requires public investment which is really an investment in our collective future. Nothing has as much potential for serving the diverse students as socialized, community directed public education that provides trained professionals, offers economy of scale to the local tax base and allows our young people to prepare for the future and help them figure out who they want to become. Every day I went to work as a public school teacher, I considered myself to be serving my students to the best of my ability, my school community, state and our country as well. An educated populace is key to a functioning democracy. Public schools are essential, and that is why some in this country want to destroy them.
My grandson is a student in a Texas public school. Up to last year he was mostly one of those disaffected students, although he did not act out in class. He was bored to tears with the cyber instruction. Last year he started high school and joined the wrestling team. It was like a lightening strike for him. He became more responsible because he had to maintain grades to participate. He became more engaged, and his performance in school and standardized testing dramatically improved as he is basically an intelligent young man. I have this seen this same pattern with many of my former students that discover the arts, sports or a passion for a particular academic subject that contributes to their growth and academic improvement.
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I was the prototypical underachiever in middle school and high school. Like your grandson; football, wrestling, and track (every year) were lifesavers. I had to keep my behavior (in and out of school) under control and my grades at a passing level.
I ended up going to a wonderful college on a track scholarship. Without that skill, I’d not have been accepted there or at any of the other great schools that were offering the same.
Graduated with a Bachelor of Individual Studies degree, of my own making. I would probably have dropped out of college if not for that option.
I’ve always operated outside the mold and have benefitted greatly from the strong, diverse, and accepting educational environments afforded me throughout my entire education. From nursery through grad school.
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Nancy nails it in so many ways, here.
Having been instrumental in bringing tech into our six special ed sites in Brooklyn, I witnessed, first hand, how the tech industry has taken autonomy and control away from the teachers. And now: AI. Our union (UFT) is endorsing it fully in the hopes that, by doing so, we’ll be able to control its integration into the system. I think this is naive, but can only hope they’re correct.
The testing mania. Much of that came about through the “alarming” statistics which showed the USA as “behind” so many of the other industrial countries on the PISA Testa. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, our nation leads all others in the world in the area of patents. We’ve never compared well in the area of testing/testing/testing.
EXCELLENT piece. Thank you, Nancy Bailey!
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Gitapik,
The international test scores signify nothing about the future of the economy. I explained how pointless they are in my last three books.
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Understood, Diane.
It’s unsettling that we’ve put so much stock into raising these scores at the expense of so many of the tried and true methods we’ve had in our own educational model for so long.
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