Affirmative action In the 2023 Supreme Court decision
Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, the Supreme Court ruled that considering race as a factor in admitting students was a violation of the
Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. This decision overturned previous rulings that allowed colleges to consider race when accepting students. African American academics
Henry Louis Gates and
Lani Guinier, while favoring affirmative action, have argued that in practice, it has led to
recent black immigrants and their children being greatly overrepresented at elite institutions, at the expense of the historic African American community made up of descendants of slaves.
Behavior Corporal punishment The United States is one of the very few
developed countries where
corporal punishment is legal in its public schools. Although the practice has been banned in an increasing number of states beginning in the 1970s, in 2024 only 33 out of 50 states have this ban and the remaining 17 states do not. The punishment virtually always consists of
spanking the buttocks of a student with a paddle in a punishment known as "
paddling." Students can be physically punished from kindergarten to the end of high school, meaning that even
adults who have reached the
age of majority are sometimes spanked by school officials. Virtually all paddling in public schools occurs in the
Southern United States, however, with 70% of paddled students living in just five states: Mississippi, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, and Georgia.
School safety and security The
National Center for Education Statistics reported statistics about public schools in the United States in 2013–2014. They stated that, during that time, 93% controlled access to their buildings during school hours, and that 88% have in place a written crisis response plan. They also reported that 82% of schools have a system that notifies parents in the event of an emergency. According to their report, 75% of schools have security cameras in use. During the 2015–16 school year in the United States, the National Center for Education Statistics reported the following: 9% of schools reported that one or more students had threatened a physical attack with a weapon. 95% of schools had given their students lockdown procedure drills, and 92% had drilled them on evacuation procedures. Around 20% of schools had one or more security guards or security personnel while 10.9% had one or more full or part-time law enforcement officers. 42% of schools had at least one school resource officer. Some schools are fast adopting
facial recognition technology, ostensibly "for the protection of children". The technology is claimed by its proponents to be useful in detecting people falling on the threat list for sex offenses, suspension from school, and so on. However, human rights advocacy group,
Human Rights Watch, argues that the technology could also threaten the
right to privacy and could pose a great risk to children of color.
Cheating In 2022, an article by Waltzer reported that as many as 90% of students have cheated in high school. They report that cheating involves a perception, evaluation, and decision step. The way that high schoolers perceive cheating at these steps determines their decision to cheat or not to cheat. This method has been criticized by psychologists such as
Timothy Shanahan for lacking a basis in scientific evidence, citing studies that find that good readers look at all the letters in a word. According to J. Richard Gentry, teachers draw insufficient attention to spelling. Spelling is itself frequently taught in a confusing manner, such as with reading prompts that may use words that are above grade level.
Curriculum George W. Bush signing the
No Child Left Behind Act at
Hamilton High School in
Hamilton, Ohio, on January 8, 2002 Curricula in the United States can vary widely from district to district. Different schools offer classes centering on different topics, and vary in quality. Some private schools even include religious classes as mandatory for attendance. This raises the question of government funding vouchers in states with anti-Catholic
Blaine Amendments in their constitution. This in turn has produced camps of argument over the standardization of curricula and to what degree it should exist. These same groups often are advocates of standardized testing, which was mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act. The goal of No Child Left Behind was to improve the education system in the United States by holding schools and teachers accountable for student achievement, including the
educational achievement gap between minority and non-minority children in public schools. While the
National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) has served as an educational barometer for the US since 1969 by administering standardized tests on a regular basis to random schools throughout the United States, efforts over the last decade at the state and federal levels have mandated annual standardized test administration for all public schools across the country. Along with administering and scoring the annual standardized tests, in some cases the teachers are being scored on how well their own students perform on the tests. Teachers are under pressure to continuously raise scores to prove they are worthy of keeping their jobs. This approach has been criticized because there are so many external factors, such as domestic violence, hunger, and homelessness among students, that affect how well students perform. Schools that score poorly wind up being slated for closure or downsizing, which gives direct influence on the administration to result to dangerous tactics such as intimidation, cheating and drilling of information to raise scores. Uncritical use of standardized test scores to evaluate teacher and school performance is inappropriate, because the students' scores are influenced by three things: what students learn in school, what students learn outside of school, and the students' innate
intelligence. The school only has control over one of these three factors.
Value-added modeling has been proposed to cope with this criticism by statistically controlling for innate ability and out-of-school contextual factors. In a value-added system of interpreting test scores, analysts estimate an expected score for each student, based on factors such as the student's own previous test scores, primary language, or socioeconomic status. The difference between the student's expected score and actual score is presumed to be due primarily to the teacher's efforts.
Content knowledge There is debate over which subjects should receive the most focus, with astronomy and geography among those cited as not being taught enough in schools. A major criticism of American educational curricula is that it overemphasizes mathematical and reading skills without providing the content knowledge needed to understand the texts used to teach the latter. Poor students are more likely to lack said content knowledge, which contributes to the
achievement gap in the United States.
English-language education Schools in the 50
states,
Washington, D.C., the
U.S. Virgin Islands,
Guam, and the
Northern Mariana Islands teach primarily in English, with the exception of specialized
language immersion programs. In 2015, 584,000 students in
Puerto Rico were taught in
Spanish, their native language. The
Native American Cherokee Nation instigated a 10-year language preservation plan that involved growing new fluent speakers of the
Cherokee language from childhood on up through school immersion programs as well as a collaborative community effort to continue to use the language at home. In 2010, 84 children were being educated in this manner. As of 2000, some 9.7 million children aged 5 to 17 primarily speak a language other than English at home. Of those, about 1.3 million children do not speak English well or at all.
Mathematics According to a 1997 report by the
U.S. Department of Education, passing rigorous high-school mathematics courses predicts successful completion of university programs regardless of major or family income. Starting in 2010, mathematics curricula across the country have moved into closer agreement for each grade level. Unlike systems utilized in most other countries, the high school curricula is based around specialized courses (ex. Algebra 1; Geometry; Calculus) rather than integrated math ones. The
SAT, a standardized university entrance exam, has been reformed to better reflect the contents of the Common Core. As of 2023, twenty-seven states require students to pass three math courses before graduation from high school, and seventeen states and the District of Columbia require four.
Sex education rates have been falling in recent years; Asian Americans have the lowest rate among all demographic groups. Almost all students in the U.S. receive some form of sex education at least once between grades 7 and 12; many schools begin addressing some topics as early as grades 4 or 5. However, what students learn varies widely, because curriculum decisions are so decentralized. Many states have laws governing what is taught in sex education classes or allowing parents to opt out. Some state laws leave curriculum decisions to individual school districts. A 1999 study by the
Guttmacher Institute found that most U.S. sex education courses in grades 7 through 12 cover puberty,
HIV,
STDs,
abstinence, implications of teenage pregnancy, and how to resist peer pressure. Other studied topics, such as methods of birth control and infection prevention,
sexual orientation,
sexual abuse, and factual and ethical information about
abortion, varied more widely. However, according to a 2004 survey, a majority of the 1,001 parent groups polled wants complete sex education in schools. The American people are heavily divided over the issue. Over 80% of polled parents agreed with the statement "Sex education in school makes it easier for me to talk to my child about sexual issues", while under 17% agreed with the statement that their children were being exposed to "subjects I don't think my child should be discussing". 10% believed that their children's sexual education class forced them to discuss sexual issues "too early". On the other hand, 49% of the respondents (the largest group) were "somewhat confident" that the values taught in their children's sex ed classes were similar to those taught at home, and 23% were less confident still. (The
margin of error was plus or minus 4.7%.) According to
The 74, an American education news website, the United States uses two methods to teach sex education. Comprehensive sex education focuses on sexual risk reduction. This method focuses on the benefits of contraception and safe sex. The abstinence-emphasized curriculum focuses on sexual risk avoidance, discouraging activity that could become a "gateway" to sexual activities.
LGBT curriculum laws At least 20 states have had their legislatures introduce derivative bills of the
Florida Parental Rights in Education Act, including
Arizona,
Georgia,
Iowa,
Kentucky,
Louisiana,
Michigan,
Missouri,
Ohio,
Oklahoma,
Tennessee, and
South Carolina. In April 2022,
Alabama became the second state to pass a similar bill, with governor
Kay Ivey signing House Bill 322, legislation which additionally requires all students to use either male or female bathrooms in Alabama public schools based on their
sex. Some states have had similar provisions to Florida's law since the 1980s, though they have never gained the name of "Don't Say Gay" bills by critics until recently.
Textbook review and adoption In some states, textbooks are selected for all students at the state level, and decisions made by larger states, such as California and Texas, that represent a considerable market for textbook publishers and can exert influence over the content of textbooks generally, thereby influencing the curriculum taught in public schools. In 2010, the
Texas Board of Education passed more than 100 amendments to the curriculum standards, affecting history, sociology, and economics courses to 'add balance' given that academia was 'skewed too far to the left'. One specific result of these amendments is to increase education on
Moses' influence on the founding of the United States, going as far as calling him a "founding father". A critical review of the twelve most widely used American
high school history textbooks argued that they often disseminate factually incorrect,
Eurocentric, and
mythologized views of
American history. As of January 2009, the four largest college textbook publishers in the United States were:
Pearson Education (including such imprints as
Addison-Wesley and
Prentice Hall),
Cengage Learning (formerly Thomson Learning),
McGraw-Hill Education,
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Other U.S. textbook publishers include:
Abeka,
BJU Press,
John Wiley & Sons,
Jones and Bartlett Publishers,
F. A. Davis Company,
W. W. Norton & Company,
SAGE Publications, and
Flat World Knowledge.
Immigrant students and grade placement The method of placing students in a specific grade based on birthday cut-off dates has often been used with immigrant children. A study conducted by Dylan Conger on the effects of grade placement on English learners found that schools are often rushed to make a decision on what grade an incoming student should be placed in, so they base their decision on the child's birthday. Unfortunately, teachers and staff are not always able to test the child's knowledge to determine what grade level would be better for the students based on what they already know. When these students learned something that the teacher already expected them to know, it was not given the same importance compared to learning something that was being taught in that grade level, such as math proficiency or computer use. There is still limited research that has been conducted in the United States on the effects of placing immigrant students in a specific grade based on birthday cut-off dates. A study on
Thailand's education policy on children of migrants, where students under seven years were enrolled in kindergarten and older students in first grade, found that even though older students placed in first-grade classrooms were more obedient, the students had trouble connecting with their classmates, and teachers had to address them differently due to their age. While data supports the theory that English-language (EL) literacy interventions are beneficial for students of all grade levels and socioeconomic status, including disadvantaged immigrant students, poor implementation of EL instruction has contributed to downward assimilation and long-term or permanent Limited English Proficiency (LEP) status for many immigrant youths. LEP status serves as a nonacademic factor for student course enrollment, negatively affecting immigrant student learning opportunities by separating English-learning from other coursework. Focus on English literacy, and organizational constraints such as immigrant student population, may take away needed resources from challenging academic courses, such as math and science courses that are less English-dependent, thereby impeding LEP students' educational opportunities and post-secondary education preparation.
Inequality Racial achievement differences reading long-term trends for ages 9 (light gray), 13 (dark gray), and 17 (black) from 1970 to 2000 The racial achievement gap in the U.S. refers to the educational disparities between Black and Hispanic students compared with Asian and Caucasian students. This disparity manifests itself in a variety of ways: African-American and Hispanic students are more likely to receive lower grades, score lower on standardized tests, drop out of high school, and are less likely to enter and complete college. Several reasons have been suggested for these disparities. One explanation is the disparity in income that exists between
African Americans and
Whites. This school of thought argues that the origin of this "
wealth gap" is the slavery and racism that made it extremely difficult for African-Americans to accumulate wealth for almost 100 years after slavery was abolished. A comparable history of discrimination created a similar gap between Hispanics and Whites. This results in many minority children being born into low socioeconomic backgrounds, which in turn affects educational opportunities. Another explanation has to do with family structure. Professor
Lino Graglia has suggested that Blacks and Hispanics are falling behind in education because they are increasingly
raised in single-parent families. Other scholars, meanwhile, have long and continuously argued against this myth of the black family, pointing instead to class and race-based oppressions along social and economic lines, as discussed below. Other explanations offered for the racial achievement gap include: social class,
institutional racism, lower quality of schools and teachers in minority communities, and civil injustice. Most authors mention several such factors as influential on outcomes, both in the United States and worldwide.
Economic impact Current education trends in the United States represent multiple achievement gaps across ethnicities, income levels, and geography. In an economic analysis, consulting firm
McKinsey & Company reports that closing the educational achievement gap between the United States and nations such as Finland and Korea would have increased US GDP by 9–16% in 2008. Narrowing the gap between white students and black and Hispanic students would have added another 2–4% GDP, while closing the gap between poor and other students would have yielded a 3–5% increase in GDP, and that of under-performing states and the rest of the nation another 3–5% GDP. In sum, McKinsey's report suggests, "These educational gaps impose on the United States the economic equivalent of a permanent national recession." Including the 22% of students who do not graduate on time, fewer than 20% of the American youth, who should graduate high school each year, do so prepared for college. The United States has fallen behind the rest of the developed world in education, creating a global achievement gap that alone costs the nation 9–16% of potential GDP each year.
School to prison pipeline The
school-to-prison pipeline (SPP) is the disproportionate tendency of minors and young adults from disadvantaged backgrounds to become incarcerated, because of increasingly harsh school and municipal policies which mirror law enforcement methods. This inhibits many of these young adults from going to college.
Standardized testing Requiring students to take
standardized tests (everyone takes the same test under reasonably equal circumstances, and gets scored the same way) for college admissions is a controversial topic. These tests can create unequal opportunities for students based on their economic status, race, and ability status. For example, students with
dyslexia may not, through no fault of their own, read the test material as quickly or easily as students without dyslexia. Similarly, impoverished students who are hungry when they take the test due to
food insecurity, or who did not sleep well due to noisy, overcrowded housing, often do not score as well as students who are healthy, well-nourished, and well-rested. Students in under-funded, low-income schools often have the disadvantage of
larger class sizes taught by teachers with less experience. It is therefore common for students of color, those with disabilities, and those from low-income communities to have lower scores on academic tests. While these lower scores may accurately reflect the individual student's performance, the lower performance is most likely due to "generations of exclusionary housing, education, and economic policy", rather than anything an individual student could remedy on their own. These achievement gaps aren't a new concept. In 1991, the gap between the average scores of white students and those of black students was 0.91 standard deviations, while in 2020, the gap had decreased to 0.79 standard deviations. Community-level socioeconomic conditions and
racial segregation have been shown to contribute to disparities in student achievement. Standardized tests may also reflect cultural bias, favoring students from higher-income backgrounds with greater access to resources and
test preparation. Even when testing conditions are uniform, the content and design of tests can still reflect social or cultural assumptions. Critics like these caution against using standardized tests for high-stakes decisions such as college admissions or
graduation requirements. Others argue that when tests are carefully designed and aligned to instructional goals, they can produce valid and objective measures of student achievement.
Cost of taking tests Taking university admissions tests can be costly for students, both in terms of optional
test preparation programs and in the cost of registering for and attending test. The
ACT and
SAT can cost $55–$70 and $52–$68 respectively. Many wealthier students voluntarily take the tests multiple time to see the best score they can get, and will submit "super-scores", or a score consisting of their best scores from each section. Students from low-income families cannot afford to take the test multiple times. Students in low-income communities oftentimes do not have the same resources for test prep that their peers from more affluent backgrounds do. This discrepancy in resources available causes there to be a significant difference in the scores of students from different racial backgrounds. One study found that 59% of white students and 80% of Asian test takers are deemed "college ready" by the SAT standards in comparison to the under 25% of Black students and under 33% of Hispanic/Latino students who are deemed "college ready". While the
College Board reports that socioeconomic factors do not directly impact a student's performance, it can indirectly impact it through the course of access to prep courses and better schooling – experiences outside the test itself that can heavily affect test scores.
Teacher shortage In more recent years, high teacher turnover and low teacher retention have combined in American public schools to create a teacher shortage. In the transition from 2021 to 2022 school year to the 2023–2024 school year, statistics found for 8 states that teacher turnover (amount of teachers who either leave the profession or move between schools) was in between 14%-16%, which is around 2% higher than average in pre-
pandemic years. Many accredit the higher teacher turnover rate to be because of low salaries, low job satisfaction, and moonlighting, or the tendency for educators to have multiple jobs outside of teaching, that leads to exhaustion and burnout.
Teacher pay According to data from the National Teacher and Principal Survey, the average base salary for public school teachers in 2020–21 was $61,600, but this number varied significantly from state to state. Teachers in New York had the highest average base salary at $90,222, while teachers in Mississippi had the lowest at $46,862. Additionally, teachers earn lower weekly wages and receive lower overall compensation for their work than similar college-educated peers, a phenomenon known as the "pay penalty."
Attractiveness of profession Teaching salary and the "pay penalty" are factors that are contributing to the lack of educators coming into the teaching field. In a 2006 sample, only 10% of high school students reported that they aspired to go into the teaching profession. Research has also found that student achievement has a negative correlation with aspiring to be a teacher. This is because students who are higher achieving believe they can acquire a job that has better pay and better working conditions than teaching.
Solutions To lessen the teacher shortage, educational institutions need to lower the turnover rate while keeping the
retention rate of teachers steady. Researchers have found that teachers who have a better ability to regulate their emotional state are less prone to burnout and find more job satisfaction within the teaching profession. Educators who have a higher ability to recognize their own emotions, regulate them, and recognize them in others may be less likely to
burnout, and therefore better suited for the teaching profession. If potential educators recognize these qualities within themselves before they enter the profession, it may improve retention rates. Support systems for educators within schools are also important to retain teachers and prevent burnout. Studies have found that teachers in high poverty schools who also have strong relationships with administrators and mentors are more incentivized to stay at a school than teachers at low poverty schools with sub-par relationships within the school community. Teachers with positive support systems and community within their profession are less likely to leave the profession. Teachers with mentors, or more senior teachers and administrators who are available resources for advice and support also have been found to lower teacher attrition rates. A study done with high schoolers also found that societies in which teachers are held in higher respect have a higher retention and lower attrition rate. ==Reading and writing habits==