One of the best group of studies I read in recent years was a group of schools in England that did all the background management and planning to drive over residents from senior residents something like every day or 3x a week to interact / play with / do activities w kids. Regularity built real relationships, and the measured social positive impacts were significant. Just a thought for a future post!
Love this piece, Lisa! As a curriculum nerd, I for one would LOVE to hear from you what curriculum in the U.S. should look like. I’m really excited to get into Since Time Immemorial.
This post made me realize "I done wrong" and I fixed it: the Spanish-speaking-only neighbors last week asked for information about what middle school their 4th grade daughter would attend. Aware of current issues around schools in Austin, Texas having "failing grades" and soon subject to takeover by the state, I characterized our neighborhood school as "not being the best school according to what the students have demonstrated with their test scores". In essence, pointing the finger at the kids. I had an over-the-fence conversation with my neighbor this afternoon where I explained that poor test scores originate in a multitude of systemic issues, and apologized for throwing shade on the students. We also talked about the problems with charter schools taking tax money and hurting the public schools, in a vicious cycle of defunding. And of course I told him they needed to do their own research, talk to parents, students, teachers to decide what was the best choice for their daughter.
Elizabeth, what a lovely pivot! I love this story. I think you're spot on that this family's best bet is to talk to parents, students, and teachers -- and also go tour the school if they can find the time. Schools often do parent tours/open houses in the spring for parents of rising kindergarteners, rising middle schoolers, and rising high schoolers, and walking around in the actual building can tell you so much that word of mouth can't. They *should* have Spanish-language tours, especially in Austin (big Spanish-speaking population; mostly progressive school leaders compared to elsewhere in the state). I'd also say that for a Spanish-speaking family, they of course would want to talk with other Spanish-speaking families. Sometimes families of color will exit the neighborhood school if that school isn't doing well by kids of color, and in such cases I think it's a completely understandable and defensible choice.
Thank you so much, Yael! What a lovely note. And I love that footnote #6, about federalism, is the one that stood out to you. I detect a true fellow civics nerd!
Curious to hear more about educators’ perspectives on the state of public schooling post-pandemic, esp bc I really agree with your point that the community building they offer is profound. While my child is still too young for me to even have looked up what schools we’re zoned for, my impression from friends is that many public schools (especially in cities whose schools were suspended for long periods during the pandemic) suffered an exodus of folks who COULD afford to go to private schools (whose shutdowns were shorter), thereby compounding many of the issues of inequality alluded to here. I had wonderful teacher friends who’ve left the profession in the past few years which bums me out greatly. This is a bigger question, I’m sure. But I guess the tl;dr version is, what is the “State of the Union” on public schools, from those on the ground? Recovered? Recovering? Back to “normal”? Not really? My question is related to the idea that you can’t really gauge these things based on test scores, which makes perfect sense to me.
These are such good conjectures/questions, Amrita. I haven't taken a deep dive into national or international statistics, but anecdotally and based on the small samples from my own research, I'd say you're pretty right on. Lots of families left public schools during the pandemic, largely because so many private schools stayed open when public schools were closed. Families that could afford to keep their kids in school (which also serves as de facto childcare) did so -- and then many remained in private school as society, and public schools, opened back up.
And no, public schools have not recovered. Lots of teachers left the profession, either by taking early retirement or just bailing because the working conditions were so untenable. Perhaps even more impactful in the long term, fewer people decided to become teachers. I'm connected with a lot of university Colleges of Education around the country, and pretty much across the board, enrollments dropped in 2020-2021 and have stayed down. It's part of the larger existential crisis so many colleges and universities are facing: low enrollments, programs closing, doing more and more instruction online, etc.
It's a shame, because in a lot of ways, teaching remains a great job. Pay and benefits vary widely and correlate strongly with the power of the teachers' union in a given state, but teachers are unionized in every state, and there'll certainly never be a shortage of meaning in teaching, as a career.
I've been helping to organize a regional social justice teaching conference since 2012, and I actually think our attendance numbers at this conference year-over-year are a decent gauge of the health of the teaching profession (which in turn is a gauge of the health of schools). Every year from 2012-2019, the conference grew by 100+ attendees; in 2019 we were up to like 1500 teachers attending the conference and were trying to figure out if we could find a bigger venue. Then the pandemic hit, our conference went online, and attendance numbers dropped to like 600. We've been slowly coming back since then (up to maybe 900 last year, back in person). Registration is currently open for the 2025 conference and I'm really curious to see what our numbers will be like, especially given how fired up teachers are about the current state of our nation and world.
Thank you for taking the time share such a thoughtful response to to my slightly off-topic question. It's fascinating to hear about the larger context you've experienced around this, and makes me want to support my local public schools (and teachers) in whatever small ways i can. I am curious -- and hopeful -- about how your conference registration continues to reflect the slow road to repair and recovery that we're on.
You go Lisa! I love your aim: “to make explicit some essentials of how the U.S. education system works, which often aren’t explained to us" and your execution too. And your conclusion that "public schools belong to all of us ... They’re a key hub for building community and seeding social connections." That last point is spot on. Related, I'm concerned about the state of civic education at school, and here's a short piece on that scene in our beloved WA state: https://www.postalley.org/2025/08/31/do-schools-still-teach-civics/.
Thank you, Walter! Writing about education, I feel a particular responsibility to get it right. This post was a very clear instance of finding out what I think by trying to write it down.
I'm so glad you shared your recent civics article for Post Alley. I'm about to start doing a monthly links round-up and I'm looking forward to sharing that there as well, where I hope it'll get more eyes on it.
Anyone who's reading this comment, Walter here is an absolute leading light in the field of high quality civics education in the United States. If you're interested in this topic, I'll direct you to a couple other of his pieces as well.
Love this! That point about public schools often being better than their test scores/reputation was really driven home for me when I saw recently that the public schools I grew up in, where I had a great experience, loved my teachers, and received a solid education, had a score of like 3 or 4 on Great Schools!
Right?? Until reading this comment, it had never occurred to me to look up the schools I attended on Greatschools. I just did. My high school has a 9/10, but my middle school has a 5/10 and my elementary school has a 4/10. Hooey! These numbers totally map onto the average income of the towns where each school is located.
I realize I'm late to the game here, and perhaps everyone has moved on from the comments, but I wanted to put in a plug for Neil Postman's The End of Education: Redefining the Value of School. I just happened upon it at the library and it is SO thought-provoking! He criticizes trends in education back in '95 (as with all his stuff, so spot on, accessible, and timeless), and offers that the purpose of public school is not to serve the public, but rather to create the public. Highly recommended!!
Awesome, albeit sometimes horrifying, information that I absolutely loved reading! My community in the neighborhood legit didn’t happen until my kid started kindergarten despite my years of trying. Neighborhood schools build community in such huge ways!! Also, I’m a seattle area native now living in Texas and this big old state is deciding some crazy stuff re: education as of late. As you can imagine. I’d be curious if you have (or have already created) a take on how to get involved to help teachers teach when the politics is getting in the way?
I mean, I'm really curious what the teachers' unions in Texas are focusing on. There are two main teachers' unions in the US at the national level -- the NEA and the AFT -- and both have branches in lots of states.
Doing some quick digging, it looks like both unions have a presence in Texas and very progressive politics. Here are some resources where you can explore how to support Texas teachers, students, and families in our current political climate:
I'm part of a loose collective called Aunties and Friends for Liberation that has been going to school board meetings on NYC for LITERAL YEARS (about a year for me, longer for others) trying to get the conservative members of the largest NYC school district to overturn a hateful resolution to ban trans girls from playing sports in K-8 grade. Yes you are reading all of this right. This month, we finally succeeded after a huge voting campaign in the last cycle that got some of them out. Look up CEC2, Maud Maron (the author of the proposal) and resolution #248 if you want to know more.
I don't have kids, I'll never have kids, but I'm a martial arts instructor who teaches adults and kids and this resonates hard with me. They are all our kids. So often at these meetings my non-parent status has been used as an excuse not to listen to me and others like me, when it's like... Why do you think I even have time to be at this meeting?? 😂 Thank you for this post!
Chrissy, holy crap, thank you so much for the work you're doing on this, and for filling us in. I'm shocked to hear that there's been a resolution to ban trans girls in K-8 sports in NY public schools. Has this ban been IN EFFECT??
I'm feeling so much gratitude to your group for your long efforts (and what an EXCELLENT collective name, BTW).
You are doing an amazing job modeling that public schools are all of our schools. I am so grateful to be connected with you!
Ugh that left out the first part,dang fat fingers fumbling small buttons. I’m a former K-12 writer (national and local) and you had to write this beefy background piece before future posts. Navigating and discussing how aunties can have real relationships that build toward supporting g both adults and kids in local schools is a totally uncracked nut. It’s hard — I was an invested audience living and breathing this stuff and hours that schools are desperate for volunteers were never at a time that a journalist could leave a newsroom to go, say, tutor a cute young rando on a regular basis. But it is things that workplaces (and cities and communities) could perhaps better support and encourage
I think you're so right that workplaces and cities and communities could and should support more volunteering in schools. When I worked in local government, they allowed us to use 2 (or maybe it was 3) of our ~12 sick days per year for volunteering... which looks okay on the surface but actually kind of sucks because, you know, people actually need their sick days. And plus, 2-3 days is so little. I'd love to see more robust programs for encouraging volunteering (especially carework) here in the U.S., and I'm curious if there might be some countries (Scandinavia, I'm guessing?) that might have more fully built out and supportive programs...
Love this post! I "know" a lot of this content from going to grad school but you explain it so clearly. Adding this to the top of my list of resources to share with folks who are curious about public schools.
I attended back to school night at our local middle school last night and it was so fun to see the teachers interacting with the kids. We have so many teachers who lovewhat they do. What an incredible blessing!
Yay! I love back to school night so much. I'm so glad you go to go! Teachers are working a very long day on back to school night (they probably got to school around 7 or 8am and, 12 hours later, they probably haven't left), and I love how they're still bringing the love and joy even after a seriously intense day.
Thank you Lisa! Great read! Some of it I was aware of(recently learned about charter school dynamics through a book called Money, Lies, and God) and some not(greaterschools.org). Helpful information for our family as we have a 3.5yr old just starting preschool and twin newborns and are trying to figure out school for our kids. At this point I think we are going with public schools but there are a few elementary schools close to our house. We are planning to do some visits this fall to figure out which one might be a good fit
You have a 3.5 year old starting preschool and newborn twins! You must be so tired. I'm amazed you're managing to read anything, holy wow. But yeah, starting preschool does seem to be when parents often start thinking, "oh, whoa, this kid's going to be going to kindergarten at some point!" School visits are totally one of the wisest things you can do. As I just commented to someone up-thread, there's really no substitute for visiting the school and feeling out the vibe.
This is making me think about the wonderful organization Integrated Schools' "two tour pledge" for parents. The idea is that you tour at least two neighborhood public schools in your area before deciding. Sounds like this could be up your alley! https://integratedschools.org/two-tour-pledge/
Love this in depth and well articulated post. I deeply appreciate your work and the level of profound accessibility/demystification it provides.
One of the best group of studies I read in recent years was a group of schools in England that did all the background management and planning to drive over residents from senior residents something like every day or 3x a week to interact / play with / do activities w kids. Regularity built real relationships, and the measured social positive impacts were significant. Just a thought for a future post!
Yes, I'd love to write about a program like this one day! They are so, so cool. Thanks for the nudge.
Love this piece, Lisa! As a curriculum nerd, I for one would LOVE to hear from you what curriculum in the U.S. should look like. I’m really excited to get into Since Time Immemorial.
Oh, man, this is such a huge question! I'm not sure where to begin. Is there anything in particular you'd like to zoom in on?
This post made me realize "I done wrong" and I fixed it: the Spanish-speaking-only neighbors last week asked for information about what middle school their 4th grade daughter would attend. Aware of current issues around schools in Austin, Texas having "failing grades" and soon subject to takeover by the state, I characterized our neighborhood school as "not being the best school according to what the students have demonstrated with their test scores". In essence, pointing the finger at the kids. I had an over-the-fence conversation with my neighbor this afternoon where I explained that poor test scores originate in a multitude of systemic issues, and apologized for throwing shade on the students. We also talked about the problems with charter schools taking tax money and hurting the public schools, in a vicious cycle of defunding. And of course I told him they needed to do their own research, talk to parents, students, teachers to decide what was the best choice for their daughter.
Elizabeth, what a lovely pivot! I love this story. I think you're spot on that this family's best bet is to talk to parents, students, and teachers -- and also go tour the school if they can find the time. Schools often do parent tours/open houses in the spring for parents of rising kindergarteners, rising middle schoolers, and rising high schoolers, and walking around in the actual building can tell you so much that word of mouth can't. They *should* have Spanish-language tours, especially in Austin (big Spanish-speaking population; mostly progressive school leaders compared to elsewhere in the state). I'd also say that for a Spanish-speaking family, they of course would want to talk with other Spanish-speaking families. Sometimes families of color will exit the neighborhood school if that school isn't doing well by kids of color, and in such cases I think it's a completely understandable and defensible choice.
Former Austinite and horrified about the AISD stuff I've been catching up. Good on you Elizabeth! 💪
Lisa, I love you, I love your posts and your writing, and now, for footnote number 6, I love you even more. I feel a kindred spirit.
Thank you so much, Yael! What a lovely note. And I love that footnote #6, about federalism, is the one that stood out to you. I detect a true fellow civics nerd!
Curious to hear more about educators’ perspectives on the state of public schooling post-pandemic, esp bc I really agree with your point that the community building they offer is profound. While my child is still too young for me to even have looked up what schools we’re zoned for, my impression from friends is that many public schools (especially in cities whose schools were suspended for long periods during the pandemic) suffered an exodus of folks who COULD afford to go to private schools (whose shutdowns were shorter), thereby compounding many of the issues of inequality alluded to here. I had wonderful teacher friends who’ve left the profession in the past few years which bums me out greatly. This is a bigger question, I’m sure. But I guess the tl;dr version is, what is the “State of the Union” on public schools, from those on the ground? Recovered? Recovering? Back to “normal”? Not really? My question is related to the idea that you can’t really gauge these things based on test scores, which makes perfect sense to me.
These are such good conjectures/questions, Amrita. I haven't taken a deep dive into national or international statistics, but anecdotally and based on the small samples from my own research, I'd say you're pretty right on. Lots of families left public schools during the pandemic, largely because so many private schools stayed open when public schools were closed. Families that could afford to keep their kids in school (which also serves as de facto childcare) did so -- and then many remained in private school as society, and public schools, opened back up.
And no, public schools have not recovered. Lots of teachers left the profession, either by taking early retirement or just bailing because the working conditions were so untenable. Perhaps even more impactful in the long term, fewer people decided to become teachers. I'm connected with a lot of university Colleges of Education around the country, and pretty much across the board, enrollments dropped in 2020-2021 and have stayed down. It's part of the larger existential crisis so many colleges and universities are facing: low enrollments, programs closing, doing more and more instruction online, etc.
It's a shame, because in a lot of ways, teaching remains a great job. Pay and benefits vary widely and correlate strongly with the power of the teachers' union in a given state, but teachers are unionized in every state, and there'll certainly never be a shortage of meaning in teaching, as a career.
I've been helping to organize a regional social justice teaching conference since 2012, and I actually think our attendance numbers at this conference year-over-year are a decent gauge of the health of the teaching profession (which in turn is a gauge of the health of schools). Every year from 2012-2019, the conference grew by 100+ attendees; in 2019 we were up to like 1500 teachers attending the conference and were trying to figure out if we could find a bigger venue. Then the pandemic hit, our conference went online, and attendance numbers dropped to like 600. We've been slowly coming back since then (up to maybe 900 last year, back in person). Registration is currently open for the 2025 conference and I'm really curious to see what our numbers will be like, especially given how fired up teachers are about the current state of our nation and world.
Thank you for taking the time share such a thoughtful response to to my slightly off-topic question. It's fascinating to hear about the larger context you've experienced around this, and makes me want to support my local public schools (and teachers) in whatever small ways i can. I am curious -- and hopeful -- about how your conference registration continues to reflect the slow road to repair and recovery that we're on.
You go Lisa! I love your aim: “to make explicit some essentials of how the U.S. education system works, which often aren’t explained to us" and your execution too. And your conclusion that "public schools belong to all of us ... They’re a key hub for building community and seeding social connections." That last point is spot on. Related, I'm concerned about the state of civic education at school, and here's a short piece on that scene in our beloved WA state: https://www.postalley.org/2025/08/31/do-schools-still-teach-civics/.
Thank you, Walter! Writing about education, I feel a particular responsibility to get it right. This post was a very clear instance of finding out what I think by trying to write it down.
I'm so glad you shared your recent civics article for Post Alley. I'm about to start doing a monthly links round-up and I'm looking forward to sharing that there as well, where I hope it'll get more eyes on it.
Anyone who's reading this comment, Walter here is an absolute leading light in the field of high quality civics education in the United States. If you're interested in this topic, I'll direct you to a couple other of his pieces as well.
Here's one of my all-time favorite pieces of education writing, thrillingly titled "Teaching Against Idiocy." https://faculty.washington.edu/rsoder/EDUC305/305parkeridiocy.pdf
And here's another important piece in Walter's recent series on civic education for Post Alley. https://www.postalley.org/2025/08/07/would-you-promise-what-new-citizens-promise/
Love this! That point about public schools often being better than their test scores/reputation was really driven home for me when I saw recently that the public schools I grew up in, where I had a great experience, loved my teachers, and received a solid education, had a score of like 3 or 4 on Great Schools!
Right?? Until reading this comment, it had never occurred to me to look up the schools I attended on Greatschools. I just did. My high school has a 9/10, but my middle school has a 5/10 and my elementary school has a 4/10. Hooey! These numbers totally map onto the average income of the towns where each school is located.
wow, this is so well written, nuanced, and useful! will be sending to new parents at our school :)
I realize I'm late to the game here, and perhaps everyone has moved on from the comments, but I wanted to put in a plug for Neil Postman's The End of Education: Redefining the Value of School. I just happened upon it at the library and it is SO thought-provoking! He criticizes trends in education back in '95 (as with all his stuff, so spot on, accessible, and timeless), and offers that the purpose of public school is not to serve the public, but rather to create the public. Highly recommended!!
https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_End_of_Education/KFljenItiIAC?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA4&printsec=frontcover
To create the public!!! Exactly!
Awesome, albeit sometimes horrifying, information that I absolutely loved reading! My community in the neighborhood legit didn’t happen until my kid started kindergarten despite my years of trying. Neighborhood schools build community in such huge ways!! Also, I’m a seattle area native now living in Texas and this big old state is deciding some crazy stuff re: education as of late. As you can imagine. I’d be curious if you have (or have already created) a take on how to get involved to help teachers teach when the politics is getting in the way?
I mean, I'm really curious what the teachers' unions in Texas are focusing on. There are two main teachers' unions in the US at the national level -- the NEA and the AFT -- and both have branches in lots of states.
Doing some quick digging, it looks like both unions have a presence in Texas and very progressive politics. Here are some resources where you can explore how to support Texas teachers, students, and families in our current political climate:
https://www.texasaft.org/take-action/
https://www.texasaft.org/together-we-thrive/
https://tsta.org/issues_and_action/political-affairs/ -- be sure to explore the links under "Take Action" in the sidebar
Thank you! Looking into these orgs I didn’t know existed. Awesome!
I'm part of a loose collective called Aunties and Friends for Liberation that has been going to school board meetings on NYC for LITERAL YEARS (about a year for me, longer for others) trying to get the conservative members of the largest NYC school district to overturn a hateful resolution to ban trans girls from playing sports in K-8 grade. Yes you are reading all of this right. This month, we finally succeeded after a huge voting campaign in the last cycle that got some of them out. Look up CEC2, Maud Maron (the author of the proposal) and resolution #248 if you want to know more.
I don't have kids, I'll never have kids, but I'm a martial arts instructor who teaches adults and kids and this resonates hard with me. They are all our kids. So often at these meetings my non-parent status has been used as an excuse not to listen to me and others like me, when it's like... Why do you think I even have time to be at this meeting?? 😂 Thank you for this post!
Chrissy, holy crap, thank you so much for the work you're doing on this, and for filling us in. I'm shocked to hear that there's been a resolution to ban trans girls in K-8 sports in NY public schools. Has this ban been IN EFFECT??
I'm feeling so much gratitude to your group for your long efforts (and what an EXCELLENT collective name, BTW).
You are doing an amazing job modeling that public schools are all of our schools. I am so grateful to be connected with you!
Ugh that left out the first part,dang fat fingers fumbling small buttons. I’m a former K-12 writer (national and local) and you had to write this beefy background piece before future posts. Navigating and discussing how aunties can have real relationships that build toward supporting g both adults and kids in local schools is a totally uncracked nut. It’s hard — I was an invested audience living and breathing this stuff and hours that schools are desperate for volunteers were never at a time that a journalist could leave a newsroom to go, say, tutor a cute young rando on a regular basis. But it is things that workplaces (and cities and communities) could perhaps better support and encourage
I think you're so right that workplaces and cities and communities could and should support more volunteering in schools. When I worked in local government, they allowed us to use 2 (or maybe it was 3) of our ~12 sick days per year for volunteering... which looks okay on the surface but actually kind of sucks because, you know, people actually need their sick days. And plus, 2-3 days is so little. I'd love to see more robust programs for encouraging volunteering (especially carework) here in the U.S., and I'm curious if there might be some countries (Scandinavia, I'm guessing?) that might have more fully built out and supportive programs...
Love this post! I "know" a lot of this content from going to grad school but you explain it so clearly. Adding this to the top of my list of resources to share with folks who are curious about public schools.
Thank you, Sooz! And thanks for sharing it!
I attended back to school night at our local middle school last night and it was so fun to see the teachers interacting with the kids. We have so many teachers who lovewhat they do. What an incredible blessing!
Yay! I love back to school night so much. I'm so glad you go to go! Teachers are working a very long day on back to school night (they probably got to school around 7 or 8am and, 12 hours later, they probably haven't left), and I love how they're still bringing the love and joy even after a seriously intense day.
Thank you Lisa! Great read! Some of it I was aware of(recently learned about charter school dynamics through a book called Money, Lies, and God) and some not(greaterschools.org). Helpful information for our family as we have a 3.5yr old just starting preschool and twin newborns and are trying to figure out school for our kids. At this point I think we are going with public schools but there are a few elementary schools close to our house. We are planning to do some visits this fall to figure out which one might be a good fit
You have a 3.5 year old starting preschool and newborn twins! You must be so tired. I'm amazed you're managing to read anything, holy wow. But yeah, starting preschool does seem to be when parents often start thinking, "oh, whoa, this kid's going to be going to kindergarten at some point!" School visits are totally one of the wisest things you can do. As I just commented to someone up-thread, there's really no substitute for visiting the school and feeling out the vibe.
This is making me think about the wonderful organization Integrated Schools' "two tour pledge" for parents. The idea is that you tour at least two neighborhood public schools in your area before deciding. Sounds like this could be up your alley! https://integratedschools.org/two-tour-pledge/