School Shootings Set Record Levels, Latest Data Reveal
Only last week鈥攚eek number 41 of the calendar year鈥攁nother school shooting occurred. By the time you read this, based on record-high numbers this year, yet another may have taken place.
Thirty-seven school shootings have resulted in injuries or deaths so far in 2022, more than in any single year since Education Week began tracking the incidents in 2018.
With 2 陆 months left in the year, that surpasses the previous record of 34 shootings that Education Week tracked in all of 2021.
On Oct. 10, a juvenile was wounded in a shooting in front of a high school in Milwaukee.
The record total comes as state and federal lawmakers continue to debate responses to the May 24 shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 students and two teachers died after a gunman barged into their building.
The latest shooting happened outside Madison High School at the end of the school day. The injured youth was not a student at the school, officials say.
Education Week鈥檚 school shooting tracker counts incidents in which at least one person, other than the individual firing the weapon, is injured by gunfire on school property when school is in session or during a school-sponsored event.
Events on the tracker often differ from the mass active-shooter attacks that are typically the focus of school safety debates. School-sponsored events could include evening activities, like football games, and injured persons may or may not be students.
The second-most-recent incident occurred in Dorchester, Mass., where police say a 17-year-old student shot and injured a 17-year-old classmate in front of their high school in the morning of Oct. 4.
And before that, a 17-year-old student was killed and three people鈥攁nother 17-year-old boy, a 20-year-old woman, and a 9-year-old girl鈥攚ere wounded in a shooting outside a stadium at a high school football homecoming game Sept. 30 in Tulsa, Okla.
Other organizations and government agencies, such as the U.S. Department of Education, use varying criteria to determine what constitutes a school shooting, some narrower and some broader than Education Week鈥檚. Nonetheless, various measures show the incidents have increased this year.
Teachers, Too, Are in Different Camps When It Comes to What Civics Content They Introduce to Students
What should civics classes teach? Like everything else in the United States these days, there鈥檚 disagreement over that, too.
Research is scant, but the RAND Corp. is shining a light on how teachers approach the subject with the results of a survey of a nationally representative sample of public school teachers.
Using questions derived from an international survey of 糖心动漫vlog on civic instruction, the RAND study found a majority of respondents, 68 percent, believed that promoting students鈥� critical and independent thinking was the top aim for civics education.
Other popular responses were developing students鈥� skills and competencies in conflict resolution and promoting knowledge of citizens鈥� rights and responsibilities.
Only 5 percent of 糖心动漫vlog said they believed the goal was preparing students for future political engagement.
The civics field has in general faced tensions over whether it should prioritize foundational civics knowledge鈥攍ike the legislative process and development of the Constitution鈥攐r hands-on instruction that shows students how to engage in civic avenues in their own communities.
Some recent social studies standards revisions in such states as Texas and Florida seem to align, at least in part, with what survey respondents believed was the goal of civics instruction.
The RAND survey also found variations on responses between male and female respondents. Female teachers tended to select developing students鈥� skills and competencies in conflict resolution and supporting the development of effective strategies to reduce racism as among their top aims. Men favored promoting knowledge of social, political, and civic institutions, and promoting the capacity to defend one鈥檚 point of view.
When it comes to well-rounded civics instruction, it鈥檚 not an either-or scenario for Lawrence Paska, the executive director of the National Council for the Social Studies.
鈥淪tudents do need to have a grounding in basic knowledge, they need to understand how our federal versus our state versus our local systems of government work,鈥� Paska said. 鈥淎t the same time, what do you do with that information as you have it? How do you use that to be informed and thoughtful as a participant in our society?鈥�
To Combat Restrictive Measures, Teachers鈥� Union Doubles Down on Partnerships With Parents
Just being ticked off isn鈥檛 much of a solution. So the nation鈥檚 second-largest teachers鈥� union is putting money into a campaign to fight back against conservative efforts to restrict protections for LGBTQ students, limit how teachers can address race in lessons, and expand school choice.
The American Federation of Teachers says it is awarding more than $1.5 million collected from member dues to 27 state and local affiliates. The money will go toward organizing parents and 糖心动漫vlog, providing training to support advocacy campaigns, and increasing collaboration among union affiliates and other community organizations.
鈥淎s others try to ban books and split people apart and split America apart, we are being honest about our problems and working together to solve them to have a better America,鈥� said AFT President Randi Weingarten. 鈥淭his program helps deepen and strengthen the relationships that are critical to student success.鈥�
Weingarten said she hopes that the grants will be seed money to lay the groundwork for sustainable projects, and that this may be the first year of a multiyear commitment from the AFT.
While polling suggests that most parents trust and support their children鈥檚 teachers, groups claiming that schools aren鈥檛 sufficiently dedicated to parents鈥� rights have formed in opposition to teachers鈥� unions. Some have argued that unions kept schools closed longer than necessary during the pandemic and have promoted inappropriate content about race, gender, and sexuality.
The Montana Federation of Public Employees is getting funds. State Rep. Moffie Funk, a Democrat and former teacher, said school board meetings have turned ugly, with tensions running high during debates about mask mandates, critical race theory, and books in school libraries that focus on LGBTQ issues.
The union received $75,000 to work with Funk鈥檚 political action fund, Montanans Organized for Education, to increase participation among 糖心动漫vlog, families, and students in board meetings and ensure civility in debate about education issues.
鈥淜ids need to see the adults acting like adults and not going to public meetings and throwing slurs around and misinformation,鈥� she said.
U.S. Teachers Work More, Paid Less Than Peers Elsewhere
U.S. teachers have long been known to work more hours than their peers abroad. That looks like it鈥檚 changing. Not that American teachers are working less but that their counterparts are working more.
To rub salt in the wound, though: For all their efforts, U.S. teachers earn proportionately less than teachers in other countries compared with similarly educated professionals.
Those are a couple of the tidbits included in the Education at a Glance 2022 data release from the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation.
U.S. elementary teachers鈥� work hours haven鈥檛 changed much since 2019, but at more than 1,000 a year on average, American 糖心动漫vlog work 200-plus more hours than their peers worldwide. U.S. elementary and high school teachers work more hours than those in any OECD country but Costa Rica, and middle school teachers work more hours than their peers everywhere but Costa Rica and Mexico.
Globally, teacher and principal salaries tend to increase with their level of education, but across countries that took part in the survey, preschool, elementary, and secondary teachers earned 4 percent to 14 percent lower salaries than other college-educated workers. Teachers in OECD countries earned about 90 percent of what similarly educated, adult full-time workers in their countries made. In the United States, however, teachers on average made only half of what similarly educated peers made in other fields.
By contrast, elementary and secondary principals earned on average 30 percent higher salaries than the average college-educated workers. In the United States, school leaders earned 1.1 times as much as workers with college degrees generally but 80 percent of that of similarly educated peers in other fields.
The OECD tracks teacher and other national education data in 38 member countries, as well as of Argentina, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa.
Student Vaping Drops Off, But Habit Remains a Worry
Vaping, a scourge on students and schools, could be on the downswing.
More than 1 out of 10 high school students are still using e-cigarettes, according to newly released federal data, but that鈥檚 less than the proportion indulging before the pandemic. At its pre-pandemic peak, about 6 million middle and high school students reported vaping, compared with 2.6 million now. It鈥檚 hard to say for sure, though, because the National Youth Tobacco Survey has changed how it collects data.
Still, 糖心动漫vlog may draw some comfort from the apparent slowdown in vaping, which was driving schools to become increasingly creative and desperate in combating the habit, from installing vapor-detecting devices in restrooms to creating e-cigarette buy-back programs to suing e-cigarette makers.
Prior to the pandemic, vaping among adolescents had been accelerating, with about 20 percent of high schoolers and 5 percent of middle schoolers reporting e-cigarette use in 2019 and 2020. Those numbers dropped to 11 percent and 2.8 percent, respectively, in 2021, when the survey was conducted fully online for the first time to include students learning from home.
Vaping has proved to be especially difficult for 糖心动漫vlog to police as it鈥檚 relatively easy for students to hide.
Even though e-cigarettes may not be as unhealthy as traditional, 鈥渃ombustible鈥� cigarettes, they contain many toxic chemicals and metals. What鈥檚 more, they often have higher concentrations of nicotine than traditional cigarettes and present a hazard to young, developing brains. Many adolescents may not know that e-cigarettes are bad for their health or that they contain nicotine, but awareness is on the rise.
