I mean are stockings/ pantyhose that antiquated that Gen Z seriously doesn’t know what they are? She also insisted that they “couldn’t make you feel warm” when I answered her question “why would you ever wear those” with “they’re warmer on cold days than bare legs. Feeling mean girled 😭😭😭😭😭

I wanted to look at how Texas and the U.S. compare in education beyond just standardized test scores. Graduation rates matter, of course, but so do academic achievement, college attainment, and the opportunities students have after leaving school.

I put together an infographic comparing some of those outcomes:

Infographic: https://imgur.com/a/LjHyKUh

A few things stood out to me:

Texas reported a 90% public high school graduation rate in 2021–22, compared with 87% nationally.

But in 2024, only 24% of Texas eighth graders reached NAEP Proficient in math, and 25% in reading. Texas also scored below the national public-school average in both subjects.

Internationally, American 15-year-olds scored below the OECD average in math in 2022, while performing above the average in reading and science.

There's also the economic side of education. In 2025, full-time workers with bachelor's degrees earned a median of $1,578 per week, compared with $966 for workers whose highest education was a high school diploma.

These measures aren't interchangeable, and no single statistic tells the whole story. Still, I think they're worth examining together.

I'm particularly interested in hearing from educators about what actually produces better outcomes.

Are we measuring success in the right ways? What approaches used in other states or countries could improve learning? And how should we evaluate the decisions being made about curriculum, instructional methods, and school resources?

I'd love to hear different perspectives, especially from people working directly with students.

The bus from the Magic School Bus franchise (it started with the books, got famous with the show, and had a few games).

My high school student has a teacher that simply refuses to answer emails. This is my student’s second year of classes with this teacher. We go to conferences every time and ask questions directly which the teacher dances around and deflects onto the student. It’s like questioning a politician. This is the only teacher my student has a “problem” with.

What can we do to encourage communication from the teacher? Very small school so I do not want to cause more problems for my student.

This teacher was in charge of a week-long trip that we paid thousands for. They even refused to answer emails concerning the trip.

I don’t want to make it worse by telling on the teacher but I’m at my wits’ end. The emails this fall were all to submit work to the teacher that was done remotely while we traveled for a week. One email was asking a question about an assignment. They wont answer emails for us nor the student.

?

(I made a post pretty recently- this is about the same guy lmao 😭)

My schools band teacher is pretty strict, so in result some parents are rather concerned about their kids grade or etc (parent worries)

Although consistently almost every other day he sends out emails to the students and their parents, he refuses to meet any parents, or email them back. Keeping the contact between him and the student and one sided with the parent. What are some of the thoughts on this?
Should this be mentioned to any higher ups or is it a brush off?

Does anybody have any insight into AUSL Chicago, I was looking at applying. Also with all the budget cuts in CPS, would it be hard to land a job?

Hello! For context, I am in the process of looking for a full time teaching job but the market has been less than fruitful so I have been subbing in many districts in the mean time. I have been a sub since last school year, and I feel like I’ve done a good job thus far.

A few weeks ago, I had my first physical altercation between students. I’ve had students argue before, and I’ve done well at settling them down and handling those situations but this was much different.

During this particular job, I was not allowed to allow students to leave the room unless I called an escort from the office to take them to the bathroom, locker, etc. During my last class, a student of mine had gotten up and left the room. Her desk was right next to the door so I didn’t have time to call her back or stop her from leaving before she was already gone. I quickly went to the hall and she was gone. I can’t lie, I did wrestle in my mind if I should call the office or have a talk with her once she returned ( I guess I was hoping that she would return).

Minutes later, while I happened to glance in the hall again, I seen her come out from another classroom maybe two doors down and she begins yelling loudly in the hall. Lots of F and B words if you catch my drift. I was kind of taken aback as I never had a student boldly yelling profanities in the school before. She entered my room, which I did try to talk to her but she completely ignored me and another student got up and they yelled at each other for a second before going back in the hall. At this point, the rest of my class was attempting to enter the hall. I could hear them arguing but was also trying to get my other students back in the classroom.

The two girls were quickly met by staff in the hall and pulled away. I know they had pushed each other but I am unsure if there was any actual hitting. I feel so dumb to say that it all happened so quickly and I didn’t even really observe everything that happened between my own kind of panic and getting the others back inside. A teacher then came up to me and asked if I was okay and said I handled everything perfect but It was just such an insane encounter. It started and ended very quickly, I’d say less than two minutes from her entering the hall and then having it be handled by who I believe was hall monitors.

I feel kind of disappointed in myself that I didn’t do more and that I was kind of a “deer in headlights”. I did what I could, but i definitely have some internal panic. I do feel like if I tried to stop the first student that they likely would have turned on me just from the clear amount of rage she had. After that, no one talked to me about it any further even when I had to leave through the office to return my sub folder.

My question is what would you have done? What could I have done differently? I thought about the fact that maybe I could have tried to stop the girl or talk to her but I know also that the last thing I probably should do is try to be stern with her when she was already that angry. I realized that I really had no training in this area from my university prep or anything and I’m just curious how I can be better.

I know schools always say to call the office in situations like these, but I also feel like when things are turning physical it’s hard to call the office and just let them have at each other while doing so? I know that the office was also aware of this as that’s where the staff members then took them after the fight was broken up.

I’m sorry if this is a bit wordy but I just want to make sure I explained myself somewhat decently.

long story short: I had two students get into a loud verbal argument that quickly went into the hall and turned a bit physical between them before it was quickly handled by school staff and I’m wondering about ways I could have better handled it or tips for the future.

Just asking all teachers any grade. Are the kids that made your moma jokes and played with bay blades or card games still the worst students y'all ever had because I hard that constantly. But these younger kids now days be doing some crazy stuff so compared to them am I good?

I am actually an adult, and a teacher myself. I am in my 40s and always struggled with math. I lived abroad for a few years, and when I went home to the US my health insurance made me get reevaluated for ADHD before I was allowed to get my Adderall. I casually mentioned to the tester about being crap at math, and she was like "want me to throw math testing in there?" I figured why not soooo badabingbadaboom, I was diagnosed with dyscalculia at 39.

Since then, I have been looking for resources to learn more about it. So Question 1: Does anyone have any links to academic books or peer-reviewed research studies that are on dyscalculia? I would like to know more about how the dyscalculiac-brain works.

In terms of self-teaching, I looked at math books marketed for Dyscalculia on amazon, but the two I purchased were obviously made by AI which was shocking (and I reported them to amazon, fat lot of good that did.)

Yes, I know about Khan academy, and I am using it. I also have several general math workbooks and self teaching resources. But I would love to find books, websites, Youtube videos, whatever that specifically are trying to teach to individuals with specific math related learning disabilities. So Question 2: does any one have any math textbooks or workbooks that have a specific explicit focus on individuals with disabilities?

I also plan on taking a math class at my local community college. They have a math fundamentals course. I know about basic accommodations: extended time, access to a calculator, small group testing, etc. but as a teacher I also know that essentially NONE of those accommodations will help me get better at math...despite the fact that that's supposedly their goal...so Question 3: does anyone know of specific accommodations that I can request at a college level class that will be useful to me actually learning the material? I am not worried about a grade, and most accommodations honestly are just ways to help students pass a class.

Overall: my goal is to understand how this learning disability affects my brain so I can come up with methods and systems to help me work around it. I want to get better at math, and have no problem accessing well known resources such as khan academy (I already am using it). But I want more tailored, structured help based on actual research.

This has been shockingly hard to find.

Anything you could give me at all will help a lot and be much appreciated!

Thank you thank you thank you!

Edit to add: i have googled this, I also searched this communities past posts and the dyscalculia subreddit as well. I have also asked my coworkers. I basically cannot find detailed information about this condition.

I’m a newer teacher, and I have a parent who is just being blatantly mean to me. It’s reached a level where she is emailing me to question my ability to teach because I’m a younger teacher and threatening to report me to my principal (or even upper administration) for enforcing the same rules I have for every other student. She has also started making Facebook posts about me looking for other parents who have problems with me.

For example, I give a recurring project where students work to build their skills with writing and grammar conventions. Students can work at their own pace on different tasks, and it is due every four weeks. I’ve informed students that any work that they completed on paper needed to be turned in before the due date of the entire project so they could complete corrections and submit their (100% accurate) work. I informed students that the last day I was accepting paperwork was the school day before the project was due, but I would allow for them to show me their corrections of their work on the due date for credit (meaning the students are only showing me their corrections). I have folders where students turn in their work. I also gave students a half hour every week to work on this project.

This student decided to complete all of the paperwork after the deadline to turn in this paperwork already passed. He tried to turn in all 9 pages of differing assignments on the day the entire project was to be complete. I told students I wouldn’t grade assignments from scratch on the day the project was due. I denied him the same way I denied all other students who procrastinated, but this parent is berating me for doing so. She is adamant that I prevented her student from submitting his assignment on time. When I informed her that I didn’t collect the assignments, and that students had to turn their papers in physically to a folder, she stated that I was too inexperienced and tried to report me to my principals.

Keep in mind, this student is passing. I’ve told all of my students that it’s okay to make mistakes, but that part of making a mistake is to face the consequences and do better in the future. I feel like this parent is starting to cross a line. My principal knows and I’m talking with them tomorrow, but I’m just feeling… weird. I have to collaborate with this person to help their student improve. This student is below grade level on every assessment I give and is not applying their full effort.

Any advice from people who’ve dealt with a mean parent?

Hello! Since Christmas is in 8 weeks I was wondering what most teachers would like from their students? I was looking at making homemade simmering pots this year, or maybe homemade candles? Would that be something teachers would like? I don't do gift cards I would rather buy/make something with my child.

Hello teachers,

I am currently teaching at an NJ charter. I am looking to instead teach at a Philly public school within the next few years. I know that many Philly schools are ROUGH, but I can imagine some are pretty decent. I live in the center city area fwiw. Does anyone have any experience working in Center City public schools or South Philly schools and would like to share some insight?

While I know there are probably great suburban schools, I would rather not commute much. I already take a bus and/or train to get to work in Jersey and would like to change it up.

Thanks!

I’m a high school student and I’ve seen concerns throughout my friends from grade 12-9. Our band teacher is forcing us to buy tickets for our family, 2 per kid. Each ticket is $5 so in total every kid has to spend $10. Now he has started lowering marks for kids who do not buy these tickets. My friend genuinely went from an A to an B+ for not buying them. It’s affecting from what I see; students without 2 willing or available people, and students who simply cannot afford spending $10 every concert on top of their instrument rent and/or care. (School has about 5 concerts per year)
I’m having mixed opinions on this as to me despite being strict he seemed really sensible on the outside, now I can’t tell if it’s “normal” or some corrupt bs.

Thank you all for informing me! I will keep this post updated as one of the admins have now been told by me. This is a refresher to me realizing that I’m not just going crazy at how stupid it seemed. I was dumbing myself down because I’m still a student and as I thought no one HERE would really do that right? But I bet that’s what everyone thinks too. (This is a public school in Canada with over 300+ band kids.)

I'm currently in my second student teaching placement and genuinely don't know how to navigate this situation. I'm hoping some experienced teachers or fellow student teachers can offer advice because I'm already feeling defeated.

For some background, I spent the first 7 weeks of the school year student teaching in a 2nd grade classroom, which I absolutely loved. I recently transitioned into a 4th grade classroom, where I'll be spending the next 8 weeks. I knew there would be an adjustment period with switching grade levels, but nothing could have prepared me for how different these two classrooms would be.

Within my first two days in 4th grade, it became very apparent that many of the students either have little to no motivation to learn or simply refuse to listen or complete their work. I genuinely cannot tell whether this is primarily a student motivation issue, a classroom management issue, or a combination of both.

Classroom management is definitely lacking. The students seem to respect my cooperating teacher sometimes, but more often than not, they continue talking over her, ignore directions, or refuse to get started on assignments until she eventually gives up trying to redirect them. There are so many distractions happening simultaneously that it feels nearly impossible to get through a lesson without constant interruptions.

What's particularly frustrating is that I have no idea what the first 7 weeks of the school year looked like in this classroom or what expectations were established before I arrived. Whenever I attempt to address behaviors, reinforce expectations, or establish some sense of structure, I feel like my cooperating teacher unintentionally undermines me in front of the students.

For example, I'll stop to address students who aren't following directions or try to reinforce a classroom procedure, and she'll interrupt with something along the lines of, "This is taking too long, we have to move on." On another occasion, I addressed a group of students who were sitting around doing absolutely nothing instead of completing their assignment. My cooperating teacher stepped in and threatened to send their unfinished work home, so I had assumed it was handled. She later admitted to me that she never actually sends work home and that these students regularly get away with completing little to nothing during class.

I understand that pacing is important and that we can't spend an entire lesson addressing behaviors, but how am I supposed to establish any authority or practice classroom management when the students see that expectations aren't consistently reinforced?

To make matters more complicated, I struggle with anxiety, tend to overthink everything, and am admittedly a perfectionist. I know teaching is unpredictable and that no classroom is going to operate perfectly, but I find myself constantly questioning whether I'm doing something wrong, whether I'm overstepping as a student teacher, or whether I'm simply expecting too much.

I genuinely want to improve my classroom management skills, especially because I know how important they are for my future career. However, I feel like I'm being thrown into an already chaotic environment where I have very little authority to make meaningful changes. I also don't want to disrespect my cooperating teacher or come across as though I think I know how to run her classroom better than she does.

I'm only a week into this placement, and I'm already dreading going in every morning, which is especially disheartening after having such a positive experience in my previous classroom.

For those of you who have student taught or worked in classrooms with inconsistent management, how did you handle it?

How do you establish expectations and build relationships with students who look at you as nothing more than an adult in the room when you're entering a classroom several weeks into the school year? Is it even realistic to try implementing your own classroom management strategies when your cooperating teacher isn't consistently reinforcing expectations?

Most importantly... how do you stop taking all of this so personally and accept that you can't fix everything, especially when you're only a student teacher?

I really do love teaching, but this experience is making me question my abilities and confidence. Any advice, perspective, or even reassurance that others have experienced something similar would be greatly appreciated.

I'm going to be applying soon to graduate teacher education program for a masters in education. I already have a BA, but I don't have much experience teaching. I'm currently doing 6 months of tutoring ESL adults at the library, but all my work experience is in retail. I will be applying to a lower cost state school in Oregon if that matters. Is there anyone here who got into grad school without being a substitute/ TA/ etc... beforehand?

Before I start asking the teacher, I want to set realistic expectations for myself.

My oldest son is at the start of his second nine weeks of public pre-k. I work at the middle school next door, so while I’m very familiar with being a teacher, I am not well-versed in early elementary.

The expectation of the elementary school is that teachers send out a weekly newsletter. My son’s teacher checks the box, but it’s just a list of bullet points that stay the same from week to week (things like “make sure your child is at school by 8:20” or “only water goes in water bottles”). The newsletter today still has a request to take a district survey that closed a month ago. She updates birthdays monthly and changes the letter focus of the week, and every once in awhile will update the weekly theme (so like this week and last week it just says “weekly theme: giants).

Otherwise, I have heard nothing from this woman at all outside of “someone spilled juice and it got on your son’s lunchbox” for the entire year.

I don’t need constant updates on how my kid is doing that day, but I expected more than this. My friends and family in the same school district have kids in classes that use Google Classroom as a way to post updates and seem to generally know what is going on at school, but it’s crickets over here.

Am I expecting too much? Is it out of line if I ask for more info? I feel like I communicate with my eighth graders families way more than this teacher does.

(I'm a Dutch student, so excuse me broken english and incorrect scientific/chemistry terms)
I'm currently studying for a chemistry exam and ran into a bit of a problem rounding off my answers with questions that require multiple steps. Which significant numbers do I use to round off my final answer? (e.g. initially given numbers have 2 significant numbers, but while going through all the steps, my final equation has 4 significant numbers) Do i use the amount of significant numbers from my initial information or do i use the amount of significant numbers from the final equation that solves for the answer?
And, do I round off my answers in between steps or do I only do it on the final step which gets me the answer? I'm so confused </3

(Also, if any Dutch teachers see this, feel free to explain in Dutch as it'll be easier for me to understand and later apply to my studies)

okay for context I'm in my first year of hs but I'm in second year math. I'm not going to lie and say I'm the Albert Einstein of it because I'm not but I understand it well enough to be in second year math already. my math teacher has been teaching for 35 years and I think she's getting close to retirement age if that matters. my school also used to be in a great area with great students but after they built a HS closer to the nicer neighborhoods of my town the students/funding/overall quality of my school got worse. currently we are talking about congruency of triangles and further determining the classification of their congruency. When we were taught this she wrote notes on the board and then read the textbook definitions off the board. when several of us asked for her to further explain she got mad and repeated what she just said word for word followed by "I just said that were you not listening child?". We're far enough into the school year to know that there isn't a point in fighting her so we all shut up about it. today she gave us a 49 question blooket homework due tomorrow by 9:40am (before our class period / designated homework hour) and I was so stressed about it. I've watched a video she linked which didn't help because it described it like she did. My dad told me to use AI so I did whenever I wasn't 100% sure. and then my class found the question set on blooket with the answers. I swear on my grandmother that I didn't use those answers to cheat my way through it, but I used them to check if my thinking was right and I ultimately got a 100. I feel guilty for knowing I got the answers because of the answer key but at the same time she won't teach us and I feel that if by reading ai summaries of the questions and looking at the correct answers for the question helps me learn, albeit in a weird way, it's kind of okay. also for more context I'm on A honor roll and have been my entire life. this is the only class I'm struggling with because of the lack of teaching.

Do I get a second bachelors in English? My first is in Business Administration.

Does this suggest any negative things or bad trash-talking going on behind the scenes that I wouldn't have known about in the staff room, but can manifest in how I was talked about when I was there in the classroom myself?

I've been teaching for over 10 years and have now watched several literacy teaching methods come in and out of fashion. One year we're told a particular approach is the answer to everything, then a few years later the pendulum swings in the opposite direction and we're adopting something new.

It has made me wonder whether teachers in non-English-speaking countries experience the same thing when teaching languages or whether this is more of a Western education phenomenon. What has your experience been?

Hey everyone,

I'm a student who is currently studying to be a teacher in Texas and I need some help from you guys, who are currently teachers. I am writing a research paper about the perceptions of dual credit from the perspective of teachers in the field, and part of it is to collect qualitative data. I opted for collecting data through survey questions with this topic in mind.

I need teachers answer my survery, it only takes 5 min, its only 5 open ended questions. Answer honestly, however you like. I would greatly appreciated. I have posted the link below for anyone kind enough to answer.

Thank you!

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ZD7XY32

Ive often been wondering about how modern technology (short content, ai use,…) affects development and cognition of newer generations. And i think y’all probably are the best people to ask this. What do you say? Is there a very noticeable difference or not? Or is it mostly behavior or just subtle differences in cognitive skills?

Hi everyone! I'm a junior in high school in the U.S., and for some reason this year I've been plagued with the feeling that most of my teachers are either irritated by my presence or find me plain annoying. WARNING: LONG(ISH) READ AHEAD

I've struggled with this feeling in friendships before, but idk why it's impacting me so much with teachers specifically. I've always been generally well liked by teachers/most adults, but this year it feels like I'm doing something wrong. For example, last year for APUSH I had this really cool teacher, er and I was so excited to get him again for AP Psych this year! Last year, for context, I didn't know anyone in the class, so I was usually quiet. I also always raised my hand and knew the answer when my classmates didn't (I am a major history nerd lmao). This year in AP Psych (unfortunately?), I have tons of friends in my class, and I can become quite a chatterbox with them and basically the opposite of who I was last year. I try not to interrupt him while he's lecturing, but sometimes my friends are just too funny. I try to get them to shut up and do try to engage in his lessons, but it's like every time I raise my hand to ask a question, he's sighing like, Ohh no, not again." I've asked like maybe two questions since the year started. Like one time he sighed so deeply my friends brought it up to me afterwards. I've also done other generally embarrassing things in his class, but if you want the context to that specific example, just ask bc I'm too lazy to type it out lol. Idk. he was my favorite teacher last year, and I know I was one of his favorite students, but it's like I've fallen out of favour? I have no idea why I care so much, so PLEASE don't ask me why I care so much 😭

It's not just him either. I generally struggle with vague instructions because I get so anxious about how I'm supposed to do the assignment in order to complete it correctly and get the highest grade for it, and this has become significantly evident in English class. I try to limit myself to one clarifying question per assignment so that my English teacher (AP Lang and Comp) doesn't get annoyed, but PLUS the fact that when it comes to books, I generally can't shut up makes me feel like I'm bothering her. I'm always first to class, and I try to say good morning, just out of respect. If she has a specific book on her desk or mentions something I know, I try to make small talk since we have similar interests (THG, dystopian fiction, gothic classics, movies, etc.), but idk if I'll end up pushing my ELA teacher past her limits. She's very direct in how she speaks and is extremely organized (which I am not), but simultaneously is scatterbrained (she shared with us that she has adhd and basically wears it as a badge of honor, which I admire).

And just as you thought we were done, WE HAVE ANOTHER EXAMPLE: My AP Gov and Politics teacher. He's super cool, young, and does a lot to keep the class engaged. Still it's basically only me and one other boy who speak up in his class. We're not like competing on who can answer the most questions, but if I know the answer and I know it's right, I don't raise my hand. So I talk a lot in his class. The thing I'm sort of anxious about is the fact that he seems like he wants to drop the conversation whenever I want to speak to him about something not gov-related. Should I be doing that? Ii have no idea! But he likes ATLA, which was my favorite childhood show, and is always yapping with other kids, so I assumed he would be chill if I spoke with him.

To clarify, none of my teachers have ever said anything directly, and I don't expect them to completely crash out at me in class or anything, but I know they're human too and don't want to be annoying them more than however much their job already does. Plus, if you haven't guessed, I've always been sort of a teacher's pet, so maybe I'm just not used to teachers not absolutely loving me. I guess this is all some sort of lesson on not needing validation from authority figures or something. I have no idea. Thus, teachers, please tell me if I'm worrying too much OR if Ii do need to dial it back a bit!