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11 Critical Issues Facing Educators in 2023

11 Critical Issues Facing Educators in 2023

A former K-5 public school principal turned author, presenter, and leadership coach, DeWitt provides insights and advice for education leaders. He can be found at www.petermdewitt.com. Read more from this blog.

For several years, I wrote a list of 10, 11, or even 15 critical issues facing education at the end of a year to give a glimpse into issues to consider for the following year. Then COVID happened and blew my last list of issues up. Why? Because it never occurred to me to put a pandemic on the list of critical issues in 2019.







We have educational issues to consider every year that also highlight what teachers, leaders, and students face. Education has often been a dumping ground for criticism of educators who are tasked with teaching children content, feeding them when they come in hungry because they live in poverty or are homeless, and, at the same time, practicing school safety drills because students and teachers have to prepare for fending off the next school shooter.


Television shows and movies poke fun at educators and school, politicians have “plans” about how they can do it better, although the large majority of them ever step foot in a school since they graduated. During all of that “entertainment,” educators are supposed to just go in and do their jobs for the love of education and children.


These issues were chosen based on the number of times they came up in stories on Education Week or in workshops and coaching sessions that I do in my role as a leadership coach and workshop facilitator.


For full disclosure, some of the issues will be difficult to read, but they are the reality for teachers, leaders, staff, and students around the country. With that being said, the issues on the list are not exhaustive, and as always, if you have an issue to add to the list, find me on social media and let me know which ones are a top priority for you.


Guns – Recent research from the Centers for Disease Control shows that firearms are the leading cause of death for children. This research study cites the CDC report and says there were 45,222 total firearm-related deaths in the United States in 2020, and around 10% of those were children and teens. Just to be intentional, because people will accuse me of a political argument, what this has to do with schools is the fact that the children who are killed or injured are our students. These deaths and this topic have an enormous impact on schools.


Politics in education – In the last couple of years, school leaders and teachers have had to fight rumors about teaching critical race theory, and we know states like Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Florida have governors or secretaries of education who want to ban conversations around equity, race, and social-emotional learning. Politics have always been a part of education, but the last few years have brought an increased level of it into our classrooms and schools.


Social-emotional learning – Critics believe that social-emotional learning is about indoctrinating students, which is wholly inaccurate. Social-emotional learning is about teaching students about empathy and how to self-regulate their behavior so they can better deal with stress and anxiety. This will continue to be an issue playing out in schools, and we will see work by researchers like Marc Brackett and his team at Yale be at the forefront of this issue.


The Flu – I’m not putting this on the list because I didn’t anticipate COVID in 2019. It’s on the list because, according to the CDC, there are millions of children each year who get the flu. Currently, we know that the respiratory virus RSV has affected millions of children under the age of 5, which does impact preschool- and kindergarten-age children, as well as their siblings or grandparents. Between the flu and RSV, schools will continue to see an increase in student absenteeism. Considering the COVID learning-loss debate that hit schools after COVID, that discourse will only continue. Here’s a recent story written by my Ed Week colleague Evie Blad covering student absences.


De-implementation – This is not as self-serving as it may seem. I say that because I have done a great deal of research on the topic of de-implementation and written a book about it. It’s on the list because it is a topic that school leaders are exploring. No longer should the conversation about workload be one that we push to the side, and de-implementing ineffective practices is a way to make the workload more manageable. Here is a YouTube video with 5 areas to consider when de-implementing.


Substitute teachers – In many states, it is no longer required that substitute teachers have an associate degree. There are states that have lowered the requirement to a high school diploma, yet there is still a shortage of substitute teachers. The lesser standard also brings into question the ability of substitute teachers to cover important core content for students.


Poverty – According to the National Center for Children Living in Poverty, there are 11 million children in that situation. Countless schools around the country are tasked not only with educating students but also feeding them breakfast and lunch as well. During COVID, school leaders, teachers, and staff made bag lunches for these students on a daily basis.

Teacher shortage – My Ed Week colleague Madeline Will recently wrote a story highlighting just how bad the teacher shortage is in the United States. However, this is not just a problem in the United States. Countries around the world are experiencing the same issue. Please check out this article by Ed Week reporter Caitlynn Peetz for the sobering statistics behind this issue.


Teacher-prep programs – Not only should there be conversations about how colleges and universities are preparing our nation’s teachers, but a big issue for 2023 is how those same colleges and universities are recruiting prospective teachers to enter the profession in the first place.


Tutoring programs – With a lot of coverage about COVID learning loss, tutoring as a means of “catching kids up” is going to be a big topic in 2023. Education Week is planning to do a series of articles and provide research on the topic, and I will be moderating a conversation on the topic for A Seat at the Table in 2023.


A love for learning – I know this sounds hokey, but it’s not. There are countless teachers, leaders, and staff trying to inspire a love for learning for themselves and their students. Too often, education is seen as a system of compliance rather than an institution of inspiration and creativity. We need to change that in 2023. Will the political rhetoric allow us to do that?

The World Seems Complicated. Perhaps It’s Time to Be More Human


Sean Slade is the co-head of education for BTS Spark North America, helping develop the next generation of education leaders. Alyssa Gallagher is the co-author of Design Thinking for School Leaders (ASCD, 2018) and Design Thinking in Play (ASCD, 2020). She is the co-head of education for BTS Spark North America, helping develop the next generation of education leaders. Connect with BTSparkUSA on Twitter.

Education is a human endeavor. It is a sector and a function that relies and thrives on relationships and the connections between people. We’ve known this for a while with our students, emphasizing the bonds that are created between peers and also between a teacher and their class. We seek positive school climates and develop functions for students to grow and work together across the school—from homerooms, to clubs, to peer learning. We also know it instinctively in our gut. Learning takes place most often when our classes feel safe, connected, and understood. We teach most effectively when we know our students, not just who they are but how they learn, collaborate, and respond.


The same applies—and it’s obvious when we state it—for our teachers and principals. Staff work best when they have colleagues they can connect, share, empathize with, and learn from. And the same applies for our school and district leaders.


But for some reason, we have resisted the urge—or need—to help our school and district leaders develop these relationships. We have maintained the old adage that we must separate our personal side from our professional side. We have ignored, or avoided, the need for our educators and especially our school leaders to show their human side.


Recently, we worked virtually with a group of superintendents and assistant superintendents across the U.S. on using empathy to improve communication strategies and better engage with others, especially in challenging or difficult situations. Judging by reactions, it wasn’t their typical professional learning situation. It was less task-oriented and more human-focused. In our 60 minutes together, we shared strategies and provided opportunities for reflection and breakouts for partner conversations. At the close of our time together, we invited these leaders to share a closing thought, takeaway, or feeling. Several leaders chimed in with gratitude, others shared a new strategy; however, the response that resonated with all was from a superintendent who boldly shared, “Thank you, this was the first time I exhaled all week.” This meeting took place on a Thursday afternoon. Shocking? Or is this becoming the norm for school and district leaders who are constantly putting out fires and working on a neverending to-do list.


The human side of school leadership can be overlooked, yet it is critically important because it underpins the culture of a single school or an entire school system. Get it wrong, and the impact can be far reaching. Get it right, and everyone benefits. From what we are hearing from school leaders, it doesn’t sound like we are getting it right. Here is just a small sampling of reflections from leaders:


“I feel like I have to be everything for everyone and eventually when I can’t do it all, I feel like I fail someone. I also take on things I shouldn’t because I feel like doing so will preserve relationships which I value.”


School and district leaders may tend to overlook their own leadership development, opting to divert budgets to their teams instead. If they do invest in personal coaching support, experience tells us that it will predominantly be geared toward supporting them in the day-to-day running of their school—and is often delivered by other school leaders, typically retired principals/head teachers rather than professional coaches. At BTS Spark, we have coached over 16,000 school leaders and, as a result, have a strong point of view and insights as to what supports leaders are asking for to help them lead more effectively.


Every time we engage with a leader, our coaches work with them to establish a shift they want to make in their leadership. In analyzing data from these anonymized coaching conversations, we are able to uncover the shifts and areas of supports leaders really need. This isn’t data coming from districts or state mandate; this is data coming directly from school leaders. It’s personal and deeply human.


While all feedback is insightful, there is a key theme emerging from leaders at all levels within education. It’s the need to slow down, pausing to take a breath, and reflect on how better to accomplish the work to be done, perhaps by delegating some work or, better yet, empowering others to solve problems.

Over the past few years, our leaders have increasingly taken on more and more responsibility, for more people, and for more concerns and issues. When pandemic-related decisions had to be made, it often fell to school leaders to make them. When learning and accessibility concerns were raised, it was school leaders determining the solutions. At each step or month over the past two years, an increasing number of issues have fallen onto the shoulders of principals. And to cope—or try to cope and keep the school functioning—they have avoided asking others and avoided displaying any uncertainty. Such an approach can be admirable for the short term but ultimately flawed, self-destructive, and unsustainable.


As we found via our MESSY Leadership research, the human side of leadership was often the key missing piece to effective teams and successful schools during the pandemic. Those who showed their human side, their concerns, and vulnerabilities thrived along with their school teams during the past two years. By doing so, they allowed others to step in and grow. They developed stronger and more capable teams by distributing the leadership roles and actions. When they focused on their human side, they and their schools flourished. Our human side—our personalities, our likes/dislikes, successes/failures, strengths/concerns—is what makes us US and should not be dissected from our professional selves.


During November in the U.S., people’s thoughts and attentions move toward festivities and connections. The Thanksgiving holiday, besides being a time to give thanks, is also a time to reconnect with family, friends, and neighbors. It’s a much-loved holiday not because of any gifts that are given (there are none) but because of the personal connections that are renewed, reinforced, and even started. It’s a time when we celebrate our human-ness and our relationships.

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