The educational system is broken. I’ve been on the front lines. I hope things have changed by the time my children reach school age.

As a teacher for the past thirteen years, I’ve developed ideas to improve education in our public schools. While I’ve only experienced Texas classrooms, I think these could be applied to the entire country as well.

Hold Kids Accountable

The primary way to improve education is to shift the workload off of teachers. Students aren’t held accountable for their learning anymore. The learning experience lacks accountability for the student, who has become a passive participant. Everything falls onto the teacher’s shoulders.

Late Work

In my last few years as a teacher, I couldn’t believe the amount of assignments that didn’t get turned in. Students either didn’t care about the assignment or completed it but couldn’t bother turning it in.

My team and I would make lessons as engaging and refreshed as possible to get students to work. We would bring things like social media or technology to entice students to engage in the work. I tried to instill in students a work ethic, but my advice fell on deaf ears.

I would put a zero in the grade book to hold students accountable, but most students and parents didn’t care. The number of failures would skyrocket, and then I would be called into the office to discuss my failure rate.

When students finally realized they were failing, they would come trying to turn in assignments from weeks before. I would stick to the district’s late work policy, my attempt to help students learn a life lesson. Again principals approached me about my failure rate.

But because of No Child Left Behind, and the appearance of a failing school, we continue to let students get away with actions like these. Students know it. They know that when it comes down to it, most teachers will help a failing student if they desire to pass. They also know they can get around a teacher holding their guns.

A few years ago, I had a student who hadn’t turned in but one or two assignments six weeks into school. He had a low failing grade but played football, and the eligibility check would take him off the football team. The student asked if I would give him work to bring his grade up to passing.

He hadn’t turned in his first major grade from over two weeks ago, and his second major was due that week. I graded his second major grade, and he did a great job on it. I even took his first major grade and gave him partial credit. Yet, he hadn’t done enough on his other assignments to pass.

His coach came to me to ask if there was more work he could do to pass. I told him what I had already done, and the coach said okay. The next day, I got a visit from the Head Football coach asking the same thing and why I wouldn’t take more work. I explained he had many chances but hadn’t done his work in general. He wasn’t happy, but he seemed to understand.

Then the next day, I got a visit from one of our newer assistant principals asking how I could help this student pass. I told this principal what I had done to help and how he hadn’t turned in any other assignments. The principal then asked, “If he fails now and can’t play football, do you think he will ever do work for you after?”

I couldn’t believe what an administrator was telling me. It didn’t matter to anyone else that this student didn’t do anything. They just wanted him to play football. Regardless, I bumped his grade to passing because of the pressure I felt from a superior.

At the game that week, the student injured his knee, needed surgery, missed weeks of school, and never got to play football again. He also never passed my class nor turned in any work.

Throughout the process, I felt I was the only one trying to hold this kid accountable.

Another time, as we approached the end of the school year, with the second to last major grade due imminently, I emailed the parents of failing or borderline-failing students, pleading with them to help me ensure their student turned in the assignments.

A handful of parents responded positively, thanking me for the heads up. One parent tried to attack me, asking why I sent the email with less than a month of school left, how I knew their student was failing before now, and that I did nothing about it. Again, this student hardly turned anything in, didn’t communicate with me about failing, but went around saying that I would change his grade or he would get his parents to come to school and get me to change it. Conveniently, that student turned in his assignment on time and passed the class.

Failure Options Aplenty

So that makes me wonder why these kids aren’t concerned with passing classes or turning in assignments. I came to this: they know that failing a class doesn’t mean they won’t be pushed on.

When a student fails a class, they have too many options. They can retake it, take it in summer school, get put in credit recovery, or more.

That football student did end up failing my class. He never turned in another assignment. The counselors put him in a self-guided credit recovery class once he failed the first semester. While I haven’t taken one of those classes before, I have heard they are much easier than sitting through regular classes.

Counselors have gotten so good at finding other paths for kids to achieve credit they have started to plan for it before a kid has even failed.

Random Accountability Thoughts

No Child Left Behind contributes to a significant part of the problem. Politicians established the Act to ensure that all kids get educated, whether they want to or not. But when no kid is left behind, what motivation does a student have to advance? If no child can be left behind, some students will do the least work possible.

If the students become accountable for their education and ability, they will become more engaged in learning. The students that want to get educated will show up. Those that don’t won’t be forced to show up and ruin it for the rest.

Many teachers want to blame cell phones for the lack of attention in class, but it is deeper than that. If students had real consequences, they might care more about what they do in class.

Abolish High Stakes Testing

As a teacher, I hated the state test. The test rarely gauged how a kid progressed or learned throughout the year. It never felt well made, the scores were a crap shoot, and the pressure it put on students hampered their progress. So another way to improve education is to abolish state tests.

I get the idea of the state tests. It gives the state data and measurements to grade students, teachers, and schools. But most teachers don’t like it.

I had more students come through my class who mastered reading and writing and could write a solid college-level paper but couldn’t pass the test.

The State pays nearly $90 million on testing a year. That money could be spent on paying teachers better, field trips, art budgets, and more. Let the teachers establish a system for holding students accountable. They are the ones in the trenches. They know what it takes to move forward; it is not a test. But all this money spent on testing is going to waste.

Respect Teachers

In 2022, Greg Abbot put together a coalition to figure out why teachers leave teaching and then didn’t put any teachers on it. His action lacked any respect towards teachers by not valuing their opinions.

Teachers are the backbone of society. Every person that goes on to lead, operate, or construct has help from a teacher. Yet politics vilify teachers.

Sure, some bad teachers are out there, but every profession has terrible actors.

Yet, if society respects the profession, things will change. That could start with pay. Some areas pay teachers a decent wage, but most don’t. According to ZipRecruiter, the average Texas teacher’s salary is 37 thousand dollars, or $18 an hour. This rate is below the national average for educators.

During the 2023 Texas legislative session, politicians talked of a fifteen thousand dollar raise for teachers. Despite the state’s historic budget surplus, teacher raises didn’t pass. Teachers, again, got shown they weren’t crucial to the state.

This can’t happen if you want good teachers. People who build your society need to be paid their value. Teachers need to be treated like lawyers and doctors. Most teachers go to college beyond the four standard college years. I had to sit through many different classes in real schools, plus do my student teaching.

There also needs to be an increase in how teachers are incentivized. I went thirteen years as a teacher and a coach, and I regularly only received a 2% increase in my teaching pay. That includes the years I received teacher of the month and got 80% of my state test retakers to pass. So there must be a way to incentivize teachers to excel.

My stipend only went up $250 over the thirteen years I taught. I created a team that broke records and did more in a competitive district, but when I asked for fair compensation, the district told me that I make a median salary for it, and they had no reason to change it. Once again, pride pushed me to improve, not incentives from the people who hired me.

At retirement, after twenty-plus years of teaching, a teacher will only make around twelve thousand dollars more than when they started. There isn’t enough incentive for people wanting to teach to make a profession out of it.

But teachers get the summers off!

That argument is flawed in many ways. Summer poses an excellent way for teachers to train, reflect, and more. If the salary were competitive, many teachers would do more during the summer anyway. However, most have to find a summer job to continue to meet the wage gap.

Teachers are education. They dedicate their lives to teaching. Right now, they do it for little respect or money. So if you want to really improve education, improve the treatment of teachers.

Focus on More Than College

Finally, as much as we want to think that America is the best and that getting more students to college is the goal, we are hurting our society. Many students will excel in the world without college. And the world needs workers of every type.

Also, by focusing solely on college, we make the careers that don’t require a college degree look like lesser jobs. Jobs like plumbing or electrician will always be needed, but students aren’t encouraged to enter these fields.

So we need to readjust the goal of high school. It doesn’t need to be the step before college, but it needs to be the step before life. Maybe you need to go to college for your career, but others might need to apprentice somewhere.

I would love to promote those working jobs in high school and get kids motivated in those fields. Maybe even have a program that helps set kids with an apprenticeship for post-high school.

To improve education, the emphasis needs to be on actual education, not just the number of students that make it to college. We need to make sure that we support trade jobs as well. Society can’t function without those jobs, and they need to be given more respect than they currently get.

Improve Education And Make School Great

To improve education, the burden of education needs to be put back on the students and families, state testing needs to vanish, teachers need respectful pay, and schools need to stop emphasizing college.

These tiny moves could strengthen our educational system, but it will take some brave men and women to step up for our system. Will you be one of them?

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