School & District Management Photos

Education in 2021: 10 Photos That Capture a Chaotic Year

By Jaclyn Borowski — December 21, 2021 1 min read
A Soddy Daisy high school student arrives late to his first class on Thursday, Aug. 12, 2021, the first day of the 2021-2022 school year in Hamilton County, Tenn.
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It’s been a year of give and take.

The optimism that accompanied the rollout of vaccines to teachers collided with the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. The naming of a new education secretary offered promise as students from underrepresented groups, particularly the LGBT community, had their rights and freedoms limited by a flurry of state laws. The hope of a new school year and a return to in-person schooling was confronted by the realities of the Delta variant. Through it all, educators and students adapted in ways both large and small, as K-12 education remained at the forefront of the national narrative.

Here is a look at the top photos in the education sphere from the last year.

Teachers protest against COVID-19 vaccination mandates in New York on Aug. 25, 2021. On Friday, Oct. 1, 2021, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor denied an emergency appeal from a group of teachers to block New York City's COVID-19 vaccine mandate for public school teachers and other staff from going into effect.
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona speaks to students outside P.S. 5 Port Morris, a Bronx elementary school on Aug. 17, 2021 in New York.
East Hartford High School senior Sudeen Pryce, right, center, receives support from classmate Alexia Phipps, left, East Hartford High School Intervention Coordinator Mark Brown, second from left, and EMT Katrinna Greene, top right, of Manchester, as RN Kaylee Cruz of Bristol administers the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine to Pryce at a mass vaccination site at Pratt & Whitney Runway in East Hartford, Conn. on April 26, 2021.
Protesters against a COVID-19 mandate gesture as they are escorted out of the Clark County School Board meeting at the Clark County Government Center, on Thursday, Aug. 12, 2021, in Las Vegas.
State Rep. Mary González, D - Clint, wears the colors of the transgender pride flag while speaking against House Bill 25, that limits the participation of transgender athletes in public school sports, in the House Chamber at the Capitol in Austin, Texas, on Thursday Oct. 14, 2021.
Students make their way to class for the first day of school at Tustin Ranch Elementary School in Tustin, Calif., on Thursday, Aug. 12, 2021.
Vickie Quarles a widow in Memphis, Tenn., lost her husband to COVID-19 in December 2020. She is now raising their five daughters alone. Her older daughter, Alyssa, 18, comforts her in their home.
Centerville student Alivia Smith runs around the new sensory playground outside of Centerville Elementary School on Tuesday, Nov. 23, 2021, in Frederick, Md. The playground is filled with colorful shapes and patterns, and was created to help benefit the students at the elementary school.
Waterford resident Andrew Baldwin, cousin of Madisyn Baldwin, places candles at the base of a a memorial with his 5-year-old daughter Ariyah Baldwin on Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2021 outside of Oxford High School in Oxford, Mich. Madisyn Baldwin, 17, was one of four teens killed in Tuesday's school shooting. A 15-year-old sophomore opened fire at his Michigan high school on Tuesday, killing four students, including a 16-year-old boy who died in a deputy’s patrol car on the way to a hospital, authorities said.

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