I’ve been writing annual roundups of the best and worst education news for the past 12 years.

Here’s a look at my choices for the education highlights and lowlights from the past 12 months (not listed in any priority). And do let me know on X (formerly Twitter) @Larryferlazzo, on BlueSky larryferlazzo.bsky.social/, or via email at lferlazzo@educationweek.org what you agree or disagree with or what you think I’m missing. Chances are I’m missing a lot!

The Best Education News of 2024

• Voters defeated school vouchers wherever they were on the ballot in November. In all their supposed post-election “soul-searching,” perhaps Democrats should reflect on these voucher results and strategize on how they can make opposing vouchers more central parts of their campaigns.

• Researchers found that student academic achievement can be substantially increased by renovating HVAC systems, removing toxic materials on school grounds, and replacing roofs. Who would have thought our teachers and students could benefit from having healthy air, not roasting in the summer, drinking water from lead-free pipes, and not having to scatter buckets around our rooms to catch leaks could all increase student learning? Perhaps more districts and states can use these findings to emulate California, which approved a $10 billion school bond measure in November?

• Seventy percent of parents with children in K-12 public schools are satisfied with the quality of education their kids are receiving. This contrasts with those few, but loud, critics who are proclaiming the failure of our schools. I guess we teachers must be doing something right (at least, when we’re not supposedly performing gender-affirming surgeries).

• Research continues to find that new immigrant students cause no harm to the academic achievement of existing students and, in fact, may help them. Unfortunately, these consistent findings will likely not hinder attacks on the rights of all students, including those without documents, to attend public school in the United States.

• Another big study found what most educators already know: Teachers’ strikes result in increased wages and don’t negatively impact student academic achievement. Though this particular research couldn’t find this conclusion, I can speak from direct experience that our recent strike in Sacramento also has resulted in increased resources flowing toward directly support of students.

• There was a decrease in book bans this year. More importantly, there was a big increase in fights against them—by states, by publishers, and by students and teachers.

• Even more new studies are reinforcing previous findings that standardized-test scores are not the be-all-end-all in determining the effectiveness of teachers and schools. Teachers have known for years that there are other ways to assess student success, and a lot of educators who might not have great VAM (value-added measurement) scores related to standardized-test results may be very good at these other student-success markers. Perhaps district leaders might catch up to our (and researchers’) knowledge?

• Millions of teachers, classified staff, and principals worked extremely hard to create positive learning conditions for tens of millions of students to learn and flourish in the face of many challenges.

The Worst Education News of 2024

• We all now have a newly-elected President Donald Trump to look forward to. We have a new secretary of education, if confirmed by the Senate, who publicly slapped her daughter on TV (scripted or not). The pair of them want to dissolve the federal Department of Education, and many of his key supporters want to roll back access to free school lunches. As writer Adam Serwer has pointed out, “The cruelty is the point.”

• The Arizona school voucher program was a disaster, with millions in payouts to wealthier families resulting in a big gap in the state’s budget. Arizona lawmakers created the program even though voters had rejected it. One can only wonder if other Republican-led states will learn from Arizona’s fiasco or decide to emulate it.

• School shootings continued to occur. In the face of them, most states and the U.S. Supreme Court ignore the obvious solution of sensible gun control and instead choose to respond with ridiculous measures like arming teachers and enriching corporations selling classroom protection equipment.

• Bill Gates, Sal Khan, and tons of artificial intelligence companies continue to peddle the fantasy of AI revolutionizing education, and many educators and districts (even Los Angeles Unified bought into the hype from a fraudulent company) are falling for it. AI can help us teachers save time in creating materials and assist English-language learners in pronunciation practice. Those are not nothing. Why can’t AI proponents be happy with that?

• It’s another year, and another study finding that black girls are punished more often and more severely than students of other races in schools. Every year, a new study finds the same thing. It would be nice if schools actually did something to change the situation.

• The separation of church and state continues to diminish—whether it’s a Bible-based curriculum approved in Texas or Louisiana’s attempts to post the Ten Commandments in all classrooms or Oklahoma purchasing Trump Bibles for schools. What could go wrong?

• Chronic absenteeism continues to be up from pre-pandemic levels, though it seems to be on the right trajectory downward (slightly) and it may not be as bad as many think it is. Many strategies districts are taking to combat it don’t seem to be working very well. Perhaps they should learn from those who are having success by focusing on building and strengthening relationships. Who would have thought?

• The new FAFSA rollout was a disaster, with many students’ college plans altered or delayed, particularly those from immigrant families. Didn’t any of the DoE staff remember/learn from the initial Obamacare website disaster?

• Based on state standardized-test scores, students are still being negatively impacted by the COVID epidemic. They seem to be recovering, but slowly. We should obviously all be concerned about this and we teachers can see the epidemic’s impact in our classrooms. At the same time, however, let’s remember the point made in the “Best News” section: Researchers continue to find that test scores are not the only and, in some cases, not even the best indicators of long-term student success.

• Teacher morale is down, research found that our salaries have been stalled for three decades, and neither parents or educators wants their kids to become teachers. Apart from those things, we teachers are doing great!