First Things First
Several days ago, I rushed out my back door headed to a local school board meeting where I was scheduled to make a short presentation. Without a moment to spare, I push my car’s start button. Nothing. I try again…Silence. I’m going to miss the meeting! Then, I saw this message on the dash: “Remote key not detected.”
I had everything I needed except my key fob. Fortunately, I hadn’t locked myself out of my house, was able to grab my hi-tech key, return to my car, and get to the meeting just as the gavel dropped. A car key—such a small thing— nearly prevented me from doing an important thing.
That near-miss resonated with a concept articulated by Columbia psychology professor Peter T. Coleman in his book, The Way Out: How to Overcome Toxic Polarization. (Coleman is also an advisor for my podcast.) He calls such fundamental roadblocks “first-order problems” – the kind that hamper our ability to tackle deeper, more pressing issues. “Our divisions…impair our capacities to problem solve as a society,” he says. Coleman believes polarization in America has escalated into a form of psychosis. “It is toxic and contagious and is making us unable to address the other existential problems we are currently facing.”
Toxic divisions, increasingly common in school settings, have serious consequences. When relationships among educators, board members, and parents remain fractious, when they are unable to communicate effectively – whether they are distracted by unhealthy conflict or they simply stop collaborating altogether, toxic divides prevent them from solving serious and complex challenges affecting students.
But even when local education stakeholders collaborate effectively, student learning still suffers if other first-order problems like these are not addressed:
Hunger. Students cannot concentrate and learn when their stomachs are empty. They are more likely to get sick and miss school. Nearly 14 million children faced hunger in the United States in 2023, according to the USDA. Budget cuts currently under consideration by Congress could cause 12 million students to lose access to federally subsidized free school meals.
Absenteeism. Students cannot learn if they are frequently absent from class. They fall behind academically and lose vital connections with their peers. Chronic absenteeism (missing class more than 10% of the time) spiked after COVID and remains high across the country. For example, 44% of students in Oregon were chronically absent in 2022-23, according to the U.S. Department of Education. In New York and Florida, the rates that year were 35% and 34%, respectively.
Fear/trauma. Students cannot learn if they are victims of harassment. They cannot focus on academics, and their emotional well-being takes precedence over intellectual engagement. Yet, nearly half of U.S. teenagers say online bullying is a “major problem,” and it’s a top concern among parents, according to a 2023 report from the Pew Research Center.
Unprepared teachers. Students cannot learn if their teachers are inadequately prepared. Because of severe teacher shortages, over 400,000 positions in 2023 were either unfilled or taught by people who were not fully certified or who were teaching out of their fields of expertise, according to a Learning Policy Institute report.
The Exceptions Trap
We’ve all heard stories about someone’s grandparent – the one who smoked three packs a day and lived into their 90s. It’s proof that smoking isn’t harmful, some will claim. Indeed, some heavy smokers live long lives, just very few of them. We don’t remove cigarette warning labels or allow children to buy them just because a few heavy smokers defy the odds.
It’s also true that some students who come to school hungry or who are victims of bullying succeed in school. Still, while a handful of resilient students might overcome hunger or bullying and succeed academically, this doesn't negate the overwhelming data demonstrating the detrimental impact of these systemic issues on the vast majority.
This “exceptions trap” – the tendency to latch onto anecdotal success stories to dismiss widespread problems – is as dangerous in education as it is in public health. It’s also seductive. It provides comfort to the smoker who’s loath to quit. It gives policymakers convenient justifications to dismiss first-order problems and the investments that might be needed to address them. If those students from poor families can succeed, so can others…If that school with uncertified teachers can succeed, so, too, can the rest.
The oft-cited solution among some policymakers is to eliminate teacher tenure so school administrators can easily fire “bad” teachers. One reason that argument fails is that it assumes the “bad” teachers can easily be replaced by better ones. As noted above, many struggling schools cannot attract and retrain nearly enough minimally qualified teachers (let alone highly effective ones), often because of inadequate compensation and poor professional support. If teachers could be fired without due process, which is all that tenure provides, the lack of job security would add yet another reason for people not to enter or remain in the profession.
Making Room for Civil, Spirited Dialogue
I have cited a few well-documented facts about a few first-order problems that impact student learning. Elsewhere and in other blog posts here, I’ve expressed my opinions on some of these matters. For example, I am not a fan of tax-supported vouchers, the kind just approved in Texas, which give public funds to parents so they can educate their children as they please. It’s not because I don’t empathize with parents who are frustrated with some of their public schools, but because the voucher solution ignores first-order problems that prevent public schools from succeeding in the first place. Shifting public funds away from public schools, in my view, will only lead to poorer education for the multitudes of students who remain.
My entreaty to you: No matter how complex or controversial the issue before us, I hope we can agree on this: we desperately need to have better conversations, not just with those who agree with us but, more importantly, with those who don’t. Let us find the courage to set aside the contempt for one another. Let us not lose sight of the first-order problems that prevent students from learning. Let us keep children front and center as we engage in the kind of spirited dialogue and the teamwork that is needed to remove the barriers that prevent students from learning.