Your Next Test

Educators have long understood the stakes of testing. Many have not only witnessed the stress it places on students but have also experienced it firsthand in their own academic journeys.

Over the past decade, however, teachers have faced their own kind of test. Staffing shortages, challenging community dynamics, and the deepening needs of the students they serve have continually pushed educational systems to their limits.

But today’s test is different.

This time, the test is for educators as individuals — one that will (and already has begun to) stretch personal and professional commitments in ways we have not seen before.

I know more than a few teachers who voted for the President-Elect, desperate for systemic change. At the same time, I know many others who supported the current Vice President. Their reasons rarely stem from satisfaction with the status quo rather from fears about what public education might look like with decreased funding and increased redirection of public dollars toward private educational options.

Despite their differing political choices, these educators share a defining trait: they are in our schools and classrooms trying to do their jobs.

Both remain committed to education. Yet, I wonder just how profound the test ahead will be for teachers.

From what I’ve seen so far, this will be a test like no other.

Many teachers will be forced to critically examine their beliefs — not just about access to quality education but also about the broader implications of public policy.

They’ll grapple with issues like the funding of charter, private, and religious schools using public dollars.

For others, the challenges will be financial: rising material costs, shrinking budgets, stagnant salaries, and increasing insurance premiums.

These educators will need to balance their professional sacrifices against the financial needs of their own families and personal futures.

Although teaching has no formal equivalent to the Hippocratic Oath, there are unspoken traditions and shared expectations among educators. Fighting for the underdog. Championing the care of children who need it most. Showing patience with families in crisis.

These principles have always been at the heart of the profession, upheld by the teachers I’ve admired most.

But in the months and years ahead, teachers will be personally and professionally tested as never before.

Lines that once seemed clear will blur, and the consequences or benefits of our collective choices will be more visible and immediate.

• Will teachers continue their commitment to supporting all learners, regardless of background or circumstance?
• Will they actively build classroom communities free of racial inequity?
• Will they extend care and compassion to families seeking asylum or children born in the United States to undocumented parents?
• Will they see special education as something we need or something we have grown beyond?
• Will they want the schools and teachers down the street from their own homes to be prioritized for funding? Or will they welcome new schools and new competition? Or, will those two things become one and the same?
• Will teachers begin to notice differences in what people say and what people do? Will it be completely impossible to perfectly align beliefs and actions?

So much of what we believe about education — as a system and as an act of service — will be pushed and pulled in unprecedented ways.

This is not a test with simple right or wrong answers. But it will undoubtedly be a test of values, commitments, and beliefs. Not just about individual views, but about core beliefs on education and teaching.

Hold on. Lean on each other. And lean in.

This may be one of the hardest tests you’ve ever faced.

Jody is a long time educator and activist working internationally to support quality education and systems. Keep up with her work at jodybritten.com