Utah resident here, and occasional substitute teacher. Virtually everyone likes the phone bans. I'd definitely want Utah to spend more on education, but considering it's near the bottom on spending but usually midpack or better in results overall from what I've read it normally deserves the reputation as one of the most efficient states.
If we actually wanted to become one of the best, I think it's a bit of a unique case, but my gut is that increasing teacher pay (attract more quality, especially back from charter schools) + tutoring support + some spending towards ESL populations would probably be the way. The gifted and talented programs are a bit mid, but they seem to have done much better than my home state (Oregon) in terms of career/technical ed and early college credit opportunities.
Definitely something we're going to get to soon (tm), but the long and short of it is: it makes it most difficult to suspend or separate the most disruptive students from the classrooms that are suffering most from the disruption. Also gives lots of shock stories to local media when it goes awry.
Utah resident here, and occasional substitute teacher. Virtually everyone likes the phone bans. I'd definitely want Utah to spend more on education, but considering it's near the bottom on spending but usually midpack or better in results overall from what I've read it normally deserves the reputation as one of the most efficient states.
If we actually wanted to become one of the best, I think it's a bit of a unique case, but my gut is that increasing teacher pay (attract more quality, especially back from charter schools) + tutoring support + some spending towards ESL populations would probably be the way. The gifted and talented programs are a bit mid, but they seem to have done much better than my home state (Oregon) in terms of career/technical ed and early college credit opportunities.
This is probably a topic for a whole article (or more), but what is the evidence for and against restorative justice programs in schools?
Definitely something we're going to get to soon (tm), but the long and short of it is: it makes it most difficult to suspend or separate the most disruptive students from the classrooms that are suffering most from the disruption. Also gives lots of shock stories to local media when it goes awry.