Political Tensions in Schools Are ‘Pervasive,’ Principals Say
Education Week
Nearly 70 percent of high school principals reported substantial political conflict over hot-button issues like race, LGBTQ students’ rights, access to books in libraries, and social-emotional learning in a recent survey, which researchers say indicates that political tensions in schools are “growing and pervasive.”
And almost half of the 682 high school principals from all 50 states surveyed in interviews by University of California Los Angeles and University of California Riverside researchers said the amount of community-level conflict during the 2021-22 school year was “more” or “much more” than in the 2018-19 school year—only three percent said it was less.
The data, from a new report titled “Educating for a Diverse Democracy,” takes a look at the ways in which political divides have impacted classrooms since the beginning of the pandemic. The survey is a follow-up to a similar 2018 survey in which researchers asked principals about how societal issues were impacting schools.