critical issues in education 2023

5 Big Challenges for Schools in 2023

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Newly sworn-in elected officials, from governors and lawmakers to state and local school board members, must now confront five big and often polarizing issues in the second half of the 2022-23 school year.

Policymakers on both sides of the political aisle will continue to focus on teacher retention, school safety, and academic recovery from the pandemic. But they’ll also work on more contentious topics, such as parents’ rights and LGBTQ students’ rights.

In a Jan. 11 Seat at the Table online discussion , Education Week Opinion Contributor Peter DeWitt, Assistant Managing Editor Stephen Sawchuk, Staff Writer Libby Stanford, and EdWeek Research Center Director Holly Kurtz took an in-depth look at how these issues are likely to play out for the rest of this school year and beyond.

1. Bans on teaching specific topics

In states with majority-Republican lawmakers, there has been more scrutiny over curriculum materials that some conservatives deem as teaching “ critical race theory ” and a push to ban certain books that deal with gender, sexuality, and racism. These policies are already affecting the way teachers talk about these topics with their students, and they will continue to affect what materials districts are purchasing and using in the classroom, Kurtz said.

2. Increasing calls for more parental control over what students learn

The last few years have seen an increase in parents’ rights groups that advocate for more parental control over what students learn in school. These groups—many borne out of conservative politics—have been leading the calls for banning certain topics and books. They’ve been campaigning to seat school board members who are sympathetic to their cause, Stanford said. However, there are survey results that show that a majority of educators and parents agree that parents have a lot of involvement in curriculum and other school operations already, Kurtz said. It’ll be interesting to see if there will be legislation introduced to make school board elections partisan, when traditionally they have been nonpartisan, Sawchuk said.

3. Addressing chronic staffing shortages

School districts across the country have been dealing with staffing shortages for teachers and a host of other jobs. Addressing the challenges with the teacher pipeline has become a more bipartisan issue, and educators will likely see more bills tackling that issue, Stanford said. In Congress, a bill introduced in December would incentivize states and school districts to increase the minimum K-12 teacher salary to $60,000 and provide yearly adjustments for inflation through new federal grants.

4. Using proposed changes to Title IX to protect LGBTQ students

The U.S. Department of Education, in June, announced proposed changes to Title IX , the federal sex-discrimination law, that would mean explicit protections for LGBTQ students. The proposed changes are expected to be finalized this year. However, the proposed changes do not say anything about whether transgender students have a right to participate in school-sponsored sports aligned with their gender identity—perhaps the most contentious issue within the broader debate over rights for transgender students. The Education Department plans to conduct a separate rule-making process about that issue this year, Stanford said.

5. Teaching about climate change

Schools are already suffering the consequences of climate change , but right now they aren’t doing much to teach students about the science of climate change and its implications for the world, Kurtz said. One of the most common reasons district leaders gave for that is that teaching about and addressing climate change was not in their state standards. So it will be interesting to see if more districts and states codify climate change education as part of their science standards, Kurtz said.

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The 10 Most Significant Education Studies of 2023

Following our annual tussle with hundreds of studies of merit, we’ve pared them down to 10 you shouldn’t miss—from what AI can (and can’t) do to the neuroscience of brain synchrony.

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For those of us hoping for a quiet, back-to-normal kind of year, the research coming out of 2023 might disappoint. A rising tide of teenage mental health issues sent researchers scurrying for answers, and the sudden ascendance of AI posed a new threat to codes of academic conduct and caused some educators to forecast the end of teaching as we know it (we’re here to dispel that myth).

There was plenty of good news in the mix—and fascinating news, too. Neuroscientists continued to push the envelope on mapping the human brain, using cutting-edge technology to get a sneak peek at the “brain synchrony” between students and teachers as they learn about complex topics, and a comprehensive review of social and emotional learning confirmed, once again, that there’s no substitute for caring, welcoming school environments.

Finally, we did our due diligence and unearthed classroom strategies that can make a big difference for students, from the use of math picture books to a better, more humane way to incorporate tests and games of knowledge into your classroom activities.

1. AI MAY CUT AN EDUCATOR’S PLANNING TIME DRAMATICALLY

In case anyone thought the jury was still out on the Turing test, which proposes a hypothetical threshold at which humans and machines respond indistinguishably to a prompt— more evidence recently came in, and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to tell who’s testing who.

Researchers from the University of North Carolina set a “deep neural” AI model to work on a college-level anatomy and physiology textbook, after first training the software to recognize important information. The AI took stock, pondered in its fashion, and then dutifully produced 2,191 test questions tied to learning standards, which a panel of teachers judged to be “on par with human-generated questions in terms of their relevance to the learning objectives.” Remarkably, the instructors also said they’d consider adopting the machine-generated questions for their courses.

That’s spooky, but not without its silver linings. Test creation is time-consuming for teachers, and one knowledgeable educator who took AI for a test drive says that it performs well on other tasks like planning lessons, writing instructions, and even composing emails to parents. New AI-powered tools like Diffit, Curipod, and MagicSchool.ai, meanwhile, are starting to sound like revolutionary teaching aids.

Concern that the end of human teaching is one software release away is premature: Studies we’ve reviewed suggest that AI still requires a lot of fine-tuning, and in July of 2023 , researchers concluded that without human intervention, AI is atrocious at mathematics, performing poorly on open-ended problems and routinely flubbing even simple math calculations. To be useful, it turns out, AI may need us more than we need it.

2. A FASCINATING GUIDE TO BETTER QUIZZING

No one likes tests—except the three authors of a 2023 study , apparently. The trio, who have experience as teachers and researchers, sing the praises of virtually every kind of test, quiz, and knowledge game, asserting that such assessments should be frequent, low-stakes, highly engaging, and even communal. Their rationale: When properly designed and stripped of dread, tests and quizzes dramatically improve “long-term retention and the creation of more robust retrieval routes for future access,” a well-established phenomenon known as the testing effect .

The study is a fascinating, granular look at the mechanics of testing and its impacts on learning. Here are some of the highlights:

Mix it up: To maximize student engagement, quiz students frequently—but don’t let the format get stale. In their analysis, the authors endorse testing formats as varied as multiple choice, cued-recall tests, clickers, fill-in-the-blank, short answer, and contests of knowledge.

Be competitive: When designing multiple-choice or true-false tests, opt for “competitive alternatives” in your answers. For example, when asking “What is the hottest terrestrial planet?,” proffer Venus , Mars , and Mercury instead of Venus , Uranus , and Saturn —because “Uranus and Saturn aren’t terrestrial planets.” Competitive alternatives require students to scrutinize all options, the authors hypothesize, leading them to retrieve and consider more learned material.

Pretest: Quizzing students on material they haven’t yet learned improves long-term performance “even if [students] are not able to answer any of those questions correctly,” according to the researchers. Notably, pretesting can also lead to “a reduction in mind wandering” during subsequent lessons.

Get communal: Asking students to take tests in groups can improve retention and motivation while reducing anxiety. Consider focusing on specific rather than open-ended questions, the authors caution, since students can sometimes “recall and remember information less accurately” when working together.

Pass it on: Teach students to self-test by “summarizing the main points from a lecture… without looking at any notes,” or by meeting in “small study groups where the students practice testing one another—an activity that many students already report doing.”

3. HOW TONE OF VOICE CHANGES CLASSROOM CULTURE

Like the proverbial canary in the coal mine, subtle shifts in a teacher’s tone of voice—a sharp rise in volume or a sudden barrage of repeated instructions born of frustration—can be the first sign that something’s awry in the classroom, disturbing a fragile equilibrium and leading students to clam up or act out, a study published late in 2022 suggests.

Researchers observed as teens and preteens listened to instructions given by teachers—“I’m waiting for people to quiet down” or “It’s time to tidy up all of your belongings,” for example—delivered in warm, neutral, or controlling tones. While the effect was unintended, an authoritative tone often came off as confrontational, undermining students’ sense of competence and discouraging them from confiding in teachers. Warm, supportive tones, on the other hand, contributed to a classroom environment that reinforced learning across multiple social and academic dimensions like sense of belonging, autonomy, and enjoyment of the class. 

It takes years to find the right tonal balance, says experienced middle school teacher Kristine Napper. “Neither high expectations nor kind hearts can do the job alone,” she coaches . Instead, teachers should strive for a warm, supportive tone and then draw on that “wellspring of trust to hold students to high standards of deep engagement with course content.”

4. BRAINS THAT FIRE TOGETHER WIRE TOGETHER

In 2021, we reported that as students progressed through a computer science course, the learning material left neural fingerprints that mirrored brain activity in other students, the teacher, and experts in the field. “Students who failed to grasp the material,” we wrote, “exhibited neural signatures that were outliers; they were drifting.” But the brain patterns of students who performed well on a later test aligned strongly with other top performing students—and with the teacher and experts, too.

Intriguingly, even abstract concepts—those that lack any physical attributes—appeared to trigger similar mental representations in students’ minds, attesting to the remarkable cognitive flexibility underlying human communication and knowledge sharing.

A 2023 study using electroencephalography (EEG) largely confirms those findings. High school science teachers taught groups of young adults fitted with electrodes about science topics such as bipedalism, habitats, and lipids. Researchers found that stronger “brain synchrony” between peers—and between students and teachers—predicted better academic performance on follow-up tests, both immediately and a full week later.

Together, these studies underscore the importance of scholarly expertise and direct instruction, but also hint at the downstream power of peer-to-peer and social learning. As knowledge passes from teachers to learners to greater and lesser degrees—some students grasp material quickly, others more slowly—an opportunity to distribute the work of learning emerges. When advanced students are paired with struggling peers, assisted by nudges from the teacher, groups of students might eventually converge around an accurate, common understanding of the material.

5. IN SUM, MATH PICTURE BOOKS WORK

The old adage that a picture is worth a thousand words—and two are worth two thousand—might be expressed, mathematically, as a simple multiplication formula. But can reading math picture books really multiply learning?

A 2023 review of 16 studies concluded that math books like Are We There Yet, Daddy? and Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi improved student engagement and attitudes toward math; strengthened kids’ grasp of math representations like graphs or physical models; and boosted performance on tasks like counting to 20, understanding place value, and calculating diameters. In early childhood, in particular, math picture books worked wonders—one study found that young students “tend to anticipate and guess what will happen next, resulting in high engagement, aroused interest in understanding the problems, and curiosity in finding solutions”—but even middle school students seemed mesmerized by math read-alouds.

Importantly, math picture books weren’t a substitute for procedural fluency or mathematical practice. Typically, the authors noted, teachers bracketed math units with picture books, introducing a mathematical concept “in order to prepare [students] for the upcoming practice and activities,” or, alternatively, used them to review material at the end of the lesson.

6. TO IMPROVE STUDENT WRITING, REDUCE FEEDBACK (AND PUT THE ONUS ON KIDS)

It’s hard to move the needle on student writing. Hours of close reading followed by the addition of dozens of edifying margin notes can swallow teacher weekends whole, but there’s no guarantee students know how to use the feedback productively.

In fact, without guidance, revisions tend to be superficial, a new study suggests—students might correct typos and grammatical mistakes, for example, or make cursory adjustments to a few ideas, but leave it at that. A promising, time-saving alternative is to deploy rubrics, mentor texts, and other clarifying writing guidelines.

In the study, high school students were graded on the clarity, sophistication, and thoroughness of their essays before being split into groups to test the effectiveness of various revision strategies. Students who consulted rubrics that spelled out the elements of an excellent essay—a clear central thesis, support for the claim, and cohesive overall structure, for example—improved their performance by a half-letter grade while kids who read mentor texts boosted scores by a third of a letter grade.

Rubrics and mentor texts are reusable, “increase teachers’ efficient use of time,” and “enhance self-feedback” in a way that can lead to better, more confident writers down the line, the new research suggests.

7. A NEW THEORY ABOUT THE TEEN MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS

Parents, teachers, and medical professionals are wringing their hands over the alarming, decades-long rise in teenage mental health issues, including depression, feelings of “ persistent hopelessness ,” and drug addiction.

The root causes remain elusive—cell phones and social media are prime suspects—but a sprawling 2023 study offers another explanation that’s gaining traction: After scouring surveys, data sets, and cultural artifacts, researchers theorized that a primary cause is “a decline over decades in opportunities for children and teens to play, roam, and engage in other activities independent of direct oversight and control by adults.”

Scholarly reviews of historical articles, books, and advice columns on child rearing depict an era when young children “walked or biked to school alone,” and contributed to their “family’s well being” and “community life” through meaningful chores and jobs. If that all feels vaguely mythical, data collected over the last 50 years reveals a correlation: frank admissions by parents that their children play outdoors independently less than they did, and significant drops in the number of kids who walk, bike, or bus to school alone or are allowed to cross busy roads by themselves. In the U.S., for example, a government survey showed that 48 percent of K–8 students walked to school in 1969, but by 2009 only 13 percent did.

Risky play and unsupervised outdoor activities, meanwhile, which might “protect against the development of phobias” and reduce “future anxiety by increasing the person’s confidence that they can deal effectively with emergencies,” are often frowned upon. That last point is crucial, because dozens of studies suggest that happiness in childhood, and then later in adolescence, is driven by internal feelings of “autonomy, competence, and relatedness”—and independent play, purposeful work, and important roles in classrooms and families are vital, early forms of practice.

Whatever the causes, young children seem to sense that something’s off. In one 2017 study , kindergartners who viewed images of fun activities routinely struck pictures that included adults from the category of play, rejecting the role of grown-ups in a domain they clearly saw as their own.

8. DIRECT INSTRUCTION AND INQUIRY-BASED LEARNING ARE COMPLEMENTARY

It’s an often-fiery but ultimately dubious debate: Should teachers employ direct instruction, or opt for inquiry-based learning?

At its core, direct instruction often conveys information “by lecturing and by giving a leading role to the teacher,” researchers explain in a 2023 study examining the evidence supporting both approaches. Critics typically focus solely on its passive qualities, a straw-man argument that ignores activities such as note-taking, practice quizzes, and classroom discussions. Opponents of inquiry-based learning, meanwhile, characterize it as chaotic, akin to sending students on a wild goose chase and asking them to discover the laws of physics on their own—though it can actually unlock “deep learning processes such as elaboration, self-explanation, and metacognitive strategies,“ the researchers say.

Both sides misrepresent what teachers actually do in classrooms. Instructional models are “often combined in practice,” the researchers note, and inquiry-based learning is usually supported with direct instruction. Teachers might begin a lesson by leading a review of key concepts, for example, and then ask students to apply what they’re learning in unfamiliar contexts. 

Let the debate rage on. Teachers already know that factual fluency and the need to struggle, flail, and even hit dead-ends are integral to learning. Teaching is fluid and complex and spools out in real time; it resists every effort to reduce it to a single strategy or program that works for all kids, in all contexts.

9. A TRULY MASSIVE REVIEW FINDS VALUE IN SEL—AGAIN

It’s déjà vu all over again. The researcher Joseph Durlak, who put social and emotional learning on the map with his 2011 study that concluded that SEL programs boosted academic performance by an impressive 11 percentile points, was back at it in 2023—working with an ambitious new team, led by Yale professor Christina Cipriano, on a similar mission.

The group just published a comprehensive meta-analysis that surveyed a whopping 424 studies involving over half a million K–12 students, scrutinizing school-based SEL programs and strategies such as mindfulness, interpersonal skills, classroom management, and emotional intelligence. The findings: Students who participated in such programs experienced “improved academic achievement, school climate, school functioning, social emotional skills, attitudes, and prosocial and civic behaviors,” the researchers concluded.

Intriguingly, SEL remained a powerful driver of better cultures and student outcomes into the middle and high school years, a reminder that there’s no cutoff point for building relationships, teaching empathy, and making schools inclusive and welcoming.

While politicians continue to stoke controversy on the topic, there’s actually widespread support for SEL, as long as it’s connected to better academic outcomes. A 2021 Thomas B. Fordham Institute survey revealed that parents reacted negatively to classroom instruction labeled “social and emotional learning,” but were favorably disposed when a single clause was added—calling it “social-emotional & academic learning” turned the tide and secured parental buy-in.

10. MORE EVIDENCE FOR MOVING PAST “FINDING THE MAIN IDEA”

In the United States, the teaching of reading comprehension has ping-ponged between skills-based and knowledge-based approaches. In 2019, things appeared to come to a head: While reading programs continued to emphasize transferable skills like “finding the main idea” or “making inferences,” the author Natalie Wexler published The Knowledge Gap , an influential takedown of skills-based methods, and a large 2020 study from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute concurred, noting that “exposing kids to rich content in civics, history, and law” taught reading more effectively than skills-based approaches.

Now a pair of new, high-quality studies—featuring leading researchers and encompassing more than 5,000 students in 39 schools—appears to put the finishing touches on a decades-long effort to push background knowledge to the forefront of reading instruction.

In a Harvard study , 3,000 elementary students participated in a yearlong literacy program focused on the “knowledge rich” domains of social studies and science, exploring the methods used to study past events, for example, or investigating how animals evolve to survive in different habitats. Compared to their counterparts in business-as-usual classes, the “knowledge based” readers scored 18 percent higher on general reading comprehension. Background knowledge acts like a scaffold, the researchers explained, helping students “connect new learning to a general schema and transfer their knowledge to related topics.” In the other study , a team of researchers, including leading experts David Grissmer, Daniel Willingham, and Chris Hulleman, examined the impact of the “Core Knowledge” program on 2,310 students in nine lottery-based Colorado charter schools from kindergarten to sixth grade. The approach improved reading scores by 16 percentile points, and if implemented nationally, the researchers calculated, might catapult U.S. students from 15th to fifth place on international reading tests.

The pendulum is swinging, but the researchers caution against overreach: There appear to be “two separate but complementary cognitive processes involved in development and learning: ‘skill building’ and ‘knowledge accumulation,’” they clarified. We may have the balance out of whack, but to develop proficient readers, you need both.

What Brown Center scholars will be watching in education policy and politics in 2023

Subscribe to the brown center on education policy newsletter, daphna bassok , daphna bassok nonresident senior fellow - governance studies , brown center on education policy michael hansen , michael hansen senior fellow - brown center on education policy , the herman and george r. brown chair - governance studies douglas n. harris , douglas n. harris nonresident senior fellow - governance studies , brown center on education policy , professor and chair, department of economics - tulane university katharine meyer , katharine meyer fellow - governance studies , brown center on education policy rachel m. perera , rachel m. perera fellow - governance studies , brown center on education policy jon valant , and jon valant director - brown center on education policy , senior fellow - governance studies kenneth k. wong kenneth k. wong nonresident senior fellow - governance studies , brown center on education policy.

January 10, 2023

From the continued response to pandemic disruptions to culture war issues that have surfaced in schools, 2022 was an eventful year for U.S. schools and education policy. That looks to be true for 2023 as well.

Below, experts from the Brown Center on Education Policy identify the education stories that they’ll be following in 2023, providing analysis on how these issues could shape the learning landscape for the next 12 months—and possibly well into the future.

In 2023, I’ll be watching innovative state and local efforts to better fund childcare and better support early educators. The pandemic highlighted the essential role childcare plays in the lives of children, families, and the U.S. economy. It also made clear that without greater public support, childcare providers cannot pay teachers adequately and cannot offer families essential supports. The high teacher turnover rates common in early childhood settings compromise quality, and during the pandemic, they also compromised access to care.  In Virginia,  two thirds of publicly funded childcare centers  shut down classrooms or turned families away because they could not recruit and retain teachers.  

Pandemic relief dollars provided an essential lifeline to childcare. However, as these funds run out, states are now facing a stark funding cliff which will exacerbate staffing challenges considerably.  New Mexico  recently passed a ballot measure to establish a permanent funding source in the state constitution, making it the first state in the country to do so . Washington, D.C. approved funding  to work towards childcare compensation that approaches the pay of other D.C. teachers.   Virginia  recently changed their approach to funding subsidized childcare to better account for the true cost of childcare, including better compensation. I’m hopeful other states will follow with big investments and that as the federal funding cliff approaches, we’ll finally see large federal investments in childcare.  

Heading into 2023, I am monitoring the status of the K-12 teacher workforce and reports of teacher shortages. The COVID-19 pandemic has stretched many schools’ human resources in recent years, with teachers reporting heightened burnout and intentions to leave . Combined with preexisting trends of a weakening teacher pipeline and anemic application pools for certain positions and settings , many worried that we may tip into a full-scale crisis.  

I am pleased to report that recent evidence increasingly points in the direction of the teacher workforce weathering the storm, even if the rains haven’t yet fully subsided. For example, district surveys from the spring of 2022 pointed to expected turnover in the current school year (2022-2023) likely being slightly less taxing than last year (2021-2022). New evidence from Washington State shows even the elevated turnover experienced in 2021-2022 was within the range of historical teacher turnover spanning nearly four decades. Finally, another new study from Illinois points to increased staffing levels, particularly among non-teacher staff, as the primary driver of elevated vacancies in schools, even as student enrollments are falling. These reports and other data points give me confidence that we’ll make it through.  

Don’t celebrate just yet, though. We still have work to do shoring up localized shortages in spots that have persistent hiring problems and doing what we can to make the teaching profession more attractive , especially among people of color .  

The first thing I’m looking for in 2023 is a sign that educators, families, and students have responded to COVID-19 by making permanent and systemic improvements in schooling. As I’ve written before , COVID-19 forced everyone into novel practices. Did they develop new habits that are having lasting positive influence, such as using new kinds of devices and software? Or did remote learning create bad habits (e.g., distraction from smart phones) that are making it even more difficult for students to rebound? Anecdotally, I think the answer is “both,” but I hope some enterprising researchers and journalists are looking into this.  

There’s also something I’m not looking for: I don’t expect a noticeable student rebound from COVID-19 learning loss anytime soon. The early evidence doesn’t provide much reason for hope. I think this is because: (a) if educators knew how to get students to catch up from a massive upheaval like this, they would have already been doing this for struggling students before COVID-19; (b) hiring more educators or bringing in new programs with the ESSER funds has proven difficult because of the tight labor market and temporary nature of the funds; and (c) the take-up rate on voluntary, after-school learning activities has been low .   

I’m not exactly optimistic that we’ll “solve” this quickly, but hopefully there’s at least a silver lining in the form of better teaching that will help address the problem gradually, over the long run.  

In 2023, my eyes are on the Supreme Court for two consequential higher education decisions. First will be an expedited hearing on the Biden administration’s  proposed student loan forgiveness  program. The administration accepted  26 million applications  for debt relief this fall; however, forgiveness is on hold until the Supreme Court hears oral arguments in February about the legality of the program. For now, the administration has extended the pause on loan repayment. But regardless of the Court’s ruling, restarting payments on remaining balances after a three-year pause will be a significant shift in individuals’ budgets. It is incumbent on the Department of Education to provide borrowers with clear, advance communication about repayment options and resources to avoid default.  

Second, the Court heard arguments in  October   2022  about the consideration of race in college admissions in two separate cases. I anticipate the Court will rule in favor of the plaintiff in both cases, effectively ending the use of affirmative action. This raises the question of how colleges will shift their recruitment and admissions processes to  advance their goals  of a diverse community of scholars. Colleges will need to examine what other admissions practices, such as legacy admissions or the review of test scores, they may need to adjust to achieve their mission.  

In 2023, I will be following two issues in K-12 education policy that have important implications for equity.   

First, the Biden administration has signaled that new guidance on how public schools can avoid racial discrimination in school discipline may be forthcoming. Any new guidance is expected to mirror guidelines published in 2014 by the Obama administration (and rescinded by the Trump administration in 2018). The Obama-era guidelines relied on a broader definition of racial discrimination (“disparate impact”) than had been used by prior Republican administrations (“disparate treatment”). This is notable because a “disparate impact” theory of discrimination is better aligned with contemporary understandings of how racial discrimination shapes school outcomes.   

I will also be following how school districts spend their remaining COVID-19 relief aid and the implementation of COVID-19 recovery interventions in schools. Emerging research and journalistic reports indicate that school districts are facing significant challenges implementing evidence-based interventions to support students recovering from the varied harms of the pandemic. Other work suggests that the scale of COVID-19 recovery funding provided to schools may be insufficient to meet the current needs of U.S. schools and students. To ensure that students, families, and educators get the support they need, it is critical that we continue to track how COVID-19 recovery in schools is faring.  

In 2023, I’ll be watching what happens with Republicans’ push for “parents’ rights” in schools. Several states have enacted so-called parents’ rights legislation already, with several others—including Texas , Missouri , and Kansas —poised to consider bills (or constitutional amendments) as the new legislative sessions begin. Even the new GOP House majority might pursue a Parents’ Bill of Rights despite decades-long skepticism from Republicans about federal action in K-12 education. With Democrats in control of the Senate and White House, that federal effort won’t go anywhere legislatively, but it could become a model for Republican-led state governments.   

That’s important because the details of these bills matter and have varied quite a bit. (FutureEd has a helpful policy tracker .) Some bills explicitly target teaching about race, gender, and/or sexuality—despite the potential harms to vulnerable students —while others read more like bureaucratic sets of reporting requirements. Some call for major reforms to school choice policies while others sidestep those issues entirely.   

Democrats may have something to say about parent supports, too, with continued interest in cutting childcare costs and reinstating an expanded child tax credit that slashed the child poverty rate . But even if it’s possible, with enough squinting, to see hope for bipartisan legislation , it certainly doesn’t feel like 2023 will be a year for bipartisanship in education.  

Results of the local, state, and national elections in 2022 have shifted the landscape of education governance in 2023. Institutional tension is likely to intensify re quir ing extra efforts by elected officials and stakeholders to resolve their policy differences . At the national level, Republican control in the House will likely slow down, and in some cases, reverse President Biden’s education equity agenda. Congressional oversight will intensify over functions of the U.S. Department of Education and in civil rights enforcement conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice. Challenges against the Biden administration’s polic ies will also come from states where Republican governors and state attorneys have received strong electoral support . These state leaders will launch legal challenges and legislative actions to resist Biden’s executive initiatives .  Finally, at the local level, school board elections have become a contested terrain. While Moms for Liberty, a parental rights group, reported victory for about half of their endorsed board candidates, the National Education Association claimed electoral success for about 70% of their endorsed candidates .  A critical issue is whether and how divided governance at all levels will affect schooling opportunity, accountability, and quality for all students in 2023.    

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2023 education highlights: Keeping up the momentum to transform learning

International Day of Education 2023 dedicated to Afghan girls and women

UNESCO dedicated this year's International Day of Education on 24 January to girls and women in Afghanistan who have been deprived of their right to pursue secondary and higher education. The Organization renewed its call to immediately restore their fundamental right to education. “No country in the world should bar women and girls from receiving an education,” said UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay. “The international community has the responsibility to ensure that the rights of Afghan girls and women are restored without delay. The war against women must stop.” 

In Afghanistan’s Logar province, most girls and women are illiterate. Even before the decision of the de-facto authorities to suspend girls’ access to beyond primary education, most families did not let their girls go to school. Today, over 1,000 women and young girls aged 15 to 45 are learning how to read, write and calculate for the first time in their lives through UNESCO’s Community-based Basic General Literacy Classes. During UNESCO’s visit to two literacy classes , women and girls shared their motivations, challenges and inspirations for attending the classes. Nationwide, the Organization is currently reaching over 40,000 illiterate and semi-literate youth and adults – over 60% of whom are women – in 20 provinces. 

Supporting learners and teachers in Ukraine

UNESCO and Ukraine’s Ministry of Education and Science launched an online training in digital pedagogy for 50,000 teachers, while the education of many Ukrainian students is still disrupted by the war. They are also training 15,000 school psychologists to withstand the impact of the war on the mental health of Ukrainian learners and teachers. “Since February 2022, UNESCO has continuously supported Ukrainian teachers to ensure that students continue learning in the midst of war,” said UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Education Stefania Giannini. “I pay tribute to their work, resilience and continued dedication. As the new academic year has just begun, UNESCO reaffirms its commitment to them. Because education is the cornerstone on which Ukraine's future is built.”   Read more    

Monitoring country commitments made at the Transforming Education Summit

The latest UNESCO data shows that the global number of out-of-school children has risen by 6 million since 2021 and now totals 250 million. The figures, compiled by the Global Education Monitoring Report and the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, reveal that education progress continues to stagnate globally. The annual finance gap for helping low and lower-middle income countries achieve their national education targets is almost US $100 billion. UNESCO remains committed to supporting countries and partners to acquire the financing needed to meet their goals. The Organization is also monitoring country commitments made at the UN Transforming Education Summit in 2022 through its new dashboard . Read more

Urgent call for appropriate use of technology in learning and global guidance on generative AI in education

UNESCO’s 2023 Global Education Monitoring Report on technology in education highlights the lack of appropriate governance and regulation. It urges countries to set their own terms for the way technology is designed and used in education so that it never replaces in-person, teacher-led instruction, and supports the shared objective of quality education for all. The report proposes four questions that policy-makers and educational stakeholders should reflect upon as technology is being deployed in education. Read more

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools have far-reaching implications for education and research. Yet the education sector today is largely unprepared for the ethical and pedagogical integration of these powerful and rapidly evolving technologies, as UNESCO Assistant Director-General Stefania Giannini reiterated in her think piece . UNESCO developed the first-ever global guidance on GenAI in education. Launched during UNESCO’s flagship Digital Learning Week , it calls on countries to quickly implement appropriate regulations, policies, and human capacity development, for ensuring a human-centred vision of GenAI for education and research. Read more

UNESCO calls for an upgrade of teachers’ status to reduce the global shortage

“We must better value, better train and better support,” said UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay on World Teachers’ Day (5 October). UNESCO and the Teacher Task Force’s first global report shows that globally, 44 million teachers are still needed to achieve the goal of providing primary and secondary education for all by 2030. This includes a demand for seven out of ten teachers at the secondary level and a need to replace over half of the existing teachers leaving the profession. The problem is not only one of funding, but also the unattractiveness of the profession. Read more

UNESCO adopts landmark guidance on education’s cross-cutting role in promoting peace

On 20 November 2023, the 194 UNESCO Member States adopted the Recommendation on Education for Peace, Human Rights and Sustainable Development at UNESCO’s General Conference . This is the only global standard-setting instrument that lays out how education should be used to bring about lasting peace and foster human development through 14 guiding principles. For the past two years, UNESCO has been revising this visionary tool to ensure it responds to today's greatest challenges and future shocks. Read more  

UNESCO at COP28: Making education the long-term solution to the climate crisis

UNESCO is accelerating climate change education and greening initiatives through its coordinating role of the  Greening Education Partnership  and extensive work on  education for sustainable development . At COP28, UNESCO played a key role in the various dialogues on accelerating climate change education and emphasized the significance of sustainable learning in fostering long-term solutions for the climate crisis. The Organization presented at the COP the drafts of two new normative and groundbreaking resources: A global curriculum guidance for climate change education; and a green schools quality standards, which will be finalized and rolled-out next year. A major highlight of the gathering was launch of the Declaration for Climate Change and Education , focused on adaptation, mitigation and investment – which was signed and endorsed by 41 countries. Read more  

Exploring how rights should adapt as education evolves

The world has considerably changed since the key treaties on the right to education were conceived and adopted over half a century ago. Education can no longer be only confined to traditional classrooms and textbooks but has expanded to encompass lifelong and life-wide learning. UNESCO's Initiative on the evolving right to education launched its formal dialogue in December to explore how international human rights instruments can be reinforced and further developed to address today's needs and challenges. Read more  

Looking into 2024, the  International Day of Education will be celebrated on 24 January under the theme “learning for lasting peace”. The world is seeing a surge of violent conflicts paralleled by an alarming rise of discrimination, racism, xenophobia, and hate speech. An active commitment to peace is more urgent today than ever: Education is central to this endeavor, as underlined by the  UNESCO Recommendation on Education for Peace, Human Rights and Sustainable Development .

Key UNESCO publications on education in 2023

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2023 Higher Education Trend Watch

This report focuses on the workforce, cultural, and technological shifts for ten macro trends emerging in higher education in 2023. Across these three areas of shift, we report the major impacts and steps that institutions are taking in response to each trend. Some trends overlap with the 2022 Higher Education Trend Watch report.  However, while some topics and issues remain consistent, significant shifts have occurred across many of the trends for 2023.

Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, higher education institutions shifted from emergency response to long-term adaptation and strategically planning for what's next. Many institutions have already implemented hybrid/remote work and learning arrangements, supported by a variety of innovative technologies and tools. Institutions are now focused on designing and implementing needed policies and initiatives, creating new positions, committees, and workgroups, and expanding and upgrading their technology. This focus on adapting and planning can also be seen in some additional trends this year, such as Focus on increasing institutional resilience and Expansion of the digital transformation of higher education.

While institutions are preparing in these ways for a sustainable future, leaders still need to consider and plan for significant challenges, including retention and recruitment (students, faculty, staff, and leaders), costs and budgets, varying and changing expectations and preferences when it comes to teaching, learning, and work modality, and broader cultural issues such as DEI, digital literacy, and the perceived value of higher education.

Respondents to the 2023 Top 10 IT Issues survey were provided not only with a list of 20 IT Issues but also with a list of 20 wider trends  emerging around the higher education landscape. For each of the emerging trends, we asked respondents to rate the level of impact on their institution's technology strategy, policies, and/or practice. The interactive table below summarizes the trend impacts as rated by the respondents and includes dropdown menus for exploring how the trends and their impacts differ across institutional sizes and types.

IT TRENDS RANKINGS

In this section of the report, we take a closer look at the emerging higher education trends selected as most important by the survey respondents, with summaries of the planning and actions they're exploring or implementing at their institutions in response to each trend. Responses have been categorized along three primary areas of institutional shifts: workforce, culture, and technology.

How are institutions responding to Increasing need for data security and protection against threats to personal privacy ?

Shifts in Workforce: Institutions are creating new teams, working groups, and positions that focus solely on cybersecurity issues. However, in the wake of the “Great Resignation” and due to the competitiveness of the current job market, institutions face challenges in recruiting and hiring staff. To equip their existing faculty, staff, administrators, and students with necessary cybersecurity skills and knowledge, institutional leaders are increasing their efforts in providing training and education.

Shifts in Culture: Institutions are conducting strategic planning and are implementing new initiatives and policies addressing cybersecurity issues. Some have begun campaigns to increase cybersecurity awareness, along with policies to comply with federal and state regulations or other security frameworks and programs (i.e., GDPR, NIST-CSF, GLBA). Institutions are also investing in cyber insurance and are ramping up their efforts in detecting and preventing security threats and attacks by implementing regular risk assessments, phishing tests, third-party consulting and monitoring, and audits. Respondents reported a growing need for planning and policies that specifically focus on data privacy and ethics and cybersecurity issues that are unique to work-from-home environments.

Shifts in Technology: Most institutions have expanded, upgraded, and adopted new technologies and security measures such as multi-factor authentication, password tools, threat detection, monitoring, ransomware protection software, and endpoint and Wi-Fi security. While respondents reported an increase in costs as institutions implement these technologies, institutional leaders are also more willing to devote an increased share of their budget toward these resources.

How are institutions responding to Continued adoption and normalization of hybrid and remote work arrangements ?

Shifts in Workforce: The increase in hybrid/remote work opportunities has created a highly competitive job market, and institutions that have not fully embraced this new norm are having difficulties filling positions—in terms of both retention and recruitment. Some institutions are hiring more fully remote staff in order to remain competitive in the job market. At many institutions, hybrid/remote work arrangements vary widely, based on position and department. Despite this, most IT departments and staff report having hybrid/remote work arrangements. Respondents at institutions with hybrid/remote work arrangements reported associated cost savings and increased employee productivity.

Shifts in Culture: Many institutions have implemented policies and HR practices supporting hybrid/remote arrangements. Some are still piloting and testing, while others are assessing and analyzing impacts and effectiveness and are moving forward with strategic planning. As institutions move forward with hybrid/remote arrangements, they face concerns such as creating and maintaining culture and engagement, reconfiguring tasks and events to fit a digital format, and addressing mental health and equity issues (i.e., how to ensure that decision-making regarding remote work and learning is both fair and equitable for all).

Shifts in Technology: Many institutions have adopted technology to support hybrid/remote work, including expanded cloud-based services, access to virtual private networks, Zoom and other meeting platforms, remote phone capabilities, equipment such as headsets and cameras, and a shift from desktops to laptops. Many institutions are also upgrading or reconfiguring workspaces to support a flexible, hybrid work culture (e.g., upgraded classrooms, conference rooms, shared workspaces).

How are institutions responding to Continued resignation and migration of leaders and staff from higher education institutions ?

Shifts in Workforce: The Great Resignation continues, with many institutions reporting significant turnover, especially in leadership roles. Recruitment is a big challenge for many institutions, with declining budgets and a very competitive job market. In response to the increasing number of retirements among upper-level positions, respondents observed that leadership positions are being filled by individuals with less knowledge and experience. Another consequence of resignations is a shift in the workload. Respondents reported having to take on the extra work of those who left, projects being stalled or canceled due to turnover, and an increase in contracting and outsourcing.

Shifts in Culture: Staff, administrators, faculty, and leaders are retiring or resigning because of burnout, unhealthy or unsupportive workplace cultures, and/or the ability to find more desirable work conditions elsewhere. People are leaving for better salaries, the opportunity to work remotely or hybrid, and better work/life balance. Few institutions are engaged in strategic planning that targets recruitment, retention, succession, and offboarding. Those institutions that are working on strategic planning in these areas are reviewing salaries, developing succession plans, identifying non-monetary incentives, and considering cultural changes such as offering hybrid/remote work arrangements.

Shifts in Technology: While respondents did not report any direct technological shifts due to the resignation of leaders and staff, they did report difficulties in retaining and hiring technology staff and leadership. Thus, moving forward, this challenge has the potential to lead to indirect effects on technological processes managed by the IT department—for example, technology that is more difficult to maintain and upgrade and delays with technological support due to understaffing and/or loss of institutional and departmental knowledge.

How are institutions responding to More calls for data-informed decision-making and reporting ?

Shifts in Workforce: Many institutions are adding new positions, teams, and cross-functional work groups and committees devoted to data analytics, though respondents reported difficulties in retaining and recruiting qualified individuals to support big data systems and analytics. Some institutions are redesigning existing positions to focus on data reporting and visualization needs, while others are merging existing teams and workgroups with those that intersect with data analytics (e.g., enterprise tech groups and data science and analytics groups). Some institutions have begun offering training on analytics (e.g., student success analytics) to their faculty and staff.

Shifts in Culture: There is increasing awareness of the value and need for data across all functional areas of the institution, including recruitment, retention, student success, budgeting and fiscal performance, and business operations. Institutional leaders are pushing for more data-informed decision-making, but the need remains for growth and improvement in the areas of data governance, cybersecurity issues, data literacy, and access (i.e., making data easy to report and interpret via dashboards).

Shifts in Technology: Institutions are adopting and/or upgrading their data infrastructure and tools (e.g., dashboarding platforms, warehouses, analytics programs, reporting and integration platforms, CRMs), while also utilizing more of the data from their existing technologies and platforms (e.g., LMSs, ERP systems). Due to increases in the awareness of data privacy and security issues, many of these institutions have adopted security systems and network monitoring solutions to allow for safer data collection.

How are institutions responding to Continuation and normalization of hybrid and online learning ?

Shifts in Workforce: Institutions have increased their number of fully online instructional design staff, in addition to adding leadership positions focused on online learning and instruction. Many institutions are providing more funding and training efforts so that faculty members can improve their instruction and course delivery.

Shifts in Culture: Despite the widespread adoption of hybrid and online learning, respondents reported conflicting preferences. For example, most students want these options, yet faculty and leadership have mixed preferences. With many institutions already having adopted hybrid and online courses for undergraduates, efforts are now shifting toward moving graduate programs to these formats. As institutions continue to offer hybrid and online programs, issues surrounding equity and accessibility, along with the ability to balance flexibility and the quality of the teaching and learning experience, are and continue to be in discussion.

Shifts in Technology: Many institutions have upgraded or renovated their classrooms and other learning spaces and will continue to do so (e.g., making spaces hybrid-capable with updated AV equipment and integration with Zoom). Some have implemented new student engagement platforms (e.g., CRM, online tutoring, advising, wellness tools) and/or adopted additional support technologies and tools (e.g., lecture-capture technology, plagiarism-detection tools, analytics tools and platforms, vertical market products). Institutions have largely shifted away from desktops in favor of laptops and have adopted or are in the process of considering different LMS options that work well with hybrid and online learning methods.

How are institutions responding to Expansion of the digital transformation of higher education ?

Shifts in Workforce: While many institutions are in the process of planning for and implementing digital transformation, respondents reported that the traditional Dx concept needs to be augmented with remote workforce management, effective hybrid workforce support, and new work ethics standards. Further, due to the Great Resignation and the state of the job market, retraining existing staff and filling new positions created as part of the Dx process remains a challenge.

Shifts in Culture: Digital transformation is necessary for institutions to survive and to sustain operations in the face of enrollment pressures, declining budgets, and changes in students' expectations. Institutions are increasingly focused on the Dx process for all functional areas of higher education—not just academics but also athletics, HR, finance, and administration. Institutions are working on strategic plans that incorporate digital transformation, though they face a number of challenges, including keeping up with fast-paced technology changes and stakeholder buy-in.

Shifts in Technology: Institutions have adopted new CRM tools for monitoring the student life cycle and advancement, as well as for managing collaborations, communication, and workflow. There has been widespread adoption of cloud-based services to facilitate hybrid/remote work and learning arrangements, and the focus now is more on accessibility, equity, and the challenges of getting equipment to all who need it. More institutions are adopting technologies to support the processes of digitizing, automating, and streamlining (e.g., digitized procurement and hiring processes, implementation of digital signatures, big data and storage tools, ERP tools).

How are institutions responding to Rising costs of higher education as public perceptions of its value are declining ?

Shifts in Workforce: Many institutions have frozen tuition and fees in an effort to keep costs at a minimum for students. In response to reduced budgets, coupled with declining enrollment numbers, institutions have put holds on increasing salaries and filling vacant positions and have started exploring programs like retirement incentives to help reduce human capital costs.

Shifts in Culture: Institutional leaders widely recognize the impact that rising costs have had on the perceived value of higher education, and they are focused on demonstrating the value proposition of their institutions by improving graduates' career outcomes and employability while also reducing costs and providing financial assistance. To demonstrate value, institutions are expanding career services programs and aligning academic programs with career, skill, and job market needs. To curb spending, institutions are limiting their budget growth and re-examining software contracts, pushing back on price increases, and/or dropping products. They are also exploring various financial assistance options (e.g., additional need-based support), increasing advancement and fundraising goals to help close the gap from public funding, ramping up FAFSA applications and affordability conversations, and revisioning their financial support models to offer only grant-based funding.

Shifts in Technology: With an increased emphasis on student workforce readiness, institutions are investing in technologies that are comparable to or better than those in students' future work environments. Advising platforms and academic planning technologies are helping maximize students' time and financial investment in their coursework, and some institutions are engaging in automating processes in the CRM and recruiting functions and creating team and process maps to support enrollment. IT units are also prioritizing efficiency by reviewing the impacts of ERP systems on institutional flexibility, avoiding duplicative solutions, repurposing technology circulation pools, and changing reserves policies and procedures.

How are institutions responding to Focus on increasing institutional resilience ?

Shifts in Workforce: Resiliency efforts in the workforce during the pandemic were singularly focused on budgetary concerns and the effects of faculty and staff turnover on the ability of institutions to operate effectively. Now, some institutions are viewing turnover as an opportunity to rebuild their operational strategy and are increasing cross-departmental flexibility among staff to reduce the impact of turnover. Others noted that the increase in workload and the decreased budgets—namely, the lack of salary increases and the reduction in backfilling vacancies—have taken a toll on faculty and staff.

Shifts in Culture: Many institutions are working on shifting campus culture to focus on agility and flexibility to meet rapidly changing needs. Business continuity is an important aspect of this work, as institutions are translating the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic into revised disaster recovery and process continuity plans to ensure they are ready to pivot to an on-campus or virtual environment at any given moment. They are also increasing cross-unit collaboration and cross-training and identifying business models to tap new markets and students. Financial recovery planning is critical as well, and institutions are updating their health care benefits to rebuild savings and shore up finances, consolidating courses, and exploring alternative revenue streams and earning options outside of traditional educational programs.

Shifts in Technology: Aligned with institutional efforts to increase agility and flexibility, IT units are building institutional resilience by repurposing funds to modernize data centers and disaster recovery facilities, utilizing a cloud-first approach to build resilience capabilities in security and disaster recovery, instituting new backup systems, and continuing end-of-life equipment replacement grounded in sustainability through automated and scheduled updates and replacements.

How are institutions responding to Widespread efforts to understand and address discrimination and inequity ?

Shifts in Workforce: IT units are proactively engaging with their HR teams to refine job descriptions and encourage more diverse candidate pools, develop rubrics for resumé reviews, and include job search advocates on search committees. Staff development and support programs are providing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) training, staff affinity groups, and new career pathways and training opportunities for under-represented populations within the institution. Several institutions have also created positions to directly support DEI awareness and culture.

Shifts in Culture: From listening sessions to campus-wide virtual reality experiences, institutions are taking steps to understand and address the discrimination and inequity concerns of students, faculty, and staff. To help ensure that institutional leaders are proactively anticipating and responding to these concerns, DEI efforts are being strategically embedded into institutional policies and are shaping institutional practices such as the following: more inclusive language and alt-text in all documentation; department-level DEI plans; dedicated DEI student groups and faculty/staff working groups; DEI academic programs, lectures, and courses; and DEI offices (e.g., Office of Diversity, Office of Community and Belonging) and leadership roles (e.g., Chief Diversity Officer, Vice Provost for DEI, Vice President of DEI and Belonging, department-level DEI Directors).

Shifts in Technology: A number of institutions are working with their IT units to support DEI efforts. IT units are engaged in projects such as pronoun collection to allow self-selection of preferred pronouns that are automatically populated in downstream systems and instructional rosters, platform development to gather data and reports on DEI initiatives, and analytics solutions for disaggregating student metrics. Institutions are also considering digital equity and minimum technology requirements in their technology planning to increase resources and support for all students.

How are institutions responding to Need for improved data literacy and skills to keep up with growth in big data and analytics ?

Shifts in Workforce: Institutional leaders are facing challenges in upskilling existing staff, within and outside of the IT department, and in hiring qualified candidates to help improve workforce data literacy and skills. Institutions are offering staff development opportunities (e.g., a "Data Innovators” certificate) that focus on appropriate collection and management of data and best practices for using data to extract insights and support decision-making. To help support and lead these efforts, institutions have created positions such as Director of Data Analytics and Vice President for Enterprise Analytics. They are also including more prominent and consistent language about desired data analytics skills in relevant job descriptions and postings.

Shifts in Culture: To keep up with the growth in big data and analytics, institutions are developing new courses, strategically aligning data governance with Dx plans, and building capacity to sustain these efforts. Many institutions have begun planning or are already offering interdisciplinary courses and short-term academies related to data literacy and skills to ensure that all students are exposed to data science. Others are incorporating content into required first-year courses, covering topics from information and digital literacy to data analytics and privacy. To broaden and deepen the integration of data governance efforts with their Dx strategy, institutions are creating related communities of practice, pursuing transparency with data privacy dashboards, and partnering with their institutional research teams to increase institutional knowledge of analytics.

Shifts in Technology: With data and analytics siloed or poorly structured at many institutions, and without a centralized and robust set of tools, the requests for data that support specific strategic initiatives and measures are being stalled. A number of IT units, however, are ramping up their support for data delivery and consumption by expanding the role of business intelligence teams, implementing data lakehouse environments, deploying self-service data-analysis portals and platforms, and improving data aggregation, management, and business process automation.

Although the next steps for each institution must be carefully charted out according to its own context, mission, resources, and needs, the following EDUCAUSE resources and professional learning opportunities can provide leaders and practitioners with general guidance to get started, strategies to consider, and peer communities to contact.

• For support with increasing data security and protection against privacy threats, the EDUCAUSE Library provides a variety of resources on data security and data privacy .
• To learn more about the changing workforce in higher education , visit the EDUCAUSE Showcase "Workforce: Evolve or Become Extinct" and "The Workforce Shakeup" QuickPoll, which cover issues such as budget cuts, worker attrition, recruitment, and widespread burnout . For additional information on the restructuring of the technology workforce, visit The Technology Workforce in Higher Education, 2022 , research hub.
• For additional information on hybrid/remote work arrangements , see David Weil's EDUCAUSE Review article "A Dx Roadmap for Leading the New Hybrid IT Workforce." The EDUCAUSE Dx model provides a useful framework for thinking through the leadership changes needed to support the new hybrid workforce. EDUCAUSE also has a variety of resources on working remotely .
• For support in adopting hybrid/remote learning models , consider registering for the EDUCAUSE Digital Learning Innovators Institute (March 13–May 5, 2023) and Digital Learning Leaders Institute (May 8–July 21, 2023). For additional information, see the 2022 EDUCAUSE Horizon Report: Teaching and Learning Edition. EDUCAUSE also has a variety of resources on digital learning .
• For professional learning support in data literacy and skills needed to keep up with growth in big data and analytics , consider registering for a Data Literacy Institute being offered by EDUCAUSE next year (January 23–March 17, 2023, and June 5–July 28, 2023). Each institute is designed to provide participants with a comprehensive view into the information life cycle and hands-on practice with each step from data creation to leading change through data storytelling and data governance. To understand your institution's current capabilities in advancing analytics initiatives, complete the Analytics Institutional Self-Assessment. To learn more about making data-informed decisions , visit EDUCAUSE Library resources on analytics , data administration and management , data literacy , data governance , and data curation , and explore the Analytics channel in EDUCAUSE Review .
• To learn more about digital transformation (Dx) , consider registering for the EDUCAUSE webinar "Supporting Transformational Change with Design Strategy Tools" (February 9, 2023). In this webinar, Phyllis Treige, chief experience officer at UC Santa Cruz, will discuss her experience and strategies in designing and supporting institutional transformational change and will share practical and easy-to-use methodologies. You can also visit the EDUCAUSE Dx Journey and the Dx channel in EDUCAUSE Review for more information and resources for charting your institution's Dx journey.
• To learn more about the current state of resilience at institutions , see "EDUCAUSE QuickPoll Results: Institutional and IT Resilience" ( EDUCAUSE Review ). To learn more about increasing institutional resilience, read Stephanie Moore's EDUCAUSE Review article "Reclaiming Resilience: Building Better Systems of Care," which discusses how to build support systems within higher education institutions, starting with a framework that identifies barriers to and enablers of organizational processes .
• To learn more about equity and discrimination, visit The EDUCAUSE Guide to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. The guide provides action steps to put diversity, equity, and inclusion principles into practice, as well as learning and engagement opportunities to deepen your understanding of the principles. See also the DEI Resources in the EDUCAUSE Library and the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) channel in EDUCAUSE Review.
• To learn more about funding and the rising costs of higher education, visit the EDUCAUSE resources on budget issues in higher education IT and IT funding and spending in higher education. The 2022 EDUCAUSE Horizon Report: Teaching and Learning Edition also includes a discussion on current economic trends in higher education.

Visit the IT Issues web page for additional resources.

© 2022 Ashley Caron and Nicole Muscanell. The text of this work is licensed under a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0 International License.

Citation for this work Ashley Caron and Nicole Muscanell. 2023 Higher Education Trend Watch. Boulder, CO: EDUCAUSE, October 31, 2022.

EDUCAUSE is a higher education technology association and the largest community of IT leaders and professionals committed to advancing higher education. Technology, IT roles and responsibilities, and higher education are dynamically changing. Formed in 1998, EDUCAUSE supports those who lead, manage, and use information technology to anticipate and adapt to these changes, advancing strategic IT decision-making at every level within higher education. EDUCAUSE is a global nonprofit organization whose members include US and international higher education institutions, corporations, not-for-profit organizations, and K–12 institutions. With a community of more than 99,000 individuals at member organizations located around the world, EDUCAUSE encourages diversity in perspective, opinion, and representation. For more information, please visit educause.edu.