It used to feel like the issues we face in the United States were specific just to us who live here, but as we both work internationally, we are finding that many of the issues and government actions we face in this country are similar to the issues educators around the world are encountering.

Both of us have been teachers, school leaders, and Michael was a superintendent for 14 years and assistant director at the state level for four years. Over the years, we have been facilitating workshops nationally and internationally and we have noticed that there are at least 11 critical issues that we are facing in education around the globe in 2025.

This is not an exhaustive list, nor are the issues listed in order of importance. Additionally, the list is not meant to be negative.

The 11 critical issues are:

Departments of education - In the United States, President-elect Donald Trump has promised to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, and according to this article by Evie Blad, he tried this in his first term but got little traction. This term could prove to be different. As we talk with educators in other countries, we find there are similar issues. We keep a watchful eye on each other when it comes to actions coming from departments of education.

Teacher attrition - According to this article by Madeline Will, teacher-retention rates have been declining over the last few years. In fact, this is one of those issues that we can take worldwide. OECD released an education policy report in November highlighting teacher attrition as an issue worldwide. It reports that 14 percent of teachers 50 years or younger express a desire to leave teaching within the next five years—well before they reach retirement age. We can do something about this! Michael, in fact, recently wrote about a student who had an enormous impact on him, underscoring a prime reason for educators to stay in the profession. You can read the article here. Teaching has the power to impact so many lives of students and families and offer a reciprocal benefit for teachers.

Teacher collaboration - It can be debated whether teacher collaboration makes the lives of teachers easier or harder. It really depends on the group of teachers working together, and what collaboration actually means to them. Another OECD report (2018) found that “teachers in OECD countries and economies in [the Teaching and Learning International Survey] are quite likely to employ basic collaborative practices like discussing the development of specific students with colleagues (61% of teachers on average do this) and, to a lesser extent, exchanging teaching materials with colleagues (47%). However, far fewer teachers engage in the deeper forms of professional collaboration, which involve more interdependence between teachers, with only 9% of teachers saying they provide observation-based feedback to colleagues, and 21% engaging in collaborative professional learning at least once a month.”

Principal attrition - It seems as though there have been many reports focusing on principals leaving their position, but according to this article, attrition rates have been similar for over a decade. So, why is this a critical issue? In 2019, the Learning Policy Institute and the National Association of Secondary School Principals released a report stating that 42 percent of principals surveyed considered leaving their position, which shows the writing is on the wall: We are at risk of this happening if we don’t focus on lightening the workload or showing the beautiful side of being a building or district leader.

Literacy profiency - We know about reading wars and the “science of reading.” This article in the Atlantic focuses on how literacy issues arose in the 1980s. This article says that one-third of Australian students can’t read properly, and this one explains that literacy wars have been a transatlantic problem, erupting in the United Kingdom as well. Literacy is not just an issue for students. OECD recently released a report to show that literacy rates in most developed countries has gone down for adults as well.

Instead of focusing on who is to blame, we should come together and do something about it. 2025 should be the year teachers, leaders, policymakers, researchers, and parents take action because literacy is a world-health issue.

Math proficiency - According to NAEP, math scores have gone down since 2019. UNESCO reports that 6 out of 10 students are not learning a minimum of what they need to know in math and reading, and administration of the tests was conducted prior to COVID. We are finding that all the schools we work with have a focus on math literacy. Let 2025 be the breakthrough year.

Tier 1 instruction - We have survey results from over 100 school leadership teams from the United States, Canada, and Australia. More than 40 percent of them have a Tier 1 focus. Why? Unfortunately in schools, we often have a common language but not a shared understanding. Educators use the term “Tier 1,” but they have varying meanings of what that should look like. If we want to do something about Tier 1 instruction, we need to begin with a shared understanding.

Mental health - According to the CDC, 4 in 10 students reported persistent feelings of sadness in the agency’s recent Youth Risk Behavior Survey. Too often, mental health elides into a political argument, which only stalls all of us from working together to actually do something about it.

Social media - In terms of of mental health, have you read The Anxious Generation? Social media is negatively impacting our students. Watch this interview we did on our Leaders Coaching Leaders podcast with David Sousa to find out how social media and technology are harming the brains of our students and what we can do about it.

Parent choice (empowering parents) - There are a plethora of stories focusing on how Trump wants to expand parent choice, and here is one of them. Parent choice and empowering parents was a central argument in the last presidential campaign and is a commentary abroad as well. In fact, OECD released guidance on the topic of parent choice and school choice.

AI - We were recently on Bluesky and noticed some educators talking about resisting the use of AI and others who were in favor of using it for a variety of reasons. Whether we are focusing on using the technology to assist us in our work, how students might use it to cheat on assignments, or creating personalized podcasts for students and schools, AI is an enormous topic for 2025.

Too often, critical issues feel like something we don’t have control over, but our belief is that critical issues are those that we should focus on together and make a global call to action for all students around the world.