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The Education System of the United States of America: Overview and Foundations

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• First Online: 01 January 2022
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• Paul R. Fossum 3  

Part of the book series: Global Education Systems ((GES))

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Prevailing discourse in the USA about the country’s teachers, educational institutions, and instructional approaches is a conversation that is national in character. Yet the structures and the administrative and governance apparatuses themselves are strikingly local in character across the USA. Public understanding and debate about education can be distorted in light of divergence between the country’s educational aspirations and the vehicles in place for pursuing those aims. In addressing its purpose as a survey of US education, the following chapter interrogates this apparent contradiction, first discussing historical and social factors that help account for a social construction of the USA as singular and national system. Discussion then moves to a descriptive analysis of education in the USA as institutionalized at the numerous levels – aspects that often reflect local prerogative and difference more so than a uniform national character. The chapter concludes with summary points regarding US federalism as embodied in the country’s oversight and conduct of formal education.

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Fossum, P.R. (2021). The Education System of the United States of America: Overview and Foundations. In: Jornitz, S., Parreira do Amaral, M. (eds) The Education Systems of the Americas. Global Education Systems. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41651-5_14

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The U.S. Education System Isn’t Giving Students What Employers Need

• Michael Hansen

Companies also need to stop fixating on the four-year degree.

There’s a direct disconnect between education and employability in the U.S., where employers view universities and colleges as the gatekeepers of workforce talent, yet those same institutions aren’t prioritizing job skills and career readiness. This not only hurts employers, but also sets the average American worker up for failure before they’ve even begun their career, as new employees who have been hired based on their four-year educational background often lack the actual skills needed to perform in their role. To create change as an industry, we must provide greater credibility to alternate education paths that allow students to gain employable skills. Now is the time for employers to increase credibility for skills-based hiring, to remove stigmas around vocational education, and to move forward to create equal opportunities for all students.

The Covid-19 pandemic stripped millions of Americans of their jobs. As of April 2021, the economy was still down 4 million jobs compared to February 2020. At the same time, we are seeing unprecedented labor shortages, with 8.1 million jobs open and unfilled across the U.S. Markets that saw explosive growth due to the pandemic, such as cybersecurity and technology , are struggling to maintain the levels of innovation needed to continue that trend, because they can’t find the right talent.

• MH Michael Hansen is the Chief Executive Officer of Cengage, an education technology company serving millions of learners worldwide.

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• Published: 25 January 2021

Online education in the post-COVID era

• Barbara B. Lockee 1  

Nature Electronics volume  4 ,  pages 5–6 ( 2021 ) Cite this article

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The coronavirus pandemic has forced students and educators across all levels of education to rapidly adapt to online learning. The impact of this — and the developments required to make it work — could permanently change how education is delivered.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced the world to engage in the ubiquitous use of virtual learning. And while online and distance learning has been used before to maintain continuity in education, such as in the aftermath of earthquakes 1 , the scale of the current crisis is unprecedented. Speculation has now also begun about what the lasting effects of this will be and what education may look like in the post-COVID era. For some, an immediate retreat to the traditions of the physical classroom is required. But for others, the forced shift to online education is a moment of change and a time to reimagine how education could be delivered 2 .

Looking back

Online education has traditionally been viewed as an alternative pathway, one that is particularly well suited to adult learners seeking higher education opportunities. However, the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic has required educators and students across all levels of education to adapt quickly to virtual courses. (The term ‘emergency remote teaching’ was coined in the early stages of the pandemic to describe the temporary nature of this transition 3 .) In some cases, instruction shifted online, then returned to the physical classroom, and then shifted back online due to further surges in the rate of infection. In other cases, instruction was offered using a combination of remote delivery and face-to-face: that is, students can attend online or in person (referred to as the HyFlex model 4 ). In either case, instructors just had to figure out how to make it work, considering the affordances and constraints of the specific learning environment to create learning experiences that were feasible and effective.

The use of varied delivery modes does, in fact, have a long history in education. Mechanical (and then later electronic) teaching machines have provided individualized learning programmes since the 1950s and the work of B. F. Skinner 5 , who proposed using technology to walk individual learners through carefully designed sequences of instruction with immediate feedback indicating the accuracy of their response. Skinner’s notions formed the first formalized representations of programmed learning, or ‘designed’ learning experiences. Then, in the 1960s, Fred Keller developed a personalized system of instruction 6 , in which students first read assigned course materials on their own, followed by one-on-one assessment sessions with a tutor, gaining permission to move ahead only after demonstrating mastery of the instructional material. Occasional class meetings were held to discuss concepts, answer questions and provide opportunities for social interaction. A personalized system of instruction was designed on the premise that initial engagement with content could be done independently, then discussed and applied in the social context of a classroom.

These predecessors to contemporary online education leveraged key principles of instructional design — the systematic process of applying psychological principles of human learning to the creation of effective instructional solutions — to consider which methods (and their corresponding learning environments) would effectively engage students to attain the targeted learning outcomes. In other words, they considered what choices about the planning and implementation of the learning experience can lead to student success. Such early educational innovations laid the groundwork for contemporary virtual learning, which itself incorporates a variety of instructional approaches and combinations of delivery modes.

Online learning and the pandemic

Fast forward to 2020, and various further educational innovations have occurred to make the universal adoption of remote learning a possibility. One key challenge is access. Here, extensive problems remain, including the lack of Internet connectivity in some locations, especially rural ones, and the competing needs among family members for the use of home technology. However, creative solutions have emerged to provide students and families with the facilities and resources needed to engage in and successfully complete coursework 7 . For example, school buses have been used to provide mobile hotspots, and class packets have been sent by mail and instructional presentations aired on local public broadcasting stations. The year 2020 has also seen increased availability and adoption of electronic resources and activities that can now be integrated into online learning experiences. Synchronous online conferencing systems, such as Zoom and Google Meet, have allowed experts from anywhere in the world to join online classrooms 8 and have allowed presentations to be recorded for individual learners to watch at a time most convenient for them. Furthermore, the importance of hands-on, experiential learning has led to innovations such as virtual field trips and virtual labs 9 . A capacity to serve learners of all ages has thus now been effectively established, and the next generation of online education can move from an enterprise that largely serves adult learners and higher education to one that increasingly serves younger learners, in primary and secondary education and from ages 5 to 18.

The COVID-19 pandemic is also likely to have a lasting effect on lesson design. The constraints of the pandemic provided an opportunity for educators to consider new strategies to teach targeted concepts. Though rethinking of instructional approaches was forced and hurried, the experience has served as a rare chance to reconsider strategies that best facilitate learning within the affordances and constraints of the online context. In particular, greater variance in teaching and learning activities will continue to question the importance of ‘seat time’ as the standard on which educational credits are based 10 — lengthy Zoom sessions are seldom instructionally necessary and are not aligned with the psychological principles of how humans learn. Interaction is important for learning but forced interactions among students for the sake of interaction is neither motivating nor beneficial.

While the blurring of the lines between traditional and distance education has been noted for several decades 11 , the pandemic has quickly advanced the erasure of these boundaries. Less single mode, more multi-mode (and thus more educator choices) is becoming the norm due to enhanced infrastructure and developed skill sets that allow people to move across different delivery systems 12 . The well-established best practices of hybrid or blended teaching and learning 13 have served as a guide for new combinations of instructional delivery that have developed in response to the shift to virtual learning. The use of multiple delivery modes is likely to remain, and will be a feature employed with learners of all ages 14 , 15 . Future iterations of online education will no longer be bound to the traditions of single teaching modes, as educators can support pedagogical approaches from a menu of instructional delivery options, a mix that has been supported by previous generations of online educators 16 .

Also significant are the changes to how learning outcomes are determined in online settings. Many educators have altered the ways in which student achievement is measured, eliminating assignments and changing assessment strategies altogether 17 . Such alterations include determining learning through strategies that leverage the online delivery mode, such as interactive discussions, student-led teaching and the use of games to increase motivation and attention. Specific changes that are likely to continue include flexible or extended deadlines for assignment completion 18 , more student choice regarding measures of learning, and more authentic experiences that involve the meaningful application of newly learned skills and knowledge 19 , for example, team-based projects that involve multiple creative and social media tools in support of collaborative problem solving.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, technological and administrative systems for implementing online learning, and the infrastructure that supports its access and delivery, had to adapt quickly. While access remains a significant issue for many, extensive resources have been allocated and processes developed to connect learners with course activities and materials, to facilitate communication between instructors and students, and to manage the administration of online learning. Paths for greater access and opportunities to online education have now been forged, and there is a clear route for the next generation of adopters of online education.

Before the pandemic, the primary purpose of distance and online education was providing access to instruction for those otherwise unable to participate in a traditional, place-based academic programme. As its purpose has shifted to supporting continuity of instruction, its audience, as well as the wider learning ecosystem, has changed. It will be interesting to see which aspects of emergency remote teaching remain in the next generation of education, when the threat of COVID-19 is no longer a factor. But online education will undoubtedly find new audiences. And the flexibility and learning possibilities that have emerged from necessity are likely to shift the expectations of students and educators, diminishing further the line between classroom-based instruction and virtual learning.

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Lockee, B.B. Online education in the post-COVID era. Nat Electron 4 , 5–6 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-020-00534-0

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Global education: How to transform school systems?

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Emiliana vegas and emiliana vegas former co-director - center for universal education , former senior fellow - global economy and development rebecca winthrop rebecca winthrop director - center for universal education , senior fellow - global economy and development.

November 17, 2020

• 12 min read

This essay is part of “ Reimagining the global economy: Building back better in a post-COVID-19 world ,” a collection of 12 essays presenting new ideas to guide policies and shape debates in a post-COVID-19 world.

Even before COVID-19 left as many as 1.5 billion students out of school in early 2020, there was a global consensus that education systems in too many countries were not delivering the quality education needed to ensure that all have the skills necessary to thrive. 1 It is the poorest children across the globe who carry the heaviest burden, with pre-pandemic analysis estimating that 90 percent of children in low-income countries, 50 percent of children in middle-income countries, and 30 percent of children in high-income countries fail to master the basic secondary-level skills needed to thrive in work and life. 2  

Analysis in mid-April 2020—in the early throes of the pandemic—found that less than 25 percent of low-income countries were providing any type of remote learning, while close to 90 percent of high-income countries were. 3 On top of cross-country differences in access to remote learning, within-country differences are also staggering. For example, during the COVID-19 school closures, 1 in 10 of the poorest children in the U.S. had little or no access to technology for learning. 4

Yet, for a few young people in wealthy communities around the globe, schooling has never been better than during the pandemic. They are taught in their homes with a handful of their favorite friends by a teacher hired by their parents. 5  Some parents have connected via social media platforms to form learning pods that instruct only a few students at a time with agreed-upon teaching schedules and activities.

While the learning experiences for these particular children may be good in and of themselves, they represent a worrisome trend for the world: the massive acceleration of education inequality. 6

Emerging from this global pandemic with a stronger public education system is an ambitious vision, and one that will require both financial and human resources.

The silver lining is that COVID-19 has resulted in public recognition of schools’ essential caretaking role in society and parents’ gratitude for teachers, their skills, and their invaluable role in student well-being.

It is hard to imagine there will be another moment in history when the central role of schooling in the economic, social, and political prosperity and stability of nations is so obvious and well understood by the general population. The very fact that schools enable parents to work outside the home is hitting home to millions of families amid global school closures. Now is the time to chart a vision for how education can emerge stronger from this global crisis and help reduce education inequality.

Indeed, we believe that strong and inclusive public education systems are essential to the short- and long-term recovery of society and that there is an opportunity to leapfrog toward powered-up schools.

A powered-up school, one that well serves the educational needs of children and youth, is one that puts a strong public school at the center of the community and leverages the most effective partnerships to help learners grow and develop a broad range of competencies and skills. It would recognize and adapt to the learning that takes place beyond its walls, regularly assessing students’ skills and tailoring learning opportunities to meet students at their skill level. New allies in children’s learning would complement and assist teachers, and could support children’s healthy mental and physical development. It quite literally would be the school at the center of the community that powers student learning and development using every path possible (Figure 12.1).

While this vision is aspirational, it is by no means impractical. Schools at the center of a community ecosystem of learning and support are an idea whose time has come, and some of the emerging practices amid COVID-19, such as empowering parents to support their children’s education, should be sustained after the pandemic subsides.

It is hard to imagine there will be another moment in history when the central role of schooling in the economic, social, and political prosperity and stability of nations is so obvious and well understood by the general population.

The way forward

To achieve this vision, we propose five actions to seize the moment and transform education systems (focusing on pre-primary through secondary school) to better serve all children and youth, especially the most disadvantaged.

1. Leverage public schools and put them at the center of education systems given their essential role in equalizing opportunity across society

By having the mandate to serve all children and youth regardless of background, public schools in many countries can bring together individuals from diverse backgrounds and needs, providing the social benefit of allowing individuals to grow up with a set of common values and knowledge that can make communities more cohesive and unified. 7

Schools play a crucial role in fostering the skills individuals need to succeed in a rapidly changing labor market, 8 play a major role in equalizing opportunities for individuals of diverse backgrounds, and address a variety of social needs that serve communities, regions, and entire nations. While a few private schools can and do play these multiple roles, public education is the main conduit for doing so at scale and hence should be at the center of any effort to build back better.

2. Focus on the instructional core, the heart of the teaching and learning process

Using the instructional core—or focusing on the interactions among educators, learners, and educational materials to improve student learning 9 —can help identify what types of new strategies or innovations could become community-based supports in children’s learning journey. Indeed, even after only a few months of experimentation around the globe on keeping learning going amid a pandemic, some clear strategies have the potential, if continued, to contribute to a powered-up school, and many of them involve engaging learners, educators, and parents in new ways using some form of technology.

3. Deploy education technology to power up schools in a way that meets teaching and learning needs and prevent technology from becoming a costly distraction

After COVID-19, one thing is certain: School systems that are best prepared to use education technology effectively will be best positioned to continue offering quality education in the face of school closures.

Other recent research 10 by one of us finds that technology can help improve learning by supporting the crucial interactions in the instructional core through the following ways: (1) scaling up quality instruction (by, for example, prerecorded lessons of high-quality teaching); (2) facilitating differentiated instruction (through, for example, computer-adaptive learning or live one-on-one tutoring); (3) expanding opportunities for student practice; and (4) increasing student engagement (through, for example, videos and games).

4. Forge stronger, more trusting relationships between parents and teachers

When a respectful relationship among parents, teachers, families, and schools happens, children learn and thrive. This occurs by inviting families to be allies in children’s learning by using easy-to-understand information communicated through mechanisms that adapt to parents’ schedules and that provide parents with an active but feasible role. The nature of the invitation and the relationship is what is so essential to bringing parents on board.

COVID-19 is an opportunity for parents and families to gain insight into the skill that is involved in teaching and for teachers and schools to realize what powerful allies parents can be. Parents around the world are not interested in becoming their child’s teacher, but they are, based on several large-scale surveys, 11 asking to be engaged in a different, more active way in the future. One of the most important insights for supporting a powered-up school is challenging the mindset of those in the education sector who think that parents and families with the least opportunities are not capable or willing to help their children learn.

5. Embrace the principles of improvement science required to evaluate, course correct, document, and scale new approaches that can help power up schools over time

The speed and depth of change mean that it will be essential to take an iterative approach to learning what works, for whom, and under what enabling conditions. In other words, this is a moment to employ the principles of improvement science. 12 Traditional research methods will need to be complemented by real-time documentation, reflection, quick feedback loops, and course correction. Rapid sharing of early insights and testing of potential change ideas will need to come alongside the longer-term rigorous reviews.

Adapting the scaling strategy is especially challenging, requiring not only timely data, a thorough understanding of the context, and space for reflection, but also willingness and capacity to act on this learning and make changes accordingly.

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Homi Kharas, John W. McArthur

Anthony F. Pipa, Max Bouchet

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Emerging from this global pandemic with a stronger public education system is an ambitious vision, and one that will require both financial and human resources. But such a vision is essential, and that amid the myriad of decisions education leaders are making every day, it can guide the future. With the dire consequences of the pandemic hitting the most vulnerable young people the hardest, it is tempting to revert to a global education narrative that privileges access to school above all else. This, however, would be a mistake. A powered-up public school in every community is what the world’s children deserve, and indeed is possible if everyone can collectively work together to harness the opportunities presented by this crisis to truly leapfrog education forward.

• This essay is based on a longer paper titled “Beyond reopening schools: How education can emerge stronger than before COVID-19” by the same authors, which can be found here: https://www.brookings.edu/research/beyond-reopening-schools-how-education-can-emerge-stronger-than-before-covid-19/ .
• ”The Learning Generation: Investing in Education for a Changing World.” The International Commission on Financing Global Education Opportunity. https://report.educationcommission.org/report/ .
• Vegas, Emiliana. “School Closures, Government Responses, and Learning Inequality around the World during COVID-19.” Brookings Institution, April 14, 2020. https://www.brookings.edu/research/school-closures-government-responses-and-learning-inequality-around-the-world-during-covid-19/.
• “U.S. Census Bureau Releases Household Pulse Survey Results.” United States Census Bureau, 2020, https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2020/household-pulse-results.html .
• Moyer, Melinda Wenner. “Pods, Microschools and Tutors: Can Parents Solve the Education Crisis on Their Own?” The New York Times. January 22, 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/22/parenting/school-pods-coronavirus.html.
• Samuels, Christina A., and Arianna Prothero. “Could the ‘Pandemic Pod’ Be a Lifeline for Parents or a Threat to Equity?” Education Week. August 18, 2020. https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2020/07/29/could-the-pandemic-pod-be-a-lifeline.html.
• Christakis, Erika. “Americans Have Given Up on Public Schools. That’s a Mistake.” The Atlantic. September 11, 2017. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/10/the-war-on-public-schools/537903/.
• Levin, Henry M. “Education as a Public and Private Good.” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 6, no. 4 (1987): 628-41.
• David Cohen and Deborah Loewenberg Ball, who originated the idea of the instructional core, used the terms teachers, students, and content. The OECD’s initiative on “Innovative Learning Environments” later adapted the framework using the terms educators, learners, and resources to represent educational materials and added a new element of content to represent the choices around skills and competencies and how to assess them. Here we have pulled from elements that we like from both frameworks, using the term instructional core to describe the relationships between educators, learners, and content and added parents.
• Alejandro J. Ganimian, Emiliana Vegas, and Frederick M. Hess, “Realizing the promise: How can education technology improve learning for all?” Brookings Institution, September 2020, https://www.brookings.edu/essay/realizing-the-promise-how-can-education-technology-improve-learning-for-all/.
• “Parents 2020: COVID-19 Closures: A Redefining Moment for Students, Parents & Schools.” Heroes, Learning, 2020. https://r50gh2ss1ic2mww8s3uvjvq1-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/LH_2020-Parent-Survey-Partner-1.pdf . 
• “The Six Core Principles of Improvement.” The Six Core Principles of Improvement. Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. August 18, 2020. https://www.carnegiefoundation.org/our-ideas/six-core-principles-improvement/ . 

K-12 Education

Global Economy and Development

Center for Universal Education

Brahima Sangafowa Coulibaly, Landry Signé, George Ingram, Priya Vora, Rebecca Winthrop, Caren Grown, Belinda Archibong, Brad Olsen, Jennifer L. O’Donoghue, Sweta Shah, Ghulam Omar Qargha

September 19, 2024

August 2, 2024

June 20, 2024

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The education system in India: promises to keep

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• https://doi.org/10.1080/00358533.2022.2082690

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India’s performance in education presents a conundrum that is not easily explained. While it has expanded access to most parts of the country, and established world class institutions of higher education, it still has among the highest number of out of school children and a very poor record of school learning levels. In particular, the persistent and growing inequities in access and quality of basic education call into question the strategies and approach adopted. While many explanations have been proffered, in this article I take a close look at the government’s system of school education delivery.

• Right to Education Act (RTE)
• school exclusion rates
• marginalisation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

1. There were a mere 2.1 lakh primary schools, 13,600 middle schools and 7416 higher secondary schools across the country at the time of independence (Census of India, Citation 1951, 2011 ).

2. From, Sadgopal ( Citation 2019 ). Nai Taleem : Gandhi’s Challenge to Hegemony, in Social Scientist vol. 47. No. 5/6.

3. It was originally placed in the ‘state’ list, but through an amendment in the Constitution, in 1976 it was added to the ‘concurrent’ list enabling a role for the Central government in its governance.

4. Government of India, Ministry of Education: http://mdm.nic.in/mdm_website/

5. A ‘society’ is an entity set up under the Societies Registration Act, for the purpose of benefit to society. While it must be registered by the government it is technically not a part of the State.

6. A separate system for providing academic support was deemed necessary in order to that the department of education may focus on administrative matters.

7. Administratively, a district in India, is divided into smaller units called blocks. For the education purposes, in particular the SSA, blocks have been further divided into clusters.

8. DISE, that collected data on elementary education when it started, has extended its brief to secondary education as well and is now called Unified DISE or U-DISE.

9. See, also, Malik ( Citation 2020 ) Indian Public schools failed to provide education during lockdown, Scroll [ https://scroll.in/article/973138/indian-public-schools-failed-to-provide-education-during-lockdown-say-80-parents-in-a-new-survey ]

10. The ASER Centre, has been bringing out the Annual Survey of Education Report (ASER), based on testing children on basic literacy and numeracy, since 2005. The tests are conducted by ASER volunteers in the home environment of children largely in rural areas. They cover a sample of both public and private school-going children. These reports have become a kind of bench-mark of learning levels in Indian schools and an important element of the quality-as-learning-outcome paradigm that has emerged.

11. According to NSSO data [75 th round, 2017–18] the per child expenditure in private unaided schools is more than 6 times higher than in government schools.

12. The RTE Act mandates private unaided schools to take 25% of their incoming class from socially and economically backward families. Barring this requirement private schools get to choose the children they admit.

13. See SLP 14124/2012 and SLP 14125/2012 in the Supreme Court.

14. The states studies were Rajasthan, Odisha, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and Delhi

15. The schedule of the RTE Act lays out the minimum requirements mandated in the Act. https://legislative.gov.in/sites/default/files/The%20Right%20of%20Children%20to%20Free%20and%20Compulsory%20Education%20Act,%202009.pdf

16. See, Bhatty et al. ( Citation 2017 ), ‘Out-of-school Children in India: Some insights into what we know and what we don’t’ EPW 9 December 2017, Vol 52. Issue 49.

17. For a critique from the economists’ perspectives, see Alan Blinder ( Citation 1987 ), The Rules versus Discretion Debate in the Light of Recent Experience’, Paper presented at the Kiel Conference of June 1987, ‘Macro and Micro Policies for More Growth and Employment’.

• Census of India. (1951, 2011). Accessed on January 19, 2022. https://censusindia.gov.in/DigitalLibrary/reports.aspx   Google Scholar
• Sadgopal, A. (2019). Nai Taleem: Gandhi’s challenge to hegemony. Social Scientist , 47(5/6), 9–30. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26786185?seq=1   Google Scholar
• Malik, A. Indian Public schools failed to provide education during lockdown. Scroll , September 18, 2020. https://scroll.in/article/973138/indian-public-schools-failed-to-provide-education-during-lockdown-say-80-parents-in-a-new-survey   Google Scholar
• Bhatty, K., Saraf, R., & Gupta, V. (2017). Out-of-school children in India: Some insights into what we know and what we don’t. Economic and Political Weekly , 52(49), 47–57. https://www.epw.in/system/files/pdf/2017_52/49/SA_LII_49_091217_Kiran_Bhatty.pdf   PubMed Google Scholar
• Blinder, A. (1987). The rules versus discretion debate in the light of recent experience. Paper presented at macro and micro policies for more growth and employment, Kiel, Germany: Institut für Weltwirtschaft, June 1987.   Google Scholar

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• Learning Management Systems

Understanding the Pros and Cons of Learning Management Systems in Surgical Education

Shaghayegh Sabbaghan, MD; Roy Phitayakorn, MD, MHPE, MAMSE, FACS; Emil Petrusa, PhD

September 24, 2024

Key Learning Objectives

• Explain what a learning management system (LMS) is and how it can be used in the context of surgical education.
• Provide an overview of major LMS platforms used in medical education, highlighting their pros, cons, and pricing.
• Identify strengths and limitations of major LMS for surgical education and suggest implementation strategies.
• Offer practical recommendations for effectively implementing LMS in surgical education to maximize benefits and mitigate challenges.

Intended Audience

This article is intended for surgical educators, residency program directors, instructional designers, and IT support staff involved in the design, implementation, and administration of educational programs in surgical residency training. It is also useful for medical education researchers and healthcare administrators interested in enhancing educational outcomes through technology.

Introduction

A learning management system (LMS) is a software application for the administration, documentation, tracking, reporting, and delivery of educational courses for training programs. 1 They provide interactive course materials and facilitate blended learning approaches to enhance the learners’ educational experiences. 2 The LMS structure can help align course objectives with learning activities and better prepare undergraduate and postgraduate students for in-person sessions. 3 However, it is unclear how an LMS should be utilized in surgical residency programs and there are no published articles on this topic to date. This article will provide the surgical education community with an overview of the major LMS platforms and how they might enhance learning for surgeons.

The advantages of using an LMS for a surgical residency program are multifaceted. First, an LMS can provide surgery residents with unparalleled flexibility, allowing them to access educational content and training modules at any time and from any location. This accessibility is especially beneficial given the busy schedules of surgical residents. Furthermore, an LMS enables the standardization of educational content throughout the training program, ensuring that all residents gain the same high-quality training. Similarly, most LMS platforms come equipped with tools designed for tracking progress and assessing performance. These features are important to allow both resident physicians and education leadership to monitor areas that require further improvement, thereby enhancing the overall learning experience. 4,5

On the other hand, the implementation of an LMS in a surgical residency program is not without its challenges. Technical issues are not uncommon, and both residents and faculty might find themselves needing to navigate these challenges or undergo training to use the LMS effectively, which can be a time-consuming endeavor. Moreover, while an LMS can significantly bolster theoretical knowledge, it falls short of providing the hands-on surgical experience that is critical for comprehensive surgical training. Another significant concern is the difficulty in maintaining engagement within a virtual learning environment. The absence of face-to-face interactions can detract from the interpersonal aspects of learning, potentially leading to a lack of engagement among residents. These disadvantages highlight the need for support and underscore the importance of measuring learner engagement along with learning outcomes in an LMS framework.

The support needed for implementing LMS in surgical education includes:

• A department server and IT support
• An instructional designer to assist with building modules
• Division content champions to work with the instructional designer to build, monitor, and update information
• Instructors and equipment, if part of the modules are "hands-on" and require follow-up simulation training

To address the challenges of using LMS in surgical residency programs effectively, here are some potentially useful suggestions:

• Strengthen IT and departmental support to streamline LMS integration. Develop a comprehensive training program for residents and faculty to minimize technical issues and maximize the LMS's utility, ensuring everyone can navigate and use the system efficiently.
• Encourage collaboration between instructional designers and department specialists to create dynamic, engaging modules. This partnership should focus on developing hands-on simulation components where feasible, blending digital learning with practical experience.  These instructional designers may be present in the larger university or medical school and do not have to be supported by the individual departments. 
• Implement interactive elements such as quizzes, discussion forums, and live Q&A sessions to increase engagement. Regular feedback mechanisms can also help in adjusting the content and format based on resident input, ensuring the LMS content remains relevant and engaging.
• While acknowledging LMS limitations in providing hands-on experience, integrate video demonstrations, virtual reality simulations, and other interactive tools to complement theoretical knowledge with visual and practical learning experiences.
• Establish clear parameters for tracking engagement, updating content, and learning outcomes. Use these insights to continuously refine and adapt the LMS content, ensuring it meets the evolving needs of the residency program and its participants.

Although an LMS will not solve all of the issues we currently face in surgical education, it is an excellent first step to improving the resident physician education experience and future work should look at their use for faculty development as well.

The thoughts and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the ACS.

• Rimsha S, Moosa FA, Zaheer F, Kamal MT, Majid A. What Does the Future Hold for a Surgical Trainee? This Lockdown Is Not a Letdown Yet: A Survey on Moodle Learning Management System as a Part of Blended Learning During COVID-19 Pandemic.   Cureus . 2021;13(7):e16690. Published 2021 Jul 28. doi:10.7759/cureus.16690
• Zakaria N, Jamal A, Bisht S, Koppel C. Embedding a learning management system into an undergraduate medical informatics course in Saudi Arabia: lessons learned.   Med 2 0 . 2013;2(2):e13. Published 2013 Nov 27. doi:10.2196/med20.2735
• Steindal SA, Ohnstad MO, Landfald ØF, et al. Postgraduate Students' Experience of Using a Learning Management System to Support Their Learning: A Qualitative Descriptive Study.   SAGE Open Nurs . 2021;7:23779608211054817. Published 2021 Nov 4. doi:10.1177/23779608211054817
• Back DA, Behringer F, Haberstroh N, Ehlers JP, Sostmann K, Peters H. Learning management system and e-learning tools: an experience of medical students' usage and expectations.   Int J Med Educ . 2016;7:267-273. Published 2016 Aug 20. doi:10.5116/ijme.57a5.f0f5
• Dua A, Sudan R, Desai SS. Improvement in American Board of Surgery in-training examination performance with a multidisciplinary surgeon-directed integrated learning platform.   J Surg Educ . 2014;71(5):689-693. doi:10.1016/j.jsurg.2014.02.007

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NYC schools boss to step down later this year after federal agents seized his devices

FILE - David Banks, chancellor of New York Public schools, answers a question during a House Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education hearing on antisemitism in K-12 public schools, May 8, 2024, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

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NEW YORK (AP) — The head of New York City’s public schools system, David Banks, said Tuesday that he will step down at the end of the calendar year, becoming the latest high-ranking departure from Mayor Eric Adams’ administration amid escalating federal criminal investigations .

The decision comes weeks after federal agents seized Banks’ phones , as well as devices belonging to the city’s police commissioner, two deputy mayors and a top Adams adviser. The police commissioner, Edward Caban, resigned earlier this month.

In a retirement letter shared with The Associated Press, Banks said he informed the mayor this summer of his plan to step down “after ensuring the school year got off to a good start.”

A former teacher, principal and founder of a network of all-boys public schools, Banks has led the city’s public school system, the nation’s largest, since Adams took office in 2022.

The resignation letter made no reference to the multiple ongoing federal investigations involving senior Adams aides, relatives of those aides, campaign fundraising and possible influence peddling.

Adams said in a statement he was “immensely grateful and proud” for what Banks had achieved over his years leading the school system.

Banks’ brother, Philip, is a former police officer who now serves as the city’s deputy mayor for public safety. Their brother Terence, a former supervisor in the city’s subway system, has been running a consulting firm that promised to connect clients with top government stakeholders .

Earlier this month, federal investigators seized phones from all three Banks brothers, as well as several other high-ranking city officials.

David Banks shares a home in Harlem with his partner, Sheena Wright, the first deputy mayor, whose devices were also seized. He previously declined to talk about the search, telling reporters: “I can’t answer those questions.”

Federal prosecutors have declined to discuss the investigations publicly.

Banks’ announcement comes as Adams is already contending with several other high-profile departures. Earlier this month, his top legal adviser, Lisa Zornberg, resigned abruptly, releasing a brief letter noting she had “concluded that I can no longer effectively serve in my position.” The city’s health commissioner, Dr. Ashwin Vasan, will also step down at the end of the year.

At a press conference Tuesday, Adams dismissed the idea his administration was facing an exodus as a result of the federal inquiries.

“Employees and staffers come and go,” he said. “Very few remain throughout an entire term.”

When Adams, a Democrat, appointed David Banks as chancellor, he heralded his friend as a “visionary, leader, innovator, who has spent his career fighting on behalf of students.”

Banks founded the Eagle Academy in 2004 to educate young Black and Latino boys who he believed were often poorly served by the educational system.

Before his appointment as schools chancellor, Banks ran the foundation that raises funds for the six Eagle Academy schools, one in each New York City borough and one in Newark, New Jersey.