The Most-Read Opinion Essays of 2022 (Opinion)

Curious about what opinion pieces your fellow education professionals were most interested in reading this year?

Here are Education Week’s most-read opinion blog posts and essays of 2022, ranked in descending order. Readers seemed particularly drawn to authors documenting the emotional highs and lows of teaching, the thorny questions facing school leaders, and the ins and outs of reading instruction.

Revisit these essays and discover new perspectives you might have missed this year.

1. Why This Teacher Will No Longer Pay for the ‘Privilege’ to Wear Jeans

Getting to wear jeans occasionally at my school hardly seems worth the outlay, explains teacher Kelly Scott.
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2. Stress, Hypervigilance, and Decision Fatigue: Teaching During Omicron

We teachers can’t just “self care” our way through this new stage of the pandemic, writes classroom educator Katy Farber.
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3. I Don’t Have to Love My Students to Be a Good Teacher

Treat teachers like the professionals we are rather than expecting endless and selfless sacrifice, writes educator Jherine Wilkerson.
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4. A Principal’s Assessment: ‘We’re Not OK’

This school year is taking a toll. Principal Lisa Meade explains why.
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5. The Most Important Thing Principals Can Do in a Teacher Observation

The best feedback teacher Kelly Scott ever got came during her first year teaching—and it started with just one word.
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6. Lucy Calkins Revisits and Revises Her Reading Curriculum

Yes, learning to read takes phonics—but also a whole lot more, writes the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project founder.
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7. When It Comes to the Teacher Shortage, Who’s Abandoning Whom?

Are teachers really leaving the school system or just an archaic model that we should all leave behind? ask Michael Fullan and Joanna Rizzotto.
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8. Why One Principal Is Asking Her Staff to Do Less

I have been complicit in the stress my staff is feeling, writes Crystal Thorpe. Here’s how I’m changing that.
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9. When the ‘Science of Reading’ Goes Too Far

Third grade teacher Jessica Hahn and literacy specialist Mia Hood lament time-consuming assessments that do little to promote reading comprehension.
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10. Are Schools Too Inclusive? Some People Think So

Acceptance of all children is a central mission of public schools—places where there’s no room for hatred and fear, writes Peter DeWitt.
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