Category: Education

The longer-term picture is more sobering.

Although more students enrolled in both four- and two-year colleges, small school alumni did not complete community college in greater numbers than the comparison group. After six years, about 10 percent of students had earned an associate degree, roughly the same share as students who did not attend the small schools. Researchers also found no differences in employment or earnings.

There was one notable exception. Students who enrolled in four-year colleges were more likely to complete a bachelor’s degree if they had attended a small high school. Almost 15 percent of the small-school students earned a four-year degree within six years, compared with 12 percent of their peers.

Joel Klein was the New York City schools chancellor from 2002 to 2011 during the overhaul. Klein said the data shows that the small school effort was worthwhile. He considers it one of his most important accomplishments, along with the expansion of charter schools. Closing large high schools and replacing them with new ones required significant political will, he said, when it sparked resistance from the teachers union. Teachers weren’t guaranteed jobs in the new smaller schools and had to apply again or find another school to hire them.

New York wasn’t the only city to try small schools. Baltimore and Oakland, California, among others, also used Gates Foundation money to experiment with the concept. The results were not encouraging.

Klein argues other cities failed to replicate New York’s success because they simply divided large schools into smaller units without building new cultures. In New York, aspiring principals submitted detailed proposals, just like charter schools, and schools opened gradually, adding one grade at a time.

There were unintended consequences in New York too. During the transition years between the closure of the old school and the slow ramp-up of the new small schools, seats were limited. Enrollments in the remaining large schools in the city rose. While some students enjoyed the intimacy of the new small schools, many more students suffered overcrowding.

Whether because of political resistance, replication challenges or shifting philanthropic priorities, the small-school movement eventually sputtered out. By the 2010s, would-be reformers had shifted their attention toward evaluating teacher effectiveness and school turnaround strategies.

Today, with enrollment declining in many districts, school consolidation, not expansion, dominates the conversation. MDRC’s Unterman said some districts are now exploring whether elements of the small school model — advisory systems or “schools within schools” — can be recreated inside larger campuses.

By all accounts, New York City’s small schools were a vast improvement over the foundering schools they replaced. A majority remain in operation, a testament to their staying power. However, the evidence they leave behind also underscores a hard truth. Improving high school can move important milestones, like getting more students to go to college. Altering students’ economic trajectories may require more radical change.

This story about small high schools was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for Jill Barshay’s  Proof Points and other Hechinger newsletters.

Most clicked story of the week: 

The Trump administration recently secured a legal victory when the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated a preliminary injunction against major provisions of two executive orders targeting diversity, equity and inclusion practices in the higher education sector and elsewhere and remanded the case to the lower court. The ruling comes after the same three-judge panel had paused the injunction in March while they reviewed the case. 

Number of the week: 10.9% 

That’s the annual average returns college endowments enjoyed in fiscal 2025, according to a survey of over 650 institutions by the National Association of College and University Business Officers and Commonfund. That represents a small decline from the prior year, when they saw 11.2% returns on average. 

What’s the latest with Harvard? 

• The U.S. Department of Justice sued Harvard University on Friday, alleging the Ivy League institution is withholding information from the agency over an investigation into its admissions practices. The department had asked for applicant-level data, including essays and test scores disaggregated by race, as part of its probe into whether Harvard is adhering to the 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decision banning race-conscious admissions practices. 
• In another escalation of the Trump administration’s ongoing battle with Harvard, the U.S. Department of Defense announced earlier this month that it plans to cut academic ties with Harvard. That means it would no longer send active duty military members to the university for fellowships, certificate programs and graduate education. 
• Meanwhile, four dozen colleges — including all of Harvard’s peers in the Ivy League — signed an amicus brief last month in support of the university’s lawsuit against the Trump administration for attempting to cut off its ability to enroll international students, the Columbia Daily Spectator reported last week. 

What’s the latest from the U.S. Department of Education? 

• The U.S. Department of Education said it “strongly discourages” accreditors from describing themselves as “regional,” according to a proposed interpretive rule set to be published in the Federal Register on Tuesday. It argued that the label has no regulatory significance and can mislead students. In 2020, the Education Department issued regulations that eliminated the traditional geographic boundaries of the seven major accreditors that operated regionally. 
• Education Department officials touted progress with the Free Application for Federal Student Aid last week at the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators’ legislative conference in Washington, D.C. They pointed to low call center wait times, averaging under one minute, as well as students and their families reporting high satisfaction with the form. 
• The Education Department also released new data on the foreign gifts and contracts U.S. colleges received valued over $250,000 — in line with the Trump administration’s priority to monitor foreign influence over the higher education sector. Colleges reported more than $5 billion in foreign gifts and contracts, with the biggest recipients of such funding including Harvard, Carnegie Mellon University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University, NPR reported. 

This article was originally published in April 2025. It has been republished in light of Sir Keir Starmer’s pledge to crackdown on children’s use of smartphones.

For Matthew Tavender, head of schools at Cunningham Hill primary schools, the problem wasn’t children using their phones during school hours, it was the pervasive influence of social media when his pupils left the classroom.

“We were dealing with the fallout on Monday morning”, he explains. “In the past 10 years that smartphones have been around, I’ve not heard one in school. But what we were seeing was the damage smartphones were having outside of school, and the impact of that inside”.

In May 2024, his primary school – along with 32 others in St Albans, Hertfordshire – decided to address the problem themselves. They sent out a joint letter to families, declaring their schools smartphone-free and urging parents not to give their children the devices until at least the age of 14.

The benefits, Mr Tavender says, have been clear to see.

A check-in before Christmas to assess smartphone use among his pupils revealed that just seven per cent of year 6 pupils have a smartphone, down from 68 per cent the year before.

“Our older children, who would have had a smartphone but now don’t – their attention is much better,” Mr Tavender says. “There is a definite improvement in their relationships. They talk more, play more, whereas a lot of our year 6s (aged 10 or 11) were quite sedentary before.”

Research from regulator Ofcom last year found that children aged eight to 11 are more likely to own a smartphone than not, with 59 per cent having them.

Once children go to secondary school, this is almost universal. At Cunningham Hill Schools, they had some children in year 3 (aged seven or eight) with their own smartphones, and this was not uncommon.

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Ofcom found that around a quarter of five-to-seven-year-olds have a smartphone. Usage of social media apps and messaging tools is also increasing year-on-year for primary school-age children, and a recent YouGov poll found 23 per cent of children aged eight to 15 spend more than four hours a day using screens.

Before Cunningham Hill took action, staff were seeing a lot of problems coming from WhatsApp use, Mr Tavender says.

“That was the biggest cause of bullying and issues with friendship in the school,” he explains. “WhatsApp groups were getting bigger and bigger, some had about 90 people in, and half of them weren’t in our school.

“The interactions between our children were very negative on there – lots of inappropriate language, inappropriate pictures being shared. Nothing sexual, but there were comments on violence and race and things like that.

“We were having a number of our year 6s talking about Andrew Tate, and certainly some of the boys revering who he was.”

Twenty years ago, if children fell out in the playground, they could remove themselves from the fight at the end of the school day. Now grievances follow them home through instant messaging apps, Mr Tavender explains.

While issues generated from children’s social media use have reduced significantly in the first year of the experiment, they haven’t disappeared completely, he adds.

In October 2024, problems cropped up among the small group of children who still had smartphones, with parents having to be warned about inappropriate messages being shared.

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By the time Graham Dill’s 10-year-old son moves into year 6, he’s hopeful that almost none of the class will have smartphones. “Taking something away is a lot harder than not letting people have it in the first place,” he says.

As a parent at Cunningham Hill who also works as a private tutor, Mr Dill has two different perspectives on the impact of smartphones and social media on children.

He tutors children who don’t go to school; some with behavioural issues, others who are too anxious to attend.

Maintaining his pupils’ attention can be tough in a post-smartphone age, he explains: “I’m working with kids from around 13-to-16-years-old and they are extremely distracted.

“It affects their concentration and their ability to take some deep breaths and be present on a task. They need that task to go right immediately, or want other stimulation if it is too boring.

“With one boy, it’s a constant default to take his phone out of his pocket and it is a constant reminder. ‘No, put the phone away’.”

When Cunningham Hill announced to parents that they would go smartphone-free, Mr Dill was delighted. Each year group in the school has a smartphone-free ambassador to relay information to other parents and keep them sticking to the pact.

Mr Dill’s children, George and Thomas, are aged 10 and eight and he believes that if parents get on board when their children are younger it is easier to maintain the pledge to keep them smartphone-free.

“If most people are not doing it [giving their children phones], then it becomes a lot easier,” he explains. “We’re having this battle at the moment with Fortnite. They all want Fortnite and we [Mr Dill and his wife, Rachel] don’t really want them to play that.

“It’s because their friends are playing Fortnite that they want to do it, and I think that’s the same with phones down the line”.

His boys are also starting to recognise the low mood that can be generated from too long spent online. “The comedown is such that they can recognise that they are dysregulated at that point,” he explains. “We’re trying to get them to understand when they need to come off a device”.

Parent ambassadors at the St Albans primary schools have now set their sights on local secondary schools, and are hoping to lobby headteachers to push them to take more action.

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Deputy head of Queens Park Community School in London, Paul Drummond, has three children at a secondary school in St Albans. Their school, Samuel Ryder Academy, allows students to bring phones to school, but they shouldn’t be seen in lessons, and shouldn’t be for personal use on site.

At Queens Park, the policy is stricter. Children are not allowed smartphones in years 7, 8 or 9. At key stage 4, pupils are allowed them but they can’t be seen on the school site. At key stage 5 or A levels, students are allowed their phones, but they shouldn’t be seen and can be used in lessons only when the teacher allows it.

He explains: “Since we’ve banned phones from being on site at key stage 3, the expectation is that if students need a phone so parents can track them, they should use an old Nokia.

“One of the problems with that is that there can be racial stereotyping of children with old Nokias, with members of the public thinking they are burner phones. Some of the parents are very worried about that.

“But since we’ve banned phones at key stage 3, the safeguarding issues, bullying, and other problems have been reduced quite significantly,” Mr Drummond says.

“We agonised over banning them. We’ve got quite a large site and at break time it’s a much happier place now there’s no phones.”

A recent survey of more than 15,000 schools found that 99.8 per cent of primary schools and 90 per cent of secondary schools have some form of phone ban.

Academics at the University of Birmingham also concluded in a study published in 2025 that just banning smartphones in schools doesn’t improve children’s grades or wellbeing, or reduce their overall phone use.

Instead, they argued that any bans need to be part of a wider strategy to lower phone use among students.

As a parent, Mr Drummond has experienced the difficulties of trying to reduce the family’s social media use. A plan to have no screen time together during the evening, and a ban on phones going upstairs, went out of the window when Covid hit, he says.

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In his view, restricting phone access should be coupled with education about usage for both his children and pupils. His school has introduced a tutorial every week for the whole school on the big news stories of the week, which is teaching children discernment, Mr Drummond says.

“We spent 20 minutes discussing the news story, where it came from. We talk about misinformation, reliability and the importance of developing an opinion and political engagement.

“The bottom line is that if someone has access to the internet, they can look at anything they want to really. So we’re trying to get people to understand the perils but also to understand why it is great to look things up and find things out.”

Ofcom research has found that children’s engagement with news and current affairs is low and comes almost exclusively via social media.

Netflix Adolescence has recently sparked national debate over the dangers of children’s access to digital spaces.

The series follows 13-year-old Jamie Miller, whose exposure to misogynistic online communities may have contributed to his killing a female classmate.

While prime minister Sir Keir Starmer has supported the screening of Adolescence in schools, he has said that a government-led phone ban is “completely unnecessary”.

For Mr Tavender, stricter measures from government would be very helpful.

“If the government were to say we are banning phones, then it would make it very easy to get that message across, because that is just the way it is,” he says.

He’s against a “postcode lottery” where some schools have stricter measures than others: “It should be a national decision like in other countries, to ban phones and social media for children. From an education point of view, we are crying out for that support.”

In the meantime, he’s keen to keep the grassroots movement going and persuade local secondary schools to also ask parents to delay giving their children smartphones.

The school is also trying to go beyond phone use and convince more of their students to get outside, and encourage outdoor play.

Mr Dill feels the same. While he’s been encouraged by the changes that St Albans primary schools have made, he wants politicians to get on board.

“I think rather than bottom up it, needs to come from top down, but I guess we won’t see that until we have enough people from the bottom raising their hands and saying they want things done,” he says.

by TeachThought Curricula

Curricula Format If you’d like to purchase printable reading response cards to use in the classroom, you can do so at our TeachersPayTeachers Store. You can find the resource show here–> non-fiction reading responses.

In the ELA classroom, literacy involves decoding a text and then analyzing it for meaning, implicit and explicit themes. It also requires examining the relationship of a text to a given perspective, author’s purpose, and related text and media.

Which is where these prompts come in.

The following analytical responses are intended to general and universal, useful for application for a range of texts. Here, the most specific form is non-fiction texts, including essays, articles, editorials, speeches, memoirs, biographies, and other informational texts.

How To Use These Prompts

Each prompt is designed to stand alone, so teachers can select one or several based on the text, the skill being emphasized, or the needs of individual students. A few approaches that work well:

As reading response stations: Print the cards and place them at stations around the room. After reading a shared text — for example, Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” — students rotate and respond to two or three prompts of their choice.

As differentiated journal prompts: Assign specific prompts based on where students need practice. A student working on identifying author’s craft might respond to: prompt 3 (“How does the author establish and develop the theme throughout the text? What tools do they use?”), while a student ready for more complex analysis might take on prompt 9 (comparing texts in terms of theme, tone, writing style, and idea organization).

As discussion starters: Use a single prompt to frame a Socratic seminar or small-group discussion. Prompt 5 (“Who is the audience? How do you know?”) can generate productive debate when applied to an editorial or political speech where the intended audience isn’t immediately obvious.

As assessment preparation: Because the prompts mirror the kinds of analytical thinking required on standardized assessments, regular use builds familiarity with close reading and evidence-based response without requiring separate test prep.

The prompts appear on the image below. If you’d like to download actual cards to use in the classroom (see the image above for an example), we’ve created a curricula set you can download here.

Content Area: English-Language Arts, Literature, Writing

Grade Level: High School/Grades 8-12

When Learning Feels Personal, Engagement Follows

Think about the last app you opened today. Netflix probably greeted you with a show that felt uncannily right for your mood. Spotify may have lined up a playlist that matched your energy without you lifting a finger. Duolingo likely nudged you to practice just enough to keep the habit alive, without making learning feel overwhelming. Now compare that to the experience most employees have when they log into a corporate learning platform. The contrast is hard to ignore.

While consumer apps feel intuitive, personal, and almost human, many workplace learning experiences still feel rigid, generic, and transactional. And this gap is becoming a serious challenge for L&D leaders. Today’s workforce is shaped by consumer-grade digital experiences. Their expectations don’t reset when they enter a Learning Management System (LMS). This is why personalization is no longer a “nice-to-have” feature in LMS platforms. It’s the foundation of engagement.

Personalization Is About Feeling Understood

Consumer apps succeed because they make users feel seen:

1. Netflix interprets behavior. What you watched, when you paused, what you abandoned halfway through, all of it quietly shapes what appears on your screen next.
2. Spotify listens to how long you play a song, what you skip, and what you repeat.
3. Duolingo notices where you struggle and gently adjust lessons to help you progress.

In contrast, many Learning Management Systems still operate on static rules. Learners are grouped by department or role, assigned the same content, and measured primarily on completion. The assumption is that uniform access equals equal opportunity.

Modern LMS platforms need to shift from delivering content to designing experiences that respond to individual needs to feel consumer-grade. Personalization is about surfacing the right learning at the right moment. When learners feel that the system understands their context, learning stops feeling like an obligation and starts feeling useful.

Relevance Is The Real Driver Of Engagement

One of the biggest lessons L&D leaders can take from consumer apps is the importance of relevance. Netflix doesn’t overwhelm you with its entire library. It curates. Spotify doesn’t ask you to search endlessly—it recommends. Duolingo doesn’t unlock everything at once, it guides you step by step.

In many organizations, employees log into learning management software only to face large catalogs, long learning paths, and little direction. Even motivated learners can struggle when everything feels equally important.

This is where advanced Learning Management System features make a difference. By using role data, skill frameworks, and learner behavior, LMS platforms can prioritize learning that aligns with real-world needs. Instead of asking learners to figure out what matters, the platform does the heavy lifting. When learning feels immediately relevant to daily work, engagement becomes a natural outcome, not something L&D has to chase.

Learning Should Adapt, Not Penalize

Duolingo offers a powerful lesson in how learning systems should respond to mistakes. When users get something wrong, the app doesn’t punish them. It adapts. It reinforces. It revisits concepts in different ways. The learner stays supported, not discouraged.

Many corporate learning environments, however, still rely on rigid assessment models. Fail a quiz, and you may need to repeat an entire module. Miss a deadline, and the experience becomes stressful rather than supportive.

Learning management software that truly supports growth needs to be flexible. Adaptive learning paths, contextual reinforcement, and personalized feedback help learners build confidence instead of anxiety and feel like consumer-grade apps. The goal isn’t perfection, it’s progress. When LMS platforms are designed to adapt to learners rather than force learners to adapt to the system, learning becomes more resilient and effective.

Habit Matters More Than Motivation

One reason consumer apps dominate daily life is their ability to build habits effortlessly. Spotify’s daily playlists, Netflix’s “continue watching,” and Duolingo’s gentle reminders all serve the same purpose: they keep users coming back without demanding intense motivation.

Workplace learning often relies on deadlines, reminders, and mandates. But motivation fades quickly when learning feels disconnected from daily workflows. Modern Learning Management Systems are beginning to recognize that small, consistent interactions matter more than occasional deep dives. Microlearning, nudges, and progress indicators encourage learners to engage regularly without feeling overwhelmed. hen LMS platforms support habit formation, learning becomes part of the workday rather than an interruption to it.

Discovery Should Feel Natural, Not Forced

Consumer apps excel at discovery because they remove effort from the equation. You don’t have to search for your Spotify Discover Weekly playlist. Netflix doesn’t ask you to build your own recommendations. Duolingo tells you exactly what to practice next. Many LMS environments still expect learners to explore on their own. Search bars, filters, and categories place the burden of discovery entirely on the user.

Learning Management System features that prioritize intelligent discovery change this dynamic. By proactively suggesting content based on learner behavior, skill gaps, and business priorities, LMS platforms can make learning feel intuitive rather than exhausting. When discovery is seamless, curiosity follows.

Data Should Shape Experiences, Not Just Reports

Consumer apps collect vast amounts of data, but they don’t use it merely for reporting. They use it to improve the experience in real time. In L&D, data is often trapped in dashboards, useful for compliance reporting but limited in driving meaningful change. The true potential of learning management software lies in using data to personalize journeys, identify skill gaps early, and guide learners proactively. When data informs experience design, LMS platforms become strategic tools rather than administrative systems.

The Future Of LMS Platforms Is Consumer-Grade

The takeaway for L&D leaders is clear. Employees don’t compare workplace learning to other corporate tools. They compare it to the apps they use every day. And those apps have set a high bar for personalization, relevance, and ease. The future of Learning Management Systems isn’t about adding more content or more features. It’s about creating experiences that feel intuitive, adaptive, and human. Because when learning feels personal, it doesn’t need to be pushed. It pulls.

Dive Brief:

• The Labouré College of Healthcare, in Massachusetts, plans to cease academic operations at the end of August, according to a Thursday announcement.
• Nearby Curry College, pending regulatory approvals, has agreed to absorb the shuttering college’s nursing program. It plans to operate the programs under a new unit called the Labouré Center for Advancing Healthcare Opportunity at Curry College. 
• Labouré President Lily Hsu said in a blog post that the college has faced “persistent financial and enrollment challenges and regulatory hurdles.” The institution’s governing board unanimously approved the agreement with Curry.

Dive Insight:

 In her post, Hsu explained that the arrangement with Curry was made with students and Labouré’s legacy in mind. 

Nursing students, she said, will be able to continue their studies in the fall at Curry — about 4 miles from Labouré in suburban Boston — with their credits transferring and tuition staying at Labouré’s announced rate for 2026-27. 

Meanwhile, Labouré is working with other institutions to finalize articulation agreements for students in its other programs who can’t complete their studies before Aug. 31,  including its respiratory care program. 

Curry plans to hire roughly 15 members of Labouré’s nursing faculty and 20 staffers from the college, according to a Curry spokesperson. As of Nov. 1, 2024, Labouré had 23 full-time employees devoted to instruction and 49 noninstructional staff, according to the latest federal data.

Bringing on the employees will “maintain stability in curriculum, instruction, and support services,” Hsu said in her post. 

Labouré will also pledge its endowment to the nursing center bearing its name at Curry, once it has secured regulatory and legal approvals. In fiscal 2024, the Labouré endowment’s assets were valued at $9.4 million, according to its latest financials. 

In addition, the college’s alumni council will become part of the Curry nursing center to “preserve the history and spirit of Labouré,” Hsu said. 

Curry President Jay Gonzalez said in a statement that his college is “committed to continuing Labouré’s mission of preserving access for the diverse, adult student population it serves.”

Labouré traces its roots to a nurse training school founded in 1892 by a religious order. By the mid-20th century, three nursing education institutions merged into one college that became the Catherine Labouré School of Nursing. 

Today, Labouré says it is focused on educating underserved students. Half its students are raising young families, according to the college. In fall 2024, 44% of its students were Black or African American, 31% were White and 13% were Hispanic or Latino, according to federal data.  

Already a small college, Labouré’s enrollment has shrunk substantially in recent years. Between 2018 and 2024, fall headcount dropped by just over 37% to 530 students.

By comparison, Curry’s fall 2024 enrollment stood at 1,994 students. That figure also dropped — by nearly 23% since 2018. Curry has about 500 students in its nursing programs, which roughly mirrors Labouré’s nursing student body, according to a spokesperson.

In 2023, Labouré’s associate nursing program faced a potential shutdown from the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Nursing after its students fell short of an 80% first-time pass rate of a national nursing licensure exam. It ultimately let the college off with a warning. However, the warning meant that the college had to limit admissions into the program to 28 students that fall, according to a report from the time in Becker’s Hospital Review. 

Labouré’s scores later improved, and by May 2024, the state board had restored full approval for the program. 

What Is Standing Between You And Successful Employee Development?

In a time of rapid change in the business world, skill gaps are growing faster than ever. New technologies arise, customer habits change, expectations continuously rise, and all employees can do is move as fast they can not be left behind. Businesses that are aware of this situation can make things easier for their workforce by implementing comprehensive employee development strategies that will help them keep up with the evolving needs of their industries. However, getting employee development right is not always easy. In this article, we will discuss 6 employee development challenges and ways to combat them so that your organization can reach its full potential.

Lack Of Time

Time is often a very valuable and scarce resource in organizations, which is why it is an employee development challenge you shouldn’t overlook. Employees have heavy workloads, time-sensitive tasks, and a variety of responsibilities to attend to in their day-to-day. As a result, they might struggle to find the time necessary to dedicate to training and development activities. This problem becomes especially pronounced when they are asked to completely step away from their work to complete a full-length training module or watch a long how-to video.

Solution: Integrate learning into workflows.

If the issue is that training and development activities pull employees away from their work, the best solution is to integrate learning into the workflow. This approach allows learning to become a tool that helps employees complete their tasks more effectively, rather than interrupting them. But how can you do that? The most straightforward way is to leverage microlearning to break long learning modules into short, focused segments that can easily fit between tasks. Additionally, you can make this integration even more seamless by providing embedded on-the-job training materials. These resources can assist employees by giving them access to valuable information exactly when they need it.

Budget Limitations

When companies are going through challenging times, Learning and Development is often the first area to witness budget cuts. This is due to the fact that business leaders tend to put immediate operational needs over initiatives that provide long-term benefits. However, deprioritizing learning can negatively impact the organization, potentially leading to even greater economic consequences. These may include lower employee morale, higher turnover, and, ultimately, reduced productivity.

Solution: Use targeted learning programs to tackle financial issues.

Treating employee development as an afterthought is never a wise course of action, even when dealing with budget restraints. Training your employees is meant to make your workforce more knowledgeable, capable, and agile in the face of changes and challenges that may arise. Treat L&D as a strategy to detect the reasons why your organization is not as profitable as it could be and address them through targeted training and development programs designed to help your employees boost their performance in problem areas.

Low Engagement

When employees don’t understand the value of training initiatives or, even worse, view them as irrelevant to their roles or career growth, it’s only natural that low participation and engagement will follow. There are various reasons why this challenge may arise, some of which may include a misalignment between the learning content and the employee’s job responsibilities, inadequate communication of the benefits of training, a lack of opportunities for applying newly acquired knowledge, and a one-size-fits-all approach to learning.

Solution: Personalize learning paths and align development with career goals.

To address this employee development challenge, organizations need to turn to personalized learning paths that adapt to the specific needs, goals, and aspirations of employees, instead of using the exact same approach for everyone. To identify and analyze the diverse needs of your workforce, consider conducting interest assessments, holding one-on-one meetings, and providing quizzes and performance reviews. Moreover, make sure to incorporate interactive elements, gamification, and mentorship programs into your employee development strategy to make them more engaging and enjoyable for your employees.

Measuring Impact

Identifying the right metrics to accurately assess the effectiveness of their Learning and Development strategies is another challenge that organizations often face. However, proving training ROI is necessary to ensure stakeholder support. This challenge arises primarily from the absence of standardized evaluation frameworks and an overreliance on subjective feedback, both of which may lead to an inaccurate reflection of training impact. On top of that, training benefits often take time to manifest, while different departments may have varied learning objectives. As a result, demonstrating a measurable connection between training initiatives and organizational performance may be a rather challenging process.

Solution: Tie development metrics to performance data and business outcomes.

To address these issues, organizations must develop comprehensive evaluation strategies that include both qualitative and quantitative metrics, such as pre- and post-training evaluations, performance tracking, surveys, and feedback forms, among others. By analyzing this data, they can make informed decisions on future training investments and better align programs with employee and organizational goals to increase productivity, employee retention, and overall job performance. Finally, establishing a clear evaluation framework will help justify L&D-related expenses and optimize learning strategies to ensure continuous improvement.

Scaling Programs

As organizations grow, maintaining consistent employee development programs becomes more complex due to a larger and more diverse workforce with varying skill sets and aspirations. This diversity can lead to inconsistent approaches across departments, and scaling training programs often requires more money and time than businesses are capable of providing. Not to mention the added challenge of trying to adapt to diverse employee needs without losing the alignment between corporate objectives and individual employee goals. Failure to do so can result in employee disengagement and high turnover rates.

Solution: Leverage digital platforms and standardized employee development templates.

To address these challenges and achieve personalized learning and company-wide training consistency, organizations should adopt innovative development strategies, utilizing technology and flexible learning solutions. In particular, Learning Management Systems (LMSs) and other online training solutions can simplify scalability, allowing you to standardize content delivery and streamline feedback exchange, all while providing flexibility for different learning preferences. Moreover, as these solutions simplify the implementation of training initiatives, they encourage a culture of continuous learning that supports sustainable organizational growth and success.

The Rise Of Remote And Hybrid Work

The final employee development challenge we will touch on refers to the unprecedented rise of remote and hybrid workers and how complex it is to provide everyone with learning that is effective as well as engaging. Different branches may have different needs and even operate under different compliance regulations due to their location. In such a complicated circumstance, it’s not realistic to have an exclusively remote or in-person training strategy, as that will definitely not work for the entirety of the workforce. In addition to that, while some skills can be effectively acquired through online learning courses, others may require hands-on training or face-to-face interaction to ensure engagement and comprehension.

Solution: Leverage blended learning experiences to reach all employees.

The solution to this challenge lies in finding the right balance between online and face-to-face training initiatives. In other words, it requires organizations to build blended learning experiences that align with their learning objectives and the working habits of their employees. Mix on-site activities, such as workshops and team-building activities, with modules that can be completed online, such as branching scenarios, gamified learning experiences, quizzes, and more. By doing so, you can leverage the benefits of technology and the flexibility it provides, while reducing screen fatigue and feelings of isolation.

Conclusion

Employee development can be greatly beneficial for your organization, enriching the skills of your workforce and helping you increase productivity, efficiency, and profitability. However, it comes with its own set of challenges that can significantly impact its effectiveness. Knowing what to expect can help you prepare your organization and quickly overcome employee development challenges that are keeping you from reaching your full potential. Take into consideration the solutions we proposed in this article to boost employee engagement and create a valuable competitive advantage for your organization.

In a conversation with Life Kit, Vellos shares insights on how to turn a stranger into a friend, based on scientific research and her work as a friendship coach. In that role, she helps people who are having a hard time making friends where they live, and talks to city leaders and urban planners about designing spaces for connection. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Let’s talk about how to spot a friend in the wild. Maybe this is in a community space or a group dinner. How do you know if this person has friend potential?  

Notice who you feel warmth with, who you feel safe around. Also notice if they show curiosity about getting to know you more too.

It’s not necessarily the most exciting person in the room. They might have a lot of charisma and magnetic charm, but they might not make you feel grounded.

Let’s say you meet someone who seems cool. How might you ask them to hang out? 

A common mistake that people make when they’re trying to build a new friendship is they wait too long to see that new acquaintance again. And in that time, the spark can fizzle out.

There’s research about how long it takes to convert an acquaintance into a friend. It comes from the work of Jeffrey Hall, [a professor of communication studies] at University of Kansas.

He quantified how many hours it takes to convert a stranger into a friend: More than 30 for a casual friend. [Those hours] really need to be compressed, preferably in those first several weeks of meeting each other.

This research confirms what your intuition might say, which is: If you spend a lot of time together when the relationship is new, it’s more likely to stick.

A lot of times, adults will follow some kind of arbitrary rule that says you can’t hang out two days in a row, or you can’t see somebody more than once a week. Unfortunately, this is why so many friendships fizzle out.

As for what to do together, you suggest picking an activity that’s memorable. 

Coffee dates are fine. A lot of people default to them for a first date. But coffee is forgettable. It doesn’t feel important. It’s easy to cancel and it doesn’t give you a lot of fodder for conversation.

So pick something that’s a little more interesting. It’s going to amp up the excitement, [and people are more likely] not to cancel.

So if you tell me you’re into knitting, I might be like, “Hey, there’s this exhibit of really cool yarn art. Do you wanna go?” You’re probably more likely to say yes because it’s something you actually care about.

There’s another benefit. Researchers at Cornell University found that when people who don’t know each other very well do an out-of-the-ordinary experience together, that bonds them a lot faster than doing a run-of-the-mill activity, like just another coffee.

When we do something a little unusual, that novelty draws both of your attention and gives you a memory you can have together. [Going to] a classic car show or a vegan food truck festival is going to be a lot more memorable than that latte.

What if you start hanging out and realize you don’t actually like them?  

It’s OK not to take this train all the way to the bestie station.

Decide if you actually want to stop seeing them, or if you simply want to move them into the outer ring of connection.

There really are rings. There’s your inner circle. The next ring is friends you might invite to a birthday party. The next ring is [people you’d] be happy to see randomly, but don’t seek out. Then it’s [people] who you’re OK with being strangers.

Let’s say you do have a new friend. It’s going well. You’ve been out a few times. What are some ways to make the friendship stick? 

I often say there’s four seeds of connection: compatibility, frequency, proximity and commitment. I describe this in my book. If these four elements are present, it is more likely that this friendship is going to last.

The first one is compatibility. Hopefully there’s enough mutual interest and chemistry there that you want to keep going. Then it’s frequency. How often are you seeing each other? Proximity is how much time you can spend in person, face-to-face. How close can you be?

Over time, if you’re both committed, you both become dedicated to the friendship.

The story was edited by Meghan Keane. We’d love to hear from you. Leave us a voicemail at 202-216-9823, or email us at LifeKit@npr.org.

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