-
Lawmakers duel with tech execs on social media harms to youth mental health
During a hostile Senate hearing Wednesday that sometimes devolved into bickering, lawmakers from across the political spectrum accused social media companies of failing to protect young people online and pushed rules that would hold Big Tech accountable for youth suicides and child sexual exploitation. The Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., was the latest...
By Mark Keierleber | February 1, 2024
-
Federal data shows a drop in campus cops — for now
More than 1 in 10 schools with a regular police presence removed officers from their roles in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder at the hands of a Minneapolis cop, new federal data on campus crime and safety suggest. Nearly 44% of public K-12 schools were staffed with school resource officers at least once a...
By Mark Keierleber | January 30, 2024
-
Campus antisemitism, Islamophobia reports prompt ‘huge influx’ of federal civil rights complaints
Amid reports of heightened antisemitism and Islamophobia in schools and colleges since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, a senior Education Department official said the agency has received a “huge, huge influx” of civil rights complaints that have led to a surge in federal investigations. Since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas terrorists on Israel...
By Mark Keierleber | January 18, 2024
-
ChatGPT is landing kids in the principal’s office, survey finds
Ever since ChatGPT burst onto the scene last year, a heated debate has centered on its potential benefits and pitfalls for students. As educators worry students could use artificial intelligence tools to cheat, a new survey makes clear its impact on young people: They’re getting into trouble. Half of teachers say they know a student...
By Mark Keierleber | September 25, 2023
Schools After COVID: 6 Ways For Districts to Better Engage Parents Amid Concerns About COVID Learning Loss
74 Interview: Why Social Media is Being Blamed for the Youth Suicide Crisis
Thousands of Schools at Risk of Closing Due to Enrollment Loss
Free New AI Tool to Help Americans Search and Compare Student Test Scores Across All 50 States
-
Q&A: How ed tech tools track kids online — and why parents should care
As technology becomes more and more ingrained in education — and as students become increasingly concerned about how their personal information is being collected and used — startling new research shows how schools have given for-profit tech companies a massive data portal into young people’s everyday lives. The report, led by researchers at the University of Chicago and...
By Mark Keierleber | September 22, 2023
-
New data: School shootings surge to a record high — two years in a row
Despite heightened concerns about campus safety since the pandemic, in many ways America’s public schools are safer today than they were a decade ago, federal campus crime data released Wednesday reveal. Yet in one startling way, they’ve grown exponentially more dangerous: An unprecedented growth in school shootings. There were a record 188 school shootings resulting...
By Mark Keierleber | September 14, 2023
-
‘Do not underestimate the ruthlessness’: White House takes on K-12 school cybersecurity threat at first-ever summit
Shortly before First Lady Jill Biden took the podium at the White House Tuesday to champion a new federal initiative to combat K-12 school ransomware attacks, the cyber gang Medusa announced its latest victim on the dark web. Such unrelenting attacks — this time against a Bergen County, New Jersey, district —are what brought the...
By Mark Keierleber | August 10, 2023
-
New $200 million FCC proposal could help schools combat cyber attack onslaught
As ransomware and other cyber attacks become an increasingly potent threat to schools nationwide, a proposal by Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel seeks to create the first federal funding stream to help districts fight back. A three-year pilot program announced by Rosenworcel earlier this month could invest up to $200 million to enhance cybersecurity...
By Mark Keierleber | August 3, 2023
-
The education community braced for guidance on student discipline. It never came
During a heated Senate confirmation hearing in July 2021, civil rights attorney Catherine Lhamon made clear her goal to confront longstanding, dramatic racial disparities in school discipline at a moment when racial inequities — in policing, education and society more broadly — were at the center of the national discourse. She’d done it before, to fanfare...
By Mark Keierleber | April 20, 2023
-
Q&A: Shannon Watts on the power moms wield to stop school shootings
It was the 2012 school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, that brought Shannon Watts to action. From her Indiana home, the former communications executive and stay-at-home mother of five created a Facebook group for women who supported heightened gun laws. What began as a modest community on the social media platform quickly grew into the political...
By Mark Keierleber | April 13, 2023