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How Do Teachers Feel About Their Jobs & the Impact of AI? New Survey Has Answers
Each year, the ed tech company I work for, HMH, conducts a survey designed to understand the obstacles and opportunities teachers and administrators experience. This year’s Educator Confidence Report revealed new insights into how more than 1,200 K-12 teachers are feeling about the profession overall, as well as their attitudes toward generative artificial intelligence —...
By Francie Alexander | December 27, 2023
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Analysis: America must recommit to a learning recovery moonshot with high-dosage tutoring
Public education is at an inflection point in the campaign for learning recovery. The average eighth grader is an entire school year behind, according to national data, and students in underserved communities continue to face the biggest setbacks in the wake of COVID. Many students have regressed since 2021, even after returning to fully in-person...
By Nakia Towns | December 14, 2023
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One way parents are confronting the chronic absenteeism crisis: Finding schools that are more successful in engaging their child
Many kids are not going to school. That’s the takeaway from the abundant headlines warning about the escalating epidemic of chronic absenteeism that has worsened since 2020. The 74’s Linda Jacobson reported earlier this fall on various efforts by school districts to address rising rates of chronic absenteeism. These include districts sending robocalls with the voice of...
By Kerry McDonald | December 13, 2023
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Analysis: Flipping the script on teaching neurodivergent students — and the implications for all learners
This essay was originally published as part of the Center on Reinventing Public Education’s 2023 “State of the American Student” report. As part of the effort, CRPE asked 14 experts from various sectors to offer up examples of innovations, solutions or possible paths forward as education leaders navigate the current crisis. (See all the perspectives) Countless...
By Kristie Patten | November 29, 2023
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Analysis: Why this tutoring ‘moment’ could die If we don’t tighten up the models
In a new Aspen Economic Strategy Group report, Jonathan Guryan and Jens Ludwig argue schools are bungling the rollout of high-dosage tutoring: “When schools are faced with the possibility of change, they tend to do fewer of the hard things that will help students and more of the easier things.” Schools won’t change the schedule, they...
By Mike Goldstein | November 27, 2023
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The 50 very different states of American public education
There is not one American public education system; the U.S. is a collection of 50 states, and those states have chosen to deliver public education using very different approaches. These choices manifest themselves in a variety of ways, including how much money states provide for their public schools, how many people work in those schools...
By Chad Aldeman | November 22, 2023
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Analysis — Championing high-quality literacy instruction: Inside Knowledge Matters’ new curriculum review tool
Today, the Knowledge Matters Campaign is unveiling a new K-8 English language arts curriculum review tool to advance the understanding of truly high-quality, content-rich literacy instruction. It has felt like a necessary, even urgent, resource at this pivotal moment in time. The last year has witnessed a surge in focus on the importance of background...
By Barbara Davidson | November 6, 2023
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Analysis: Schools could lose 136,000 teaching jobs when federal COVID funds run out
Objectively speaking, it’s a weird time to be talking about layoffs in schools. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2021 had the fewest layoffs in public education in the last two decades. Last year was just a bit higher, and so far 2023 is tracking about the same. There are still pockets of layoffs due to...
By Chad Aldeman | November 2, 2023
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In Los Angeles, a tiny school lets young people direct their own education
From the outside, the headquarters of Alcove Learning looks like any small home in the largely Latino Boyle Heights section of Los Angeles. Flanked by similar houses and located among varied storefronts and restaurants, this self-directed learning center for teens and tweens offers young people the freedom to direct their own education. It is part...
By Kerry McDonald | October 31, 2023
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Analysis — Not-back-to-school time for homeschoolers: As support systems strengthen, more families embrace new approach to education
It’s back-to-school time across America, but millions of families have stepped away from a traditional classroom. Instead, they have chosen to stick with homeschooling, an option that grew in popularity during COVID school closures and has remained above pre-pandemic levels ever since. “COVID put things under a microscope,” said Amber Okolo-Ebube, a Texas homeschooling mother....
By Kerry McDonald | September 28, 2023