As schools face rising behavioral challenges, debates rage on about restorative justice, which rejects traditional, punitive discipline in favor of relationship-based work to address underlying causes of conflict. Studies show widely disparate results — for example, on school violence and academic performance. Many advocates explain these discrepancies by noting that neutral-to-negative results come about when schools cherry-pick restorative practices —...

Did you, like me, take time over the break to play with one of the new artificial intelligence bots? I asked ChatGPT to write a blog in the style of Robin Lake on the topic of helping students recover from the impacts of COVID-19 and related school closures. Here’s what it offered: As the director of the...

The pandemic taught us many things, particularly in the world of education. Many families realized that the structure of a classroom was essential for their child’s learning — and that without access to that structure, kids struggled both academically and socially. On the other hand, many families saw their children thrive in a more flexible...

After years of targeting and extorting high-value corporate targets, ransomware attackers have turned to more vulnerable prey — school districts. With less funding, less-than-mature cybersecurity defenses and limited (or even nonexistent) controls over an abundance of sensitive data, educational institutions are prime targets for cybercriminals. As a number of recent notable attacks against school systems...

Generation A, the children currently attending K-12 schools, has endured political instability, a traumatizing pandemic, an interrupted education and now an economic crisis afflicting families as costs continue to rise for everyday items. The expanded Child Tax Credit, a pandemic-era program that provided qualifying families with $250 a month for children under 6 and $300...

School districts are facing the greatest educational challenge of the last 100 years — reversing pandemic-induced learning loss among tens of millions of students. It is a moment that demands innovative programs that will be sustained over time and lead to rapid and lasting improvements. But experience teaches that in the face of great need,...

Let me get this hard sell on the table right up front: You should listen to “Sold a Story,” a podcast about reading instruction in U.S. schools. After all, you can be concerned that 1 in 3 American fourth graders read below a basic level and still not want a deep dive into how literacy...

The recent scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress are the latest indication of what we in the Los Angeles Unified School District already know — our students are demonstrating tremendous resiliency after the pandemic because of the incredible educators dedicating their time and energy to the families of Los Angeles. The tests, which...

Last month, California released long held student data. And while standardized test scores don’t tell us everything, they do provide an important touchpoint to hold our school districts accountable for delivering an equitable and excellent education for all students.  Here are four things our school system should do with this new 2021-22 school-level data: Re-engage...

The debate over the firing of NYU organic chemistry Prof. Maitland Jones Jr. misses the point: It’s neither that his tests were too hard nor that his Gen Z students were too entitled. It’s that introductory courses should be gateways into the STEM professions, especially for students underrepresented in these areas, not elimination rounds in a...