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An LAUSD school battles chronic absenteeism with washers and dryers
For most students, having clean clothes to wear to school is not a problem. But for many families at 112th St. S.T.E.A.M. Academy in Watts, a pair of clean pants and a shirt is such a struggle that it has become one of the main contributors to chronic absenteeism, which is when students miss 15...
By Jinge Li | July 9, 2024
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Homeschoolers embrace AI, even as many educators keep it at arms’ length
Like many parents who homeschool their children, Jolene Fender helps organize book clubs, inviting students in her Cary, North Carolina, co-op to meet for monthly discussions. But over the years, parents have struggled to find good opening questions. “You’d search [the Internet], you’d go on Pinterest,” she said. “A lot of the work had to...
By Greg Toppo | July 8, 2024
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The Declaration of Independence wasn’t really complaining about King George, and 5 other surprising facts for July Fourth
Editor’s note: Americans may think they know a lot about the Declaration of Independence, but many of those ideas are elitist and wrong, as historian Woody Holton explains. His 2021 book “Liberty is Sweet: The Hidden History of the American Revolution” shows how independence and the Revolutionary War were influenced by women, Indigenous and enslaved...
By Woody Holton | July 3, 2024
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Whistleblower: L.A. schools’ chatbot misused student data as tech co. crumbled
Just weeks before the implosion of AllHere, an education technology company that had been showered with cash from venture capitalists and featured in glowing profiles by the business press, America’s second-largest school district was warned about problems with AllHere’s product. As the eight-year-old startup rolled out Los Angeles Unified School District’s flashy new AI-driven chatbot...
By Mark Keierleber | July 1, 2024
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Studies: Pandemic aid lifted scores, but not enough to make up for lost learning
Nearly $200 billion in emergency school funding spent during and after the pandemic succeeded in lifting students’ achievement in math and reading, according to two papers released Wednesday. Test score increases in both studies, which were conducted independently of one another, indicate that states and school districts used the money to effectively support children, even...
By Kevin Mahnken | June 27, 2024
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Future of LAUSD’s AI student chatbot in doubt 3 months after launch as ed-tech firm furloughs staff
The future of LA Unified’s heavily-hyped $6 million Artificial Intelligence chatbot was uncertain after the tech firm the district hired to build the tool shed most of its employees and its founder left her job. Boston-based AllHere Education, founded in 2016 by Harvard grad and former teacher Joanna Smith-Griffin, figured heavily in LAUSD’s March 20...
By Ben Chapman | June 26, 2024
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JUMP In: Math tutoring program slows pace, builds a repetition and get results
As a student, JUMP math curriculum creator John Mighton remembers struggling with the subject and then quickly beginning to panic as he fell behind. The fast pace of the curriculum he was taught prevented him from catching up and then his anxieties about being too slow got the best of him. “I would always compare...
By Julian Roberts-Grmela | June 26, 2024
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All about LAUSD’s iconic coffee cake: A sweet tradition dating back to the 1950s
Whenever April Heinz’s grown children come back to Los Angeles for a visit, there is one item they crave — LA Unified’s legendary coffee cake. “They’re now graduated and in college…they came back [for] summer break. I had a couple of slices of coffee cake for them, and they were like, ‘Oh my gosh!’… because,...
By Jinge Li | June 20, 2024
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L.A. schools investigate data breach as FCC approves $200M cybersecurity pilot
On the same day that millions of sensitive records purportedly stolen from the Los Angeles school district were posted for sale on the dark web, the Federal Communications Commission approved a $200 million pilot program to help K-12 schools and libraries nationwide fight an onslaught of cyberattacks. A Los Angeles Unified School District spokesperson confirmed...
By Mark Keierleber | June 18, 2024
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Report: Higher rates of depression, anxiety for LGBTQ teens forcibly outed
As more states require schools to out transgender students to their families, a new study links involuntary disclosure of sexual orientation or gender identity to heightened rates of depression and anxiety. One-third of LGBTQ youth outed to their families were more likely to report major symptoms of depression than those who weren’t, according to the...
By Beth Hawkins | June 17, 2024