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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
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Los Angeles board votes to restrict charters’ access to some district schools
Los Angeles charters could lose access to space in nearly 350 district schools under a resolution the school board approved Tuesday. The action is likely to upend decades of practice in one of the more charter-rich districts in the country. Superintendent Alberto Carvalho has 45 days to draft a policy that makes co-location — as...
By Linda Jacobson | September 27, 2023
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As the new school year begins, hopes are high for LAUSD pre-K for four-year-olds
Outside 135th Street Elementary School in Gardena, a colorfully-decorated sign welcomes pre-K students — boasting they will be “#ready4theworld!” with the help of Los Angeles Unified’s new universal program for young learners. “We want to hear smiles,” said Dean Tagawa, executive director of early child education for LA Unified who is overseeing the district’s new...
By Charles Hastings | September 26, 2023
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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
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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
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Soaring chronic absenteeism in California schools is at ‘pivotal moment’
As a new school year gets underway in California, districts are desperately trying to lure thousands of missing, tardy and truant students back to the classroom in what many view as a pivotal moment for education in California. In 2021-22, 30% of students in California’s public schools were chronically absent, an all-time high and more...
By Carolyn Jones, CalMatters | September 21, 2023
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Opinion: AI can grade a student essay as well as a human. But it cannot replace a teacher
Can computers be trained to give feedback on student writing as well as a human can? To assess essay elements like convincing evidence and well-crafted conclusions? I’ve been working on these questions for years together with a group of colleagues since long before the advent of ChatGPT. After working with hundreds of data scientists from...
By Perpetual Baffour | September 20, 2023
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Commentary: The future is STEM — but without enough students, the U.S. will be left behind
In 2022, the National Science Foundation’s Science and Engineering report sounded an alarm. The report showed that the United States is falling behind in science, technology, engineering and math, the STEM fields. According to the foundation, America no longer produces the most science and engineering research publications — that’s China. We no longer produce the...
By Mark Schneider | September 19, 2023
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Q&A: Rock pioneer Steven Van Zandt on The Beatles, The Stones and challenging our ‘antiquated’ approach to school
Steven Van Zandt is not only one of the busiest men in show business. The composer, arranger, guitarist and longtime Bruce Springsteen sideman is also a transformational educator. A record producer and music historian, Van Zandt has been a member of two well-known rock bands: Springsteen’s legendary E Street Band and the influential Southside Johnny...
By Greg Toppo | September 18, 2023
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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