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Project 2025 would cut ed department, fulfill conservative K-12 wish list under Trump
An ambitious Republican agenda to transform the federal bureaucracy under a second Trump presidency would have considerable fallout in the world of education, reimagining the U.S. government as a guardian of parents’ rights and reconstituting decades-old programs to serve as vehicles for school choice. The full program, entitled Mandate for Leadership, is a roadmap for...
By Kevin Mahnken | July 16, 2024
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L.A. schools probe charges its hyped, now-defunct AI chatbot misused student data
Independent Los Angeles school district investigators have opened an inquiry into claims that its $6 million AI chatbot — an animated sun named “Ed” celebrated as an unprecedented learning acceleration tool until the company that built it collapsed and the district was forced to pull the plug — put students’ personal information in peril. Investigators with the...
By Mark Keierleber | July 15, 2024
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5 ways to embrace advanced learning programs & make them available to more kids
While debates rage over who should win admission to selective high schools, public education leaves millions of talented young people, many of them students of color and from low-income backgrounds, without access to advanced learning. Vanderbilt University researchers have found that high-achieving students from the wealthiest 20% of U.S. families are six times more likely...
By Peg Tyre | July 11, 2024
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How districts can keep high-impact tutoring going after ESSER money expires
The ESSER cliff is coming. Most districts and states that initiated high-impact tutoring using federal ESSER dollars are scrambling. Many believe they must eliminate or reduce the scope of their programs; but this is not the case. Here are six durable funding streams that could replace the ESSER dollars to help provide highly effective tutoring...
By Susanna Loeb & Alan Safran | July 10, 2024
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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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Counselor’s view: Why schools must diversify their post-secondary options and realize that one path does not fit all students
In the realm of high school counseling, the traditional narrative has often centered around the four-year college experience as the sole path to success. However, as demands of the workforce change, it’s time to recognize that there’s not a one-size-fits-all approach to post-secondary education. To ensure equitable support for all students, schools must adopt a...
By Ivonne Polanco | July 2, 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