June 29, 2023 | Reuters

For decades, selective U.S. colleges and universities have considered, among other factors, whether applicants are from underrepresented minority groups, including Black, Hispanic and Native American. For just as long, critics of affirmative action have questioned whether race-conscious admissions policies are...

June 28, 2023 | Education Week

Overly punitive approaches don’t work. Teacher Alice C. said that schools need more resources to support the individual student needs that contribute to poor attendance. The biggest challenges are “lack of supports/resources to provide trauma and other mental health responses...

The Urgent Need to Update District Policies on Student Use of Artificial Intelligence in Education

Summary

During the 2022–23 school year, artificial intelligence (AI) evolved from an experimental technology few had heard of into readily available technology that has become widely used by educators and students. There are many ways educators can use AI that may positively revolutionize education to benefit classroom instruction, to support data use and analysis, and to aid in decision-making. The biggest potential upsides of AI for education will be accompanied by major disruptions, however, and districts will need time for thoughtful consideration to avoid some of the worst possible pitfalls. This commentary focuses not on how best to harness the potential of AI in education over the long term but instead on the urgent need for districts to respond to student use of AI. We argue that during summer 2023, districts should adopt policies for the 2023–24 school year that help students to engage with AI in productive ways and decrease the risk of AI-related chaos due to society’s inability to detect inappropriate AI use.

May 25, 2023 | The Sun Newspapers

When should children begin their summer reading? How about yesterday? According to a blog from the children’s publisher Scholastic, 96% of educators agree providing year-round access to books at home is important for student achievement. And 94% of parents agree...

May 18, 2023 | Daily Republic

As a former educator, I have long been fascinated by the roles and responsibilities of American school boards. School boards have been around longer than America itself. According to Stanford’s Michael Kirst, local school boards are one of America’s earliest...

May 8, 2023 | City Journal

No issue is more pressing in California than education. In late October, the state released scores for the first post-Covid-shutdown state standardized test, conducted earlier last year. The results were horrendous (https://edsource.org/2022/2022-california-standardized-test-results-wipe-out-years-of-steady-progress/680179). Less than half of all students who took...