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Tag: curriculum

  • Fires, floods and other disasters are multiplying. Schools are adding training for workers to combat them

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    WATSONVILLE, Calif. — Gavin Abundis watched as firefighter Adrian Chairez demonstrated how he uses pulleys and harnesses to rappel down buildings. “You’ve probably seen it in the movies where they’re going down ‘Mission: Impossible’ style,” Chairez said with a laugh one day this past winter as he prepared to step off a tower. “We get to do that.” 

    Abundis, a then-senior at Aptos High School in Santa Cruz County’s Pajaro Valley Unified School District, has a friend whose home burned down a few years ago in a fire sparked by lightning. He said it’s pretty common to know someone who has been affected by fires in California, especially as they become more frequent and intense because of climate change. That drew him to this class on fire technology, and may steer his career. 

    “Knowing that there’s something that I can do about it to serve my community definitely encourages me to pursue this career,” said Abundis. 

    Demand for the course has grown so much in recent years that the Santa Cruz County Office of Education, which jointly runs the class with the Watsonville Fire Department, doubled the number of classes offered, from two to four, this school year. “There was a time when we would go into the schools and recruit students,” said Rudy Lopez Sr., fire chief of the Watsonville department. “Now, they just sign up.” 

    As climate change alters the environment and economies, the need is growing for jobs that help prepare for, respond to and lessen damage caused by fires, floods and other natural disasters. That’s led schools and community colleges to explore how to prepare students for careers in such fields as fire science, protecting and restoring watersheds and other ecosystems, forestry management and search and rescue. In some cases, student interest is driving the new courses — surveys show teenagers and younger adults are more environmentally conscious than older people and more likely to support action on climate change. 

    Watsonville, Calif., Fire Chief Rudy Lopez Sr. talks with students during a Fire Youth Academy class at Watsonville Fire Station No. 2. Credit: Minh Connors for The Hechinger Report

    Kate Kreamer, executive director of Advance CTE, a nonprofit that supports state leaders who oversee career and technical education programs, said more school districts are offering climate-related CTE courses, but it’s challenging to find statistics because the issue is so politicized and because what the classes are called differs by school, district and state. One example of that growth: A “resiliency careers in forestry” program, which trains people as foresters, fire program managers and log truck drivers at five California community colleges, enrolls some 700 students compared with 37 when it launched three years ago, according to the Foundation for California Community Colleges. 

    Students in Santa Cruz’s yearlong fire science course say they love that it’s so hands-on. They practice putting on and taking off more than 70 pounds of equipment in under 90 seconds, watch water cannons blast from the top of fire engines and get a chance to hold “attack lines,” 200-foot-long water hoses. They also learn about the specialized vocabulary of firefighting, the range of jobs available and the certifications that are required. The course helps expose students to careers in firefighting, which is facing a significant shortage of people to fill jobs in California and some other regions of the country. In the state, entry-level jobs pay between roughly $50,000 and $100,000 per year, according to the statewide group California Professional Firefighters.  

    Charlotte Morgan, a soft-spoken then-senior from Aptos in the Watsonville class, said she wanted to take this course specifically because of her interest in climate change: “Growing up in Santa Cruz, we spend so much time outside and we care so much about it, and I want to protect that.” 

    Her friend Bellamy Breen said she felt the same way, though she’s interested in working on water conservation issues. “With climate change there’s more droughts, there’s more saltwater intrusion, and with all the agriculture here, it’s very important,” she said.

    Related: Want to read more about how climate change is shaping education? Subscribe to our free newsletter.

    Watsonville firefighter Adrian Chairez rappels from the top of a building during a Fire Youth Academy class in Watsonville. Credit: Minh Connors for The Hechinger Report

    President Joe Biden championed such initiatives as the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which invested billions of federal dollars in supporting jobs that tackle climate change, including clean energy manufacturing, water infrastructure projects and wildfire prevention and preparedness efforts. Under President Donald Trump, who calls climate change a hoax, there has been a swift reversal of those initiatives. In recent months, the federal government has let go of hundreds of climate scientists, halted research funding and canceled 400 grants to help communities prepare for more extreme weather events. 

    Yet for communities that have been hit with natural disasters, there is a demand for jobs that transcends politics, even in conservative communities where climate change is sometimes dismissed as fake science. 

    John Gossett, president of Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College in North Carolina, said that after Hurricane Helene devastated his region last year, college presidents in Mississippi and Louisiana who have endured catastrophic natural disasters told him to expect an enrollment drop of 40 percent to 50 percent. But Gossett said that while enrollment in several programs has remained flat, courses in fields that were highly visible during the hurricane — such as fire and rescue, EMT and paramedics and nursing — have drawn more interest from students. 

    Police officers played a big role during the disaster, participating in search and rescue missions and directing traffic. Gossett said the college had to double its number of basic law enforcement training cohorts from two to four this semester in response to the unexpected demand. It also reinstated a course in geomatics, or land surveying, and added a class in agri permaculture, an approach to land management that imitates natural ecosystems in rebuilding. The college’s construction program offers additional environmentally friendly certifications, including in green buildings and solar technology.  

    Gossett sees a strong link between these in-demand courses and economic development of the region, even though there is no mention of climate change in course descriptions. “It’s in our mission, it’s what we do,” he said. “We’re trying to help people get to a better place in life, where they can make more money and have more options. And all of that is wrapped around workforce development.”

    Related: Apprenticeships for high schoolers are touted as the next big thing. One state leads the way

    Southeastern Kentucky has also been hit recently by disasters, including catastrophic floods in 2021, 2022 and 2025 that led to a devastating number of deaths, unsalvageable homes and mud-filled businesses and school buildings. It’s the region served by Hazard Community and Technical College, with 4,400 students across campuses in Central Appalachia. “You just can’t believe how much water there was, there was 6 feet of water in one of our buildings,” recalled its president, Jennifer Lindon. 

    Students wait as firefighters prepare a demonstration during a Fire Youth Academy class in Watsonville. Credit: Minh Connors for The Hechinger Report

    She said the college is rethinking course offerings to be more responsive to the disasters. Hazard offers an annual firefighter training, but water rescue is becoming such an important part of the job that the college is adding a swift water rescue component, focused on saving people from fast-moving floods, for first responders from across the state. Its classes in construction are changing too, to incorporate information on how to rebuild homes on higher ground to better withstand winds and floods. Because of the demand, Hazard now runs several construction courses simultaneously, and the curriculum is accelerated — what would have taken 16 weeks now takes six. 

    Lindon said there are waiting lists for Hazard’s heavy equipment and line worker classes, as the community clears debris and rebuilds infrastructure. The college is also designing a new course on water treatment systems, after a plant flooded, leaving several counties with no drinking water for days. Lindon said the county is building a new treatment facility, which means there will be several jobs available. 

    “It’s time to really sit down and think about how we plan for 10 years, 20 years, because I don’t think that these disasters are one-offs,” she said. “What we thought was a 1,000-year flood has happened in three of the last five years. So it’s a different time for sure. Most of us all really love this area. We want to stay here, so we need to figure out how to better protect it.” 

    Other institutions are seeing the need to reach out to students to get them interested in these careers early on. John Boyd leads Mayland Community College, about an hour’s drive from Asheville, North Carolina, which was devastated by Hurricane Helene. 

    Boyd’s community is still cleaning up from the storm, and the college has lost students as many residents moved out of the area. But it hired a firefighter instructor to teach the area’s all-volunteer firefighters and work with K-12 schools to expose younger students to careers important in the region. The college is also building an environmental science center featuring exhibits for children to give them a better understanding of local environmental changes, like how physical damage during Hurricane Helene caused rivers to become permanently wider and deeper. 

    In this deep red area, no one mentions climate change. “We’re a very, very conservative area here,” said Boyd. “We focus on what it is and what we do now, not how it got there.” 

    The college is also training operators of large machinery like backhoes and bulldozers. Half of the trees in one local county were downed in the storm, and other debris still needs to be cleared. “That timber in another year is going to become a massive fire hazard,” said Boyd. “For the next few years we’re going to have a lot of fuel laying on the ground.” 

    Related: How colleges can become ‘living labs’ for fighting climate change

    Kreamer, with Advance CTE, said disaster-related coursework is one piece of a bigger shift, with high schools around the country altering courses in fields as diverse as construction, HVAC, fashion technology and cooking to adapt for climate change. Matt Siegelman, president of Burning Glass Institute, which analyzes labor market data, said many traditional jobs now require an understanding of green technology. Construction, for example, increasingly relies on sustainable materials, energy-efficient designs and newer construction techniques. Green jobs are growing at about 2 percent a year, but traditional construction jobs that require some green skills are growing much faster, he said. 

    Kreamer said that as demand for these roles grows, a number of challenges must still be overcome, including improving collaboration between education and industries and between community colleges and K-12 schools. “You can only do so much by reskilling,” she said. “Adults have to look at the next generation as part of that pipeline strategy,” by introducing students to career options in elementary and middle school. 

    Jack Widman is dragged on the floor during a demonstration on how a firefighter would rescue someone during the Fire Youth Academy class in Watsonville. Credit: Minh Connors for The Hechinger Report

    In firefighting, career opportunities differ by geography, with rural areas often relying on volunteer squads and larger cities on paid workers. Concerns about the health risks facing wildfire firefighters have also been intensifying. 

    In California, more than 6,500 wildfires have broken out so far in 2025, putting this on pace to be one of the worst years for fires on record. In Santa Cruz, district administrators expect more than 110 students to complete the fire science program this school year, compared with 57 last year. 

    Students say they learn not just about fighting fires, but also about standing up for others, persevering and not getting discouraged. “It’s super-valuable life advice,” said Jack Widman, a then-senior, during last winter’s class at the Watsonville fire station. Like his classmate Gavin Abundis, Widman is considering a career in firefighting.

    “Firefighting doesn’t solve climate change,” added Abundis, “but I feel I’m part of the solution.” 

    Contact editor Caroline Preston at 212-870-8965, via Signal at CarolineP.83 or on email at preston@hechingerreport.org. 

    This story about climate change was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.

    The Hechinger Report provides in-depth, fact-based, unbiased reporting on education that is free to all readers. But that doesn’t mean it’s free to produce. Our work keeps educators and the public informed about pressing issues at schools and on campuses throughout the country. We tell the whole story, even when the details are inconvenient. Help us keep doing that.

    Join us today.

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    Kavitha Cardoza

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  • The advantages of supplementing curriculum

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    Key points:

    Classroom teachers are handed a curriculum they must use when teaching. That specific curriculum is designed to bring uniformity, equity, and accountability into classrooms. It is meant to ensure that every child has access to instruction that is aligned with state standards. The specific curriculum provides a roadmap for instruction, but anyone who has spent time in a classroom knows that no single curriculum can fully meet the needs of every student.

    In other words, even the most carefully designed curriculum cannot anticipate the individual needs of every learner or the nuances of every classroom. This is why supplementing curriculum is a vital action that skilled educators engage in. Supplementing curriculum does not mean that teachers are not teaching the required curriculum. In fact, it means they are doing even more to ensure student success.

    Students arrive with different strengths, challenges, and interests. Supplementing curriculum allows teachers to bridge inevitable gaps within their students.  For example, a math unit may assume fluency with multiplying and dividing fractions, but some students may not recall that skill, while others are ready to compute with mixed numbers. With supplementary resources, a teacher can provide both targeted remediation and enrichment opportunities. Without supplementing the curriculum, one group may fall behind or the other may become disengaged.

    Supplementing curriculum can help make learning relevant. Many curricula are written to be broad and standardized. Students are more likely to connect with lessons when they see themselves reflected in the content, so switching a novel based on the population of students can assist in mastering the standard at hand.   

    Inclusion is another critical reason to supplement. No classroom is made up of one single type of learner. Students with disabilities may need graphic organizers or audio versions of texts. English learners may benefit from bilingual presentations of material or visual aids. A curriculum may hit all the standards of a grade, but cannot anticipate the varying needs of students. When a teacher intentionally supplements the curriculum, every child has a pathway to success.

    Lastly, supplementing empowers teachers. Teaching is not about delivering a script; it is a profession built on expertise and creativity. When teachers supplement the prescribed curriculum, they demonstrate professional judgment and enhance the mandated framework. This leads to a classroom where learning is accessible, engaging, and responsive.

    A provided curriculum is the structure of a car, but supplementary resources are the wheels that let the students move. When done intentionally, supplementing curriculum enables every student to be reached. In the end, the most successful classrooms are not those that follow a book, but those where teachers skillfully use supplementary curriculum to benefit all learners. Supplementing curriculum does not mean that a teacher is not using the curriculum–it simply means they are doing more to benefit their students even more.

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    Dr. Yuvraj Verma, Bessemer City Middle School and William Howard Taft University

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  • STUDENT VOICE: What National Endowment for the Humanities cuts mean for high schoolers like me

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    In April, the Trump administration announced drastic funding cuts to the National Endowment for the Humanities. Those cuts are harming education groups that rely on NEH grants — and students like me. 

    Among the organizations that lost funding was National History Day, a nonprofit that runs a half-century-old competition engaging some 500,000 students annually in original historical research. It also provides teachers with resources and training. For many schools, the annual event is cemented into the social studies curriculum. 

    The cuts sliced $825,000 from National History Day’s budget over several years, the group said. Meanwhile, more than half of its state-level competitions rely in part or entirely on funding from state humanities councils — which were also devastated by the cuts. 

    Without that money, National History Day’s leaders say some states will likely have to cancel their programs altogether, and the national event will be scaled back, too. 

    The loss of funding is discouraging to me, a high school senior in Texas who has witnessed the passage of legislation in my state and around the country in recent years limiting what can be taught in history and social studies classes. National History Day allowed me the chance to expand on what I felt was missing or inaccurate in my textbooks. The fact that there might no longer be a structured way for students to navigate incomplete curricula feels scary and is an intentional part of a broader effort by lawmakers to change how history is understood and what students can know about their past.

    Related: Become a lifelong learner. Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter featuring the most important stories in education. 

    At my sixth to 12th grade school in El Paso, Texas, History Day is an annual event that all middle school students participate in from September to January. They choose their topics and presentations and work to research and create a finished project as historians. 

    In February, we hold a schoolwide competition, a highly anticipated event in which high schoolers serve as judges and mentors for middle school projects, ultimately deciding which students advance. High schoolers automatically advance. We have become known locally as an “NHD school” and fostered a community of students who love history.

    I have participated in local and state History Day fairs since seventh grade, and the program allowed me to grow as a writer and researcher. In my junior year, I wrote a paper about British imperialism and how it led to violence during the 1947 Partition between India and Pakistan, and the lasting divisions today. 

    I scoured dozens of oral histories of Partition survivors, including interviewing family members about their experiences. The self-guided nature of National History Day, the resources from my El Paso branch, and the support from my history teacher made my paper more than a project — but a connection with my Pakistani identity. I was able to go beyond just learning about the Partition, but also understanding how it shaped my family’s lives.

    Related: A school district singled out by Trump says it teaches ‘whole truth history’ 

    Many other students have had similar experiences with the program. 

    National History Day “is a way to explore a niche or smaller area of history that I wouldn’t be able to as deeply in a classroom,” said Tessa Kipnis, a high school senior at Westtown School in Pennsylvania, who wrote her project on the Rwandan genocide and France’s role in it. “It’s helped me to expand upon my passion for storytelling and self-motivated research.” 

    Added Kipnis: “It’s the student-led inquiry that is really going to dissipate with the funding being cut. And I feel with our current situation with the Department of Education and the funding and lack thereof, it’s hard not to view this funding being cut as part of a bigger piece.”

    Many communities may be able to raise money to keep their local programs going. But even if my local or state National History Day programs continue, I know that not all communities will have the same resources. In turn, the national event will be missing vital perspectives of students, especially those from low-income and marginalized communities.  

    Part of what makes History Day so special is interacting with other projects and building community with other students. Now, it feels exclusive.

    Anita Kuriakose, a high school junior at Academies at Englewood in New Jersey, told me she shares those concerns. “[NEH funding cuts] may cause other students to be cut from the research experience, and not be able to gain more insight into historical perspectives. Students won’t be given the chance to think creatively or research more about history outside the classroom.” 

    Related: Teachers struggle to teach the Holocaust without running afoul of new ‘divisive concepts’ rules

    Lynne O’Hara, deputy director of educational programs at National History Day and a former social studies teacher, also told me that National History Day hinges on accessibility. “History Day is a program that should be available to all students,” she said.

    “Sometimes in education, we’re just pushed to do so much and give students a little taste of all these things. But you get one topic that you really have control over and command over, and I think that really empowers students,” added O’Hara. “When I would ask my students on the last day, ‘What’s the thing you did that you were most proud of in this class?’ Ninety-nine percent of them said, ‘It was my History Day project.’” 

    O’Hara told me the sense of community at my school around National History Day is common among participating schools. “When teachers participate over the years, not only does it change the way they teach, but it also creates these school cultures.” 

    The idea that some students will not be able to experience History Day and the thrill that comes with choosing what they research is heartbreaking. Many history curricula already discuss the past in a way that doesn’t allow nuance, and National History Day gave me a path to explore the people, events and injustices that are traditionally ignored.

    Organizations including the Oregon Humanities and the Federation of State Humanities Councils, the American Council of Learned Societies, the American Historical Association and the Modern Language Association have sued over the cuts. In August, a federal judge characterized the Trump administration’s abrupt cancellation of the grants as unlawful and allowed the case to proceed.

    The theme for the 2025-26 National History Day event is “Revolution, Reaction, Reform in History.” I hope that in six months, I will be able to present at my local fair and that National History Day will continue to provide students nationwide with a necessary platform.

    Marium Zahra is a high school senior and independent journalist based in El Paso, Texas. Her work covering social justice and youth has been published in outlets including The Nation, Prism Reports, Yes! Magazine and The Progressive.

    Contact editor Caroline Preston at 212-870-8965, via Signal at CarolineP.83 or on email at preston@hechingerreport.org. 

    This story about National History Day was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for Hechinger’s weekly newsletter.

    The Hechinger Report provides in-depth, fact-based, unbiased reporting on education that is free to all readers. But that doesn’t mean it’s free to produce. Our work keeps educators and the public informed about pressing issues at schools and on campuses throughout the country. We tell the whole story, even when the details are inconvenient. Help us keep doing that.

    Join us today.

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    Marium Zahra

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  • OPINION: The push to expand school choice should not diminish civic education

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    From Texas to Florida to Arizona, school voucher policies are reshaping the landscape of American education. The Trump administration champions federal support for voucher expansion, and many state-level leaders are advancing school choice programs. Billions of public dollars are now flowing to private schools, church networks and microeducation platforms.  

    The push to expand school choice is not just reallocating public funds to private institutions. It is reorganizing the very purpose of schooling. And in that shift, something essential is being lost — the public mission of education as a foundation of democracy. 

    Civic education is becoming fragmented, underfunded and institutionally weak.  

    In this moment of sweeping change, as public dollars shift from common institutions to private and alternative schools, the shared civic entities that once supported democratic learning are being diminished or lost entirely — traditional structures like public schools, libraries and community colleges are no longer guaranteed common spaces. 

    The result is a disjointed system in which students may gain academic content or career preparation but receive little support in learning how to lead with integrity, think across differences or sustain democratic institutions. The very idea of public life is at risk, especially in places where shared experience has been replaced by polarization. We need civic education more than ever. 

    Related: A lot goes on in classrooms from kindergarten to high school. Keep up with our free weekly newsletter on K-12 education.  

    If we want students who can lead a multiracial democracy, we need schools of every type to take civic formation seriously. That includes religious schools, charter schools and homeschooling networks. The responsibility cannot fall on public schools alone. Civic formation is not an ideological project. It is a democratic one, involving the long-term work of building the skills, habits and values that prepare people to work across differences and take responsibility for shared democratic life. 

    What we need now is a civic education strategy that matches the scale of the changes reshaping American schooling. This will mean fostering coordinated investment, institutional partnerships and recognition that the stakes are not just academic, they are also democratic. 

    Americans overwhelmingly support civic instruction. According to a 2020 survey in Texas by the Center of Women in Politics and Public Policy and iCivics, just 49 percent of teachers statewide believed that enough time was being devoted to teaching civics knowledge, and just 23 percent said the same about participatory-democracy skills. This gap is not unique to Texas, but there is little agreement on how civics should be taught, and even less structural support for the schools trying to do it. 

    Without serious investment, civic formation will remain an afterthought — a patchwork effort disconnected from the design of most educational systems. 

    This is not an argument against vouchers in principle. Families should have options. But in the move to decentralize education, we risk hollowing out its civic core. A democratic society cannot survive on academic content alone. It requires citizens — not just in the legal sense, but in the civic one. 

    A democratic society needs people who can deliberate, organize, collaborate and build a shared future with others who do not think or live like they do. 

    And that’s why we are building a framework in Texas that others can adopt and adapt to their own civic mission. 

    The pioneering Democracy Schools model, to which I contribute, supports civic formation across a range of public and private schools, colleges, community organizations and professional networks.  

    Civic infrastructure is the term we use to describe our approach: the design of relationships, institutions and systems that hold democracy together. Just as engineers build physical infrastructure, educators and civic leaders must build civic infrastructure by working with communities, not for or on them. 

    We start from a democratic tradition rooted in the Black freedom struggle. Freedom, in this view, is not just protection from domination. It is the capacity to act, build and see oneself reflected in the world. This view of citizenship demands more than voice. It calls for the ability to shape institutions, policies and public narratives from the ground up. 

    Related: STUDENT VOICE: My generation knows less about civics than my parents’ generation did, yet we need it more than ever 

    The model speaks to a national crisis: the erosion of shared civic space in education. It must be practiced and must be supported by institutions that understand their role in building public life. Historically Black colleges and universities like Huston-Tillotson University offer a powerful example. They are not elite pipelines disconnected from everyday life. They are rooted in community, oriented toward public leadership and shaped by a history of democratic struggle. They show what it looks like to educate for civic capacity — not just for upward mobility. They remind us that education is not only about what students know, but about who they become and what kind of world they are prepared to help shape. 

    Our national future depends on how well we prepare young people to take responsibility for shared institutions and pluralistic public life. This cannot be accomplished through content standards alone. It requires civic ecosystems designed to cultivate public authorship. 

    We have an enormous stake in preparing the next generation for the demands of democratic life. What kind of society are we preparing young people to lead? The answer will not come from any single institution. It will come from partnerships across sectors, aligned in purpose even if diverse in approach. 

    We are eager to collaborate with any organization — public, private or faith-based — committed to building the civic infrastructure that sustains our democracy. Wherever education takes place, civic formation must remain a central concern. 

    Robert Ceresa is the founding director of the Politics Lab of the James L. Farmer House, Huston-Tillotson University. 

    Contact the opinion editor at opinion@hechingerreport.org.  

    This story about civic education was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for Hechinger’s weekly newsletter.

    The Hechinger Report provides in-depth, fact-based, unbiased reporting on education that is free to all readers. But that doesn’t mean it’s free to produce. Our work keeps educators and the public informed about pressing issues at schools and on campuses throughout the country. We tell the whole story, even when the details are inconvenient. Help us keep doing that.

    Join us today.

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    Robert M. Ceresa

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  • KU researchers publish guidelines to help responsibly implement AI in education

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    This story originally appeared on KU News and is republished with permission.

    Key points:

    Researchers at the University of Kansas have produced a set of guidelines to help educators from preschool through higher education responsibly implement artificial intelligence in a way that empowers teachers, parents, students and communities alike.

    The Center for Innovation, Design & Digital Learning at KU has published “Framework for Responsible AI Integration in PreK-20 Education: Empowering All Learners and Educators with AI-Ready Solutions.” The document, developed under a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Education, is intended to provide guidance on how schools can incorporate AI into its daily operations and curriculum.

    Earlier this year, President Donald Trump issued an executive order instructing schools to incorporate AI into their operations. The framework is intended to help all schools and educational facilities do so in a manner that fits their unique communities and missions.

    “We see this framework as a foundation,” said James Basham, director of CIDDL and professor of special education at KU. “As schools consider forming an AI task force, for example, they’ll likely have questions on how to do that, or how to conduct an audit and risk analysis. The framework can help guide them through that, and we’ll continue to build on this.”

    The framework features four primary recommendations.

    • Establish a stable, human-centered foundation.
    • Implement future-focused strategic planning for AI integration.
    • Ensure AI educational opportunities for every student.
    • Conduct ongoing evaluation, professional learning and community development.

    First, the framework urges schools to keep humans at the forefront of AI plans, prioritizing educator judgment, student relationships and family input on AI-enabled processes and not relying on automation for decisions that affect people. Transparency is also key, and schools should communicate how AI tools work, how decisions are made and ensure compliance with student protection laws such as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and Family Education Rights and Privacy Act, the report authors write.

    The document also outlines recommendations for how educational facilities can implement the technology. Establishing an AI integration task force including educators, administrators, families, legal advisers and specialists in instructional technology and special education is key among the recommendations. The document also shares tips on how to conduct an audit and risk analysis before adoption and consider how tools can affect student placement and identification and consider possible algorithmic error patterns. As the technologies are trained on human data, they run the risk of making the same mistakes and repeating biases humans have made, Basham said.

    That idea is also reflected in the framework’s third recommendation. The document encourages educators to commit to learner-centered AI implementation that considers all students, from those in gifted programs to students with cognitive disabilities. AI tools should be prohibited from making final decisions on IEP eligibility, disciplinary actions and student progress decisions, and mechanisms should be installed that allow for feedback on students, teachers and parents’ AI educational experiences, the authors wrote.

    Finally, the framework urges ongoing evaluation, professional learning and community development. As the technology evolves, schools should regularly re-evaluate it for unintended consequences and feedback from those who use it. Training both at implementation and in ongoing installments will be necessary to address overuse or misuse and clarify who is responsible for monitoring AI use and to ensure both the school and community are informed on the technology.

    The framework was written by Basham; Trey Vasquez, co-principal investigator at CIDDL, operating officer at KU’s Achievement & Assessment Institute and professor of special education at KU; and Angelica Fulchini Scruggs, research associate and operations director for CIDDL.

    Educators interested in learning more about the framework or use of AI in education are invited to connect with CIDDL. The center’s site includes data on emergent themes in AI guidance at the state level and information on how it supports educational technology in K-12 and higher education. As artificial intelligence finds new uses and educators are expected to implement the technology in schools, the center’s researchers said they plan to continue helping educators implement it in ways that benefit schools, students of all abilities and communities.

    “The priority at CIDDL is to share transparent resources for educators on topics that are trending and in a way that is easy to digest,” Fulchini Scruggs said. “We want people to join the community and help them know where to start. We also know this will evolve and change, and we want to help educators stay up to date with those changes to use AI responsibly in their schools.”

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    Mike Krings, the University of Kansas

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  • Lessons from DENSI: Weaving digital citizenship into edtech innovation

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    Key points:

    What happens when over 100 passionate educators converge in Chicago to celebrate two decades of educational innovation? A few weeks ago, I had the thrilling opportunity to immerse myself in the 20th anniversary of the Discovery Educator Network (the DEN), a week-long journey that reignited my passion for transforming classrooms.

    From sunrise to past sunset, my days at Loyola University were a whirlwind of learning, laughter, and relentless exploration. Living the dorm life, forging new connections, and rekindling old friendships, we collectively dove deep into the future of learning, creating experiences that went far beyond the typical professional development.

    As an inaugural DEN member, the professional learning community supported by Discovery Education, I was incredibly excited to return 20 years after its founding to guide a small group of educators through the bountiful innovations of the DEN Summer Institute (DENSI). Think scavenger hunts, enlightening workshops, and collaborative creations–every moment was packed with cutting-edge ideas and practical strategies for weaving technology seamlessly into our teaching, ensuring our students are truly future-ready.

    During my time at DENSI, I learned a lot of new tips and tricks that I will pass on to the educators I collaborate with. From AI’s potential to the various new ways to work together online, participants in this unique event learned a number of ways to weave digital citizenship into edtech innovation. I’ve narrowed them down to five core concepts; each a powerful step toward building future-ready classrooms and fostering truly responsible digital citizens.

    Use of artificial intelligence

    Technology integration: When modeling responsible AI use, key technology tools could include generative platforms like Gemini, NotebookLM, Magic School AI, and Brisk, acting as ‘thought partners’ for brainstorming, summarizing, and drafting. Integration also covers AI grammar/spell-checkers, data visualization tools, and feedback tools for refining writing, presenting information, and self-assessment, enhancing digital content interaction and production.

    Learning & application: Teaching students to ethically use AI is key. This involves modeling critical evaluation of AI content for bias and inaccuracies. For instance, providing students with an AI summary of a historical event to fact-check with credible sources. Students learn to apply AI as a thought partner, boosting creativity and collaboration, not replacing their own thinking. Fact-checking and integrating their unique voices are essential. An English class could use AI to brainstorm plot ideas, but students develop characters and write the narrative. Application includes using AI for writing refinement and data exploration, fostering understanding of AI’s academic capabilities and limitations.

    Connection to digital citizenship: This example predominantly connects to digital citizenship. Teaching responsible AI use promotes intellectual honesty and information literacy. Students can grasp ethical considerations like plagiarism and proper attribution. The “red, yellow, green” stoplight method provides a framework for AI use, teaching students when to use AI as a collaborator, editor, or thought partner–or not at all.This approach cultivates critical thinking and empowers students to navigate the digital landscape with integrity, preparing them as responsible digital citizens understanding AI’s implications.

    Digital communication

    Technology integration: Creating digital communication norms should focus on clarity with visuals like infographics, screenshots, and video clips. Canva is a key tool for a visual “Digital Communication Agreement” defining online interaction expectations. Include student voice by the integration and use of pictures and graphics to illustrate behaviors and potentially collaborative presentation / polling tools for student involvement in norm-setting.

    Learning & application: Establishing clear online interaction norms is the focus of digital communication. Applying clear principles teaches the importance of visuals and setting communication goals. Creating a visual “Digital Communication Agreement” with Canva is a practical application where students define respectful online language and netiquette. An elementary class might design a virtual classroom rules poster, showing chat emojis and explaining “think before you post.” Using screenshots and “SMART goals” for online discussions reinforces learning, teaching constructive feedback and respectful debate. In a middle school science discussion board, the teacher could model a respectful response like “I understand your point, but I’m wondering if…” This helps students apply effective digital communication principles.

    Connection to digital citizenship: This example fosters respectful communication, empathy, and understanding of online social norms. By creating and adhering to a “Digital Communication Agreement,” students develop responsibility for online interactions. Emphasizing respectful language and netiquette cultivates empathy and awareness of their words’ impact. This prepares them as considerate digital citizens, contributing positively to inclusive online communities.

    Content curation

    Technology integration: For understanding digital footprints, one primary tool is Google Drive when used as a digital folder to curate students’ content. The “Tech Toolbox” concept implies interaction with various digital platforms where online presence exists. Use of many tools to curate content allows students to leave traces on a range of technologies forming their collective digital footprint.

    Learning & application: This centers on educating students about their online presence’s permanence and nature. Teaching them to curate digital content in a structured way, like using a Google Drive folder, is key. A student could create a “Digital Portfolio” in Google Drive with online projects, proud social media posts, and reflections on their public identity. By collecting and reviewing online artifacts, students visualize their current “digital footprint.” The classroom “listening tour” encourages critical self-reflection, prompting students to think about why they share online and how to be intentional about their online identity. This might involve students reviewing anonymized social media profiles, discussing the impression given to future employers.

    Connection to digital citizenship: This example cultivates awareness of online permanence, privacy, responsible self-presentation, and reputation management. Understanding lasting digital traces empowers students to make informed decisions. The reflection process encourages the consideration of their footprint’s impact, fostering ownership and accountability for online behavior. This helps them become mindful, capable digital citizens.

    Promoting media literacy

    Technology integration: One way to promote media literacy is by using “Paperslides” for engaging content creation, leveraging cameras and simple video recording. This concept gained popularity at the beginning of the DEN through Dr. Lodge McCammon. Dr. Lodge’s popular 1-Take Paperslide Video strategy is to “hit record, present your material, then hit stop, and your product is done” style of video creation is something that anyone can start using tomorrow. Integration uses real-life examples (likely digital media) to share a variety of topics for any audience. Additionally, to apply “Pay Full Attention” in a digital context implies online viewing platforms and communication tools for modeling digital eye contact and verbal cues.

    Learning & application: Integrating critical media consumption with engaging content creation is the focus. Students learn to leverage “Paperslides” or another video creation method to explain topics or present research, moving beyond passive consumption. For a history project, students could create “Paperslides” explaining World War II causes, sourcing information and depicting events. Learning involves using real-life examples to discern credible online sources, understanding misinformation and bias. A lesson might show a satirical news article, guiding students to verify sources and claims through their storyboard portion. Applying “Pay Full Attention” teaches active, critical viewing, minimizing distractions. During a class viewing of an educational video, students could pause to discuss presenter credentials or unsupported claims, mimicking active listening. This fosters practical media literacy in creating and consuming digital content.

    Connection to digital citizenship: This example enhances media literacy, critical online information evaluation, and understanding persuasive techniques. Learning to create and critically consume content makes students informed, responsible digital participants. They identify and question sources, essential for navigating a digital information-saturated world. This empowers them as discerning digital citizens, contributing thoughtfully to online content.

    Collaborative problem-solving

    Technology integration: For practicing digital empathy and support, key tools are collaborative online documents like Google Docs and Google Slides. Integration extends to online discussion forums (Google Classroom, Flip) for empathetic dialogue, and project management tools (Trello, Asana) for transparent organization. 

    Learning & application: This focuses on developing effective collaborative skills and empathetic communication in digital spaces. Students learn to work together on shared documents, applying a “Co-Teacher or Model Lessons” approach where they “co-teach” each other new tools or concepts. In a group science experiment, students might use a shared Google Doc to plan methodology, with one “co-teaching” data table insertion from Google Sheets. They practice constructive feedback and model active listening in digital settings, using chat for clarification or emojis for feelings. The “red, yellow, green” policy provides a clear framework for online group work, teaching when to seek help, proceed cautiously, or move forward confidently. For a research project, “red” means needing a group huddle, “yellow” is proceeding with caution, and “green” is ready for review.

    Connection to digital citizenship: This example is central to digital citizenship, developing empathy, respectful collaboration, and responsible problem-solving in digital environments. Structured online group work teaches how to navigate disagreements and offers supportive feedback. Emphasis on active listening and empathetic responses helps internalize civility, preparing students as considerate digital citizens contributing positively to online communities.

    These examples offer a powerful roadmap for cultivating essential digital citizenship skills and preparing all learners to be future-ready. The collective impact of thoughtfully utilizing these or similar approaches , or even grab and go resources from programs such as Discovery Education’s Digital Citizenship Initiative, can provide the foundation for a strong academic and empathetic school year, empowering educators and students alike to navigate the digital world with confidence, integrity, and a deep understanding of their role as responsible digital citizens.

    In addition, this event reminded me of the power of professional learning communities.  Every educator needs and deserves a supportive community that will share ideas, push their thinking, and support their professional development. One of my long-standing communities is the Discovery Educator Network (which is currently accepting applications for membership). 

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  • OPINION: Trump is back. We’re still waiting on his plan for schools – The Hechinger Report

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    OK. I guess we’re doing this (again).

    It feels awful for lots of reasons, of course, but mostly it’s because the country chose political vibes over policy ideas. As a researcher who spends his days trying to find evidence-based ways to make schools better, I’m at something of a loss.

    See, whatever you thought about the Harris-Walz ticket’s particular proposals, the Democrats had things to say about education issues that genuinely shape children’s development: affordable early care and learning, access to nutritious school meals, funding for English learners, and more.

    President-elect Trump’s education platform was made of much vaguer stuff — mostly culture war vibes. For instance, conservatives are eager to get the government involved in biological screenings to determine if kids have the “correct” genitalia for peeing in a particular bathroom or playing on a particular sports team. Trump talks about schools secretly imposing gender transition surgery on children. Finally, it’s likely that the administration will try to voucherize more public dollars to support families sending their children to private schools.

    Related: Become a lifelong learner. Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter to receive our comprehensive reporting directly in your inbox.

    But, again, all of this is light on substance. It’s pretty hard to see how bathroom-usage policies will help kids recover from the pandemic’s academic consequences, or get more children ready for kindergarten, or more third graders ready to read on grade level. School voucher programs may give anxious parents public money to pay for private education, but there’s not much evidence that they help students or the public schools they’re leaving behind.

    Worse yet, some of conservatives’ K–12 ideas are at war with themselves. The Republican platform calls for federal defunding of schools teaching curricula that conservatives don’t like, but it also pledges — immediately afterward — to “veto efforts to nationalize Civics Education [sic].” So they’re promising not to nationalize how schools teach history, except when they don’t like how certain schools teach history.

    Now, there was a detailed conservative plan for federal K–12 education drifting around during the campaign. The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 proposes to “eliminate” and “redistribute the various congressionally approved federal education programs across the government.” But Trump claimed to want nothing to do with it.

    Related: How would Project 2025 change education?

    Maybe he’s telling the truth — perhaps he’s realized that Project 2025 would significantly reduce his ability to enact any sort of affirmative education policy agenda. It would be harder to remake American schools in a Trumpian image without a federal Education Department, after all.

    Of course, that’s assuming 1) that Trump has given K–12 enough thought to work through that strategic calculus, and 2) conservatives actually have an affirmative agenda for making schools more effective, something that goes deeper than lines like this from their platform: “Our Great Teachers, who are so important to the future wellbeing of our Country, will be cherished and protected by the Republican Party so that they can do the job of educating our students that they so dearly want to do.”

    Related: What education could look like under Trump and Vance

    Perhaps there’s a concrete, substantive plan for reforming Title II of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act lurking in those words, and I just don’t have the right GOP decoder ring?

    So look, conservatives: You’ve got to figure something out. The country’s schools can’t afford another four years like the first round of President Trump’s leadership, which left U.S. public schools reeling.

    By 2018, the leadership at the Fordham Institute, the country’s most august conservative education policy think tank, was calling for Secretary Betsy DeVos to resign in the hopes that troubles from her first two rocky years could be sorted out by a replacement.

    In a January 2021 piece headlined “The Wreckage Betsy DeVos Leaves Behind,” the New York Times editorial board wrote, “The Department of Education lies in ruins at precisely the time when the country most needs it.”

    Related: Trump’s deportation plan could separate millions of families, leaving schools to pick up the pieces

    Please forgive me if this reads like I’m being overdramatic. Perhaps it’s my outmoded instincts as a Very Serious Beltway Policy Researcher; I still think about policymaking as an effort to actually solve big public problems.

    I’m a hidebound fossil that way. Of course, if you really want to own me, really want to prove experts like me wrong (again), you could shock everyone by setting aside the culture wars and giving substantive education reform a try.

    Conor P. Williams is a senior fellow at The Century Foundation, a founding partner with The Children’s Equity Project, and a father of three children currently enrolled in public schools in Washington, DC. The views here are strictly his own.

    The Hechinger Report provides in-depth, fact-based, unbiased reporting on education that is free to all readers. But that doesn’t mean it’s free to produce. Our work keeps educators and the public informed about pressing issues at schools and on campuses throughout the country. We tell the whole story, even when the details are inconvenient. Help us keep doing that.

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  • OPINION: Why we need a joint and urgent effort to teach data science and literacy in the U.S. – The Hechinger Report

    OPINION: Why we need a joint and urgent effort to teach data science and literacy in the U.S. – The Hechinger Report

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    Data is now everywhere in our lives, informing our decisions about which new show to watch, what path to take or whether to grab an umbrella. But it’s practically absent from the way our kids learn.

    Our approach to teaching data science and data literacy has hardly evolved since I started my teaching career in 1995. Yet now more than ever, K-12 students need basic modern data science skills.

    Nearly 1 in 4 job postings in the United States require data science skills. These aren’t just tech jobs — they span industries from manufacturing to agriculture to transportation. The ability to capture, sort and analyze data is as important for small business owners as it is for computer scientists.

    Now is the time to reprioritize curricular emphases to reflect the importance of data science and data literacy. With data talent in high demand globally, other countries are investing billions in data education.

    But American K-12 education still underemphasizes data science and data literacy skills — including the ability to understand qualitative and quantitative data, assess claims based on data and make data-driven predictions.

    How do we know? Look at the data.

    Related: Become a lifelong learner. Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter to receive our comprehensive reporting directly in your inbox. 

    According to the most recent NAEP results, between 2019 and 2022, student performance in data analysis, statistics and probability fell by a full 10 points for eighth grade students, representing what some experts consider a full grade level in lack of progress.

    Data science education is typically reserved for higher education, but only slightly more than a third of Americans have a college degree. The opportunity to learn basic data skills should not be reserved for a select group of students.

    Every student needs a chance to practice these vital skills from kindergarten through high school. That’s why I am excited for the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics to be a part of Data Science 4 Everyone’s national Chart the Course initiative, exploring the integration of data literacy and science across our most important school subjects. It will build upon NCTM’s work to reimagine, revitalize and increase math’s relevance for high schoolers.

    As president of NCTM, I’ve had the honor of helping to lead the mathematics education community through a time of profound technological change, which has included developing a position statement on AI.

    Additionally, in partnership with the National Science Teaching Association, the Computer Science Teachers Association, the National Council for the Social Studies and the American Statistical Association, we made an unprecedented joint call to build data science as an interdisciplinary subject across K-12 education.

    Early in my teaching career, we focused on teaching students how to use a dataset to create a bar graph or scatter plot. Now, students need to know how to formulate the question that will generate the data, how to collect the data and how to interpret the data.

    Students are eager to make sense of the world around them, but many don’t see how classroom instruction is related to the problems they will face as adults.

    Data — in the form of numbers, graphics and videos — can provide the hook that pulls students into lessons with real-world examples and applications.

    While a math teacher might look at a graph and observe that a certain variable decreased, a social studies teacher might say, “Of course there was a decrease, look at what was happening at that moment in history.”

    If we want students to think with and use data analysis skills in their everyday lives during and after high school, we need to create relevant data-learning experiences that engage students in using statistics to make sense of the world around them. This will also result in better test scores because students will understand the material and be able to apply what they know.

    Related: Do we need a ‘Common Core’ for data science education? 

    We are now joining with Data Science 4 Everyone in an even broader effort to create the first-ever national K-12 data learning progression that stretches across school subjects. It will shape how generations of students study data.

    Educator voices are vital to this process. We need input from the people who are closest to students and who will be rolling out data science lessons in their classrooms, so we’re asking them to weigh in. We need to engage our educators in order to effect change.

    Data Science 4 Everyone’s Chart the Course voting platform is open through October 31, and we are encouraging teachers to vote for the learning outcomes they believe are the most important for K-12 students to learn by the time they graduate from high school.

    The selection of the learning outcome options in Chart the Course was informed by 11 focus groups made up of students, educators, higher education leaders, policymakers, researchers, curriculum designers and industry professionals.

    The collaborative approach was designed to create a framework that meets the needs of students and reflects the cross-disciplinary potential of data science. We hope to equip students with the skills they need to understand data and think critically and carefully as they interact with AI tools and draw their own conclusions about the world around them.

    Engaging with data is a way to make education relevant for all our students and bring our many subjects together in unique ways. It’s time to chart a course that connects classroom learning to the lives of students. That should be our goal for all teachers.

    Kevin Dykema is president of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), an international mathematics education organization with more than 30,000 members. He has taught eighth grade mathematics for over 25 years in southwest Michigan.

    Contact the opinion editor at opinion@hechingerreport.org.

    This story about data science education was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for Hechinger’s weekly newsletter.

    The Hechinger Report provides in-depth, fact-based, unbiased reporting on education that is free to all readers. But that doesn’t mean it’s free to produce. Our work keeps educators and the public informed about pressing issues at schools and on campuses throughout the country. We tell the whole story, even when the details are inconvenient. Help us keep doing that.

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    Kevin Dykema

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  • SEL implementation soars across U.S.

    SEL implementation soars across U.S.

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    Key findings:

    A national survey of educators and principals shows a record number of K-12 schools reporting social and emotional learning (SEL) implementation, according to new research from CASEL and RAND.

    By the 2023-24 school year, 83 percent of school principals reported that their schools used an SEL curriculum. That number marks a steady increase from 76 percent in the 2021-22 school year and 46 percent in the 2017-2018 school year.

    Data from Social and Emotional Learning in U.S. Schools: Findings from CASEL’s Nationwide Policy Scan and the American Teacher Panel and American School Leader Panel Surveys show that 49 states and the District of Columbia have at least one supportive policy or condition that actively promotes SEL in schools. Educators working in states with more supportive SEL policies and conditions said that they are more likely to report SEL implementation in their own schools.

    “These findings show that educators and leaders nationwide are prioritizing SEL as a critical part of long-term academic recovery, and are undeterred by funding shifts or political divides,” said Dr. Alexandra Skoog-Hoffman, CASEL Senior Director of Research & Learning. “At a time when the nation faces teacher shortages, safety concerns, and attendance crisis, these data suggest that the focus on SEL is making an impact. Our data reinforces decades of evidence that show SEL can contribute to more positive school climates and increase student interest in learning, while supporting educators themselves.”

    School leaders’ investment in SEL also has a positive impact on teachers. Report data show that while educators cite funding and lack of support as consistent barriers, greater investment in SEL correlates with teachers feeling like they have the time, professional learning, and community support to implement SEL strategies that benefit students’ learning.

    The report also identifies specific state and local policy solutions to ensure educators and school leaders have the support to do their jobs effectively for their students. State policies have an outsized impact on the success of SEL initiatives. In states with supportive SEL policies–such as standalone K-12 SEL standards and integration of SEL into academic content areas–schools report fewer barriers to implementation, more community support, and greater professional learning opportunities for educators.

    Based on these latest findings and existing evidence, CASEL calls on policymakers at every level to make SEL a central part of the educational experience for all students.

    For more than a decade, CASEL has partnered with districts nationwide to study and scale high-quality SEL. The SEL Fellows Academy is an opportunity to support more leaders in addressing the social and emotional development of their students and educators and scale high-quality practice in their districts across the country.

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    CASEL Staff

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  • CompTIA Spark introduces free high-quality technology curriculum for middle grade classrooms

    CompTIA Spark introduces free high-quality technology curriculum for middle grade classrooms

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    Responding to a critical gap in technology education, CompTIA Spark has launched free technology curriculum specifically for middle grade classrooms, grades 5-8. It aims to support teachers so that they can teach the critical skills students need to succeed in whatever path they choose. The nonprofit organization worked with educators across the country to develop the curriculum.

    “World Teachers’ Day celebrates how important teachers are,” says Randi Parker, chief of staff and vice president of CompTIA Spark. “And we know that middle school teachers in particular play such an important role in a student’s journey which is why they are the key to bringing technology education to more schools. We could not have developed this curriculum without them, and we can’t reach students without them.”

    For about the past year, school districts as well as individual teachers have been implementing the CompTIA Spark curriculum in middle grade classrooms and providing feedback that allowed for a testing and development period prior to the full-scale launch. The schools that participated in this phase ranged from award-winning STEM schools to less-resourced ones, with all types of schools reporting the curriculum was a success and that students were engaged and excited to learn.

    Getting students excited about technology and growing their confidence with hands-on learning is critical at the middle school level. Without access to quality technology education, students fall behind before they reach high school which means they do not have the digital fluency needed to succeed in school and in life. Filling this critical gap is the mission of CompTIA Spark.

    With the new free curriculum, teachers can guide middle grade students through engaging project-based lessons that build capability using common applications and 21st century skills. Students gain a solid foundation in key technology concepts to prepare them for future opportunities — in high school and beyond.

    Delivered through an online learning platform, the curriculum sparks interest in technology and how it is used in a wide variety of careers. For example, the Tech Exploration units have interactive lessons that show how tech skills are used in roles like product design, market research, accounting, marketing and more. Meanwhile, the Emerging Tech units focus on artificial intelligence (AI), cybersecurity, and smart home technology. Full access to the curriculum is available to middle grade educators absolutely free — to empower more teachers to teach the subject, even if they have not taught it previously.

    “Because of the way the curriculum is intentionally designed, we are able to take the burden off the teacher by providing high-quality technology curriculum that middle grade teachers can use in their classroom regardless of their past experience with the subject,” says Parker. “Getting this free resource into the hands of teachers can help close the gap in technology education that currently exists at the middle school level. CompTIA Spark curriculum is free, and always will be free, because it is a gift from the tech industry to future generations.”

    Districts, schools and individual teachers are invited to explore the curriculum and get started at comptiaspark.org.

    Kevin Hogan
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  • Does calculus matter? This group says it’s a key to advancing equity – The Hechinger Report

    Does calculus matter? This group says it’s a key to advancing equity – The Hechinger Report

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    BROOKLINE, Mass. — It was a humid, gray morning in July, and most of their peers were spending the summer sleeping late and hanging out with friends. But the 20 rising 10th graders in Lisa Rodriguez’s class at Brookline High School were finishing a lesson on exponents and radicals.

    As Rodriguez worked with two students on a difficult problem, Noelia Ames was called over by a soft-spoken student sitting nearby. Ames, a rising senior who took Algebra II Honors with Rodriguez as a sophomore, was serving as a peer leader for the summer class.

    “Are you stuck on a problem?” Ames asked, leaning over to take a closer look.

    Noelia Ames, a senior at Brookline High, helps a younger student with a math problem during a summer class where she served as a peer teacher. Credit: Javeria Salman/The Hechinger Report

    The students in Rodriguez’s class were participating in a summer program created by the Calculus Project, a Massachusetts-based nonprofit. Founded at Brookline High near Boston in 2009, the group now works with roughly 1,000 students from 14 nearby districts beginning in the summer after seventh grade to help them complete advanced math classes like calculus before they finish high school.

    It focuses on helping students who are historically underrepresented in high-level math classes — namely those who are Black, Hispanic and low-income — succeed in that coursework, which serves as a gateway to selective colleges and well-paying careers. While some states and districts are nixing advanced-math requirements, sometimes in the name of equity, the Calculus Project has a different theory: Students who have traditionally been excluded from high-level math can succeed in those courses if they’re given a chance to preview advanced math content over the summer and take classes with a cohort of their peers.

    In recent years the Calculus Project’s work has taken on fresh urgency, as the pandemic hit Black, Hispanic and low-income students particularly hard. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court ruling banning affirmative action left even some college officials concerned that inequities in high school math would make it harder for them to fill their classes with students from diverse backgrounds. The Calculus Project’s national profile has grown — its staff advises the College Board on AP math exams and classes and have advised groups in a few other states — even as the organization has attracted some scrutiny from parents, due to its emphasis on students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

    “One out of 10 Black students in the eighth grade math scores were scoring basic or above,” saidKristen Hengtgen, a senior policy analyst at the nonprofit advocacy group EdTrust, referring to last year’s National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the Nation’s Report Card. “When you see that, you need to throw certain student groups the life jacket,” she added. “We cannot combat a math crisis if we’re not helping the students who need it the most.”

    Related: Widen your perspective. Our free biweekly newsletter consults critical voices on innovation in education.

    The racial and socioeconomic gaps in math are stark: Only 28 percent of Black students and 31 percent Hispanic students nationwide took advanced math in high school compared with 46 percent of white students, according to a 2023 report from EdTrust. Just 22 percent of low-income students took advanced math. Experts say that’s because these students are less likely to attend high schools that offer higher-level math or to be recommended by their teachers for honors or AP classes, regardless of mastery.

    They are also less likely to report feeling confident in math class or to enroll in calculus even when they are on a path to take the class early in high school, according to a report from EdTrust and nonprofit Just Equations. When it comes to Black and Hispanic students, Hengtgen blames what she calls “the belonging barrier.” “Their friends weren’t in the class,” she said. “They rarely had a teacher of color.”

    Senior James Lopes, wearing a green sweatshirt, listens to William Frey teach a lesson on polynomials, rational trigonometrics, exponential and logarithmic functions at the Calculus Project’s summer leadership academy program at Boston University. Credit: Javeria Salman/The Hechinger Report

    As a math teacher at Brookline High in the early 2000s, Calculus Project founder Adrian Mims got firsthand experience in what the research was beginning to establish. Black and Hispanic students were largely absent from the high school’s honors and advanced math courses, he said, and the few Black and Hispanic students who did enroll often dropped out early in the year.

    As a PhD candidate at Boston College, Mims was writing his dissertation on how to improve African American achievement in geometry honors classes. His findings — suggesting that Black students dropped out of the course because they lacked knowledge of certain foundational math content, spent less time studying and preparing for tests, and lacked confidence in their math ability — became the catalyst for the first iteration of The Calculus Project.

    Mims’ idea was to introduce Black students over the summer to math concepts they’d learn in eighth grade algebra in the fall. Students would be able to take the time to really understand those concepts and to build their confidence and skills, learning both from district teachers and peer teachers who could provide individual support.

    In the summer of 2009, Mims piloted his idea with a group of rising eighth graders. In addition to learning concepts they’d see in algebra that fall, they were exposed to the stories of famous Black and Latino figures who excelled in STEM, such as Black NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson and Mexican-American astronaut Jose M. Hernandez. When the school year arrived, they participated in after-school tutoring at Brookline High.

    The next fall, 2010, the district opened the program to all interested students, regardless of race. Summer participants were placed into cohorts so they could advance through math classes in high school with peers they knew.

    Teachers and administrators at Brookline say the project had an immediate — and lasting — impact. “It’s so much more than learning math,” said Alexia Thomas, a guidance counselor and associate dean of students at Brookline High.

    In 2012, Brookline High saw more Black students score as advanced on the state Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System Math test than ever before; 88 percent of those students had participated in the Calculus Project. The highest-scoring student in the district was Black – and a program alum. Two years later, when the first cohort of students who participated in both the summer and year-long programs graduated from high school, 75 percent had successfully completed calculus.

    A class of rising eighth graders in the Calculus Project’s summer leadership academy at Emmanuel College finishes a review before their final exam on content previewing Algebra I. Credit: Javeria Salman/The Hechinger Report

    Today, eight districts participate in the year-round program and another six send their students to the group’s summer programs, two three-week sessions that take place at Boston University, Emmanuel College and University of Massachusetts-Lowell. As of May 2024, 31 percent of students in the program identified as Black, 39 percent as Hispanic/Latino, 11 percent as Asian and 7 percent as white, according to program data. Mims has helped develop similar models in Florida and Texas.

    In 2023, research consultancy group Mathematica, in partnership with the Gates Foundation, published findings from a two-year study on the effectiveness of the Calculus Project and two other math-oriented summer programs. (Disclosure: The Gates Foundation is one of the many funders of The Hechinger Report.) According to the report, students in the Calculus Project outperformed students who hadn’t participated by nearly half a grade point in their fall math classes, on average.

    Related: Data science under fire: What math do high schoolers really need?

    The project runs counter to a recent push to engage high schoolers in math by making the content more relevant to the real world and substituting classes like data science for algebra II and calculus. Justin Desai, the Calculus Project’s director of school and district support and a former Boston Public Schools math teacher and curriculum designer, said he sees risks in that approach. Students need subjects like calculus, he said, because “it’s the foundation of modern technology.” To replace advanced math classes in favor of less rigorous math courses keeps students from accessing and excelling even in some non-STEM fields like law, he said.

    The project finds ways to show students how math skills apply in the professional world.  Every semester students take field trips to Harvard Medical School, Google and to university research centers and engineering companies, where they are introduced to careers and see how the math they are learning is used in society.

    A group of rising eighth graders from Newton Public Schools learn how to use different engineering applications at MathWorks headquarters in Natick, Mass. Credit: Javeria Salman/The Hechinger Report

    In late July, a group of rising eighth graders from Newton Public Schools’ summer program took a field trip to the sprawling campus of global software company MathWorks. In one room, an engineer showed students how a car simulation model is built and used, while a second engineer helped students test a robotic arm. Another group of students learned how to use a programming software to turn an image into music.

    As the Calculus Project has grown, there has at times been friction. In July, simmering tension between teachers and students at Concord-Carlisle High School came to a head when some project participants learned they’d been placed in financial literacy or statistics courses instead of calculus.

    Some students being placed into lower-level classes has been a pattern since the program started at Concord-Carlisle in 2020, Mims said. He threatened to pull the program from the high school, and the students were reassigned to calculus (and one to statistics).

    Mims said “this is a clear example” of how teacher recommendations can lock students out of advanced math classes. School administrators and teachers often point to students and parents as the reason for a lack of diversity in high-level math. “When we destroy that myth and we show that students can achieve at that level,” said Mims, “they can no longer point the finger at the students and the parents anymore, because we’ve created a precedent that these students can thrive.”

    Laurie Hunter, the Concord-Carlisle superintendent, wrote in an email that her district is committed to partnering with the Calculus Project and that it “works closely with individual students and families to ensure their success and path align with the outcomes of the project.” She did not respond to specific questions. 

    A student in William Frey’s summer class at Boston University works on graphs during a lesson on functions. Credit: Javeria Salman/The Hechinger Report

    Milton Public Schools, another district that works with the Calculus Project, was the subject of a 2023 federal civil rights complaint from national conservative group Parents Defending Education. The group accused the district of discrimination by partnering with the Calculus Project, which it said segregates students by intentionally grouping students of certain backgrounds together as part of cohorts.

    Mims rejects the group’s claims, noting that the Calculus Project is open to students of all backgrounds including white and Asian students. He says he has not heard from the federal government or the group about the complaint since early 2023. Parents Defending Education did not respond to several interview requests. A spokesperson for the federal Department of Education said the Office for Civil Rights does not confirm complaints but pointed to its list of open investigations. At the time of publication, there were no open investigations against Milton Public Schools.

    Art Coleman, a founding partner at legal group EducationCounsel LLC, said that he doesn’t expect such challenges to be successful. School districts have a legal obligation to address inequities in student performance, he said, and “there is nothing in federal law that precludes that targeted support, as long as in broad terms, all students, regardless of their racial or ethnic status, have the ability to tap into those resources and that support.”

    Related: How one district has diversified its advanced math classes — without the controversy

    This summer, the Calculus Project expanded its programming, including by adding a college advising class for rising seniors. It’s part of the group’s mission to help its students succeed not just in high school but in college and beyond, Mims said.

    The group plans to help its graduates secure internships while they’re in college and network once they’re out, he said, and will soon begin tracking students to see how they do in college and the workforce. “It’s really about giving them every advantage that rich kids have,” Mims said.

    Ames, the Brookline High senior and peer teacher, said she has found the program “totally life-changing,” in part because of the relationships she’s built with other students and teachers.

    Miranda Vasquez-Mejia, a rising ninth grader from Newton, learns how to handle a robotic arm at MathWorks headquarters in Natick, Mass. Credit: Javeria Salman/The Hechinger Report

    “You can be in the hardest class or the easiest class and every teacher will be there to support you,” said Ames, who is taking AP Calculus this fall and is considering studying finance after high school. “Whatever questions you have, they’ll answer.”

    Quentin Robinson, a college junior who joined the Calculus Project as a rising seventh grader, said it taught him that he enjoyed math and also how to advocate for himself.

    “My freshman year, they tried to put me in a lower-level math class because they didn’t think I was capable,” Robinson said. But his summer experience empowered him, and he persuaded the school to place him in Geometry Honors instead. He graduated from high school having completed both calculus and a college-level statistics course.

    Now, Robinson is an accounting and data analytics major at Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts. The Calculus Project, he said, helped him realize the voices of naysayers can be used as “a fuel” to achieve what you want.

    Contact staff writer Javeria Salman at 212.678.3455 or salman@hechingerreport.org.

    This story about advanced math was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for our newsletter.

    The Hechinger Report provides in-depth, fact-based, unbiased reporting on education that is free to all readers. But that doesn’t mean it’s free to produce. Our work keeps educators and the public informed about pressing issues at schools and on campuses throughout the country. We tell the whole story, even when the details are inconvenient. Help us keep doing that.

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  • OPINION: I’d love to predict what a Kamala Harris presidency might mean for education, but we don’t have enough information – The Hechinger Report

    OPINION: I’d love to predict what a Kamala Harris presidency might mean for education, but we don’t have enough information – The Hechinger Report

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    Predicting the future is often compared to reading tea leaves. In the case of forecasting what education policies Kamala Harris might pursue as president, though, a more apt analogy might be reading her mind. Frankly it’s anyone’s guess what her education policies would be given how few clues we have.

    It wasn’t always this way. Previously, presidential candidates laid out detailed plans for schools. George H. W. Bush wanted to be the education president. Bill Clinton wanted to use stronger schools to build a bridge to the 21st century. George W. Bush wanted to leave no child behind, and move the Republican party in a more compassionate direction. Barack Obama wanted Democrats to break with teacher unions by embracing merit pay.

    But in more recent cycles, education has dropped from the list of voters’ top-tier issues, and candidates have become increasingly cagey about their plans.

    Donald Trump’s administration was known for its advocacy of school choice, but that wasn’t something he talked much about on the campaign trail in 2015 or 2016; it only came into focus with his selection of Betsy DeVos as secretary of education.

    And Joe Biden’s unwillingness to challenge progressive orthodoxy on education would have been hard to predict, given his moderate persona in 2019 and 2020. What turned out to be the best guide to his education policies was his self-identity as the “most union-friendly president in history” — plus the membership of his wife, community college professor Jill Biden, in the National Education Association.

    Related: Become a lifelong learner. Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter to receive our comprehensive reporting directly in your inbox.

    So here we are with another election in which education issues are barely registering, trying to predict what Harris might do if elected. She has said even less than Trump or Biden, partly because of the truncated nature of her campaign, and partly because of her strategy of leaning into positive vibes and declining to offer policy specifics in the hope that doing so will better her chances of prevailing in November. Official statements — a Harris campaign policy document and the Democratic Party Platform — are thin on details.

    Making things even harder is Harris’ well-known willingness to run away from previous positions. She did that in 2019 when the Black Lives Matter movement made it awkward for her to embrace her record in law enforcement — including her tough stance on prosecuting parents of truant children.

    Expect a new era of isolation, separatism and a “politics of humiliation” in education


    That’s why looking at Harris’ statements from the campaign trail five years ago or her record as a U.S. senator only goes so far.

    What we do know is this: She’s sitting vice president. She has positioned herself in the middle of the Democratic Party, not wanting to break with progressives on the left or business-friendly centrists in the middle.

    And while her image is not blue-collar like Biden’s, she’s been careful not to put any sunlight between herself and the unions, including teachers unions. One of her first speeches as the presumptive Democratic nominee was to the American Federation of Teachers.

    For these reasons, it is likely that a Harris administration would bring significant continuity with Biden’s policies, including on schools.

    Picture her appointing a former teacher as secretary of education, proposing healthy increases in school spending and speaking out against privatization, book bans and the like. Call it the Hippocratic Oath approach to Democratic policymaking on education: First, do no harm.

    Can those of us involved in K-12 education hope for bolder strokes from a President Harris — including some that might move the needle on reform? Anything is possible.

    Her selection of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate thrust the issue of universal free school meals onto the national radar, given Minnesota’s leadership on that policy. Perhaps she will throw her support behind a congressional effort to provide federal funding for such an initiative.

    The most significant play we might anticipate, though, could be on teacher pay. Boosting teacher salaries by $13,500 per year (to close the gap with other professionals) was the centerpiece of her education agenda when she ran for president in 2019.

    It’s a popular idea, especially since so many Americans underestimate what teachers are paid today.

    She has a ready vehicle to pursue it thanks to the looming expiration of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, which makes new legislation around tax reform a must-pass item for Congress next year. The most straightforward way for the federal government to put more money into teachers’ pockets isn’t through a complicated grant program to states and districts, but via tax credits that would flow directly to educators.

    The tax code already allows teachers to deduct up to $300 for classroom expenses. There are also several student loan forgiveness programs for teachers.

    A major teacher tax credit could quickly get expensive, however, given the size of America’s teaching force (3 to 4 million depending on how you count it). At, say, $10,000 per teacher, that’s $30 to $40 billion a year — in the neighborhood of what we spend on Title I and IDEA combined.

    A smarter, more affordable approach would be to target only teachers serving in high-need schools — as the student loan forgiveness programs already do. Studies from Dallas and elsewhere acknowledge that great teachers will move to high-poverty schools — but only if offered significantly higher pay, in the neighborhood of $10,000 more per year.

    We also know that when we pay teachers the same regardless of where they teach — the policy of almost every school district in the country — the neediest schools end up with the least-experienced teachers.

    A tax credit for teachers in Title 1 schools — which get government funding for having high numbers or high percentages of students from low-income families — could transform the profession overnight, significantly closing the teacher quality gap, school funding gap and, eventually, the achievement gap, too.

    Related: OPINION: If Trump wins, count on continued culture wars, school vouchers and a fixation on ending the federal Department of Education

    Given Democrats’ interest in boosting the “care economy,” perhaps such a tax credit could flow to instructors in high-poverty childcare and pre-K centers, as well. This would fit well with Harris’ promise to move America toward an “opportunity economy,” including by boosting the pay of childcare and preschool teachers.

    Still, a big effort on “differential pay” for teachers might be just one wonk’s wish-casting. We’ve had two presidential administrations in a row with little action on K-12 education. It’s quite likely that a Harris administration would be a third.

    But here’s hoping for a pleasant surprise after November.

    Michael J. Petrilli is president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution. He served in the George W. Bush administration.

    Contact the opinion editor at opinion@hechingerreport.org.

    This story about Kamala Harris’ education policies was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for Hechinger’s weekly newsletter.

    The Hechinger Report provides in-depth, fact-based, unbiased reporting on education that is free to all readers. But that doesn’t mean it’s free to produce. Our work keeps educators and the public informed about pressing issues at schools and on campuses throughout the country. We tell the whole story, even when the details are inconvenient. Help us keep doing that.

    Join us today.

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    Michael J. Petrilli

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  • How we use robots and art to make meeting computer science standards fun

    How we use robots and art to make meeting computer science standards fun

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    Key points:

    After the state of New Jersey revised its computer science standards in 2020, I was part of a professional learning community tasked with helping educators in all subjects understand the computer science standards and incorporate them into their classrooms.

    Our group came from all over the state, representing different grades and subjects, and our mission was to create an online guide to help teachers break apart each standard, then provide a video tutorial or example of a lesson to address the standard, which we wrote as a team. The project, a collaboration between the state of New Jersey and Montclair State University to create a multi-year Computer Science Education Hub, provided funding for me to buy KIBO robots, which have become the focus of my school’s STEAM program.

    Igniting young students’ wonder through STEAM

    This grant wasn’t just about acquiring cool, new gadgets–it was about making computer science standards accessible to educators beyond the traditional science and engineering departments. By doing so, we’ve been able to teach coding not in isolation, but as an integral part of our larger curriculum. This approach has allowed us to create interdisciplinary lessons that spark curiosity, imagination, and engagement.

    With KIBO, a hands-on coding robot designed specifically for young learners, we have a screen-free way to introduce robotics and coding to elementary school students. We’re able to combine coding with art and show students the parallel between programming and storytelling. A prime example of this interdisciplinary approach was the lesson plan I wrote for our 2nd-grade students.

    The synergy of science and storytelling

    The book Balloons Over Broadway tells the true story of the master puppeteer who invented the first balloons for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Using the book as inspiration, I created a prompt guiding students to transform their KIBO robots into floats and recreate the parade by coding them to navigate the route down “Broadway.” During library media classes, students coded the parade performance using the wooden programming building blocks, and the computer science assisted with green screen filming and editing to recreate the New York City backdrop depicted in the book. Our art teacher introduced the students to Jeff Koons, instructing them to take artistic inspiration from the artist’s iconic balloon dog.

    For the final product, we produced a video that showcased the students’ programmed KIBO robots navigating a parade route through a virtual New York City. The lesson merged creative storytelling and art with technology, robotics, and engineering. Watching my students’ faces light up as they saw their creations come to life was a powerful reminder of the impact of hands-on, integrated STEAM projects like this one.

    Nursery rhymes with a technology twist

    The success of my Balloons over Broadway lesson inspired me to take a similar approach for our 1st-graders, using nursery rhymes as the jumping-off point. This particular lesson plan was mapped to a story-retelling literacy standard that uses the “first, next, then, last” structure, which is similar to patterns that students use in programming. By integrating this retelling format into the lesson, I was able to create a natural connection to the coding component. The students were able to collaboratively construct coding sequences that mirrored the familiar story structure, creating a better understanding of the technology, while also problem-solving by exploring which KIBO programming blocks they felt were necessary to tell the story of the nursery rhyme to the audience.

    I presented the class with several classic nursery rhymes to retell, including Itsy Bitsy Spider, Humpty Dumpty, Little Bo Peep, and Hey Diddle Diddle. After creating their coding sequences, students used KIBO’s wooden programming blocks to guide their robots in retelling the stories. They brainstormed and collaborated on what sounds and actions best matched the action in the nursery rhymes, then programmed their robots accordingly. The project ended with groups presenting four different characters they designed on a tissue box and placed on KIBO’s art platform, so that each of the students in each group could have their own character.

    It was remarkable to witness their creative problem-solving, and I had never seen them so calm and supportive of each other. Everybody applauded!

    To prepare for the new school year, I have received a few extensions for KIBO, including the Marker Extension Set and the Free Throw Extension Set. My plan for the upcoming fall class is to ask the students to devise their own lesson plans using these new tools. I can’t wait to see what the students come up with–the way our first graders were troubleshooting their projects during the nursery rhyme retelling lesson makes me confident that the students are ready to build upon their previous work and take it to the next level.   

    These lessons give my students learning scenarios that prepare them for the interconnected challenges of the real world, especially when it comes to technology and creative problem-solving. By creating lesson plans that not only meet current computer science standards but also anticipate future challenges, I’m equipping my young students with the diverse skillset they need to thrive in our ever-evolving world. 

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    Erin Wicklund, Hillsdale Public Schools

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  • MIND Education Enhances Flagship Math Program ST Math with Transformative Back-to-School Upgrades

    MIND Education Enhances Flagship Math Program ST Math with Transformative Back-to-School Upgrades

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    IRVINE, Calif. — MIND Education, a leader in neuroscience-driven math education solutions, has released transformative upgrades to the ST Math experience for students and teachers. The revolutionized curriculum introduces brand new games, an engaging island-themed student journey, an improved educator dashboard, enhanced puzzle talks to foster mathematical discourse, and comprehensive teacher workshops and professional learning.

    Drawing on over 25 years of neuroscience research, MIND’s approach in ST Math emphasizes learning by doing – an approach proven to foster critical thinking, creativity, and ensure deep conceptual understanding. These enhancements ensure learning experiences that are both engaging and effective at impacting positive outcomes.

    “ST Math’s new enhancements will accelerate math learning and conceptual understanding in less time,” said Jason Mendenhall, chief product officer at MIND Education. “Students will make remarkable progress with less ‘unproductive struggle,’ resulting in significantly improved math learning outcomes. Games that actively engage students help them avoid the passive learning trap of merely seeking the right answers, instead equipping students with the skills they need to tackle real-world problems.”

    The 34 new games for grades 3-5 offer: 

    • Low floor, high-ceiling learning to meet each student where they are; 
    •  Immediate formative feedback; 
    • Insightful, interactive virtual manipulatives; 
    • Visual reasoning challenges to develop strong problem-solvers; 
    • Exercises that facilitate conceptual grasp and sense-making; and
    • Tools to motivate students to tackle challenges, build perseverance, and boost their self-confidence as “math people.”

    ST Math’s new island-themed user experience is designed to empower, engage, and inspire students to embark on  their learning journey and bring their math objectives to life. Using a map, students can visually track their progress, celebrate achievements, and stay motivated by seeing their milestones come to life along an interactive pathway.

    The program’s upgraded, user-friendly teacher dashboard empowers educators to stay connected to student progress, providing quick access to a streamlined reporting system and easy access to student data. With expanded performance metrics, the advanced dashboard offers deeper insights to tailor instruction to meet individual student needs. 

    ST Math Puzzle Talks have been redesigned to better fit into fast-paced schedules, to be easier to find and use for teachers within the ST Math platform, and to be more accessible to all users. Similar to number talks or math talks, Puzzle Talks are designed to encourage students to communicate and deepen their mathematical understanding. They can be used to:

    • Leverage the visual puzzles of ST Math;
    • Launch or review a topic;
    • Offer intentional sequences of 3-6 puzzles;
    • Cover major grade-level topics and focus areas; and
    • Engage students in meaningful mathematical discourse.

    New educator professional learning packages seamlessly integrate ST Math into educators’ core instruction. The Curriculum Integration Package features dynamic, collaborative sessions to empower curriculum writers, enabling them to easily embed ST Math into their district’s core curriculum. The Math Discourse with Puzzle Talks package invites educators to participate in a multi-session workshop using a modeling package designed to empower educators in facilitating rich mathematical discourse. 

    Newly updated workshops will empower educators to maximize the instructional power of ST Math. The Facilitating Math Discourse with Puzzle Talks Workshop focuses on engaging students in meaningful mathematical discourse and problem-solving using ST Math’s completely redesigned Puzzle Talks. The Curriculum Integration & Targeting Standards Workshop allows educators to explore and experience the flexibility of ST Math within their core math program, while also building a deep understanding of how to target specific standards.

    To discover how ST Math’s new enhancements can transform math learning in your classrooms, visit ST Math – What’s New?. 

    About MIND Education

    MIND Education engages, motivates, and challenges students towards mathematical success through its mission to mathematically equip all students to solve the world’s most challenging problems. MIND is the creator of ST Math, a pre-K–8 visual instructional program that leverages the brain’s innate spatial-temporal reasoning ability to solve mathematical problems; and InsightMath, a neuroscience-based K-6 curriculum that transforms student learning by teaching math the way every brain learns so all students are equipped to succeed. During the 2023-24 school year, MIND Education and ST Math reached more than 2.17 million students and 115,000 educators across the country. Visit MINDEducation.org. 

    eSchool News Staff
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  • Milwaukee goes back to an old playbook for teaching math in the early grades

    Milwaukee goes back to an old playbook for teaching math in the early grades

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    MILWAUKEE — On a muggy afternoon in late June, about 20 kindergarten through second-grade teachers sat in a classroom on the third floor of Milwaukee’s North Division High School. The air conditioning wasn’t working properly, but the heat didn’t seem to bother the teachers, who were absorbed in a math lesson.

    Danielle Robinson and Alicia Socha, two teachers in the district, led the lesson.

    “I went to the store to buy some fruit. I bought five apples and four bananas. How many pieces of fruit did I buy?” Socha asked.

    The elementary teachers in the room solved the problem quickly. But the solution wasn’t the point. The teachers spent more time discussing what type of problem this was. Describing and deconstructing it helped the teachers reach a deeper understanding of not only how it works but how to explain it to their youngest learners.

    “Put yourself into the mind of a child,” Robinson said.

    Teaching counting and basic arithmetic sounds like a simple task. But early-childhood and elementary teachers have the daunting task of introducing abstraction to their students: What is a number? What does it mean for a number to be bigger? What does it mean to be a part of a whole?

    Across the hall, Beth Schefelker and Claire Madden, two other math education specialists, led a group of teachers and principals in adding fractions. Since 2022, the district has spent close to a million dollars in Covid-19 relief funds to pay the coaches, principals and teachers to attend these sessions.

    Many of these teachers never saw themselves as “math people.” Today, they were surprising themselves. Kayla Thuemler, a first grade teacher, added some fractions using a number line, where fractions are visually arranged along a horizontal line, similar to using a ruler. Thuemler had never seen fractions taught using a number line. But seeing fractions with different denominators on the same number line helped her see fractions as a more coherent system.

    “Why am I enjoying myself right now?” she asked colleagues. “I hate math.”

    Melissa Hedges, the math curriculum director for Milwaukee schools, shows teachers at a professional development seminar how folded paper can be used to demonstrate the solution to a fractions problem. Credit: Abby J. McFarland for The Hechinger Report

    Melissa Hedges and DeAnn Huinker strolled back and forth between the two classrooms. They shared giddy glances when they saw the teachers get excited about math. Hedges oversees all things math for the Milwaukee district’s elementary and middle schools. Huinker, a professor who advised Hedges’ doctorate in math education at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, is a legend among Milwaukee’s math teachers.

    Huinker led a math education revolution in the district when, between 2004 and 2014, almost every teacher in Milwaukee Public Schools received this type of training. Veteran teachers refer to this era as the golden years of math instruction. New district leaders abruptly ended that work. Ten years later, the teachers gathered on this balmy afternoon are the inheritors of Huinker’s legacy, tasked with preserving a vibrant culture of collaboration and a commitment to helping teachers master math.

    “Every teacher wants to learn and do a better job teaching,” Huinker said. “When teachers are learning, students are learning.”

    Related: Sign up for a limited-run newsletter that walks you through some of the most promising solutions for helping students conquer math.

    Early in her career, Huinker dedicated herself to solving the problem of inequitable achievement in math, whether measured by test scores, grades or more qualitative surveys about students’ attitudes toward the subject. In the early 2000s, she saw a grant from the National Science Foundation as a possible solution for Milwaukee’s public schools.

    The NSF, an independent federal agency, offers funding for math, science and engineering education in all 50 states. In 2003, the NSF awarded Huinker $20 million, the largest amount ever awarded to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, to establish a partnership between the university and the local school district.

     Huinker’s proposal was to have math education experts teach teachers more math while getting constant feedback from teachers on obstacles in the classroom. In 2002, a coalition of teachers, professors and administrators led by Huinker announced the Milwaukee Mathematics Partnership.

    “It’s like all the stars aligned,” she said. “You had the university professors from education and mathematics, as well as the Milwaukee Public Schools superintendent, who was very supportive.”

    A Milwaukee teacher uses a number line to demonstrate adding and subtracting fractions during a summer professional development session. The district is trying to revive a successful math partnership it had more than a decade ago that was discontinued for lack of funding and resources. Credit: Abby J. McFarland for The Hechinger Report

    The $20 million allowed the district to hire 120 math teacher leaders who would serve as a crucial piece to the system Huinker had imagined. Each of the 120 schools had a teacher leader, who would serve as the liaison between Huinker and her university colleagues and the classroom teachers across the district.

    Beth Schefelker was one of those teacher leaders. She was “bright-eyed and bushy-tailed” about the partnership when it started, but she said she quickly ran into roadblocks. While some district administrators were on board, others were less enthused.

    Schefelker recalled one meeting with a principal who leaned back in his chair, put his feet up on the desk and said, “Convince me why I need to be a part of this.” Another principal told her, “You’re just another woman asking me to take a leap of faith.”

    Schefelker responded, “What we’re doing is not working.”

    Before the partnership, the district’s approach to math resembled what math instruction looks like today in many schools across the nation — a patchwork of different methods and approaches. The partnership sought to bring more consistency among educators in a way that reflected the conceptual cohesion of mathematics as a discipline. But none of this would be possible if teachers themselves didn’t understand the math.

    While teacher leaders like Schefelker worked in individual schools and Huinker managed the partnership from the university, Henry Kranendonk mediated from the district office. He helped develop a “spectrum” that became the centerpiece of the program.

    Melissa Hedges, the math curriculum director for Milwaukee schools, leads a professional development session for kindergarten through second-grade teachers in the district. Credit: Abby J. McFarland for The Hechinger Report

    First, the district’s teachers agreed what students in each grade should learn in math and made sure these learning goals met state standards. Second, teachers and university professors helped develop standardized assessments for each grade level. Teachers within individual schools would then meet to discuss where students were weak and report these findings to Huinker and her colleagues, who would then develop teacher training sessions.

    “At the end of the day, it was gratifying,” Kranendonk said. “We weren’t giving them orders. We were collectively trying to figure out the best form of instruction.”

    In the classroom, teachers pushed students to reach a conceptual understanding of mathematics, a departure from the “drill and kill” methods of timed tests and memorizing procedures. The goal was to help students understand how different topics within math, everything from whole numbers and fractions to algebraic functions and areas of shapes, are interconnected. Students could then confidently solve unfamiliar problems without relying on formulas or by following the same step-by-step procedures. They would understand that individual problems are just expressions of concepts.

    Related: Kindergarten math is often too basic. Here’s why that’s a problem

    The partnership also gave teachers a say in how the district taught math. The training sessions went over state standards in detail and helped teachers unlearn their own bad math habits, while dispelling any false ideas a teacher might have about not being a “math person.” The training sessions were designed and improved based on the feedback classroom teachers gave to Kranendonk.

    Through this ecosystem, teachers discovered just how fragmented math instruction had been in the district. For example, they realized early on that some students didn’t understand the “equals” sign. Schefelker recalled how some students thought the symbol stood for “the answer is” rather than a symbol that represents balance. They had seen the equal sign only in the context of solving problems, and not as one critical component of the language of math.

    “The kids didn’t understand equality,” Schefelker said. “All they were doing was going through the process and not really understanding what they were doing.”

    Once Huinker and her colleagues intervened through training sessions, teachers started to teach the equal sign differently, using problems like “5+7=__+6” to show how both sides of the equation need to be the same value.

    Once the partnership gained momentum, the benefits became obvious, especially in test score data. According to one University of Wisconsin report, test scores rose by 10 percentage points for some groups. According to a report by Huinker’s team in 2011, one school in the district, 98 percent of whose students lived in low-income households, increased its mathematics proficiency by 40 percentage points. Milwaukee Public Schools became a beacon for math instruction across the country.

    Milwaukee teacher Kayla Thuemler, a first grade teacher, works on a fraction problem during a summer professional development program. Credit: Abby J. McFarland for The Hechinger Report

    A long-term look at the data, however, paints a more complicated picture. In 2004, when the partnership fully launched, about 30 percent of the district’s eighth graders were either proficient or advanced in math, according to Wisconsin standardized test score data. But in the 2005-06 school year, the state created a new standardized test, and scores plummeted for students: That year, only about 10 percent of eighth graders in Milwaukee were either proficient or advanced. That rate for eighth graders peaked in 2012, with about 16 percent reaching proficiency or advanced status. During the partnership, fourth graders saw about an 8 percentage point gain in the rate of students who scored proficient or advanced.

    According to Huinker and Schefelker, however, test scores were only the most public-facing sign of improvement. Grades, student interest and teacher satisfaction skyrocketed during those years.

    Buy-in from teachers was one reason the Milwaukee Mathematics Partnership worked, Huinker said. The second reason for the partnership’s success was more bureaucratic. Huinker, not the district, controlled the purse strings. Leaders at financially strapped districts like Milwaukee Public Schools constantly juggle competing priorities, and, according to Huinker and Kranendonk, district leaders were tempted to allocate some of the money to other areas of need. Huinker ensured that the money would be spent only on math instruction.

    “The external funding really gave us a leverage point,” Huinker said. “We were accountable to the National Science Foundation for keeping track of how the money was spent towards the clear goals of the project.”

    All this created a tight accountability structure that allowed everyone involved to stay focused on the goal of improving math achievement in Milwaukee.

    The NSF money lasted nearly a decade, and the successes continued. When the federal money ran out, the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction funded the partnership for two years.

    Despite receiving national and statewide praise, the Milwaukee Mathematics Partnership ended in 2014, when a new superintendent and curriculum director decided to terminate the district’s relationship with the University of Wisconsin.

    Huinker, Kranendonk and Schefelker recalled that the new district officials wanted to have complete district control over math instruction. The end was sudden, a contrast to the amount of time that had been invested into making the partnership work.

    “They broke it,” Schefelker said. “It took years of work to thread that needle. It took months to unravel.”

    Related: Teachers conquering their math anxiety

    Today, about 12 percent of students in the district, compared to 41 percent statewide, are proficient in math, according to standardized test score data. Wisconsin administers its state tests to students in grades three to eight and grade 10. Hedges, the current math curriculum director for the district who held several positions during the partnership, recalled a colleague who had once called math the “crown jewel” of Milwaukee Public Schools. “If you look at our test scores now, we might not be able to say that,” Hedges said.

    After the partnership ended in 2014, standardized test scores in math continued to rise incrementally. From 2016 to 2019, overall math proficiency in Milwaukee rose about 1 percentage point, to reach 16.2 percent. Hedges said some teachers remained committed to the partnership’s methods.

    “We had such a strong leadership base,” she said. When the partnership ended, “there were 120 math teacher leaders out in the district, and some of them went back into classrooms.”

    Huinker continues to train teachers for the district. Since the partnership ended in 2014, district leadership changed again, and there’s been more openness to collaborating with the university. The sessions for early-childhood educators, which meet for four hours a day for about two weeks, include both lessons in math and open forums for teachers to air grievances. The format of these meetings reflect the structure of the Milwaukee Mathematics Partnership, with its focus on math content and fostering collaboration between teachers who need more help teaching math.

    Today, Milwaukee Public Schools is reckoning with fiscal mismanagement, changes to leadership, clashes with the state and tension between administrators and teachers. On top of all that, the district will implement a new math curriculum across its schools this fall. Teachers feel unprepared and lament that they’ll only see it a week before the school year starts.

    Although another systemic overhaul is unlikely in the near future, the people who were around during the Milwaukee Mathematics Partnership are trying to pass down everything they’ve learned to the next generation of educators. The focus on the youngest learners is encouraging for newer teachers who got into the profession partly to avoid math.

    Danielle Robinson was one of the teachers in the district who helped lead the sessions for early-childhood teachers. She wasn’t around during the partnership, but she adheres to the same goals and methods. Her job, she said, is to translate research in education and childhood development for teachers.

    “I felt like I never really learned math, until I was able to learn” from Huinker and Hedges, Robinson said. “I always thought that social studies and literacy were more of my thing. These ladies really did change my life.”

    Phoebe Goebels contributed reporting for this story.

    This story about teaching math was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.

    The Hechinger Report provides in-depth, fact-based, unbiased reporting on education that is free to all readers. But that doesn’t mean it’s free to produce. Our work keeps educators and the public informed about pressing issues at schools and on campuses throughout the country. We tell the whole story, even when the details are inconvenient. Help us keep doing that.

    Join us today.

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  • COLUMN: Is environmental sustainability the new liberal arts?

    COLUMN: Is environmental sustainability the new liberal arts?

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    Environment and Sustainability in Enlightenment France. Modeling for Energy and Infrastructure Project Finance. Adirondack Cultural Ecology. Perspectives on the Amazon.

    These courses, offered at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania; Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley; State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry; and Duke University in North Carolina, respectively, illustrate how institutions are rethinking the study of sustainability at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

    The new Higher Ed Climate Action Plan from the Aspen Institute’s This Is Planet Ed (where, full disclosure, I’m a senior advisor) identifies the need to educate and support students as a top priority. No surprise there. 

    The plan further calls for this learning to be broad, interdisciplinary and future-oriented, giving students a path to a sustainable workforce.

    “The scale of the challenges we face demands that all people have baseline understanding” of climate, the plan says. “[H]igher education must advance a learning agenda…with cross-disciplinary educational offerings.”

    In a 2022 global survey, 60 percent of higher education institutions said that climate-related content is found in fewer than 10 percent of their courses. But a vanguard of colleges and universities are looking to change that. Each of these diverse institutions has their own unique method and mission. They are all taking the strategy of integrating sustainability content as widely across the curriculum as is feasible. They are breaking out of traditional silos and disciplines, and ensuring that these courses are encountered by as many students as possible.

    Related: How colleges can become ‘living labs’ for fighting climate change

    Toddi Steelman, former Stanback Dean of the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke, was a member of  the Aspen Institute’s This Is Planet Ed Higher Ed Task Force. Duke introduced a wide-ranging climate commitment in 2022 that spans operations, research grants and partnerships, including with the New York Climate Exchange.

    But “education is our superpower,” Steelman said. “We want every major to be a climate major. Our responsibility is to ensure we have educated our students to capably deal with these challenges and identify the solutions. Whatever they do – preachers, teachers, nurses, engineers, legislators – if they have some sort of background in climate and sustainability, they will carry that into their first job and the next job.”

    Accordingly, each of the ten schools within the university is working to define for itself what it means to be aligned with what Duke calls a “fluency framework.” The framework spans skills, behaviors and attitudes that uphold climate and sustainability understanding.

    Allowing each school to find its own way, rather than mandating a shift to climate content by fiat, will take time. Steelman is advocating for fluency for all undergraduates by 2028, she said, but “We’re working through a committee process and we’ll see what sticks.”

    The hope is that this process, honoring faculty expertise, results in more ownership and more meaningful integration of climate content. Steelman says the schools of nursing and medicine have been out in front, along with, fascinatingly, the French department.

    “They are introducing climate change issues into conversational French,” she said. “They are also thinking about research about how you conjugate verbs. The way you talk and think about the future has consequences for climate change.”

    Related: COLUMN: What does it look like when higher ed actually takes climate change seriously?

    SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse was ranked number one in the nation (along with two other schools) for its sustainability curriculum in 2023.  So it’s perhaps surprising that it doesn’t have a single course that focuses solely on climate change. At least not yet.

    “We don’t necessarily teach specifically about climate change, at least at the introductory level,” said Stephen Shaw, the chair of the Environmental Resources Engineering department.

    “We definitely teach the fundamentals that let people understand the science of it, and what it means to do climate adaptation, and mitigation,” he added. Students can even work with one professor to directly build instruments that measure greenhouse gases in the field.

    The faculty, said Shaw, is now debating adding an interdisciplinary, introductory course that answers questions like: “What is the basic science? What are the impacts? What are the impacts to people? What are the impacts to habitat, recreation, all across the board?”

    Related: Changing education can change the climate

    Dickinson, a liberal arts college of just over 2,000 students in Pennsylvania coal country, mandated in 2019 that every student take at least one sustainability course as a requirement for graduation. In practice, said Neil Leary, Dickinson’s associate provost and director of the Center for Sustainability Education, “over 50 percent of students who graduated this past May had taken four or more such courses, and one in four had taken more than six.”

    Dickinson offers more than 100 sustainability courses per semester, in departments from business to architecture. The college’s “Mosaic” courses, offered once or twice a year, are of particular interest. They are co-taught by professors in different disciplines and often include an independent study and a travel component. In a recent offering, on the energy transition in Germany, students studied representations of the environment in German literature and culture, and also traveled to Germany to see its adoption of solar and energy efficiency in practice.

    Like Duke with its fluency framework, Dickinson follows a broad definition of sustainability, Leary says. He cites the Global Council for Science and the Environment, a nonpartisan nonprofit dedicated to advancing environmental and sustainability education and research, which has identified five key competencies in the field: Systems thinking, future-thinking, collaboration skills, strategic thinking and values-thinking.

    “This is not value-neutral education,” Leary said. “Sustainability has a set of values that includes taking all people’s needs into account.”

    Related: COLUMN: Colleges must give communities a seat at the table alongside scientists if we want real environmental justice

    For now, institutions that go all-in on sustainability are rare enough that it can serve as a selling point in the competition for students, faculty and donors. Leary says 40 percent of undergraduates Dickinson surveyed recently agreed that this was a major factor that brought them to the college.

    But if leaders in the sector have their way, an all-sustainable curriculum will shift from a nice-to-have to table stakes. Bryan Alexander, author of Universities on Fireand an educational futurist with a particular focus on climate change, said, “My slogan is, climate change is the new liberal arts.”

    This column about sustainability courses was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.

    The Hechinger Report provides in-depth, fact-based, unbiased reporting on education that is free to all readers. But that doesn’t mean it’s free to produce. Our work keeps educators and the public informed about pressing issues at schools and on campuses throughout the country. We tell the whole story, even when the details are inconvenient. Help us keep doing that.

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  • OPINION: As federal pandemic funds end, K-12 systems must look for bold changes – The Hechinger Report

    OPINION: As federal pandemic funds end, K-12 systems must look for bold changes – The Hechinger Report

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    Educators around the country are scrambling to save jobs and programs created in the last few years as they face the end of the federal funds aimed at helping schools recover from the pandemic.

    The Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Fund gave districts nearly $200 billion. School systems leveraged these funds to pay for high-dosage tutoring, early literacy support, leadership development, enhanced counseling, expanded student exposure to career pathways and other endeavors. But when access to that money ends later this year, school administrators will face stark choices. To make a difference now, they will have to do even more with less resources as their students continue to struggle.

    That means coming up with answers to some tough questions. Can educators free up essential resources from ineffective programs and nonstrategic professional development? Will they close buildings that have dwindling numbers of students? Should states put money into a coalition to expand evidence-based reforms? How should school leaders address funding inequities and invest in historically marginalized students?

    School administrators cannot rely on existing strategies and instead should use the lessons learned from the last few years to boldly envision and invest in the future. The task will not be an easy one because the education field is obsessed with shiny new objects when we should be investing more in leaders and systems advancing the hard work that will drive scalable innovation.

    Related: Widen your perspective. Our free biweekly newsletter consults critical voices on innovation in education.

    The changes our students need require the type of courage, coalition building and focus demonstrated by participants in the University of Virginia’s Partnership for Leaders in Education (UVA-PLE).

    Some examples:

    • In Ector County, Texas, student achievement rose after the district reorganized to focus on talent development and rigorous academics. The district also dramatically increased internship and associate degree credit opportunities.
    • In Oklahoma City, the district consolidated schools before the pandemic, and it has used the savings to invest in instruction, student support, leadership development and popular student programs that focus on technology. These purposeful actions led to the start of overdue academic gains, decreasing the number of underperforming schools from 30 to 10, increasing districtwide proficiency in 14 of 14 tested areas in grades 3 to 8, and ensuring every high school achieves growth on the ACT.
    • In Englewood, Colorado, an intensive focus on instructional leadership and systems helped every school that had been placed on the state’s accountability watch list move to good standing, and one of those schools received the state’s highest rating.

    As part of UVA-PLE’s 20th anniversary, we closely examined recent successful system change efforts to better understand what leaders need to do next. We found that our most successful partners are more responsive to the reality of schools, teachers and students and collectively display three attributes:

    • They ignite action with a compelling vision and a willingness to disrupt the system. Leaders face up to harsh realities, drive focus and allocate resources to where change is possible.
    • They build coalitions for sustained effort. Enduring change can’t be top down or bottom up but must include administrators, teachers, students and the larger community.
    • They lead the learning and embrace evidence. Leadership teams consider opportunities and risk-taking with a data-driven approach so that they can understand and amplify what is working.

    Today, our instructional supports are often not interconnected, our tutoring efforts are typically not complementing instruction and our students are not given enough rigorous learning experiences to expand their postsecondary opportunities.

    Related: OPINION: Urban school districts must make dramatic changes to survive

    States and funders can play a critical role in system change by drawing attention to and expanding effective efforts like those mentioned above. Today, too much attention is being paid to issues that may or may not lead to long-term transformation but are very unlikely to help current students. That must change. Emerging AI efforts, for example, show great promise but, like past technological innovations, will have negligible student impact unless leaders design them with greater attention to coherence and rollout.

    We need to invest more in initiatives that promise to advance educational outcomes and opportunity now and lay a stronger foundation for future ingenuity. And no matter the challenge, leaders must be supported as they make tough choices and reimagine resource allocation.

    Rather than fear the end of ESSER funds, we see it as a galvanizing moment. Now is a time to invest resources boldly in successful strategies and in leaders who are ready to insist that teams work together to achieve compelling results.

    William Robinson is executive director of the University of Virginia Partnership for Leaders in Education (UVA-PLE).

    This story about the end of ESSER funds was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for Hechinger’s weekly newsletter.

    The Hechinger Report provides in-depth, fact-based, unbiased reporting on education that is free to all readers. But that doesn’t mean it’s free to produce. Our work keeps educators and the public informed about pressing issues at schools and on campuses throughout the country. We tell the whole story, even when the details are inconvenient. Help us keep doing that.

    Join us today.

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  • What to know about Kamala Harris and Tim Walz on education

    What to know about Kamala Harris and Tim Walz on education

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    Education vaulted to the forefront of conversations about the presidential race when Democratic nominee Kamala Harris announced Tim Walz as her running mate. Walz, the governor of Minnesota, worked for roughly two decades in public schools, as a geography teacher and football coach. He has championed investments in public education: For example, in March 2023, he signed a bill to make school meals free to all students in public schools.

    Harris, a former U.S. senator and attorney general in California, has less experience in education than her running mate. But her record suggests that she would back policies to make child care more affordable, protect immigrant and LGBTQ+ students and promote broader access to higher education through free community college and loan forgiveness. Like Walz, she has defended schools and teachers against Republican charges that they are “indoctrinating” young people; she has also spoken about her own experience of being bused in Berkeley, California, as part of a program to desegregate the city’s schools.

    Harris and Walz have been endorsed by both the country’s two largest teachers unions, the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, which tend to support Democratic candidates.

    We will update this guide as the candidates reveal more information about their education plans. You can also read about the Republican ticket’s education ideas.

    Related: Become a lifelong learner. Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter to receive our comprehensive reporting directly in your inbox.

    Early childhood

    Child care

    Harris has been a vocal supporter of child care legislation during her time in the Biden administration, though the proposals have had a mixed record of success.

    During the pandemic, the Biden administration provided $39 billion in child care aid to help keep programs afloat.

    The administration lowered the cost of child care for some military families and supported raising pay for federally funded Head Start teachers to create parity with public school teachers.

    Earlier this year, Harris announced a new federal rule that would reduce lower child care costs for low-income families that receive child care assistance through a federally funded program. That same rule also requires states to pay child care providers on a more reliable basis.

    Walz has also supported child care programs as governor of Minnesota. Earlier this year, he announced a new $6 million child care grant program aimed at expanding child care capacity, which followed a 2023 grant program that cemented pandemic-era support so programs could increase wages for child care workers. — Jackie Mader

    Family leave and tax benefits

    As soon as she became the presumptive Democratic nominee in July, Harris reaffirmed her support for paid family leave, which also was part of the platform she proposed as a candidate in the 2020 Democratic presidential contest. Harris provided the tie-breaking Senate vote that temporarily increased the child tax credit during the pandemic and has proposed making that tax credit permanent.

    Walz also was behind Minnesota’s child tax credit increase in 2023, and successfully pushed forward a statewide paid family and medical leave law that takes effect in 2026. — J.M.

    Pre-K

    In 2021, the Biden administration proposed a universal preschool program as part of a multi-trillion-dollar social spending plan called Build Back Better. The plan ultimately failed to win backing from the Senate.

    Earlier this year, Walz signed a package of child-focused bills into law. one of which expands the state’s public pre-K program by 9,000 seats and provides pay for teachers who attend structured literacy training. — J.M.

    K-12

    Artificial intelligence, education technology, cybersecurity

    Harris has played a key role in leading the Biden administration’s AI initiatives, particularly since the launch of ChatGPT. Biden signed an executive order on AI in October 2023, which directed the Education Department to develop within a year resources, policies and guidance on AI and to create an “AI toolkit” for schools.

    While Harris hasn’t specifically addressed education technology, in the Biden administration, the Education Department earlier this year released the National Education Technology Plan to serve as a blueprint for schools on how to implement technology in education, how to address inequities in the use and design of ed tech and how to offer ways to bridge the country’s digital divide.

    In 2023, the current administration announced several new initiatives to tackle cybersecurity threats in K-12 schools, including a three-year pilot program through the Federal Communications Commission that will provide up to $200 million to help school districts that are eligible for FCC’s E-Rate program cover the cost of cybersecurity services and equipment. — Javeria Salman

    Immigrant students

    Harris has vowed to protect those in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which delays deportation for undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children. The Biden administration has also used its bully pulpit to remind states and school districts that all children regardless of immigration status have a constitutional right to a free public education. As a senator in 2018, Harris sponsored legislation designed to reunite migrant families separated at the U.S.-Mexico border by the Trump administration, although family separation has continued on a much smaller scale in the Biden administration. In Minnesota, Walz signed legislation that starting next year will provide free public college tuition to undocumented students from low-income families. — Neal Morton

    LGBTQ+ students and Title IX

    Harris and Walz have both expressed support for LGBTQ+ students and teachers. As a senator, Harris supported the Equality Act in 2019, which would have expanded protections in the Civil Rights Act on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in education, among other areas. In a speech to the American Federation of Teachers, Harris decried the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” laws passed by Florida and other states in recent years. Walz has a long history of supporting LGBTQ+ students in Minnesota, where he was the faculty adviser of Mankato West High School’s first Gay-Straight Alliance club in the 1990s. In 2021, Walz signed an executive order restricting insurance coverage for so-called conversion therapy for minors and directing a state agency to investigate potential “discriminatory practice related to conversion therapy.” Walz signed an executive order in 2023 protecting gender-affirming health care. Earlier this year, he signed a law barring libraries from banning books based on ideology; book bans nationwide have largely targeted LGTBQ+-themed books.

    The Biden administration announced significant rule changes to Title IX in 2024 that undid some of the changes the Trump administration made, including removing a mandate for colleges to have live hearings and cross-examinations when investigating sexual assaults on campus. The current administration also expanded protections for students based on sexual orientation and gender identity, which had been temporarily blocked in more than two dozen states and in schools attended by children of members of Moms for Liberty, Young America’s Foundation and Female Athletes United. — Ariel Gilreath

    Native students

    As vice president, Harris worked in an administration that promised to improve education for Native Americans, including a 10-year plan to revitalize Native languages. The president’s infrastructure bill, passed in 2021, created a $3 billion program to broaden access to high-speed internet on tribal lands — a major barrier for students trying to learn at home during the pandemic. During his time as governor, Walz signed legislation last year to make college tuition-free for Native American students in Minnesota and required K-12 teachers to complete training on Native American history. Walz also required every state agency, including the department of education, to appoint tribal-state liaisons and formally consult with tribal governments.

    Walz spent part of his early career teaching in small rural schools, including on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. — N.M.

    School choice

    Harris, who was endorsed by the nation’s largest public school teachers unions, has voiced support for public schools, but has said little about school vouchers or school choice. Walz does not support private-school vouchers, opposing statewide private-school voucher legislation introduced in 2021 by Republicans in Minnesota. — A.G.

    School meals

    One of Walz’s signature legislative achievements was supporting a bill that provides free school breakfasts and lunches to public and charter school students in Minnesota, regardless of household income. Walz, who signed the law in 2023, made Minnesota one of only eight states to have a universal school meal policy. The new law is expected to cost about $480 million over the next two years.

    The Biden administration also expanded access to free school lunch by making it easier for schools to provide food without collecting eligibility information on every child’s family. — Christina A. Samuels

    School prayer

    The Biden administration has sought to protect students from feeling pressured into praying in schools. Following the 2022 Supreme Court decision in Kennedy v. Bremerton, the federal Education Department published updated guidance saying that while the Constitution permits school employees to pray during the workday, they may not “compel, coerce, persuade, or encourage students to join in the employee’s prayer or other religious activity.” — Caroline Preston

    Special education

    As a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, Harris released a “children’s agenda” in 2019 that, among other provisions, called for a large boost in special education spending.

    When Congress first passed the federal law that is now called the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, it authorized spending to cover up to 40 percent of the “excess costs” of educating students with disabilities compared to their peers. But Congress has never come close to meeting that goal, and today the federal government distributes only about 15 percent of the total cost of educating students with disabilities. The shortfall is “immoral,” Harris told members of the National Education Association at a 2019 candidates forum.

    The Biden administration also has proposed large increases in special education spending, but proposals for full funding of special education have not made it through Congress. — C.A.S.

    Student mental health, school safety

    As California attorney general, Harris created a Bureau of Children’s Justice to address childhood trauma, among other issues. She has spoken out about the mental health toll of trauma, including from poverty, and the need for more resources and “culturally competent” mental health providers. But a 2011 law she pushed for as attorney general allowing parents of chronically absent students to be criminally charged later drew criticism for its toll on families, particularly those who are Black or Hispanic. Harris has said she regrets the law’s “unintended consequences.”

    The Biden administration’s actions on student mental health includes expanding the pipeline of school psychologists, streamlining payment and delivery of school mental health services and directing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to develop new ways of assessing social media’s impact on youth mental health.

    As vice president, Harris leads the new White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, which was created after lobbying by survivors of school shootings to support gun safety regulations. She has touted the administration’s efforts to prevent school shootings, including a grant program that has awarded roughly $500 million to schools for “evidence-based solutions,” including anonymous reporting systems for threats and training for school employees on preventing school violence. 

    In Minnesota, Walz’s 2022 budget called for $210 million in spending to help schools support students experiencing mental health challenges. “As a former classroom teacher, I know that students carry everything that happens outside the classroom into the classroom every day, and this is why it is imperative that our students get the resources they deserve,” he said. — C.P.

    Teachers unions, pandemic recovery

    The Biden administration has close ties to the nations’ largest teachers unions, the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association, the latter of which is the largest labor union of any kind in the country. First lady Jill Biden, who teaches community college courses, is a member of the NEA. Walz, a former teacher, is also an NEA member.

    The administration was criticized for discussing with the AFT what kinds of safety measures should accompany the reopening of public schools after the pandemic.

    Since 2021, the Biden administration has poured billions into helping public schools recover from the pandemic in various ways: to pay for more staff and tutors and upgrade facilities to improve air conditioning and ventilation, among other things. However, academic performance has yet to rebound, and the recovery has been uneven, with wealthier white students more likely to have made up ground lost during remote classes and Black and Latino students less likely to have done so.

    The two unions, which had supported reelecting Biden, quickly threw their support to Harris and Walz. “Educators are fired up and united to get out and elect the Harris-Walz ticket,” NEA President Becky Pringle said after Harris named Walz as her running mate. “We know we can count on a continued and real partnership to expand access to free school meals for students, invest in student mental health, ensure no educator has to carry the weight of crushing student debt and do everything possible to keep our communities and schools safe.” — Nirvi Shah

    Teaching about U.S. history and race

    Both Harris and Walz have pushed back against Republican-led attacks on K-12 history instruction and efforts to minimize classroom conversations around slavery and race. Shortly after taking office in January 2021, the Biden administration dissolved President Donald Trump’s 1776 commission. In July 2023, Harris criticized a new history standard in Florida that said the experience of being enslaved had given people skills “for their personal benefit.”

    As governor, Walz released an education plan calling for more “inclusive” instruction that is “reflective of students of color and Indigenous students.” It also called for anti-bias training for school staff, the establishment of an Equity, Diversity and Inclusion center at the Minnesota Department of Education, and the expansion of efforts to recruit Indigenous teachers and teachers of color. Walz also has advocated for educating students about the Holocaust and other genocides; state bans on teaching about “divisive concepts” in some Republican-led states have chilled such instruction. — C.P.

    Title I

    Harris’ 2019 “children’s agenda,” from when she was angling to be the Democratic nominee for president, proposed “significantly increasing” Title I, the federal program aimed at educating children from low-income families. The Biden administration also has proposed major increases to Title I spending, but Congress has not enacted those proposals. — C.A.S.

    Higher Education

    Accreditation

    As California attorney general, Harris urged the federal government in 2016 to revoke federal recognition for the accrediting agency of the for-profit chain Corinthian Colleges, which she had successfully sued for misleading students and using predatory recruiting practices. The accreditor’s recognition ultimately was removed in 2022. 

    As vice president, Harris has said little about the accreditation system, which is independently run and federally regulated and acts as a gatekeeper to billions of dollars in federal student aid. But the Biden administration has sought to require accreditors to create minimum standards on student outcomes such as graduation rates and licensure-exam pass rates. — Sarah Butrymowicz

    Affirmative action

    Harris has long supported affirmative action in college admissions. As California attorney general, she criticized the impact of the state’s 1996 ban at its public colleges. She also filed friend-of-the-court briefs in support of the University of Texas’ race-conscious admissions policy when the Supreme Court heard challenges to it in 2012 and 2015.

    Last June, Harris criticized the Supreme Court’s ruling against affirmative action the same day it was handed down, calling the decision a “denial of opportunity.” Walz, referring to the decision, wrote on X, “In Minnesota, we know that diversity in our schools and businesses reflects a strong and diverse state.” — Meredith Kolodner

    DEI

    Harris has not shied away from supporting DEI initiatives, even as they became a focus of attack for Republicans. “Extremist so-called leaders are trying to erase America’s history and dare suggest that studying and prioritizing diversity, equity, and inclusion is a bad thing. They’re wrong,” she wrote on X.

    As governor, Walz has taken steps to increase access to higher education across racial groups, including offering tuition-free enrollment at state colleges for residents who are members of a tribal nation. This spring, Walz signed a budget that increased funding for scholarships for students from underrepresented racial groups to teach in Minnesota schools. — M.K.

    For-profit colleges

    Harris has long been a critic of for-profit colleges. In 2013, as California state attorney general, she sued Corinthian Colleges, Inc., eventually obtaining a more than $1.1 billion settlement against the defunct company. “For years, Corinthian profited off the backs of poor people — now they have to pay,” she said in a press release. As senator, she signed a letter in the summer of 2020 calling for the exclusion of for-profit colleges from Covid-era emergency funding. — M.K.

    Free college

    The Biden administration repeatedly has proposed making community college free for students regardless of family income. The administration also proposed making college free for students whose families make less than $125,000 per year if the students attend a historically Black college, tribal college or another minority-serving institution.

    In 2023, Walz signed a bill that made two- and four-year public colleges in Minnesota free for students whose families make less than $80,000 per year. The North Star Promise Program works by paying the remaining tuition after scholarships and grants have been applied, so that students don’t have to take out loans to pay for school. — Olivia Sanchez

    Free/hate speech

    Following nationwide campus protests against the war in Gaza, Biden said, “There should be no place on any campus, no place in America for antisemitism or threats of violence against Jewish students. There is no place for hate speech or violence of any kind, where it’s antisemitism, Islamophobia, or discrimination against Arab Americans or Palestinian Americans.” His Education Department is investigating dozens of complaints about antisemitism and Islamophobia on K-12 and college campuses, a number that has spiraled since the start of the war. — O.S.

    Pell grants

    The Pell grant individual maximum award has increased by $900 to $7,395 since the beginning of the Biden administration, part of its goal to double the maximum award by 2029. Education experts say that when the Pell grant program began in the 1970s, it covered roughly 75 percent of the average tuition bill but today covers only about one-third. They say doubling the Pell grant would make it easier for low-income students to earn a degree. The administration tried several times to make Pell grants available to undocumented students who are part of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, but has been unsuccessful. — O.S.

    Student loan forgiveness

    In 2019, while campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination, Harris proposed forgiving loans for Pell grant recipients who operated businesses in disadvantaged communities for a minimum of three years. As vice president, she was reportedly instrumental in pushing Biden to announce a sweeping debt cancelation policy.

    The policy, which would have eliminated up to $20,000 in debt for borrowers under a certain income level, ultimately was blocked by the Supreme Court. Since then, the Biden administration has used other existing programs, including Public Service Loan Forgiveness, to cancel more than $168 billion in federal student debt.

    Harris has regularly championed these moves. In April, for instance, she participated in a round-table discussion on debt relief, touting what the administration had done. “That’s more money in their pocket to pay for things like child care, more money in their pocket to get through the month in terms of rent or a mortgage,” she said of those who had loans forgiven.

    But challenges remain. In August, a federal appeals court issued a stay on a Biden plan, known as the SAVE plan, which aimed to allow enrolled borrowers to cut their monthly payments and have their debts forgiven more quickly than they currently can. — S.B.

    This story about Democrats in education was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.

    The Hechinger Report provides in-depth, fact-based, unbiased reporting on education that is free to all readers. But that doesn’t mean it’s free to produce. Our work keeps educators and the public informed about pressing issues at schools and on campuses throughout the country. We tell the whole story, even when the details are inconvenient. Help us keep doing that.

    Join us today.

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    Sarah Butrymowicz, Ariel Gilreath, Meredith Kolodner, Jackie Mader, Neal Morton, Caroline Preston, Javeria Salman, Christina A. Samuels, Olivia Sanchez and Nirvi Shah

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  • At this summer school, students learn about liberation and leadership – The Hechinger Report

    At this summer school, students learn about liberation and leadership – The Hechinger Report

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    Inside a small, mural-covered building just outside Indianola, Mississippi, 14-year-old Tamorris Carter made the rounds, bouncing lightly on his heels.

    He stopped frequently to explain objects of interest; pictures of class field trips to civil rights monuments, or a poster he made on “social dominance orientation,” a term that describes one’s tolerance for social inequality. Even in moments of pause, Tamorris found a way to remain in motion. He would smooth down the cap on his head, lean forward to pinch the bubbles of a rainbow-printed fidget toy, and trace the words of his poster.

    Tamorris was giving a tour of the Sunflower County Freedom Project, an after-school and summertime educational program where he’d been a student for a little over two years. The Sunflower County Freedom Project is one location of the Freedom Project Network, an organization that gives Mississippi students “holistic and liberatory education experiences.”

    Tamorris Carter stands for a portrait in Indianola, Miss. Credit: Andrea Morales for MLK50 Andrea Morales for MLK50

    At the Freedom Projects, students — called “Freedom Fellows” — learn about Black and Indigenous history, math, reading and public speaking. The program also prepares students for college. Freedom Fellows range in age from third to 12th grade.

    Related: Become a lifelong learner. Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter to receive our comprehensive reporting directly in your inbox.

    Most Freedom Fellows at the Sunflower County location are from Indianola, the county seat. Around 9,000 people live there; 84% of them are Black. Almost a third live in poverty. The town center is ringed by cotton fields, which in July, are low to the ground and bright green. In certain places, neat rows of small plants extend to the horizon. The Mississippi State Penitentiary, a place once described by historian David Oshinksy as “the closest thing to slavery that survived the Civil War,” is a short drive from Indianola. Last year, the town made national news when an Indianola police officer shot an unarmed, Black 11-year-old in the chest.

    Other educational programs might prepare students to leave towns like Indianola. But the Freedom Project Network is “not an organization just trying to get kids into college,” emphasized LaToysha Brown, the organization’s executive director. “We are not trying to bring kids in to separate them from the community.”

    Instead, she hopes Freedom Fellows will use their education to change their communities for the better.

    An education that empowers

    Students in a fourth-grade math class work through their lessons together. Photo by Andrea Morales for MLK50 Credit: Andrea Morales for MLK50

    By early July, the Sunflower County Freedom Project was wrapping up its summer program. Tamorris and other Freedom Fellows moved from class to class in different parts of the building.

    “This is our library,” Tamorris announced, cutting through a small room filled with books on Black history, social critique, philosophy, and young adult fiction. From there, he reached a large open area with mats on the ground. “This room is kind of like a gym,” he said. “This is where we do taekwondo.” He paused briefly to demonstrate a move, a decisive punch to the air.

    Tamorris walked through a door at the back of the gym, which connected to a classroom with blue walls. A third-grade math class was in session, so he dropped the volume of his voice to a whisper. The classroom’s walls were covered in homemade posters left behind from student presentations. Among others, there were posters with information about historically Black colleges, “The Myth of Racial Progress,” and the signs of ADHD.

    A 1964 image of a Freedom School class in Hattiesburg, Miss.  Credit: Herbert Randall for the SNCC via the University of Southern Mississippi

    The Freedom Project Network takes its name from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee’s Freedom Schools of 1964, whose alums are celebrating the schools’ 60th anniversary this year. The original Freedom Schools opened to educate young Black Mississippians on Black history and political activism. Charlie Cobb, the SNCC member who proposed the idea, wrote that segregated schools in Mississippi were “geared to squash intellectual curiosity and different thinking.” By contrast, Cobb hoped the Freedom Schools would provide Black kids with an education that empowered them. Eventually, these students would use their education to advocate for racial justice in Mississippi.

    In 1998, three decades after the last Freedom Schools closed, a group of community members and Teach for America fellows established the Sunflower County Freedom Project.

    Related: 7 realities for Black students in America, 70 years after Brown

    LaToysha Brown, 28, grew up in Indianola and is a Freedom Fellow at the Sunflower County Freedom Project. From her perspective, the need for the Freedom Project Network was obvious.

    “In Indianola schools, students do not receive a quality education,” she said. “When I was a student, we didn’t receive new textbooks, and we weren’t challenged to read many books. Our teachers were amazing with the resources they had. But our schools were under-resourced.”

    In Indianola schools, “you’re never going to have an in-depth conversation about enslavement,” Brown said. Instead, the history of racial injustice is limited to “a paragraph or two” in a textbook.

    The Freedom Project gave Brown an education she would not have received at school. Now, Brown works with students who attend that same school system — kids like Tamorris.

    Filling in gaps

    Credit: Andrea Morales for MLK50

    A photo of Tamorris Carter sitting next to a statue of Rosa Parks while on a field trip to Dallas hangs on the bulletin board at the Sunflower County Freedom Project. Photo by Andrea Morales for MLK50

    Tamorris became a Freedom Fellow in eighth grade. By that point, he’d already gained an awareness of injustice, even if he couldn’t label it as such. He remembers looking around his middle school one day and noticing something strange — “I thought, ‘all I see is Black people.’”

    He suddenly realized all his classmates were Black, as were the teachers and administrators at his school. This didn’t bother him, exactly, but it did make him wonder: Where are the white kids?

    Related: As a 6-year-old, Leona Tate helped desegregate schools. Now she wants others to learn that history

    After he joined the Freedom Project, a guest speaker gave him the answer he was looking for: Most white students in Indianola still attend the private Indianola Academy, established to maintain segregation in 1965. Each year, around 400 students attend Indianola Academy. In 2012, then-headmaster Sammy Henderson admitted to The Atlanticmagazinethat the school only enrolled nine Black students, but added that “we also have Hispanic, Indian, and Oriental students.”

    For Tamorris, learning about Indianola Academy was a revelation. He had suspected his education was shaped by racism, but he couldn’t bring himself to voice those thoughts. “I didn’t want to be one of those guys that makes everything a conspiracy,” he said. But the guest speaker “gave me reassurance.” He felt — or, allowed himself to feel — that the reality of his life had been kept secret.

    He began to see racism throughout his education. At school, teachers had barely mentioned Fannie Lou Hamer, who was born and raised in Sunflower County. They had not taught Tamorris about Juneteenth, either.

    Indeed, it started to feel as though his entire life had been shaped by oppression. Tamorris’ mother sometimes struggles to afford food; before, this was an unfortunate fact of life. Now, Tamorris understands it as a symptom of a larger system of racial capitalism. “Screw capitalism,” he said with a grin. “Capitalism is what keeps me broke.”

    Tamorris Carter celebrates with fellows and staff following his presentation on July 12 Credit: Andrea Morales for MLK50

    This kind of thought process is a part of the Freedom Schools’ “liberatory pedagogy,” a teaching style that takes for granted that, according to Brown, “People already know what’s happening to them. They just need the language.”

    Brown acknowledges that Tamorris is an extraordinary student. Still, she said, “a lot of our students walk into our space feeling like something just isn’t right in their lives. We fill in the gaps. We give them language. We allow them to share their experiences with each other about what’s happening in their community.”

    On July 12, Tamorris and a few other freedom fellows gathered to present a project of their choosing to their family members and supporters. Tamorris gave a presentation on social dominance orientation, which he argues plays a role in the continuation of oppressive systems.

    These presentations are a major aspect of the Freedom Project’s teaching style; they are intended to get Freedom Fellows comfortable educating their community members. From Brown’s perspective, a student like Tamorris is perfectly capable of analyzing society by himself, without the assistance of the Freedom Project. But to Brown, analysis is only part of the process.

    “I said, ‘Great, you have this great big analysis of the world,” said Brown of Tamorris. “‘Now, I want you to apply that. How can you use that analysis to organize with the people around you?’”

    Rebecca Cadenhead is the youth and juvenile justice reporter for MLK50: Justice Through Journalism. She is also a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms. Email her rebecca.cadenhead@mlk50.com.

    This story was written by MLK50 and reprinted with permission.

    The Hechinger Report provides in-depth, fact-based, unbiased reporting on education that is free to all readers. But that doesn’t mean it’s free to produce. Our work keeps educators and the public informed about pressing issues at schools and on campuses throughout the country. We tell the whole story, even when the details are inconvenient. Help us keep doing that.

    Join us today.

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    Rebecca Cadenhead

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  • In the age of bots and AI, how can students identify misinformation online?

    In the age of bots and AI, how can students identify misinformation online?

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    Key points:

    In this digital age of AI and misinformation, today’s students need to be better armed to discern fact from fiction.

    A 2023 survey by the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), a nonprofit that fights misinformation, found that “60 percent of 13- [to] 17-year-old Americans surveyed agreed with four or more harmful conspiracy statements–compared with just 49 percent of adults. For teens who spend four or more hours a day on any single social media platform, the figure was as high as 69 percent.”

    Whether it’s relying too heavily on ChatGPT to write a paper resulting in an assignment filled with inaccurate information, or relying solely on social media to learn about world issues like the conflict in Gaza or upcoming national elections, learning to understand primary sources, question information, analyze data, and discern hidden agendas are top skills all students need.

    While reading, writing, and arithmetic are still important, today’s middle and high school students are bombarded with misinformation daily. Now that AI can effortlessly create convincing but fabricated stories, today’s curricula must prepare students to navigate the murky waters of AI, bias, and misinformation.

    It’s possible to work this into interesting learning segments. For instance, a course or learning unit might explore issues like the Bermuda Triangle and examine which news sources are credible or not, what misinformation really means, and how to write an argumentative paper correctly. The subject matter translates into critical real-world cognitive skills. 

    Another learning opportunity could evaluate AI tools through ethical frameworks. Students might read and engage with the ideas of renowned philosophers and apply them to modern dilemmas in artificial intelligence. They could ask questions like, “How do I measure and assess the benefits vs potential harms of this AI tool?” and “What can Immanuel Kant’s Theory of the Categorical Imperative illuminate about how we make decisions around AI?”

    My advice for educators is to:

    • Incorporate skills like critical thinking into segments on current events that students will find interesting. Students can engage with questions like:
      • What kind of content am I encountering?
      • Is the information complete; and if not, what is missing?
      • Who or what are the sources, and why should I believe them?
      • What evidence is presented, and how was it tested or vetted?
    • Explicitly teach students how to identify an op-ed versus a news article, and to consider who’s behind a website or social media account.

    Today, institutional brand names like CNN or NBC News are no guarantee of a single set of norms, values, or approaches to quality. Knowing what distinguishes news from propaganda, advertising, publicity, or entertainment is increasingly important. In their book The Elements of Journalism, Rosentiel and Kovach have identified the four following models of media (note that all or some of these models may be found within a single issue of a newspaper and its online outlets):

    • Journalism of Verification: A traditional model that puts the highest value on accuracy and context (sense-making)
    • Journalism of Assertion: A newer model that puts the highest value on immediacy and volume and in doing so tends to become a passive conduit of information (relays information without providing much further context)
    • Journalism of Affirmation: A new political media that builds loyalty less on accuracy, completeness, or verification than on affirming the beliefs of its audiences, and so tends to cherry-pick information that serves that purpose 
    • Interest-Group Journalism: Targeted websites or pieces of work, often investigative, that are usually funded by special interests rather than media institutions; they are designed to look like news
    • Help students understand the differences among:
      • Facts
      • Bias (pre-judgment about an idea, thing, or person, usually in a way that is unfair) 
      • Well-reasoned opinion based on facts-based analysis
      • Poorly reasoned opinion based on bias or assumptions 
    • Incorporate AI tools into the classroom so students understand the power and limitations:
      • Aim for transparent and thoughtful AI usage, which involves citing the AI tool and user input, evaluating the output, and editing, combining, and elaborating on the output
      • Explain the differences between using AI as an assistant and tutor and using AI to execute tasks for you
      • Use an AI competency rubric or scale to illustrate the skill sets required to use AI responsibly
    • Teach students how to fact-check information:
      • Help students explore how to corroborate information they see online
      • A good rule of thumb is to “trust, but verify”
      • If a statement looks suspect, determine if you can find 2-3 credible, unbiased sources that can corroborate it

    We cannot ignore the new set of skills students today need as they graduate and head into the real world. A key part of our job as educators is to prepare students to be critical thinkers and help them decipher information. It’s also more than just teaching students to navigate online sources; we must prepare them for the new challenges AI presents. 

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    Garrett Smiley, Sora Schools

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