An unexpected group of presenters–11th graders from Whitney M. Young Magnet High School in Chicago–made a splash at this year’s ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (FAccT). These students captivated seasoned researchers and professionals with their insights on how school environments shape students’ views of AI. “I wanted our project to serve as a window into the eyes of high school students,” said Autumn Moon, one of the student researchers.
What enabled these students to contribute meaningfully to a conference dominated by PhDs and industry veterans was their critical data literacy–the ability to understand, question, and evaluate the ethics of complex systems like AI using data. They developed these skills through their school’s Data is Powerprogram.
Launched last year, Data is Power is a collaboration among K-12 educators, AI ethics researchers, and the Young Data Scientists League. The program includes four pilot modules that are aligned to K-12 standards and cover underexplored but essential topics in AI ethics, including labor and environmental impacts. The goal is to teach AI ethics by focusing on community-relevant topics chosen by our educators with input from students, all while fostering critical data literacy. For example, Autumn’s class in Chicago used AI ethics as a lens to help students distinguish between evidence-based research and AI propaganda. Students in Phoenix explored how conversational AI affects different neighborhoods in their city.
Why does the Data is Power program focus on critical data literacy? In my former role leading a diverse AI team at Amazon, I saw that technical skills alone weren’t enough. We needed people who could navigate cultural nuance, question assumptions, and collaborate across disciplines. Some of the most technically proficient candidates struggled to apply their knowledge to real-world problems. In contrast, team members trained in critical data literacy–those who understood both the math and the societal context of the models–were better equipped to build responsible, practical tools. They also knew when not to build something.
As AI becomes more embedded in our lives, and many students feel anxious about AI supplanting their job prospects, critical data literacy is a skill that is not just future-proof–it is future-necessary. Students (and all of us) need the ability to grapple with and think critically about AI and data in their lives and careers, no matter what they choose to pursue. As Milton Johnson, a physics and engineering teacher at Bioscience High School in Phoenix, told me: “AI is going to be one of those things where, as a society, we have a responsibility to make sure everyone has access in multiple ways.”
Critical data literacy is as much about the humanities as it is about STEM. “AI is not just for computer scientists,” said Karren Boatner, who taught Autumn in her English literature class at Whitney M. Young Magnet High School. For Karren, who hadn’t considered herself a “math person” previously, one of the most surprising parts of the program was how much she and her students enjoyed a game-based module that used middle school math to explain how AI “learns.” Connecting math and literature to culturally relevant, real-world issues helps students see both subjects in a new light.
As AI continues to reshape our world, schools must rethink how to teach about it. Critical data literacy helps students see the relevance of what they’re learning, empowering them to ask better questions and make more informed decisions. It also helps educators connect classroom content to students’ lived experiences.
If education leaders want to prepare students for the future–not just as workers, but as informed citizens–they must invest in critical data literacy now. As Angela Nguyen, one of our undergraduate scholars from Stanford, said in her Data is Power talk: “Data is power–especially youth and data. All of us, whether qualitative or quantitative, can be great collectors of meaningful data that helps educate our own communities.”
Evan Shieh, Young Data Scientists League
Evan Shieh is the Executive Director of the Young Data Scientists League.
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Literacy has always been the foundation of learning, but for middle school students, the stakes are especially high. These years mark the critical shift from learning to read to reading to learn.
When students enter sixth, seventh, or eighth grade still struggling with foundational skills, every subject becomes harder–science labs, social studies texts, even math word problems require reading proficiency. For educators, the challenge is not just addressing gaps but also building the confidence that helps adolescents believe they can succeed.
The confidence gap
By middle school, many students are keenly aware when they’re behind their peers in reading. Interventions that feel too elementary can undermine motivation. As Dr. Michelle D. Barrett, Senior Vice President of Research, Policy, and Impact at Edmentum, explained:
“If you have a student who’s in the middle grades and still has gaps in foundational reading skills, they need to be provided with age-appropriate curriculum and instruction. You can’t give them something that feels babyish–that only discourages them.”
Designing for engagement
Research shows that engagement is just as important as instruction, particularly for adolescents. “If students aren’t engaged, if they’re not showing up to school, then you have a real problem,” Barrett said. “It’s about making sure that even if students have gaps, they’re still being supported with curriculum that feels relevant and engaging.”
To meet that need, digital programs like Edmentum’s Exact Path tailor both design and content to the learner’s age. “A middle schooler doesn’t want the cartoony things our first graders get,” Barrett noted. “That kind of thing really does matter–not just for engagement, but also for their confidence and willingness to keep going.”
Measuring what works
Educators also need strong data to target interventions. “It’s all about how you’re differentiating for those students,” Barrett said. “You’ve got to have great assessments, engaging content that’s evidence-based, and a way for students to feel and understand success.”
Exact Path begins with universal screening, then builds personalized learning paths grounded in research-based reading progressions. More than 60 studies in the past two years have shown consistent results. “When students complete eight skills per semester, we see significant growth across grade levels–whether measured by NWEA MAP, STAR, or state assessments,” Barrett added.
That growth extends across diverse groups. “In one large urban district, we found the effect sizes for students receiving special education services were twice that of their peers,” Barrett said. “That tells us the program can be a really effective literacy intervention for students most at risk.”
Layering supports for greater impact
Barrett emphasized that literacy progress is strongest when multiple supports are combined. “With digital curriculum, students do better. But with a teacher on top of that digital curriculum, they do even better. Add intensive tutoring, and outcomes improve again,” she said.
Progress monitoring and recognition also help build confidence. “Students are going to persist when they can experience success,” Barrett added. “Celebrating growth, even in small increments, matters for motivation.”
A shared mission
While tools like Exact Path provide research-backed support, Barrett stressed that literacy improvement is ultimately a shared responsibility. “District leaders should be asking: How is this program serving students across different backgrounds? Is it working for multilingual learners, students with IEPs, students who are at risk?” she said.
The broader goal, she emphasized, is preparing students for lifelong learning. “Middle school is such an important time. If we can help students build literacy and confidence there, we’re not just improving test scores–we’re giving them the skills to succeed in every subject, and in life.”
Laura Ascione is the Editorial Director at eSchool Media. She is a graduate of the University of Maryland’s prestigious Philip Merrill College of Journalism.
Responding to what you read is an important literacy skill. Reading about other people’s experiences and perspectives helps kids learn about the world. And although students don’t need to dive deeply into every single book they read, occasionally digging into characters, settings, and themes can help them learn to look beyond the prose. Here are 40 creative book report ideas designed to make reading more meaningful for kids.
1. Concrete poem
Donna Paul for We Are Teachers
This clever activity is basically a “shape poem” made from words, phrases, and whole sentences found in whatever the student is reading. The words are laid out to create an image that represents something from the story. For example, if a student is reading a fairy tale about a princess, they may create a found poem using words from the story in the shape of a castle.
Donna Paul for We Are Teachers
2. Graphic novel
Challenge your students to reimagine something they’re reading—a scene, a chapter, or a whole book—as a graphic novel. Provide a task list for the assignment. For instance, six scenes from the story, three characters, setting details, etc. And, of course, provide detailed illustrations.
3. BookSnaps
Donna Paul for We Are Teachers
BookSnaps are digital, visual representations of a reader’s reflection on and insight into a book or other text. Students simply take a photo or screenshot of a page or passage, then add annotations, comments, illustrations, or other reactions. They are a great way to share personal connections and spark discussion.
4. Journal entry
Ask your students to place themselves in the shoes of one of their book’s characters and write a first-person diary entry from their perspective. Ask them to choose a critical moment in the story with plenty of interaction and emotion to talk about.
If you’re looking for creative book report ideas that use upcycled materials, try this one using a pizza box. It works well for both nonfiction and fiction book reports. On the inside of the top lid, students draw their book’s cover. On the bottom, they draw a circle and divide it into pizza slices. On each wedge, they tell a part of the story.
6. Book jacket
Challenge your students to think like a book illustrator and create a new, different book jacket for the text they’re reading. Make sure the jacket has an enticing front cover and a summary inside the front fold. On the back fold, provide a short biography of the author and on the back cover a few book reviews.
7. Rewrite the ending
Challenge students to come up with an alternate ending to the book they are reading. Write a summary of the story up to the point of the new ending, then take the story in a different direction.
8. Fictional yearbook entries
Donna Paul for We Are Teachers
Have your students create a yearbook entry based on the characters and setting in their book. What do the characters look like? Cut out magazine pictures to serve as their school pictures. What kind of superlative might they get? Best-looking? Class clown? What clubs would they belong to or lead? What awards have they won? This fun assignment is a great opportunity for your students to dig deep into the characters’ personas.
How fun is this? Instead of a food tasting (or wine tasting for us adults), students can put on a book tasting. Set a lovely table, prepare the main dish (a book report from each student), and have students circulate and sample.
Students are obsessed with stickers! In this unique activity, students will design water bottle stickers that the main character of the book would love to have, along with a short description of their choices.
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11. Sandwich book report
Yum! You’ll notice a lot of creative book report ideas revolve around food. In this oldie but goodie, different-colored paper cut into appropriately sized shapes represent parts of a sandwich. For instance, tan for the bread, pink for ham, green for lettuce, red for tomato, etc. On each part of the sandwich, students will write about a different element of the book—characters, setting, conflict, etc.
12. Alphabet book
Have your students create their own alphabet book based on the book they read. After they find a word to represent each letter, have them write one sentence that explains where the word fits in.
Using cardboard lap books (or small science report boards), students display details about their book’s main characters, plot, setting, conflict, resolution, etc. Then, they add a head and arms created from card stock and attach them to the board from behind to make it look like the main character is peeking over this book report.
14. Act the part
Have students dress up as their favorite character from the book and present an oral book report. If their favorite character is not the main character, retell the story from their point of view.
15. T-shirt book report
Another fun and creative idea: Create a wearable book report using Sharpie pens and acrylic paint on a plain white T-shirt. Include all the pertinent book report elements and add colorful illustrations. Have all your students wear their T-shirt book reports on the same day and give them time to share with one another.
16. Bookmark
Donna Paul for We Are Teachers
Have students create a custom illustrated bookmark that includes drawings and words from either their favorite chapter or the entire book.
17. Rays of sunshine book report
This is great for biography research projects. Students cut out a photocopied image of their subject and glue it in the middle. Then, they draw lines from the image to the edges of the paper, like rays of sunshine, and fill in each section with information about the person. As a book report template, the center image could be a copy of the book cover, and each section would expand on key information such as character names, theme(s), conflict, resolution, etc.
18. Reading lists for characters
Ask your students to think about a character in their book. What kinds of books might that character like to read? Take them to the library to choose five books the character might have on their to-be-read list. Have them list the books and explain what each book might mean to the character. Post the to-be-read lists for others to see and choose from—there’s nothing like trying out a book character’s style when developing your own identity.
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19. Character to-do list
Donna Paul for We Are Teachers
This fun activity is an off-the-beaten-path way to dive deep into character analysis. Get inside the head of the main character in a book and create a to-do list that they might write. Use actual information from the text, but also make inferences into what that character may wish to accomplish.
20. Collage
Create a collage using pictures and words that represent different parts of the book. Use old magazines or print pictures from the internet. Glue the pictures onto a piece of poster board and add text. Display student collages around the classroom and do a gallery walk.
21. Book reports in a bag
Donna Paul for We Are Teachers
Looking for book report ideas that really encourage creative thinking? With book reports in a bag, students read a book and write a summary. Then, they decorate a paper grocery bag with a scene from the book, place five items that represent something from the book inside the bag, and present the bag to the class.
22. Timeline
Create a timeline using a long roll of butcher paper, a poster board, or index cards taped together. For each event on the timeline, write a brief description of what happens. Add pictures, clip art, word art, and symbols to make the timeline more lively and colorful.
23. File folder book report
Also called a lap book, this easy-to-make book report hits on all the major elements of a book study and gives students a chance to show what they know in a colorful way. Open a manila file folder flat, then fold each side into the center fold so that it looks like a French door. On each of the outside flaps and all of the inside area, have students create different boxes of information such as author, genre, setting, theme, etc. Students can use colored paper, markers, and crayons to make their report.
24. Map it
Donna Paul for We Are Teachers
Create a colorful illustration map of the book’s setting and label all the important locations. This is an especially fun activity for tracking the action in mystery books.
We Are Teachers
25. Triorama book report
Who doesn’t love a multidimensional book report? A triorama is a three-dimensional triangular diorama, but you can also try an accordion-folded book report, a quadrama, or an info-sphere.
26. Character cards
Create trading cards (like baseball cards) for characters from the book. On the front side, draw an illustration of the character. On the back side, make a list of their character traits and include a quote or two. Give students time to share their cards with classmates or present them to the whole class.
27. Book report mobile
This creative project is easy to make with a wire clothes hanger, strings, and paper. Cover the body of the hanger with a paper illustration of the book cover. Then, fill out cards with key elements of the book like characters, setting, and summary, and attach them to the bottom wire of the hanger with string.
28. Top 10 fact sheet
Donna Paul for We Are Teachers
Have students create a list of 10 facts that they learned from reading the book. Have them write the facts in complete sentences, and be sure that each fact is something that they didn’t know before they read the book.
29. Create a sequel
Have you ever finished a great book and wished the story would go on? Or wondered what happened to the characters 10 or 20 years later? This fun book report idea challenges students to take up where the author left off and follow up on the action and characters on their next adventure.
30. Be a character therapist
Many book plots revolve around a character’s fear and the work it takes to overcome that fear. Ask students to make like a therapist and identify a character’s fears. Have them find two or three scenes that illustrate how this fear exists. Then have them write about ways the character overcame the fear (or didn’t) in the story. What might the character have done differently?
31. Comic strips
Donna Paul for We Are Teachers
If you’re looking for creative book report ideas for students who like graphic novels, try comic strip book reports. Include an illustrated cover with the title and author. The pages of the book should retell the story using dialogue and descriptions of the setting and characters. Of course, no comic book would be complete without copious illustrations and thought bubbles.
We Are Teachers
32. Charm bracelet book report
What a “charming” way to write a book report! Have students trace their hand and forearm onto a piece of stiff paper and then cut it out and decorate it. Next, add a strip of paper around the wrist as a bracelet. Finally, create “charms” that capture a character, an event in the plot, setting, or other detail to dangle from the bracelet.
33. Letter to the author
Have kids write a letter to the author of the book. Tell them three things you really liked about the story. Ask three questions about the plot, characters, or anything else you’re curious about.
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34. Poems
Write a poem or song lyrics about the book. Be sure to include main themes, characters, and events that tell the story.
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35. Board games
Donna Paul for We Are Teachers
This is a great project to help your students develop deeper insight into what they’re reading. Check out our roundup of the best board games below and challenge students to adapt one to create an interactive book report using one of our free printable games boards.
Create a brochure advertising the book you are reading. Begin by folding an 8 x 11 piece of paper lengthwise. Illustrate all four panels with enticing information about the book to demonstrate understanding. Have students set up a library of the brochures for classmates to browse through on their next book hunt.
Food sometimes tells a story of its own, defining time, region, and history. Find or create a recipe related to the book’s setting, time period, or events, and explain its connection to the story.
38. Movie vs. book
If the book your students have read has been made into a movie, have them write a report about how the versions are alike and different. If the book has not been made into a movie, have them write a report telling how they would make it into a movie, using specific details from the book.
39. Wanted poster
Donna Paul for We Are Teachers
Make an old-timey Wanted poster for one of the book’s main characters. Indicate whether they are wanted dead or alive. Include an illustration of the character and a description of what the character is “wanted” for (with examples) as well a detailed account of where the character was last seen.
40. Wheaties box book report
Recycle a cereal box and create a book report to look like a classic Wheaties box that featured sports heroes. Include a main image on the front of the box. Decorate the sides of the box with information about the book’s characters, setting, plot, summary, etc.
Come share your own creative book report ideas in our We Are Teachers HELPLINE group on Facebook.
This story was reported by and originally published by APM Reports in connection with its podcast Sold a Story: How Teach Kids to Read Went So Wrong.
The Zoom call was supposed to be a regular check-in for the team at Boston University. They’d wrapped up work on a massive, federally funded study of a system to detect when kids are having trouble learning to read and get them help immediately. The team was just waiting for the data on the early warning system to be analyzed.
But one of the professors, Nancy Nelson, interrupted the call. She had just gotten an email: The Trump administration was canceling the study — the largest experiment on reading ever funded by the Institute of Education Sciences, the U.S. Department of Education’s research arm.
The study had been 6 1/2 years in the making, and results were scheduled to be released in a matter of months. Ninety-three percent of the funds had already been spent.But the Trump Administration was saying the $41 million project was over. Three years of data, collected from more than 100 elementary schools in seven states, was being shelved.
Carol Dissen, a teacher trainer on the Boston University team, was stunned. She never expected it, “never in a million years.” She thought about all the students she believes would have benefited from the early warning system, and the tears flowed.
Disadvantaged kids “rely on our school system in order to change the trajectory of their lives,” Dissen said, still choking up as she recalled the February meeting months later. “We worked hard for three years to show that it works and that you can make a change for those students. And to hear that the data wasn’t going to be analyzed and shared, it’s devastating — absolutely devastating.”
If it hadn’t been for legal action, the results of the study on the early warning system might never have been released. But in response to a lawsuit filed by two research associations, lawyers for the Trump administration said in June that it would voluntarily reinstate the contract for the study — a concession it argued should allow the administration to go forward with its other deep cuts to education research.
That study was just one of about 106 education-related contracts totaling $820 million that the Department of Government Efficiency terminated. The abrupt cancellation meant researchers missed their year-end data collection, punctuating large-scale experiments and longitudinal studies with question marks. They cut students off from services, taking mentors away from high school students with disabilities trying to plan for life after graduation.
A spokesperson for the Department of Education did not respond to an email requesting comment.
Tabbye Chavous, executive director of the American Educational Research Association, one of the groups that filed suit, said that the administration did “begin to backtrack” by restoring some contracts. But she said that most of the institute’s research and data functions have not been restarted, in spite of Congressional mandates, and the layoffs have left it without the staff necessary to complete that work.
When contractors resume the early warning system study, they will be reporting to a much-diminished agency. Layoffs have shrunk the Institute of Education Sciences to a tenth of its former size. The specialist who oversaw the contract is gone. And researchers worry about how the cancellations will affect future studies — and schools’ willingness to use that research in their decision-making.
It’s an episode that highlights the new administration’s approach to governing — flipping projects off and on, seemingly with little regard for the consequences, all in the name of efficiency.
“What’s efficient about that?” asked Kim Gibbons, a researcher at the University of Minnesota who was also involved in the study. “It doesn’t make any sense to me. But probably, like all of us, I’m learning a lot of things don’t make sense right now.”
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The early warning system at the center of the reinstated study is formally known as a multi-tiered system of support for reading. The idea is to identify struggling readers early and get them targeted help before they fail.
The system is modeled after medicine — the same way doctors monitor symptoms and escalate treatments for a worsening illness. A person with a fever might take a day off work to rest. If it doesn’t go away, they’ll get a check-up from a doctor and maybe some medication. But if the bug lasts, they might need a stronger prescription.
The early warning system takes a similar approach, dosing up the intensity of instruction based on student needs. The system starts with a strong reading curriculum for all students, adds small-group lessons for those falling behind and provides one-on-one interventions for the most at-risk students. Testing continues throughout to measure how students respond.
Before, “you had to wait to fail in order to be eligible for special education,” said Nelson, the Boston University professor. “You had to be far enough behind your peers that you were found eligible.” The idea behind the early warning system, Nelson explained, “was to try and provide some support to students between general and special education. It really created that supplemental space that was missing before.”
A 2015 federal law recommended schools adopt this rapid response system. In the years after, many schools said they’d added it, but researchers agree that few implemented it well.
So in 2018, the Institute of Education Sciences hired contractors from the American Institutes for Research, a nonprofit organization that conducts social science research, to run the experiment.
Mike Garet, a vice president at the American Institutes for Research, said each component of the early warning system has lots of research to back it up, but the model hadn’t really been tested in an experiment. They had to see if the benefits of the system would be worth the teachers’ time.
“You could imagine a school that could spend a lot of time trying to schedule students’ assessments, scoring them, having meetings about them, scheduling (small-group) instruction and keeping track of the materials. And they spend so much time doing all that, actually they don’t have enough time left to teach reading,” Garet said.
“There’s a lot of theoretical arguments for why it should work,” he added. But until this study, “we didn’t really look carefully at all the engineering details that are required to do that well and to get good results.”
The federal government’s large-scale evaluations don’t just confirm whether a program works in theory: They’re meant to reveal what it takes to make it work in hundreds of classrooms with different students.
Over 6 1/2 years, right through the pandemic’s closures, the contractors from Garet’s organization identified two promising models of this early warning system, recruited seven school districts to join in a randomized experiment and collected three years of data. They methodically compared how the two models fared against the way schools usually operated — amid the messy reality of a large-scale rollout.
Annette Sisler, an elementary school principal in Junction City, Oregon, adopted one of the models, Enhanced Core Reading Instruction, this school year. Before her school adopted the model, Dissen, the education consultant from Boston University, had asked Sisler to follow a small group of children throughout the day, observing what lessons they received.
Sisler remembered one first grade girl who did well in a phonics lesson with all her classmates, smiling and engaged. But later in the day, with a different phonics lesson in a small group, she looked confused. Then, in yet another phonics lesson for her special-education class, she became so frustrated that she kicked another student. The instruction was disjointed, Sisler found.
“It was all out of line,” Sisler said. The student “doesn’t know what lesson she’s on, what she’s supposed to be learning, how to apply it. We weren’t priming her little brain to then be ready to read.”
Sisler said the new model brought lessons into alignment. After just one year, the share of her second grade students struggling with reading fluency dropped from 43 percent in the fall to just 8 percent in the spring.
School districts want to do what’s right for their students, Nelson, the Boston University professor, said. But they need studies to know what’s actually right for their students. “In the absence of those data, they’re doing it a little bit more blindly.”
The reinstatement of the early warning system study remains an exception. Of more than 100 canceled contracts from the Institute of Education Sciences, the Trump administration has reinstated only 12 of them, according to a June court filing and a review of federal spending data. Lawyers said the administration is reevaluating whether to reinstate or rebid up to 16 others.
By reinstating this one contract, the administration’s lawyers argued the department had fulfilled its congressionally mandated duty to evaluate how effectively students with disabilities are being taught. They argued they shouldn’t have to bring back two other large-scale special education studies. A longitudinal study that had been going on for 14 years and a $45 million experiment to help students with disabilities succeed after high school both remain dead, according to the administration’s lawyers.
Researchers say the cancellations are already affecting other federally funded studies, as school districts are now hesitant to sign up for experiments that could be nixed midway through. It already takes a lot of convincing to sign districts up for a randomized experiment. Only some of their schools will get the promising program that’s being studied, and evaluators will be a constant presence, monitoring compliance and collecting data. Nelson said the disruption of the early warning system study left some school superintendents “skittish” about participating in one of her follow-up studies.
Education researchers know that protecting their relationships with schools is one of their most important jobs, Nelson said. The Trump administration’s actions were “a major, terrible example of how to completely disrupt those relationships,” she said. She said the cancellation had only increased “mistrust” in research among educators.
While a few studies are running again, the Institution of Education Sciences now has limited capacity to undertake future large-scale experiments — and then translate the findings into practice.
“It’s a critical activity, finding out what works for whom under what circumstances,” said Russ Whitehurst, the institute’s founding director under President George W. Bush. “You can’t do it if you don’t have offices that are equipped to collect and disseminate the information.”
The Institute of Education Sciences, for instance, distilled takeaways from research in handy practice guides for teachers. Those contracts were canceled and aren’t coming back.
Garet, the American Institutes for Research vice president, said the early warning system study shows just how hard it is to get school systems to change. It takes far more than publishing a paper, even one that reports significant positive effects.
“Unfortunately,” he said, “scientific results aren’t self-implementing.”
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Everywhere you look, someone is telling students and workers to “learn AI.”
It’s become the go-to advice for staying employable, relevant and prepared for the future. But here’s the problem: While definitions of artificial intelligence literacy are starting to emerge, we still lack a consistent, measurable framework to know whether someone is truly ready to use AI effectively and responsibly.
And that is becoming a serious issue for education and workforce systems already being reshaped by AI. Schools and colleges are redesigning their entire curriculums. Companies are rewriting job descriptions. States are launching AI-focused initiatives.
Yet we’re missing a foundational step: agreeing not only on what we mean by AI literacy, but on howweassessit in practice.
Two major recent developments underscore why this step matters, and why it is important that we find a way to take it before urging students to use AI. First, the U.S. Department of Education released its proposed priorities for advancing AI in education, guidance that will ultimately shape how federal grants will support K-12 and higher education. For the first time, we now have a proposed federal definition of AI literacy: the technical knowledge, durable skills and future-ready attitudes required to thrive in a world influenced by AI. Such literacy will enable learners to engage and create with, manage and design AI, while critically evaluating its benefits, risks and implications.
Second, we now have the White House’s American AI Action Plan, a broader national strategy aimed at strengthening the country’s leadership in artificial intelligence. Education and workforce development are central to the plan.
What both efforts share is a recognition that AI is not just a technological shift, it’s a human one. In many ways, the most important AI literacy skills are not about AI itself, but about the human capacities needed to use AI wisely.
Sadly, the consequences of shallow AI education are already visible in workplaces. Some 55 percent of managers believe their employees are AI-proficient, while only 43 percent of employees share that confidence, according to the 2025 ETS Human Progress Report.
One can say that the same perception gap exists between school administrators and teachers. The disconnect creates risks for organizations and reveals how assumptions about AI literacy can diverge sharply from reality.
But if we’re going to build AI literacy into every level of learning, we have to ask the harder question: How do we both determine when someone is truly AI literate and assess it in ways that are fair, useful and scalable?
AI literacy may be new, but we don’t have to start from scratch to measure it. We’ve tackled challenges like this before, moving beyond check-the-box tests in digital literacy to capture deeper, real-world skills. Building on those lessons will help define and measure this next evolution of 21st-century skills.
Right now, we often treat AI literacy as a binary: You either “have it” or you don’t. But real AI literacy and readiness is more nuanced. It includes understanding how AI works, being able to use it effectively in real-world settings and knowing when to trust it. It includes writing effective prompts, spotting bias, asking hard questions and applying judgment.
This isn’t just about teaching coding or issuing a certificate. It’s about making sure that students, educators and workers can collaborate in and navigate a world in which AI is increasingly involved in how we learn, hire, communicate and make decisions.
Without a way to measure AI literacy, we can’t identify who needs support. We can’t track progress. And we risk letting a new kind of unfairness take root, in which some communities build real capacity with AI and others are left with shallow exposure and no feedback.
What can education leaders do right now to address this issue? I have a few ideas.
First, we need a working definition of AI literacy that goes beyond tool usage. The Department of Education’s proposed definition is a good start, combining technical fluency, applied reasoning and ethical awareness.
Second, assessments of AI literacy should be integrated into curriculum design. Schools and colleges incorporating AI into coursework need clear definitions of proficiency. TeachAI’s AI Literacy Framework for Primary and Secondary Education is a great resource.
Third, AI proficiency must be defined and measured consistently, or we risk a mismatched state of literacy. Without consistent measurements and standards, one district may see AI literacy as just using ChatGPT, while another defines it far more broadly, leaving students unevenly ready for the next generation of jobs.
To prepare for an AI-driven future, defining and measuring AI literacy must be a priority. Every student will be graduating into a world in which AI literacy is essential. Human resources leaders confirmed in the 2025 ETS Human Progress Report that the No. 1 skill employers are demanding today is AI literacy. Without measurement, we risk building the future on assumptions, not readiness.
And that’s too shaky a foundation for the stakes ahead.
Amit Sevak is CEO of ETS, the largest private educational assessment organization in the world.
This story about AI literacy 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.
Have you ever struggled to understand a doctor’s report, or the instruction on a prescription bottle? Imagine how hard that is if you have difficulty reading.
Have you ever struggled to understand a doctor’s report or the instruction on a prescription bottle? Imagine how hard that is if you have difficulty reading.
Jimmie Williams, president and CEO of the Washington Literacy Center, says many poor health outcomes in D.C. are driven by the inability to read.
“If you don’t understand your prescription or have a prescription, we don’t want it to be fear based, so we want them to either be able to understand it or be able to ask the right questions,” he said.
The center is partnering with Wellpoint in D.C. and Medical Ascension, and will offer fairs throughout the fall and beyond to help people navigate health care matters, and become more independent.
“We want people to become comfortable with the health industry,” he said, noting that that’s often not the case because so many people in the D.C. area struggle with reading. “The need is urgent in Washington, D.C.”
“Nearly one-third of adults struggle with basic reading, and fewer than 30% of Black and Hispanic students meet literacy benchmarks compared to 70% of white students,” he added.
In addition to the fairs, the center incorporates health literacy into its regular reading sessions. Williams said that these kinds of partnerships are vital to reaching the community and making a difference, but more resources are always needed.
“Nonprofits like us are struggling right now in this environment,” he said.
Letters form the foundation of words, language, and, ultimately, the skills needed to read and write. That’s why ABC learning activities are so essential in the early years. To help, we’ve rounded up 36 fun and easy ABC activities for early learners to spark your lesson planning. With so many creative ways to practice, alphabet activities will be your students’ favorite part of the day.
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1. Read alphabet books
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Always our number-one go-to, especially with little ones: Read, read, read! There are hundreds of books to choose from that explore the alphabet.
This is one of those preschool letter activities that are just plain fun for little ones. Fill a sensory bin with sand, rice, or cornmeal and hide plastic alphabet letters inside. Challenge students to pull a letter, identify its name and sound (out loud), and keep track of the letters they find on a whiteboard or piece of paper. This is good for independent work or a center activity.
3. Roll and match
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Help your students learn to match uppercase and lowercase letters with this fun activity. Label the bottom of a sectioned container (like a muffin tin or egg carton) with lowercase letters. Each container may have different letters. Partner students up and give each pair a bag of matching uppercase alphabet beads and tin. To play, players will take turns reaching into the bag, identifying the letter out loud, and placing it in the right section of the tin. When the first round is over, players can put all the beads back, shake up the bag, and play again.
4. Write letters on dried beans
Large dried white beans, like butter beans, are inexpensive to purchase and easy to write on. To prep for this activity, separate out piles of 52 beans into zipper plastic bags. On half of the beans, write all the uppercase letters. On the other half, write the lowercase letters. (This may be a good job for a classroom volunteer or to send home to parents who want to help.) When the sets are complete, use them to help students practice letter recognition by finding and matching the uppercase and lowercase letters.
5. Line up in alphabetical order
Give each student an 8 x 11 piece of card stock with one letter written on it. Call out the ABCs one at a time and have students line up in alphabetical order. For example, call out the letter A. Students will look at their cards and whoever has A will start the line. Next, call out the letter B. That student joins the line. Continue until you get to the end of the alphabet. Try this activity with both uppercase and lowercase letters.
6. Use alphabet-tracing strips
Donna Paul for We Are Teachers
Teaching proper letter formation is absolutely key in the early grades. So if you’re a pre-K, kindergarten, or 1st grade teacher, our free bundle of letter-tracing worksheets is for you! Each letter-tracing worksheet shows the uppercase and lowercase letter with arrows showing how they should be formed. There are two lines of practice each for uppercase and lowercase. Each worksheet also has three simple words that start with each letter for students to trace, along with small pictures that they can color.
If, like many teachers, you teach one letter per week, this is a fun scavenger hunt–like activity to reinforce letter recognition. Each week, prepare a poster board by writing one letter (in uppercase and lowercase) at the top. Place the poster in an easily accessible place. Then, sometime when students are not in the room, hide sticky notes with the same letter on them—both versions. Whenever your students come across one of the sticky notes, they will be excited to add it to the poster.
8. Paint with cotton swabs
Help reinforce letter recognition with this fun activity that builds muscle memory. Give each student a piece of 8.5 x 11 card stock and have them write the letter you’re working on large enough to fill most of the card. Then, pull out the paint and cotton swabs. Students will have fun dipping the swabs in paint and dotting along the lines of the letter. Alternatively, you could use pencil erasers or (using your judgement) students could poke holes in the letter using pushpins.
9. Decorate outdoors with ABCs
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Kids can learn letters while beautifying the school’s sidewalks. Take your little ones outside and let them practice their letters by drawing them with sidewalk chalk. Make sure they have letter cards attached to an O-ring to work from.
10. String together alphabet beads
Letter recognition is the first step on the way to literacy. Help your students learn their letters with this fun bead-stringing activity. Students will need a pipe cleaner with the bottom curved up to keep beads from falling off and a bowl with large and small alphabet beads. To play, students will pick a bead, say the name and the sound of the letter out loud, then thread it onto their pipe cleaner. When the pipe cleaner is filled up, they can empty the beads back into the bowl. This is a fun activity to do with partners (great for taking turns) or small groups.
11. Write letters in shaving cream
Kids learn best when they use multiple senses, so they’ll love this super-fun, messy-in-a-clean way activity! Squirt shaving cream on a table or on each kid’s desk. Ask them to spread it around so it covers an area about the size of a 8.5 x 11 paper. Then, call out a letter and have them draw it in the cream with their pointer finger. Smooth out that letter to erase and start again. Bonus: Their hands and your table will be cleaner than ever! If the thought of doing this makes you squeamish, use cookie sheets or bins.
12. Serve up some alphabet soup
Teach kids letter recognition with this darling alphabet soup game. Divide students into groups of three or four. Give each student a spoon (like a wooden compostable or a plastic one). Give each group a bowl of plastic alphabet letters. Taking turns dipping their spoon into the “soup,” students will search for the letters in their name or simple words like cat, dog, go, etc.
13. Bend letters with pipe cleaners
Donna Paul for We Are Teachers
Pipe cleaners are a classic choice for fine motor practice as well as a go-to craft resource. One fun use for them is to practice forming letters. Give each student a long pipe cleaner. Then, call out a letter and say uppercase or lowercase, and challenge students to create that letter with their pipe cleaner. Once they think they’ve got it, have them hold it up for approval. Alternately, use this as an independent center activity with pipe cleaners and alphabet cards. Students will pull one card at a time, then make that letter with their pipe cleaner. If you’d like, have them keep track on a tracking sheet.
14. Use an ABC floor mat
Invest in an inexpensive interlocking foam alphabet floor mat for your classroom, and use it for various alphabet activities. Kids can get down on hands and knees and practice tracing each letter with their finger. Or do a little one-on-one with a student and have them hop to the letters you call out.
15. Conjure up invisible letters with watercolors
This is a classic activity that kids really get a kick out of. Using a white crayon, draw letters on pieces of white paper. Give each of your students a sheet and a set of watercolors. As they paint over the (nearly invisible) crayon marks, letters will magically appear.
16. Play musical alphabet
Set up letters in a big circle on the floor. You can use magnetic letters or just write them on index cards. Then have students sit in a circle around the letters. Play some music and have one child walk around the circle. When the music stops, have that child tell you the name of the closest letter. Expand on it: Ask the child to name three things (colors, animals, etc.) that start with that letter. Continue until all students have a turn.
17. Soak up the alphabet
Cut sponges into the shapes of letters. Students can use them at the water table. Or they can dip them in paint and make prints of different letters on newsprint or scrap paper.
18. Put together name puzzles
Donna Paul for We Are Teachers
On colored index cards, write each student’s name. Cut the card into pieces (one letter per piece) using a simple zigzag pattern. Put each name in a zipper plastic bag. Pass out the bags and have students dump out the pieces and put their name puzzle back together. Once they’ve done their own a few times, let them trade with friends to practice more.
19. Make letters from nature
Take your students on a nature walk and discover the alphabet right outside your door. Have students collect natural objects like sticks, leaves, grass, and small rocks. Next, have them use their collection to practice making letters on the sidewalk or blacktop. Another fun activity: Have students find a sturdy stick. Take the class to a patchy dirt spot and have them practice writing letters in the dirt.
20. Use your noodle
We know from Alphabet Soup that eating your ABCs is plain-old fun. So think of all the alphabet activities you can do with food. One fun idea is to boil a box of fettuccine noodles Drain and spray the noodles lightly with oil so they don’t stick together. Let them cool, then bring them to school in a pot or bag. Give each kid a few strands and challenge them to practice making letters and spelling words with them.
21. Make your own ABC book
Personalizing the ABCs helps kids process and retain their learning. One of our favorite alphabet activities starts by creating books together out of 26 half pages of paper stapled together or hole-punched and held together with yarn. This activity will take many sessions to complete all the steps. To begin, guide students to write each letter on its own page—uppercase and lowercase. Once each page has its letter, they can illustrate each page with things that begin with that letter. Or if you’d like, kids can cut pictures out of magazines and glue them into their book. Working on their illustrations can be a literacy-time, fast-finisher, or time-filler activity.
22. Use alphabet beads
Using pipe cleaners to string alphabet beads isn’t the only way to learn letters. Assemble a “seek and find” bottle. Have an alphabet battle. Experiment with fizzing letter cubes. Get the details on these ideas and more alphabet activities with our article linked below.
Alphabet activities using play dough are both tactile and great for practicing pre-reading skills. For this hands-on activity, give each student a blob of play dough and have them roll or push it into a flat circle on their desk. Using letter stampers (easily found online or at teacher supply stores), have them stamp letters and words right into the dough. They can use an alphabet chart or letter cards as a guide.
24. Make ABC sensory bags
Donna Paul for We Are Teachers
This one is great because you can change up what you put in the bags and even move to sight words. You’ll need a gallon bag with a ziplock top. Add letters written on pieces of paper, magnetic letters, Scrabble tiles, or anything else you can think of that has letters. Then fill the bag with oatmeal or small beans and seal it. Kids will dig through the bag searching for letters. When they find one, they can pull it out and record that letter on a record sheet. Have kids play until they find all 26 letters of the alphabet.
25. Make tactile letter cards
Another fun way to practice making the connection to letters is to create tactile letter cards. Make or print out cards with bubble letters on them. Students will take a card, then fill in their letter with washable glue. Next, they will stick rice, lentils, pom-poms, beads, or any other small items you can think of into the glue. Put cards aside to dry and display them the next day.
26. Study a letter of the week
Many pre-K and kindergarten classes do a letter of the week, and for good reason. Teaching instant recognition of letters and practicing writing them is so important for learning to read. Doing alphabet activities for one letter each week reinforces knowledge and recollection.
27. Use snap cubes
Build those fine-motor skills and letter recognition at the same time with our snap block alphabet printable. Featuring both uppercase and lowercase alphabets, they’re all yours to download and print. Print out a full snap and put it together in a loose-leaf binder. Kids can pull out the book and cubes at center time or as a fast-finisher alphabet activity.
This one combines touch, smell, and sight. It gives you an opportunity to talk about what we use spices for as well. In a tray or on a paper plate, sprinkle a covering of a spice such as cinnamon, salt, pepper, basil, etc. Perhaps have a selection on hand and let each student choose which one they’d like to work with. Once they get their plate, they can practice writing letters using letter cards or an alphabet chart to guide them.
29. Sing songs about the alphabet
Everyone loves to sing “The Alphabet Song, but did you know there are lots of other versions? Search on YouTube for kids’ alphabet songs and start a sing-along. (Be sure to screen the songs before sharing with your students!)
30. Use letters as drawing inspiration
Letters of the alphabet are a great starting point for creative drawings. Have students choose a letter, for example capital A. Then challenge them to create a drawing of a person or animal using the outline of the letter as a starting place. Google “how to draw alphabet people” for inspiration.
31. Highlight letters on a page
Print out pages of text or have a stack of kid-appropriate magazines on hand. Give each student a highlighter and have them go on a letter hunt, highlighting a particular letter every place they find it. This activity is also great for sight word recognition.
32. Watch alphabet videos
Take a trip to Sesame Street. Watch an animated version of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. Do the alphabet dance.
This is a great partner game. Give each pair of students a shuffled deck of alphabet cards. Have them deal out the cards equally. The game begins and each player takes their top card and turns it over. The player with the letter closest to A wins the hand and takes the card and adds it to their hand. If two of the same letter are played, the players (gently) slap the card. The one on the bottom of the slap wins the hand. The game ends when one player holds all the cards. To make it more challenging, shuffle two decks together and play as above.
34. Go on a classroom alphabet scavenger hunt
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Before the game begins, give each student a checklist with each letter of the alphabet on it. Then challenge them to find one object in the classroom that starts with each letter of the alphabet. Students can pair up to make the activity even more fun. Allow each student to have three “passes” for hard-to-find letters like X and Q. For extra fun, venture out into other areas of the school for another alphabet scavenger hunt.
35. Match plastic egg letters
Everyone seems to have plastic Easter eggs hanging around. To prepare this activity, use a Sharpie or letter stickers to mark an uppercase letter on one half of each egg and a lowercase letter on the other. Then separate each egg into two and throw them all in a basket. The object of the game is to pull out two halves and try to make a match. Tip: Add difficulty by using different-colored eggs.
36. Create loose-part letters
Loose parts are exactly what they sound like—a collection of loose materials or objects. These can be small pebbles, bottle caps, random LEGO bricks, seeds, keys—anything. Draw big letters on a piece of paper and have kids line up loose parts on their table or desk to form the letter.
Recognizing letters is a fundamental part of learning how to read. Without it, children struggle to learn letter sounds and identify words. Beginning readers who know their alphabet have a much easier time learning to read. Making alphabet practice activities part of every day in fun ways helps create a lifelong love for letters and words.
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This story was reported by and originally published by APM Reports in connection with its podcast Sold a Story: How Teach Kids to Read Went So Wrong.
When voters elected Donald Trump in November, most people who worked at the U.S. Department of Education weren’t scared for their jobs. They had been through a Trump presidency before, and they hadn’t seen big changes in their department then. They saw their work as essential, mandated by law, nonpartisan and, as a result, insulated from politics.
Then, in early February, the Department of Government Efficiency showed up. Led at the time by billionaire CEO Elon Musk, and known by the cheeky acronym DOGE, it gutted the Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences, posting on X that the effort would ferret out “waste, fraud and abuse.”
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A post from the Department of Government Efficiency.
When it was done, DOGE had cut approximately $900 million in research contracts and more than 90 percent of the institute’s workforce had been laid off. (The current value of the contracts was closer to $820 million, data compiled by APM Reports shows, and the actual savings to the government was substantially less, because in some cases large amounts of money had been spent already.)
Among staff cast aside were those who worked on the National Assessment of Educational Progress — also known as the Nation’s Report Card — which is one of the few federal education initiatives the Trump administration says it sees as valuable and wants to preserve.
The assessment is a series of tests administered nearly every year to a national sample of more than 10,000 students in grades 4, 8 and 12. The tests regularly measure what students across the country know in reading, math and other subjects. They allow the government to track how well America’s students are learning overall. Researchers can also combine the national data with the results of tests administered by states to draw comparisons between schools and districts in different states.
The assessment is “something we absolutely need to keep,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said at an education and technology summit in San Diego earlier this year. “If we don’t, states can be a little manipulative with their own results and their own testing. I think it’s a way that we keep everybody honest.”
But researchers and former Department of Education employees say they worry that the test will become less and less reliable over time, because the deep cuts will cause its quality to slip — and some already see signs of trouble.
“The main indication is that there just aren’t the staff,” said Sean Reardon, a Stanford University professor who uses the testing data to research gaps in learning between students of different income levels.
All but one of the experts who make sure the questions in the assessment are fair and accurate — called psychometricians — have been laid off from the National Center for Education Statistics. These specialists play a key role in updating the test and making sure it accurately measures what students know.
“These are extremely sophisticated test assessments that required a team of researchers to make them as good as they are,” said Mark Seidenberg, a researcher known for his significant contributions to the science of reading. Seidenberg added that “a half-baked” assessment would undermine public confidence in the results, which he described as “essentially another way of killing” the assessment.
The Department of Education defended its management of the assessment in an email: “Every member of the team is working toward the same goal of maintaining NAEP’s gold-standard status,” it read in part.
The National Assessment Governing Board, which sets policies for the national test, said in a statement that it had temporarily assigned “five staff members who have appropriate technical expertise (in psychometrics, assessment operations, and statistics) and federal contract management experience” to work at the National Center for Education Statistics. No one from DOGE responded to a request for comment.
Harvard education professor Andrew Ho, a former member of the governing board, said the remaining staff are capable, but he’s concerned that there aren’t enough of them to prevent errors.
“In order to put a good product up, you need a certain number of person-hours, and a certain amount of continuity and experience doing exactly this kind of job, and that’s what we lost,” Ho said.
The Trump administration has already delayed the release of some testing data following the cutbacks. The Department of Education had previously planned to announce the results of the tests for 8th grade science, 12th grade math and 12th grade reading this summer; now that won’t happen until September. The board voted earlier this year to eliminate more than a dozen tests over the next seven years, including fourth grade science in 2028 and U.S. history for 12th graders in 2030. The governing board has also asked Congress to postpone the 2028 tests to 2029, citing a desire to avoid releasing test results in an election year.
“Today’s actions reflect what assessments the Governing Board believes are most valuable to stakeholders and can be best assessed by NAEP at this time, given the imperative for cost efficiencies,” board chair and former North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue said earlier this year in a press release.
The National Assessment Governing Board canceled more than a dozen tests when it revised the schedule for the National Assessment of Educational Progress in April. This annotated version of the previous schedule, adopted in 2023, shows which tests were canceled. Topics shown in all caps were scheduled for a potential overhaul; those annotated with a red star are no longer scheduled for such a revision.
Recent estimates peg the annual cost to keep the national assessment running at about $190 million per year, a fraction of the department’s 2025 budget of approximately $195 billion.
Adam Gamoran, president of the William T. Grant Foundation, said multiple contracts with private firms — overseen by Department of Education staff with “substantial expertise” — are the backbone of the national test.
“You need a staff,” said Gamoran, who was nominated last year to lead the Institute of Education Sciences. He was never confirmed by the Senate. “The fact that NCES now only has three employees indicates that they can’t possibly implement NAEP at a high level of quality, because they lack the in-house expertise to oversee that work. So that is deeply troubling.”
The cutbacks were widespread — and far outside of what most former employees had expected under the new administration.
“I don’t think any of us imagined this in our worst nightmares,” said a former Education Department employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation by the Trump administration. “We weren’t concerned about the utter destruction of this national resource of data.”
“At what point does it break?” the former employee asked.
Every state has its own test for reading, math and other subjects. But state tests vary in difficulty and content, which makes it tricky to compare results in Minnesota to Mississippi or Montana.
“They’re totally different tests with different scales,” Reardon said. “So NAEP is the Rosetta stone that lets them all be connected.”
Reardon and his team at Stanford used statistical techniques to combine the federal assessment results with state test scores and other data sets to create the Educational Opportunity Project. The project, first released in 2016 and updated periodically in the years that followed, shows which schools and districts are getting the best results — especially for kids from poor families. Since the project’s release, Reardon said, the data has been downloaded 50,000 times and is used by researchers, teachers, parents, school boards and state education leaders to inform their decisions.
For instance, the U.S. military used the data to measure school quality when weighing base closures, and superintendents used it to find demographically similar but higher-performing districts to learn from, Reardon said.
If the quality of the data slips, those comparisons will be more difficult to make.
“My worry is we just have less-good information on which to base educational decisions at the district, state and school level,” Reardon said. “We would be in the position of trying to improve the education system with no information. Sort of like, ‘Well, let’s hope this works. We won’t know, but it sounds like a good idea.’”
Seidenberg, the reading researcher, said the national assessment “provided extraordinarily important, reliable information about how we’re doing in terms of teaching kids to read and how literacy is faring in the culture at large.”
Producing a test without keeping the quality up, Seidenberg said, “would be almost as bad as not collecting the data at all.”
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.
UNION CITY, N.J.— By 7:30 a.m., Jackson had started rushing his father, José Bernard, to leave their house. “Dad, we’re going! We’re going, come on, let’s go.”
The 4-year-old was itching to return to his favorite place: Eugenio Maria de Hostos Center for Early Childhood Education, a burst of orange and blue on the corner of Union City’s bustling Kennedy Boulevard.
These small moments stick out for Jackson’s father. A year and a half earlier, as a young toddler coming out of daycare, Jackson was nonverbal.
“It’s life-changing, I’ll be honest with you,” said Bernard, who grew up in Union City in Hudson County. The city is home to one of the urban districts in New Jersey with universal and free preschool, created as part of a slate of remedies meant to make up for uneven funding between rich and poor districts in the state.
At the center, young voices try out vowel sounds in Spanish, English and Mandarin, present projects about fish and sea turtles, count plastic ice cream scoops and learn rules of the classroom through song.
“They are the absolute best school that I’ve ever known,” Bernard said. “It’s a chain reaction from the principal all the way down … I made the best decision for my son, 100 percent.”
Starting in the 1980s, courts hearing the landmark school funding case Abbott v. Burke sought to equalize spending across New Jersey’s schools. Districts located in areas with higher property values were able to spend more on their schools than poor urban districts could — a disparity that was found to violate the state’s constitutional requirement to provide a “thorough and efficient” education for all of New Jersey’s schoolchildren.
The Abbott litigation spawned several decisions by the state Supreme Court, one of which was a 1998 ruling that mandated free preschool for 3- and 4-year-old children in 28 of its highest-poverty urban school districts. That number has since grown to 31.
Children at Maria de Hostos Center practice fine motor skills with fingerpainting. Credit: Marianna McMurdock/The Hechinger Report
The state department of education set an ambitious goal of enrolling 90 percent of eligible children in each district, and opened classrooms in private, nonprofit and public settings in the 1999-2000 school year. At that time, New Jersey was the only state to mandate preschool, starting at age 3, for children facing social and academic risk.
“The court recognized that to get kids caught up they need to start off by somehow leveling the playing field from the very beginning, and the best way to do that was with early childhood education,” said Danielle Farrie, research director at the Newark-based Education Law Center, which represented districts for decades in the long-running case.
Related: Young children have unique needs, and providing the right care can be a challenge. Our free early childhood education newsletter tracks the issues.
As the program continued into its 25th year, researchers have found that the endeavor worked to reduce learning gaps and special education rates between rich and poor children — for those it has reached.
However, over 10,000 children eligible for the program are not enrolled, particularly 3-year-olds, according to a recent assessment of the program by The Education Law Center.
Supporters worry that the state’s recently established focus on expanding preschool throughout the state could draw attention and resources away from the early-learning program created by the Abbott litigation.
When it comes to reaching at least 90 percent of the low-income children in the 31 districts targeted by the lawsuit, “we haven’t come anywhere close to meeting those goals,” Farrie said. “To us it’s a question of priorities.”
Adriana Birne, the principal of Maria de Hostos Center and director of early childhood programs for Union City schools in Hudson County, said her program collaborates closely with parents. Credit: Marianna McMurdock/The Hechinger Report
Designed by early learning experts, the preschools were intended from the start to offer a high-quality program. Class sizes are limited to no more than 15 students, and each class has a certified teacher and an assistant. The school day is six hours, and transportation and health services are offered as needed. Teachers are paid on par with K-3 teachers in their district, and the program’s curriculum conforms to New Jersey’s standards of quality in early education.
“Our special sauce is that we provide opportunities for the families,” said Adriana Birne, director of Union City’s early childhood offerings and principal at Eugenio Maria de Hostos Center, where parents are invited in as jurors for special class projects, readers for storytime, or as guests for school plays. “We enforce the idea that it’s a collaborative effort — moms, dads, teachers, children all working together for success for their little ones.”
The preschool programs have tried to serve as many eligible kids as possible by providing slots at public schools as well as private childcare providers, Head Start programs, YMCAs and nonprofits that agree to meet the state’s standards.
By many measures, the targeted preschool program has been successful in boosting long-term academic gains for their students. The state ranks in the nation’s top 10 for child well-being and second for education after Massachusetts, based on fourth grade test scores and high school graduation rates.
However, in the 2024-25 school year the program enrolled only 34,082 kids, about 78 percent of those eligible, across public, private and nonprofit providers. Last year, only five of the 31 districts reached the 90 percent target for enrolling eligible children, compared to 18 districts in 2009-10. Enrollment has been steadily declining, a trend accelerated by the pandemic, the Education Law Center report states.
Experts say it can be difficult to find eligible kids because many have only recently moved into the state and their parents haven’t yet heard of the program through word of mouth. Some families believe 3 is too young for school, or are immigrants fearful of raids now being conducted at school sites.
A few district-run programs like Perth Amboy’s require parents to show a government-issued ID or Social Security number to enroll their children. The district enrolled only 63 percent of its eligible 3-year-olds in the 2023-24 school year. The ACLU of New Jersey has previously challenged such requirements, saying they are unconstitutional.
Programs also aren’t recruiting as aggressively as they did when the program began. Cindy Shields, who led a preschool site in Perth Amboy from 2004 to 2013 and is now a senior policy analyst for Advocates for Children of New Jersey, said she used to recruit at playgrounds, churches, laundromats, supermarkets and nail salons — anywhere families were.
Districts once advertised preschool in the plastic table settings of local restaurants, said Ellen Frede, who helped design the Abbott preschool program and ran the state’s implementation team. Frede is now co-director of the National Institute for Early Education Research, or NIEER, based at Rutgers University in New Jersey.
In its heyday, the large team of experts that formed the state pre-K office could also enforce corrective action plans for failing to reach enrollment targets, Frede said.
But during Republican Gov. Chris Christie’s administration from 2010 to 2018, pre-K was reduced to barebone levels. In 2011, New Jersey’s early childhood budget — already only a small fraction of overall education dollars in the state — was slashed 20 percent, causing recruitment efforts to dwindle.
Though funding and political support for preschool was restored under Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy — who recently signed a budget that invests about $1.3 billion in statewide preschool over the next fiscal year — funding for the state department of education’s early childhood arm overseeing the endeavor hasn’t grown in tandem.
Today, “we have a much smaller early childhood office that is actually attempting to expand this program across the entire state without that same kind of attention to detail,” said Farrie, with the Education Law Center.
While New Jersey stands out in an early childhood landscape that can be grim in terms of quality and pay, investing roughly $16,000 per pupil, high quality preschool is very costly to operate. The state-funded preschools in the districts named in the Abbott litigation require pay parity with public school teachers, yet many districts and private providers operate on low wages and razor thin profit margins. Increases in liability insurance costs for child care providers and preschools is another strain.
The state has also cut back on incentives like bonuses and college scholarships for teachers to enter the program. Such incentives were common in the early years of the state-funded program, resulting in a teaching population that is more diverse and reflective of the student body than K-12 teachers at large. In the 2024-25 school year, 22 and 25 percent of preschool teachers in the 31 districts with universal preschool were Black and Hispanic, compared to just 6 and 9 percent of K-12 educators in New Jersey, respectively.
A teacher and children play at Noah’s Ark Preschool. Credit: Marianna McMurdock/The Hechinger Report
State board of education scholarships helped pay college costs for Euridice Correa, a teacher at Eugenio Maria de Hostos Center. Correa, affectionately called “La Reina” or “queen” by some parents, is Jackson’s teacher. She’s now in her 18th year as an early childhood educator.
Correa, who moved to New Jersey from Colombia at nine years old, earned degrees from New Jersey City University thanks to incentives offered in the early years of the court-mandated preschool program.
“I was very poor. I was still working as a cleaner and helping in the daycare,” she said. The state “paid for my whole B.A. and for half of my Master’s with bilingual certification.”
New Jersey, said Shields, the analyst with Advocates for Children of New Jersey, used to offer “college money, they had incentives, they had sign-on bonuses. They were giving teachers laptops, and we know that it worked. They created this beautiful diverse workforce of teachers that looked just like the children. But we don’t have that anymore.”
A spokesperson for the state department of education said that paths to bring teachers into the profession “remain a priority in New Jersey to support early childhood educators, particularly in community-based settings.” They cited the Grow NJ Kids scholarship program, which offers scholarships for family care providers and preschool teachers to get additional training.
Despite expansion and sustainability challenges, research shows the preschools created through the Abbott litigation have helped close the educational gaps that Black, Latino and low-income children were facing.
Researchers found double the impact on scores for kids like Jackson who are enrolled for two years — enough to make up for a third of the achievement gap between Black and white children. Thousands of kids have entered K-12 more prepared. As a result, Union City moved its algebra offerings from ninth to seventh grade.
Karen Marino, the founder of Noah’s Ark Preschool in Highland Park, contracts with New Brunswick schools in Middlesex County to provide seats for children through the state-funded Abbott program. The state provides money to public and private providers in 31 districts to offer a full-day program for 3- and 4-year-olds. Credit: Marianna McMurdock/The Hechinger Report
“It gives a baseline. You can change things all the way up,” said Steven Barnett, NIEER’s co-director and founder, who is now researching higher education outcomes for Abbott preschoolers. There’s evidence from other communities that quality preschools can affect children into adulthood: Oklahoma’s universal pre-K for 4-year-olds, one of the nation’s oldest, is linked to a 12 percent increase in college enrollment.
The programs have also been able to offer enrichment for their students that would otherwise be impossible to fund.
At Noah’s Ark Preschool, a private provider in Highland Park in Middlesex County, 3-year-olds hold full conversations, sharing about their trips to see family out of state or weekend plans to go to local pools. They’ve learned to write their names and read signs.
Early learning years are so much more than just learning ABCs or shapes, said founder Karen Marino. “It’s really about their independence,” she said, adding that she started Noah’s Ark after looking for affordable care for her own three children years ago, one of whom now runs the site. Her school has contracted with New Brunswick schools in Middlesex County to offer seats since the program began.
Farther north in Passaic, the nonprofit Children’s Day Preschool serves over 120 kids learning social and fine motor skills through play. With fundraising, the school, in Passaic County, was able to afford renovations, a full-time art therapist and a nurse for their community of mostly Mexican, Peruvian, Colombian, Puerto Rican and Dominican families.
Children’s Day feels for many like an extension of home, with family recipes lining the walls and bilingual instructions for parents on how to ask about their child’s day at school: “Did you learn something new? Who made you smile today? Did you help someone today or did someone help you?”
Many of their educators have been teaching at the site for 15 to 20 years. James Acosta, who attended the center as a child and is now is not a digital media assistant, said returning to work was “like seeing like aunts and uncles saying, ‘you’re so big now!’”
A child runs through the playground at Children’s Day Preschool in Passaic County. Credit: Marianna McMurdock/The Hechinger Report
Two preschoolers at Children’s Day Preschool in Passaic, N.J., play on the monkey bars during recess. Passaic is one of 31 New Jersey districts receiving state support to provide preschool for local children. Credit: Marianna McMurdock/The Hechinger Report
Abbott supporters hope more families will join the program. Parent Candy Vitale’s 6-year-old son, Mateo, is reading at a second-grade level and learning how to solve for an unknown “x” in math equations.
Vitale spent the equivalent of a monthly mortgage payment so her older daughter could attend a comparable half-day pre-K at the Jersey Shore. She learned of the offerings in Union City from her partner, whose older children had attended.
“This is the foundation of loving learning, and loving school, and feeling loved at school,” Vitale said. “Knowing that I was dropping him off every day, and he was in a place that he absolutely was enamored by — I think that there’s no price tag you can put on that.”
Contact the editor of this story, Christina Samuels, at 212-678-3635, via Signal at cas.37 or samuels@hechingerreport.org.
This story about Abbott districts 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.
LAWRENCE — Labor Day’s Bread and Roses Heritage Festival will rally in the face of adversity, pull from the past and prepare for the future.
At the 41st festival Monday from 11:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Campagnone North Common, visitors will join circle discussions revolving around strength and solidarity.
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For students with special needs, learning can often resemble a trek through dense woods along a narrow, rigid path–one that leaves little to no room for individual exploration. But the educational landscape is evolving. Picture classrooms as adventurous hunts, where every learner charts their own journey, overcomes unique challenges, and progresses at a pace that matches their strengths. This vision is becoming reality through gamification, a powerful force that is reshaping how students learn and how teachers teach in K–12 special education.
Personalized learning paths: Tailoring the adventure
Traditional classrooms often require students to adapt one method of instruction, which can be limiting–especially for neurodiverse learners. Gamified learning platforms provide an alternative by offering adaptive, personalized learning experiences that honor each student’s profile and pace.
Many of these platforms use real-time data and algorithms to adjust content based on performance. A student with reading difficulties might receive simplified text with audio support, while a math-savvy learner can engage in increasingly complex logic puzzles. This flexibility allows students to move forward without fear of being left behind, or without being bored waiting for others to catch up.
Accessibility features such as customizable avatars, voice commands, and adjustable visual settings also create space for students with ADHD, autism, or sensory sensitivities to learn comfortably. A student sensitive to bright colors can use a softer palette; another who struggles with reading can use text-to-speech features. And when students can replay challenges without stigma, repetition becomes practice, not punishment.
In these environments, progress is measured individually. The ability to choose which goals to tackle and how to approach them gives learners both agency and confidence–two things often missing in traditional special education settings.
Building social and emotional skills: The power of play
Play is a break from traditional learning and a powerful way to build essential social and emotional skills. For students with special needs who may face challenges with communication, emotional regulation, or peer interaction, gamified environments provide a structured yet flexible space to develop these abilities.
In cooperative hunts and team challenges, students practice empathy, communication, and collaboration in ways that feel engaging and low-stakes. A group mission might involve solving a puzzle together, requiring students to share ideas, encourage one another, and work toward a common goal.
Gamified platforms also provide real-time, constructive feedback, transforming setbacks into teachable moments. Instead of pointing out what a student did wrong, a game might offer a helpful hint: “Try checking the clues again!” This kind of support teaches resilience and persistence in a way that lectures or punitive grading rarely do.
As students earn badges or level up, they experience tangible success. These moments highlight the connection between effort and achievement. Over time, these small wins raise a greater willingness to engage with the material and with peers and the classroom community.
Fostering independence and motivation
Students with learning differences often carry the weight of repeated academic failure, which can chip away at their motivation. Gamification helps reverse this by reframing challenges as opportunities and effort as progress.
Badges, points, and levels make achievements visible and meaningful. A student might earn a “Problem Solver” badge after tackling a tricky math puzzle or receive “Teamwork Tokens” for helping a classmate. These systems expand the definition of success and highlight personal strengths.
The focus shifts from comparison to self-improvement. Some platforms even allow for private progress tracking, letting students set and meet personal goals without the anxiety of public rankings. Instead of competing, students build a personal narrative of growth.
Gamification also encourages self-directed learning. As student complete tasks, they develop skills like planning, time management, and self-assessment, skills that extend beyond academics and into real life. The result is a deeper sense of ownership and independence.
Teachers as learning guides
Gamification doesn’t replace teachers, but it can help teach more effectively. With access to real-time analytics, educators can see exactly where a student is excelling or struggling and adjust instruction accordingly.
Dashboards might reveal that a group of students is thriving in reading comprehension but needs help with number sense, prompting immediate, targeted intervention. This data-driven insight allows for proactive, personalized support.
Teachers in gamified classrooms also take on a new role, both of a mentor and facilitator. They curate learning experiences, encourage exploration, and create opportunities for creativity and curiosity to thrive. Instead of managing behavior or delivering lectures, they support students on individualized learning journeys.
Inclusion reimagined
Gamification is not a gimmick; it’s a framework for true inclusion. It aligns with the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), offering multiple ways for students to engage, process information, and show what they know. It recognizes that every learner is different, and builds that into the design.
Of course, not every gamified tool is created equal. Thoughtful implementation, equity in access, and alignment with student goals are essential. But when used intentionally, gamification can turn classrooms into places where students with diverse needs feel seen, supported, and excited to learn.
Are we ready to level up?
Gamification is a step toward classrooms that work for everyone. For students with special needs, it means learning at their own pace, discovering their strengths, and building confidence through meaningful challenges.
For teachers, it’s a shift from directing traffic to guiding adventurers.
If we want education to be truly inclusive, we must go beyond accommodations and build systems where diversity is accepted and celebrated. And maybe, just maybe, that journey begins with a game.
Aditya Prakash, SKIDOS
Aditya Prakash is the founder and CEO of SKIDOS, a Copenhagen-based edtech leader transforming mobile gaming into learning, drawing on two decades of innovation, investment, and mentorship in technology-driven education.
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Rigorous research rarely shows that any teaching approach produces large and consistent benefits for students. But tutoring seemed to be a rare exception. Before the pandemic, almost 100 studies pointed to impressive math or reading gains for students who were paired with a tutor at least three times a week and used a proven curriculum or set of lesson plans.
Some students gained an extra year’s worth of learning — far greater than the benefit of smaller classes, summer school or a fantastic teacher. These were rigorous randomized controlled trials, akin to the way that drugs or vaccines are tested, comparing test scores of tutored students against those who weren’t. The expense, sometimes surpassing $4,000 a year per student, seemed worth it for what researchers called high-dosage tutoring.
On the strength of that evidence, the Biden administration urged schools to invest their pandemic recovery funds in intensive tutoring to help students catch up academically. Forty-six percent of public schools heeded that call, according to a 2024 federal survey, though it’s unclear exactly how much of the $190 billion in pandemic recovery funds have been spent on high-dosage tutoring and how many students received it.
Related: Our free weekly newsletter alerts you to what research says about schools and classrooms.
Even with ample money, schools immediately reported problems in ramping up high-quality tutoring for so many students. In 2024, researchers documented either tiny or no academic benefits from large-scale tutoring efforts in Nashville, Tennessee, and Washington, D.C.
New evidence from the 2023-24 school year reinforces those results.Researchers are rigorously studying large-scale tutoring efforts around the nation and testing whether effective tutoring can be done more cheaply. A dozen researchers studied more than 20,000 students in Miami; Chicago; Atlanta; Winston-Salem and Greensboro, North Carolina; Greenville, South Carolina; schools throughout New Mexico, and a California charter school network. This was also a randomized controlled study in which 9,000 students were randomly assigned to get tutoring and compared with 11,000 students who didn’t get that extra help.
Their preliminary results were “sobering,” according to a June report by the University of Chicago Education Lab and MDRC, a research organization.
The researchers found that tutoring during the 2023-24 school year produced only one or two months’ worth of extra learning in reading or math — a tiny fraction of what the pre-pandemic research had produced. Each minute of tutoring that students received appeared to be as effective as in the pre-pandemic research, but students weren’t getting enough minutes of tutoring altogether. “Overall we still see that the dosage students are getting falls far short of what would be needed to fully realize the promise of high-dosage tutoring,” the report said.
Monica Bhatt, a researcher at the University of Chicago Education Lab and one of the report’s authors, said schools struggled to set up large tutoring programs. “The problem is the logistics of getting it delivered,” said Bhatt. Effective high-dosage tutoring involves big changes to bell schedules and classroom space, along with the challenge of hiring and training tutors. Educators need to make it a priority for it to happen, Bhatt said.
Some of the earlier, pre-pandemic tutoring studies involved large numbers of students, too, but those tutoring programs were carefully designed and implemented, often with researchers involved. In most cases, they were ideal setups. There was much greater variability in the quality of post-pandemic programs.
“For those of us that run experiments, one of the deep sources of frustration is that what you end up with is not what you tested and wanted to see,” said Philip Oreopoulos, an economist at the University of Toronto, whose 2020 review of tutoring evidence influenced policymakers. Oreopoulos was also an author of the June report.
“After you spend lots of people’s money and lots of time and effort, things don’t always go the way you hope. There’s a lot of fires to put out at the beginning or throughout because teachers or tutors aren’t doing what you want, or the hiring isn’t going well,” Oreopoulos said.
Another reason for the lackluster results could be that schools offered a lot of extra help to everyone after the pandemic, even to students who didn’t receive tutoring. In the pre-pandemic research, students in the “business as usual” control group often received no extra help at all, making the difference between tutoring and no tutoring far more stark. After the pandemic, students — tutored and non-tutored alike — had extra math and reading periods, sometimes called “labs” for review and practice work. More than three-quarters of the 20,000 students in this June analysis had access to computer-assisted instruction in math or reading, possibly muting the effects of tutoring.
The report did find that cheaper tutoring programs appeared to be just as effective (or ineffective) as the more expensive ones, an indication that the cheaper models are worth further testing. The cheaper models averaged $1,200 per student and had tutors working with eight students at a time, similar to small group instruction, often combining online practice work with human attention. The more expensive models averaged $2,000 per student and had tutors working with three to four students at once. By contrast, many of the pre-pandemic tutoring programs involved smaller 1-to-1 or 2-to-1 student-to-tutor ratios.
Despite the disappointing results, researchers said that educators shouldn’t give up. “High-dosage tutoring is still a district or state’s best bet to improve student learning, given that the learning impact per minute of tutoring is largely robust,” the report concludes. The task now is to figure out how to improve implementation and increase the hours that students are receiving. “Our recommendation for the field is to focus on increasing dosage — and, thereby learning gains,” Bhatt said.
That doesn’t mean that schools need to invest more in tutoring and saturate schools with effective tutors. That’s not realistic with the end of federal pandemic recovery funds.
Instead of tutoring for the masses, Bhatt said researchers are turning their attention to targeting a limited amount of tutoring to the right students. “We are focused on understanding which tutoring models work for which kinds of students.”
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.
STATE HOUSE, BOSTON — Artificial intelligence in classrooms is no longer a distant prospect, and Massachusetts education officials on Monday released statewide guidance urging schools to use the technology thoughtfully, with an emphasis on equity, transparency, academic integrity and human oversight.
“AI already surrounds young people. It is baked into the devices and apps they use, and is increasingly used in nearly every system they will encounter in their lives, from health care to banking,” the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s new AI Literacy Module for Educators says.
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What better way to get your students interested in reading than to dress as their favorite book character? Whether it’s for Halloween or you need ideas for a Book Character Spirit Day, we’ve got you covered with these fantastic book character costume ideas for individuals and groups!
Jump to:
Individual Book Character Costume Ideas for Teachers
Courtesy of Amy B., PreK-6 Librarian
1. Mo Willems’ Pigeon
Dressing like this beloved mischievous bird is easy with a clever knit cap. Attach the sign to a yardstick and stick it in your back pocket, and you’ll have a “caption” all day long!
We love the idea of being the coconut tree from this adored alphabet book! Add letters to a brown tunic and make yourself a headdress from construction paper.
Courtesy of Presley, 2nd Grade Teacher
3. The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Want to make this costume even funnier? Spend the day constantly eating some of the items from the book!
Add big colorful buttons to a yellow shirt, add some cat ears, and you’ve got a Pete the Cat costume! If you can do the different-colored sneakers, even better.
Those fly eyes made from paper plates are totally cute and easy enough for any teacher to make. You can also make your own wings, or buy a pair to make the costume even easier.
If you really love putting effort into your costumes, take inspiration from this incredible Around the World in 80 Days costume! A giant beach ball balanced in a Hula-Hoop forms the “balloon,” and a pair of steampunk goggles adds an authentic touch.
This adorable penguin onesie costume is practically like wearing jammies to school. Just attach some question mark cutouts to transform it into the beloved book character.
Here’s another movie favorite that actually got his start in a book. Fortunately, you can pick up an easy all-in-one costume for the lovable green guy.
Spread an environmental message with your teacher Halloween costume! “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”
This is an amazing costume idea for two teacher besties. They’re friends forever, just like Frog and Toad!
Courtesy of Brittany G., 3rd Grade Teacher
25. Charlotte’s Web
Want something the entire school can get in on? Try the farm animals and other characters from Charlotte’s Web!
Courtesy of Stephanie Gable
26. Laura Numeroff Characters
If you give a teacher a Laura Numeroff book, they’ll turn it into a Halloween costume! Each teacher can pick their own favorite.
Courtesy of Gabriella S.
27. The Magic School Bus
Where would Ms. Frizzle be without the rest of the gang? Extra points if you can convince someone to dress up as the bus itself.
Courtesy of Gabriella S.
28. Junie B. Jones
This childhood favorite has been through dozens of adventures and looks a little different each time. That makes this a fantastic group costume, with each teacher dressing as their own version of Junie.
Courtesy of Brooke B., 4th grade Teacher
29. Winnie-the-Pooh
You can go all out with Pooh-themed costumes, but you don’t need to. These simple T-shirts and headbands get the idea across perfectly and are much more practical.
Pick up some big sheets of poster board and create your own costumes for the characters from the popular picture book series. These kids made their teacher dress up as the Bad Seed!
Courtesy of Hilary Statum
32. Room on the Broom
This book is absolutely perfect for group teacher Halloween costumes. We especially love the teacher dressed as the broom itself!
Courtesy of Stephanie Gable
33. The Avengers
We all know teachers are superheroes, so this group comic book costume seems especially appropriate.
Courtesy of Brooke B., 4th Grade Teacher
Courtesy of Amy, PreK-6 Librarian
35. Seuss Characters
Every kid knows their Dr. Seuss characters, and the huge array of books gives you so many to choose from.
This podcast, Sold a Story, was produced by APM Reports and reprinted with permission.
There’s an idea about how children learn to read that’s held sway in schools for more than a generation – even though it was proven wrong by cognitive scientists decades ago. Teaching methods based on this idea can make it harder for children to learn how to read. In this new American Public Media podcast, host Emily Hanford investigates the influential authors who promote this idea and the company that sells their work. It’s an exposé of how educators came to believe in something that isn’t true and are now reckoning with the consequences – children harmed, money wasted, an education system upended.
Episode 14: The Cuts
Education research is at a turning point in the United States. The Trump administration is slashing government funding for science and dismantling the Department of Education. We look at what the cuts mean for the science of reading — and the effort to get that science into schools.
This podcast, Sold a Story, was produced by APM Reports 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.
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).
Dr. Stephanie J. Madlinger, Discovery Educator Network (DEN)
Dr. Stephanie J. Madlinger, Ed.D., is an experienced educator and inaugural member of the Discovery Educator Network (DEN). With a deep passion for integrating technology into learning environments, she focuses on innovative teaching strategies and the responsible use of technological tools to enhance student engagement and promote digital citizenship. Her work emphasizes preparing students to be future-ready learners who can navigate the digital world with confidence and integrity. As a seasoned educator, professor, and staff developer, Stephanie is dedicated to fostering innovative learning environments in both traditional and online settings. Dr. Madlinger has facilitated and taught thousands of learners in traditional, online, and hybrid formats. She actively attends & presents at educational events and is the proud parent of four adult children, including three educators.
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The 2023-2024 Georgia Milestones data reveals that third-grade literacy plays a pivotal role in students’ long-term success.
CHAPEL HILL, N.C., March 13, 2025 (Newswire.com)
– Third grade can be the make-or-break moment in a student’s academic journey, and this year’s 2023-2024 Georgia Milestones Assessment data underscores just how critical early literacy is. The results reveal a striking trend: districts that performed well in third grade saw continued success across all future grade levels, while those that struggled in third grade faced persistent challenges.
A new comprehensive study of 15 Georgia school districts examined the link between early literacy achievement and long-term academic outcomes. Researchers analyzed reading proficiency rates for grades 3-12 to identify patterns and correlations, accounting for district size, demographics, and geographic diversity, ensuring a broad and representative analysis.
The findings are clear: third-grade reading proficiency strongly predicts future academic success, with an 81% correlation between early gains and later gains. Students who met reading benchmarks in third grade were far more likely to excel in later grades, graduate high school, and succeed in college and careers. Conversely, those who fell behind often struggled to catch up, widening the learning gap over time.
“In education, we often talk about closing learning gaps, but this research highlights how important it is to prevent them in the first place,” said Ron Kirschenbaum, Managing Partner at ReadTheory. “By focusing on foundational literacy skills in third grade, schools can significantly alter the academic trajectory of their students.”
Many Georgia districts are already integrating evidence-based literacy solutions that align with state standards. ReadTheory, in particular, has gained much traction among educators.
Julia Buff, a teacher in Douglas County, shared, “ReadTheory has helped my students grow, ensuring they are very prepared for our state test at the end of the year.”
The study also revealed that districts using ReadTheory achieved an average proficiency rate of 56% on the 2023-2034 Georgia Milestones, compared to just 15% in districts that didn’t use the program. This 3.7x difference underscores the platform’s role in strengthening literacy at every stage of learning. The data aligns with the Nation’s Report Card by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which found that only 30% of Georgia fourth graders and 31% of eighth graders are proficient in reading.
Grounded in the science of reading, ReadTheory is supporting schools in closing the achievement gap and fundamentally shaping brighter futures for their students. Educators and administrators interested in learning more about ReadTheory’s impact are encouraged to explore the platform and request an introduction for deeper insights.
About ReadTheory ReadTheory is an adaptive reading platform that helps students build essential literacy skills through engaging, personalized practice. Trusted by millions of educators worldwide, ReadTheory delivers real-time insights and effortless differentiation – so every student gets the right support to grow. For more information, visit www.readtheory.org.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. /PRNewswire/ —IXL, the award-winning personalized learning platform used by 16 million students, has been named a High Quality Evidence-Based Instructional Material for Early Literacy by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE). Adding IXL Language Arts to the list ensures that eligible local education agencies across the state can request reimbursement for purchasing the platform to enhance early literacy instruction. IXL is currently used by 20 percent of students in Missouri, accounting for more than 210,000 students.
Cover every concept with effective literacy instruction Literacy rates among the nation’s youngest learners remain below pre-pandemic levels, and limited instructional time and larger class sizes make it difficult for educators to boost achievement. To close knowledge gaps and support every student, IXL equips Missouri educators with its award-winning PK-5 ELA curriculum, which personalizes learning and is grounded in the Science of Reading methodology.
IXL covers all the areas needed to teach language arts, containing more than 2,400 skills spanning reading comprehension, grammar, vocabulary and more. The platform’s curriculum for grades PK-2 is designed according to research-based best practices for effective early literacy instruction and focuses on systematic, structured phonemic awareness and phonics instruction. It guides students from simple to complex skills, adapting to individual student needs and offering explicit instruction with real-time feedback. Schools can also leverage IXL’s Learn to Read and Reading Intervention skill plans that align perfectly to popular textbooks so educators can steadily and methodically narrow reading gaps.
Build student confidence with embedded supports A wealth of instructional resources supports students and encourages them to self-remediate during independent or small-group practice. More than 2,800 video tutorials match one-to-one with each IXL skill, guiding learners through the building blocks of reading, writing and grammar. These videos make it easy to incorporate the Science of Reading’s methodology into instruction so children learn the relationships between written letters and spoken sounds. Additionally, students receive immediate corrective feedback after every missed question, enabling them to quickly understand their mistakes and progress.
Get reliable data to meet reading goals Early elementary school years are crucial for building foundational skills that shape a child’s education. To support this development, teachers need insights to see exactly where learning gaps exist, targeted resources to close them and tools to help students tackle new challenges. Supported by years of validity research, the nationally-normed IXL Diagnostic is a precise indicator of student achievement and a strong predictor of performance on standardized assessments. The adaptive assessment pinpoints each learner’s proficiency to the nearest tenth of a grade along the entire ELA spectrum, showing educators exactly what students know and what they can do to improve. It then generates personalized action plans that help students eliminate their trouble spots, and grow their reading and writing skills. Action plans link to specific language arts and reading skills, and give teachers a simple way to differentiate instruction and fill knowledge gaps.
An award-winning platform backed by evidence Educators deserve the gold-standard of educational technology that is proven by research and data to enable the highest performance from every student. Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) Tier 1 and Tier 2 research shows undisputed favorable outcomes for schools implementing IXL. Additionally, studies across 70,000 schools in 49 states show that IXL leads to higher test scores, with schools scoring as much as 17 percentile points higher on language arts on state assessments.
Recognized for its quality and rigor, IXL holds the Digital Promise Research-Based Design Product Certification and has twice been honored by the SIIA CODiE Awards as the Best Solution for Foundational (K-8) English Language Arts.
About IXL Currently used by 16 million students and in 96 of the top 100 U.S. school districts, IXL is an all-inclusive educational platform that provides a comprehensive PK-12 curriculum and instructional resources, actionable analytics and a state-of-the-art assessment suite. Available in 57 languages, IXL’s end-to-end teaching and learning solution supports personalized instruction in math, English language arts, science, social studies and Spanish. With more than 150 billion questions asked and answered around the world, IXL is helping schools and parents successfully boost student achievement. The IXL Learning family of products also includes Rosetta Stone, Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com, TPT, SpanishDictionary.com, inglés.com, FrenchDictionary.com, Wyzant, Vocabulary.com, ABCya, Education.com and Carson Dellosa Education. To learn more about IXL, visit www.ixl.com, facebook.com/IXL and x.com/IXLLearning.
eSchool Media staff cover education technology in all its aspects–from legislation and litigation, to best practices, to lessons learned and new products. First published in March of 1998 as a monthly print and digital newspaper, eSchool Media provides the news and information necessary to help K-20 decision-makers successfully use technology and innovation to transform schools and colleges and achieve their educational goals.
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., October 23, 2024 (Newswire.com)
– Teach Access announced today that it has been named a Finalist in the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion category of the 4th Annual Anthem Awards for its free Open Educational Resource (OER) Curriculum Repository.
The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences selects Anthem winners. Judges for the 4th Annual Anthem Awards include Janine Brady, Managing Director of Communications, Schmidt Futures, Haven Ley SVP, Program Strategy, Investments and Comms., CSO, Pivotal Ventures, Roma McCaig, Chief Public Affairs and Impact Officer, REI Co-op, Wendy R. Weiser, Vice President, Democracy, Brennan Center for Justice, Brett Peters, Global Lead, TikTok for Good, TikTok, C.D. Glin, President, PepsiCo, Aurora James, Activist and Fashion Designer, Fifteen Percent Pledge, Michelle Waring, Steward for Sustainability and Everyday Good, Tom’s of Maine, Trovon Williams, Sr. Vice President of Marketing & Communications, NAACP, and Singleton Beato, Global EVP, Chief DEI Officer, McCann Worldgroup, and many others.
Teach Access is a national nonprofit that bridges the digital accessibility skills gap—a gap in accessibility knowledge and digital skills among students graduating and entering the workforce. The Teach Access Curriculum Repository (TACR) is an (OER) developed by faculty to support teaching accessibility to students. TACR contains a variety of teaching tools, including syllabi, slide decks, assignment prompts, discussion questions, and quizzes spanning disciplines that include Business and Management, Computer Science, Game & Interactive Media Design, Graphic Design, Human-Computer Interaction, Instructional Technology, Marketing and Communications, Media and Performing Arts, User Experience, (UX) Design, Visual & Graphic Design, Web Design & Development Technical Writing, and more. The TACR is housed in Canvas, a widely used learning management system in higher education, and has helped Teach Access reach more than 900,000 students.
“The Finalists of this year’s Anthem Awards are truly inspiring, and I am honored to help elevate their impact,” said Anthem Awards General Manager Patricia McLoughlin. “At this moment, there is a lot of uncertainty in our world, but the tireless and extraordinary efforts of the Anthem Awards community provide hope that a better tomorrow is possible. Thank you to everyone doing this work and making an impact.”
This year marks the 2nd Annual Anthem Community Voice Celebration to uplift the work of Anthem Finalists. Supporters can celebrate Teach Access’ work online from October 15th to October 31st. Finalists are also running to win a Gold, Silver, or Bronze Anthem Award selected by Anthem judges. All winners for the 4th Annual Anthem Awards will be announced on Tuesday, November 19th, 2024.
The 4th Annual Anthem Awards was the most competitive season yet, with over 2,300 entries submitted from 34 countries worldwide. The Anthem Awards are defining a new benchmark for impactful work that inspires others to take action in their communities by amplifying the voices that spark global change.
About Teach Access Teach Access is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization collaborating with education, industry, government, and disability advocacy organizations to address the critical need to enhance students’ understanding of digital accessibility as they learn to design, develop, and build new technologies with the needs of people with disabilities in mind. Teach Access envisions a fully accessible future in which students enter the workforce with knowledge of the needs of people with disabilities and skills in the principles of accessible design and development, such that technology products and services are born accessible.
About The Anthem Awards: Launched in 2021 by The Webby Awards, The Anthem Awards honors the purpose & mission-driven work of people, companies and organizations worldwide. By amplifying the voices that spark global change, we’re defining a new benchmark for impactful work that inspires others to take action in their own communities. The Anthem Awards honors work across seven core causes: Diversity, Equity & Inclusion; Education; Art & Culture; Health; Human & Civil Rights; Humanitarian Action & Services; Responsible Technology; and Sustainability, Environment & Climate. This season’s partners include Ms. Magazine, The Female Quotient, Sustainable Brands, NationSwell, and TheFutureParty. The Awards were founded in partnership with the Ad Council, Born This Way Foundation, Feeding America, Glaad, Mozilla, NAACP, NRDC, WWF, and XQ.
About The Webby Awards: Hailed as the “Internet’s highest honor” by The New York Times, The Webby Awards is the leading international awards organization honoring excellence on the Internet, including Websites and Mobile Sites; Video; Advertising; Media & PR; Apps & Software; Social; Podcasts; Games and AI, Metaverse & Virtual. Established in 1996, The Webby Awards received nearly 13,000 entries from all 50 states and over 70 countries worldwide this year. The Webby Awards are presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS). Sponsors and Partners of The Webby Awards include WP Engine, LinkedIn, Meltwater, NAACP, KPMG, Wall Street Journal, Vox Media, Deadline, AdAge, TechCrunch, The Hollywood Reporter, The Hustle, Morning Brew, Passionfruit, Embedded, Link in Bio, Creator Economy NYC, Creator Spotlight, AIGA, Vote Save America, and The Publish Press.
As a country, we are at a pivotal time. Recent national test scores found that our country’s eighth graders are still a full school year behind pre-COVID levels in their reading and math achievements. This is tough news to swallow, but I’m choosing to view this as motivation.
As the executive principal at the Emma Donnan campus of Adelante Schools in Indianapolis, I want my students to be successful. My goal is for students to gain essential academic skills and build a robust social-emotional toolkit so they are set up to thrive in an ever-changing world. At Adelante Schools, one of the key ways we’re pursuing that goal is by going all in on literacy. Reading is foundational to everything in a young person’s life–in and out of the classroom.
This year’s Indiana IREAD scores proved that far too many students–about one in five–are struggling to hit their grade-level reading benchmarks. However, these scores also showed that Adelante’s investments in literacy are working: The percentage of our third graders who passed the assessment increased from 57.5 percent to 71.9 percent in a year.
I’m proud we have implemented initiatives that are proving effective for student achievement. Here’s what we have done, and what I implore other school leaders to explore so we can all work toward student success together.
Invest in early reading and the science of reading in a holistic manner. Students are struggling to read, and it’s a crisis. Working with support organizations like We Are Lit and Relay Graduate School of Education, we have developed a professional development system to provide teachers with deep dives into the cognitive science of reading, individualized support, ongoing coaching, real-time feedback, and practice clinics. It’s not enough just to provide some one-time workshops–we must continually invest in building teachers’ skills. Teachers also observe and track the minute data of student reading skills that often go overlooked.
Bring data to life and prioritize planning. It’s important to dive into annual test scores and national reports, but if we want to be effective educators we need to be conducting real-time data analysis and adjusting as we go. As a member of the Relay Leadership Leverage Institute Fellowship, I have the privilege of meeting with school leaders from all over the country to learn from experts and hone in on our leadership priorities. This year, data and planning have been at the forefront. One poignant recommendation is to engage in deep analysis of student work weekly. Not quarterly, not yearly. Weekly. This is not about just pulling up test scores but rather, looking at what students authentically produce to get into the weeds of what they know and don’t know. This will allow leaders and teachers to effectively identify brights spots or gaps in student understanding, plan to reteach the gaps, and build on the mastered concepts. When you’re on the road and you hit a roadblock, do you stop and turn around? No; you find another way to reach your destination. That’s what we need to do with our teaching. To implement effective instruction, we must be checking in regularly and planning based on real-time needs.
Build your A-team. As a school leader, I know I need to delegate. We have created and invested in specialized roles; we have a dedicated Chief Literacy Officer who is responsible for overseeing and driving the school’s literacy initiatives. We also have a chief mathematics officer. We know we need the right people who are committed and knowledgeable–this is especially pertinent for our staff and leadership. When we have this strong bench in place, we are better set up to support our teachers. When teachers are better set up for success, that trickles down to students. And aren’t students what this is all about?
I call on school leaders to look under the hoods of their schools. The start of the school year allows you to model best practices to set your staff, teachers and students up for success with renewed energy for the year to come. As we model teamwork for our students, let us school leaders learn from each other to ensure that every single student knows their school is providing them with an excellent education.
Kendra Randle, the Emma Donnan Campus of Adelante Schools
Kendra Randle is the executive principal at the Emma Donnan campus of Adelante Schools in Indianapolis. She is the recipient of the 2023 Milken Educator Award. Kendra was chosen for the yearlong Relay Graduate School of Education’s National Principal Academy Fellowship and participated in the school’s Leverage Leadership Institute.
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Kendra Randle, the Emma Donnan Campus of Adelante Schools
