ReportWire

Tag: Students

  • Next gen learning spaces: UDL in action

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    Key points:

    By embracing Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles in purchasing decisions, school leaders can create learning spaces that not only accommodate students with disabilities but enhance the educational experience for all learners while delivering exceptional returns on investment (ROI).

    Strangely enough, the concept of UDL all started with curb cuts. Disability activists in the 1960s were advocating for adding curb cuts at intersections so that users of wheelchairs could cross streets independently. Once curb cuts became commonplace, there was a surprising secondary effect: Curb cuts did not just benefit the lives of those in wheelchairs, they benefited parents with strollers, kids on bikes, older adults using canes, delivery workers with carts, and travelers using rolling suitcases. What had been designed for one specific group ended up accidentally benefiting many others.

    UDL is founded on this idea of the “curb-cut effect.” UDL focuses on designing classrooms and schools to provide multiple ways for students to learn. While the original focus was making the curriculum accessible to multiple types of learners, UDL also informs the physical design of classrooms and schools. Procurement professionals are focusing on furniture and technology purchases that provide flexible, accessible, and supportive environments so that all learners can benefit. Today entire conferences, such as EDspaces, focus on classroom and school design to improve learning outcomes.

    There is now a solid research base indicating that the design of learning spaces is a critical factor in educational success: Learning space design changes can significantly influence student engagement, well-being, and academic achievement. While we focus on obvious benefits for specific types of learners, we often find unexpected ways that all students benefit. Adjustable desks designed for wheelchair users can improve focus and reduce fatigue in many students, especially those with ADHD. Providing captions on videos, first made available for deaf students, benefit ELL and other students struggling to learn to read.

    Applying UDL to school purchasing decisions

    UDL represents a paradigm shift from retrofitting solutions for individual students to proactively designing inclusive environments from the ground up. Strategic purchasing focuses on choosing furniture and tech tools that provide multiple means of engagement that can motivate and support all types of learners.

    Furniture that works for everyone

    Modern classroom furniture has evolved far beyond the traditional one-size-fits-all model. Flexible seating options such as stability balls, wobble cushions, and standing desks can transform classroom dynamics. While these options support students with ADHD or sensory processing needs, they also provide choice and movement opportunities that enhance engagement for neurotypical students. Research consistently shows that physical comfort directly correlates with cognitive performance and attention span.

    Modular furniture systems offer exceptional value by adapting to changing needs throughout the school year. Tables and desks that can be easily reconfigured support collaborative learning, individual work, and various teaching methodologies. Storage solutions with clear labeling systems and accessible heights benefit students with visual impairments and executive functioning challenges while helping all students maintain organization and independence.

    Technology that opens doors for all learners

    Assistive technology has evolved from specialized, expensive solutions to mainstream tools that benefit diverse learners. Screen readers like NVDA and JAWS remain essential for students with visual impairments, but their availability also supports students with dyslexia who benefit from auditory reinforcement of text. When procuring software licenses, prioritize platforms with built-in accessibility features rather than purchasing separate assistive tools.

    Voice-to-text technology exemplifies the UDL principle perfectly. While crucial for students with fine motor challenges or dysgraphia, these tools also benefit students who process information verbally, ELL learners practicing pronunciation, and any student working through complex ideas more efficiently through speech than typing.

    Adaptive keyboards and alternative input devices address various physical needs while offering all students options for comfortable, efficient interaction with technology. Consider keyboards with larger keys, customizable layouts, or touchscreen interfaces that can serve multiple purposes across your student population.

    Interactive displays and tablets with built-in accessibility features provide multiple means of engagement and expression. Touch interfaces support students with motor difficulties while offering kinesthetic learning opportunities for all students. When evaluating these technologies, prioritize devices with robust accessibility settings including font size adjustment, color contrast options, and alternative navigation methods.

    Maximizing your procurement impact

    Strategic procurement for UDL requires thinking beyond individual products to consider system-wide compatibility and scalability. Prioritize vendors who demonstrate commitment to accessibility standards and provide comprehensive training on using accessibility features. The most advanced assistive technology becomes worthless without proper implementation and support.

    Conduct needs assessments that go beyond compliance requirements to understand your learning community’s diverse needs. Engage with special education teams, occupational therapists, and technology specialists during the procurement process. Their insights can prevent costly mistakes and identify opportunities for solutions that serve multiple populations.

    Consider total cost of ownership when evaluating options. Adjustable-height desks may cost more initially but can eliminate the need for specialized furniture for individual students. Similarly, mainstream technology with robust accessibility features often costs less than specialized assistive devices while serving broader populations.

    Pilot programs prove invaluable for testing solutions before large-scale implementation. Start with small purchases to evaluate effectiveness, durability, and user satisfaction across diverse learners. Document outcomes to build compelling cases for broader adoption.

    The business case for UDL

    Procurement decisions guided by UDL principles deliver measurable returns on investment. Reduced need for individualized accommodations decreases administrative overhead while improving response times for student needs. Universal solutions eliminate the stigma associated with specialized equipment, promoting inclusive classroom cultures that benefit all learners.

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    Leslie Stebbins, Research4Ed

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  • Tools and ideas to engage students in career-connected learning

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    Key points:

    For nearly two decades, I’ve worked to improve teaching and learning with technology. And while the continuously evolving nature of technology has changed the trajectory of my career many times, I have always tried to drive deeper student engagement.

    Education stakeholders agree on the importance of engagement in learning. According to the recently released Education Insights Report, K-12 leaders, teachers, parents, and students overwhelmingly agree that engagement drives learning. To be more specific, 93 percent of educators say it’s a critical metric for achievement, 99 percent of superintendents rank it among the top predictors of school success, and 92 percent of students report that engaging lessons make school more enjoyable.

    During my career, I’ve found that one of the best ways to engage students in learning is to connect what is being taught to students in the classroom to potential career paths. One way to connect the dots between classroom lessons and their application to a potential career is through career-connected learning.

    Career-connected learning (CCL) experiences–such as classroom career lessons, job fairs, and mentorships–have a measurable impact on student engagement and future orientation. A recent report found that 88 percent of students participate in at least one CCL opportunity, and that having a mentor nearly doubles student engagement (37 percent vs. 16 percent), while also increasing students’ hope about their future (40 percent vs. 25 percent).

    Educational technology can help educators scale CCL learning in their district. At my school, I’ve found success with Career Connect, which can be accessed through Discovery Education Experience. This technology solution is an innovative, virtual platform that facilitates direct, real-time connections between K-12 educators, students, and industry professionals. Key features include on-demand, virtual classroom visits and an easy-to-navigate dashboard with accompanying standards-aligned lesson plans and activities.

    Career Connect has allowed instructional specialists and professional development consultants in our field to assist CTE teachers with additional credible and trusted resources. This enables our educators to create meaningful connections and higher engagement by embedding real-world voices to help students see the “why” behind learning, which sparks curiosity and motivation. Plus, the solution helps ensure equitable access for all students, because the virtual format allows schools anywhere to bring a broad range of professionals from all the over the world directly into their classrooms.

    Another favorite tool is CareerPrepped, a free resource by the Association for Career and Technical Education. Designed to meet the needs of learners, educators, and employers, the platform supports skills-based hiring, soft-skills development, and work-based learning through a dynamic digital platform.

    With over 40 essential workforce skills, students can build Skill Builders across competencies like teamwork, communication, problem-solving, time management, and more. These skills are demonstrated through Skill Badges and a career portfolio that houses real-world evidence such as project artifacts and multimedia illustrations. Students can create a personal portfolio that connect to platforms like LinkedIn. Then, students can request feedback on their skill evidence from peers, educators, and industry mentors, helping them understand strengths and areas for improvement.

    CareerPrepped offers value for educators by bridging the gap between academic learning and employability while enhancing work-based learning outcomes. Students actively document and prove their skills to employers and class alike.

    Implementing career-focused technology tools such as Career Connect and CareerPrepped in education offers many ways to integrate CCL into the classroom. Here are some potential strategies to consider:

    • Employee Spotlights: Host brief live or recorded talks with people in various careers to hear about job journeys and directly tie in a classroom lesson to that career. Bonus points if that employee is a former student of that district!
    • Micro-Internships: Arrange one-hour or one-day job shadows with local partners.
    • Challenge-Based Projects: Partner with businesses on real problems, like designing a locally-sourced cafeteria menu or revamping a playground.

    In summary, career-connected learning is a vital component of any classroom in this day and age, because it brings together traditional learning with real-world opportunities. By engaging students with industry partners, mentors, and authentic workplace experiences, students are empowered to see clear pathways from education to career success.

    These connections not only strengthen technical and employability skills but also foster confidence and purpose for each student. Ultimately, career connections ensure that all students graduate prepared, inspired, and equipped to thrive in both postsecondary education and the workforce.

    Latest posts by eSchool Media Contributors (see all)

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    Grace Maliska

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  • Tools and ideas to engage students in career-connected learning

    [ad_1]

    Key points:

    For nearly two decades, I’ve worked to improve teaching and learning with technology. And while the continuously evolving nature of technology has changed the trajectory of my career many times, I have always tried to drive deeper student engagement.

    Education stakeholders agree on the importance of engagement in learning. According to the recently released Education Insights Report, K-12 leaders, teachers, parents, and students overwhelmingly agree that engagement drives learning. To be more specific, 93 percent of educators say it’s a critical metric for achievement, 99 percent of superintendents rank it among the top predictors of school success, and 92 percent of students report that engaging lessons make school more enjoyable.

    During my career, I’ve found that one of the best ways to engage students in learning is to connect what is being taught to students in the classroom to potential career paths. One way to connect the dots between classroom lessons and their application to a potential career is through career-connected learning.

    Career-connected learning (CCL) experiences–such as classroom career lessons, job fairs, and mentorships–have a measurable impact on student engagement and future orientation. A recent report found that 88 percent of students participate in at least one CCL opportunity, and that having a mentor nearly doubles student engagement (37 percent vs. 16 percent), while also increasing students’ hope about their future (40 percent vs. 25 percent).

    Educational technology can help educators scale CCL learning in their district. At my school, I’ve found success with Career Connect, which can be accessed through Discovery Education Experience. This technology solution is an innovative, virtual platform that facilitates direct, real-time connections between K-12 educators, students, and industry professionals. Key features include on-demand, virtual classroom visits and an easy-to-navigate dashboard with accompanying standards-aligned lesson plans and activities.

    Career Connect has allowed instructional specialists and professional development consultants in our field to assist CTE teachers with additional credible and trusted resources. This enables our educators to create meaningful connections and higher engagement by embedding real-world voices to help students see the “why” behind learning, which sparks curiosity and motivation. Plus, the solution helps ensure equitable access for all students, because the virtual format allows schools anywhere to bring a broad range of professionals from all the over the world directly into their classrooms.

    Another favorite tool is CareerPrepped, a free resource by the Association for Career and Technical Education. Designed to meet the needs of learners, educators, and employers, the platform supports skills-based hiring, soft-skills development, and work-based learning through a dynamic digital platform.

    With over 40 essential workforce skills, students can build Skill Builders across competencies like teamwork, communication, problem-solving, time management, and more. These skills are demonstrated through Skill Badges and a career portfolio that houses real-world evidence such as project artifacts and multimedia illustrations. Students can create a personal portfolio that connect to platforms like LinkedIn. Then, students can request feedback on their skill evidence from peers, educators, and industry mentors, helping them understand strengths and areas for improvement.

    CareerPrepped offers value for educators by bridging the gap between academic learning and employability while enhancing work-based learning outcomes. Students actively document and prove their skills to employers and class alike.

    Implementing career-focused technology tools such as Career Connect and CareerPrepped in education offers many ways to integrate CCL into the classroom. Here are some potential strategies to consider:

    • Employee Spotlights: Host brief live or recorded talks with people in various careers to hear about job journeys and directly tie in a classroom lesson to that career. Bonus points if that employee is a former student of that district!
    • Micro-Internships: Arrange one-hour or one-day job shadows with local partners.
    • Challenge-Based Projects: Partner with businesses on real problems, like designing a locally-sourced cafeteria menu or revamping a playground.

    In summary, career-connected learning is a vital component of any classroom in this day and age, because it brings together traditional learning with real-world opportunities. By engaging students with industry partners, mentors, and authentic workplace experiences, students are empowered to see clear pathways from education to career success.

    These connections not only strengthen technical and employability skills but also foster confidence and purpose for each student. Ultimately, career connections ensure that all students graduate prepared, inspired, and equipped to thrive in both postsecondary education and the workforce.

    Latest posts by eSchool Media Contributors (see all)

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    Dr. Angie Haro, EdD, Education Service Center Region 19

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  • Parents Of Two College Students Killed In A Tesla Allege Design Flaw Trapped Them In The Burning Car – KXL

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    Tesla vehicles line a parking area at the company’s Fremont, Calif., factory, Aug. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

    (AP) – The parents of two college students killed in a Tesla crash say they were trapped in the car as it burst into flames because of a design flaw that made it nearly impossible for them to open the doors, according to lawsuits filed Thursday.

    The parents of Krysta Tsukahara and her friend, Jack Nelson, allege that the company that helped Elon Musk become the world’s richest man knew about the flaw for years and could have moved faster to fix the problem but did not, leaving the two trapped amid flames and smoke that eventually killed them.

    Tesla did not reply to a request for comment.

    The new legal threats to Tesla filed in Alameda County Superior Court come just weeks after federal regulators opened an investigation into complaints by Tesla drivers of problems with stuck doors. The probe and suit come at a delicate time for the company as it seeks to convince Americans that its cars will soon be safe enough to ride in without anyone in the driver’s seat.

    Tsukahara, 19, and Nelson, 20, were in the back of a Cybertruck in November 2024 when the driver, drunk and on drugs, smashed into a tree in the San Francisco suburb of Piedmont, California, according to the suits. The driver also died. A fourth passenger was pulled from the car after a rescuer broke a window and reached in.

    The Tsukahara lawsuit was first reported by The New York Times.

    Tesla doors have been at the center of several crash cases because the battery powering the unlocking mechanism can be destroyed in a fire and the manual releases that override that system are difficult to find.

    The lawsuit follows several others that have claimed various safety problems with Tesla cars. In August, a Florida jury decided that the family of another dead college student, this one killed by a runaway Tesla years ago, should be awarded more than $240 million in damages.

    The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which opened its stuck-door investigation last month, is looking into complaints by drivers that after exiting their cars, they couldn’t open back doors to get their children out and, in some cases, had to break the window to reach them.

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    Jordan Vawter

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  • Tracking Trump’s Crackdown on Higher Education

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    President Donald Trump wasted no time targeting higher education reform in his second term, kicking off a fight that often seemed personal.

    Education in recent years has been the battleground for culture war disputes from immigration to transgender rights along with political posturing on issues like student loan forgiveness, admissions practices and free speech on campus.

    Republicans have long been skeptical of higher education and accuse academics of indoctrinating youth with progressive ideologies, and Trump claimed that college campuses have been “infested with radicalism like never before.” Trump’s efforts revolve around curbing what he calls a “woke” agenda, with many of his steps aimed at reversing diversity, equity and inclusion policies that he says unfairly benefit some students over others.

    As president, Trump has leveraged the power of the federal government to threaten funding and restrict foreign student status, demanding an unprecedented role in university admissions, curriculum and operations. In many cases, he has used accusations of antisemitism or the credo of law and order as wedges to force broader scrutiny of higher education administrators and employed civil rights laws aimed at providing fair access and equal protection to recast the definition of discrimination and roll back safeguards for historically disadvantaged populations.

    The battle – which, at times, has escalated into an all-out war – has seen Trump focus on individual universities that refused to bend to his will, perhaps most prominently Harvard University.

    Here’s a look at the key areas of Trump’s agenda and some of the noteworthy moves he has made when it comes to higher education:

    The administration has filed lawsuits and cut or threatened to limit billions of dollars in funding in an attempt to influence policy at universities nationwide on issues ranging from DEI and LGBTQ+ interests to immigration policy and even university leadership and the academic curriculum. The funding freezes were taken by agencies across the administration, from the National Institutes of Health to the Department of Defense to NASA and others. They have been met with varying levels of resistance by administrators.

    • The Trump administration in March sent letters to 60 universities – among them many of the nation’s most elite institutions – warning them of “potential enforcement actions” for violations of Title VI, the federal statute prohibiting discrimination, relating to antisemitic discrimination and harassment. It empowered a Joint Task Force to Combat Antisemitism to investigate and report violations.

    • The White House in March cut $400 million in funding to Columbia University, a focal point of pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campuses across the country, after demanding that administrators change policies regarding student protests and discipline and reorganize the leadership of the school’s Middle East studies department. Federal officials warned other universities that they could face similar actions. Columbia University in July said it reached a deal with the Trump administration to resolve several federal probes into the school. The agreement, which does not include Columbia University admitting to any wrongdoing, involves the school paying the government a $200 million settlement over three years. “Under today’s agreement, a vast majority of the federal grants which were terminated or paused in March 2025 will be reinstated, and Columbia’s access to billions of dollars in current and future grants will be restored,” the school said in a statement.  

    • Federal officials in April froze $2.2 billion in grants to Harvard University after warning the school it was in violation of federal civil rights law. Harvard University ultimately rejected the administration’s wide-ranging demands that it reform its hiring and admissions practices, restructure the university’s governance and end DEI programs among a host of other stipulations. That led to an escalating dispute that has seen all additional federal funding withdrawn, new civil rights investigations initiated over hiring practices, threats to end the university’s tax-exempt status and a presidential proclamation banning foreign students from studying at Harvard, among other actions. In a major win for Harvard, a federal judge in early September ruled that the Trump administration broke the law when it terminated the $2.2 billion in grants, calling the administration’s actions part of a “targeted, ideologically-motivated assault.” It barred the White House from ending or freezing any additional funds to the school.

    • The Trump administration, embroiled in an ongoing dispute with the state of Maine over its allowance of transgender high school athletes competing in girls sports, suspended millions in funding for the University of Maine’s floating offshore wind program. In a letter to the university in April, a Department of Energy official said the funding was suspended for 90 days because the university failed to comply with the terms and conditions of the grant – which includes Title IX antidiscrimination language the Trump administration recently revised to revoke LGBTQ+ protections. In March, the Agriculture Department suspended funding to the university over Title IX concerns, but it was quickly restored after an investigation determined the school was in compliance. 

    • Cornell University, Northwestern University, the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton University were among schools that saw billions of dollars cut, frozen or suspended. The government has given several reasons for the moves, most prominently accusing the schools of tolerating antisemitism but also including race-based policies in admissions and hiring. In some cases, no clear reason was provided. 

    • The Department of Justice in June filed separate lawsuits against Texas, Kentucky and Minnesota over policies granting in-state college tuition to residents who were in the country illegally. Texas, which had the policy in place for two decades, quickly settled. The moves were foreshadowed in an April executive order on immigration. 
    • Brown University announced a settlement with Trump in late July that would see the school’s federal research funding resume and an end to the investigations into alleged discrimination. The university agreed to adopt the Trump administration’s definition of “male” and “female” as well as remove race as a consideration in its admissions. “Woke is officially DEAD at Brown,” Trump said in a social media post announcing the deal.
    • The Trump administration in October sent nine universities a proposal: priority access to federal funding if they follow a wide-ranging list of demands. The schools would have to take several steps to change their policies, like nixing consideration of race or sex in hiring and admissions and limiting foreign student enrollment. The University of Texas expressed interest in the deal, though most of the other schools would not give an answer at the time. California Gov. Gavin Newsom hit back at the controversial proposal, saying any California schools that sign it would lose “billions” in state funding.

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    Republicans have called for the elimination of the agency almost since its inception in 1980, seeing it as a symbol of government bloat, waste and federal overreach. But in recent years the issue has taken on new momentum among hard-line conservatives who bristled at pandemic-era school shutdowns and what was seen as the undermining of parental rights to implement policies that advanced DEI and LGBTQ+ interests.

    • Trump on March 20 signed an executive order directing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return authority over education to the States and local communities while ensuring the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely.” In July, the Supreme Court allowed Trump to move ahead with plans to fire about 1,200 Education Department workers. Experts say the reduced workforce could result in delays, particularly in processing FAFSA forms and efficiently distributing aid. 

    Combining the administration’s goals of restricting immigration as well as curbing protests critical of U.S. policy, universities have reported seeing student visas revoked for things like participation in demonstrations as well as criminal violations, some of them as minor as traffic infractions. Collectively, the moves have led to some students being detained or deported, including in several high-profile arrests nationwide.

    • After pledging to “quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses” during his opening days in office, Trump’s State Department in March revoked visas for more than 300 foreign-born students at schools in the U.S. who were said to have taken part in pro-Palestinian demonstrations.  

    • Federal officials terminated the status of thousands of students in a database used by universities and government officials to account for their movements in the U.S., a step that jeopardized their ability to remain enrolled and could lead to their visas being revoked. However, in April, it reversed, abruptly restoring thousands of international students’ ability to study across the country. But the Trump administration made clear it was not abandoning its effort. Instead, it began working on a new system to review their records. 

    • As a part of Trump’s effort to pressure Harvard University to conform with Trump administration policies, the Department of Homeland Security withdrew the university’s certification to host foreign students and issue paperwork for their visas in May. A federal judge blocked the Trump administration’s effort in June. Trump switched strategies in June, signing a memo to “safeguard national security by suspending the entry of foreign nationals seeking to study or participate in exchange programs at Harvard University.” Harvard University, again, sued, and a federal judge, again, put a temporary block on the effort. 

    Student loan reform was a priority for many Republicans critical of former President Joe Biden’s moves toward student loan debt forgiveness. Biden and his administration erased some $190 billion in borrowed funds – moves that Republicans insisted were in defiance of court orders and were politically motivated to bolster the Democratic base.

    • Trump in March signed an executive order to restrict who is eligible for Public Service Loan Forgiveness, a program for people who work in public service to get their remaining student loans forgiven after making 10 years of minimum payments. Trump’s plan is to exclude people who work for organizations “that engage in activities that have a substantial illegal purpose.” But the broad language could be used to target a number of activities that might even extend to activism and the constitutionally protected exercise of free speech. However, the change must go through the rulemaking process at the Education Department.

    • The Education Department in April announced it would resume collections on student loans that were in default after not pursuing the outstanding payments since March 2020. The Biden administration began collecting student loan repayments in October 2023 after a pause during the pandemic but instituted a one-year grace period in which borrowers faced no consequences. The Trump administration said it would begin withholding tax refunds and garnishing the wages of borrowers who were in default and had not taken the appropriate steps to resume repayment. 

    • In July, the Education Department announced that roughly 8 million federal student loan borrowers would start to see interest resume on their debt balances in August after the Biden-era grace period exempted them for about a year. 

    • Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” will bring sweeping changes to federal student loans in July 2026, including setting a total lifetime borrowing limit of $257,500 for all federal student loans. 

    Federal agencies, including the Education Department, have targeted what the Trump administration is calling “woke” spending, consistent with the views of many conservatives that higher education is biased and its research is used by academics to validate a Democratic agenda.

    • The Transportation Department in May terminated seven university grants that totaled $54 million, saying the grants were used to “advance a radical DEI and green agenda that were both wasteful and ran counter to the transportation priorities of the American people.” The department cited as examples a $6 million grant to New York University for research into providing “e-bikes to low-income travelers in transit deserts” and a $6 million grant to the University of New Orleans to study “how neighborhood stabilization efforts support environmental justice.”

    • The Department of Commerce in April announced it was cutting $4 million in research funding for Princeton University to study climate change. The administration said the research promoted “exaggerated and implausible climate threats, contributing to a phenomenon known as ‘climate anxiety,’ which has increased significantly among America’s youth. Its focus on alarming climate scenarios fosters fear rather than rational, balanced discussion.” The University of Washington similarly saw a $1 million grant into climate research canceled.

    • The National Science Foundation canceled hundreds of grants that “are not aligned with program goals or agency priorities,” including university researchers studying DEI, environmental justice and misinformation or disinformation.

    The Trump administration has made efforts to rollback diversity, equity and inclusion programs embraced by the Biden administration. On his second day in office, he signed an executive order to terminate “to the maximum extent allowed by law” DEI offices and positions.

    • The DEI executive order also mandated an end to such programs at universities that receive federal funding. Schools that don’t comply risk losing federal money. The move, according to the Trump administration, is meant to correct recent discrimination “against students on the basis of race, including white and Asian students, many of whom come from disadvantaged backgrounds and low-income families.”

    • A February memo from the Education Department instructed schools to stop using “racial preferences” as a factor in admissions, financial aid and hiring. It stated that personal essays for college admissions cannot be used to predict a student’s race. “Institutions that fail to comply with federal civil rights law may, consistent with applicable law, face potential loss of federal funding,” it said. But a federal judge in August blocked the memo, along with another one from April that requested state education agencies certify they were not using “illegal DEI practices,” saying the policy changes did not follow procedural requirements.

    • The Trump administration has launched investigations into dozens of institutions for their DEI practices. In one high-profile case, the University of Virginia president announced in June he would resign rather than “fight the federal government.” In another case, the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights accused George Mason University of violating Title VI by using race and other protected characteristics in its hiring and promotion practices. The department demanded that Gregory Washington, the university’s president, apologize. In a letter, Washington’s attorney said the university president would not apologize.
    • Trump on Aug. 7 signed a presidential memorandum aimed at “ensuring transparency in higher education admissions.” The memo requires colleges and universities to submit additional admissions data to the Education Department in an effort to “ensure race-based preferences are not used in university admissions processes.” McMahon said in a statement that the Trump administration “will not allow institutions to blight the dreams of students by presuming that their skin color matters more than their hard work and accomplishments.”
    • The Education Department in September announced plans to end discretionary grant funding for several minority-serving institutions programs. It said the projects “discriminate by conferring government benefits exclusively to institutions that meet racial or ethnic quotas.” The agency said it would cut about $350 million from seven programs, including Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian-serving institutions and predominantly Black institutions. “These funds will be reprogrammed into programs that do not include discriminatory racial and ethnic quotas and that advance Administration priorities,” it said. A few days later, the agency announced a $495 million investment in historically Black colleges and tribal universities with funds it redirected from other programs “that the Department determined are not in the best interest of students and families.”

    Republicans have long expressed concern with foreign funding flowing into U.S. colleges and universities. They say the money raises questions about foreign influences over research as well as national security issues relating to potential espionage and theft of sensitive information.

    • Trump in April signed an executive order to require the “full and timely disclosure of foreign funding by higher education institutions.” The order asks for stricter enforcement of a federal law that requires colleges to disclose financial ties with foreign sources. “We believe that certain universities, including, for example, Harvard, have routinely violated this law, and this law has not been effectively enforced,” White House staff secretary Will Scharf said at the executive order’s signing ceremony.

    • The Trump administration opened investigations into Harvard University; the University of Pennsylvania; the University of California, Berkeley; and, most recently, the University of Michigan over foreign funds. 

    Accreditation is a process colleges and universities are required to go through to gain access to federal financial aid. Using the accreditation process to target institutions that the Trump administration deems “low-quality” could lead to major financial fallouts for the institutions that rely heavily on federal financial aid and could give conservatives a greater say over higher education standards.

    • Trump in April signed an executive order to “overhaul the higher education accreditation system, ensuring colleges and universities deliver high-quality, high-value education free from unlawful discrimination and ideological overreach.” The Council of Regional Accrediting Commissions, a group of some of the largest federally recognized college accreditors, pushed back on Trump’s claims, adding that “ultimately, concerns about accreditor recognition can be escalated to federal court.”

    • A May letter from the Education Department detailed guidance to quicken the process of switching accreditors in an effort to “remove unnecessary requirements and barriers to institutional innovation.” McMahon said the new policy as well as the executive order will “ensure this Department no longer stands as a gatekeeper to block aspiring innovators from becoming new accreditors nor will this Department unnecessarily micromanage an institution’s choice of accreditor.”

    • The Education Department took steps to notify accreditors of violations its Office for Civil Rights found at certain institutions, including Harvard University and Columbia University. It accused both schools of violating federal antidiscrimination laws, saying, in turn, that the schools no longer appear to meet their accreditor’s standards. The agency noted in its press releases that “if a university fails to come into compliance within a specified period, an accreditor must take appropriate action against its member institution.”

    Trump has put a strong focus on banning transgender people from participating in sports, including at colleges and universities. He signed an executive order that declared the federal government recognizes two sexes: male and female. “These sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality,” Trump’s executive order states. “Under my direction, the Executive Branch will enforce all sex-protective laws to promote this reality, and the following definitions shall govern all Executive interpretation of and application of Federal law and administration policy.”

    • As part of the executive order declaring that the federal government recognizes two sexes, the Trump administration rescinded Title IX protections prohibiting discrimination that were extended to the LGBTQ+ community during the previous administration.

    • Trump in February signed an executive order titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” to “rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities, which results in the endangerment, humiliation, and silencing of women and girls and deprives them of privacy.”

    • The Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights launched investigations into several universities, including the University of Pennsylvania over a transgender woman’s participation on the women’s swim team three years ago. The Ivy league school announced in July that it reached a deal with the Trump administration to limit transgender people’s participation in its athletic programs. McMahon called the agreement a “great victory for women and girls not only at the University of Pennsylvania, but all across our nation.”

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    Cecelia Smith-Schoenwalder

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  • How to fix college

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    Trump asks colleges to get serious: Yesterday, the White House sent 10-page compacts to nine of colleges and universities—Vanderbilt University, Dartmouth College, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Southern California, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Texas, the University of Arizona, Brown University, and the University of Virginia—asking them to assent to certain commitments in order to receive access to a wider array of federal funding.

    Called the “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” most of the asks are eminently reasonable, and would make it so colleges now conform with the law instead of flouting it outright.

    “The memo demands that schools ban the use of race or sex in hiring and admissions,” reports The Wall Street Journal. It also calls for schools to “freeze tuition for five years; cap international undergrad enrollment at 15%; require that applicants take the SAT or a similar test; and quell grade inflation.”

    But the memo also asks that universities abolish any departments that “purposefully punish, belittle, and even spark violence against conservative ideas” and strengthen policies meant to deter such ideological conformity. Of course, “institutions of higher education are free to develop models and values other than those below, if the institution elects to forego federal benefits,” reads the document.

    “The first round of schools received the compact along with a letter that frames the pledge as an opportunity to proactively partner with the administration and its effort to shift the ideological tilt of the higher education system,” per The New York Times. Interestingly, “the demands in the compact also include providing free tuition to students studying math, biology, or other ‘hard sciences’ if endowments exceed $2 million per undergraduate.”

    In a sense, this is federal government intrusion into the affairs of universities. Who is a federal bureaucrat to decide how many international students a college ought to admit, when the college should be able to decide what’s in their best interest and what’s not? It’s not like a system of arbitrary nationality limits is especially meritocratic. But the case made by Trump administration officials like May Mailman is that we don’t get to pour tons of American taxpayer dollars into the higher education system and then routinely educate the world’s students; that’s not a good return on investment or aligned with what’s in the nation’s best interest.

    The solution Mailman and the Trump administration more broadly offer is, I think, sound: If you’re a university that doesn’t want to sign onto these demands, you may forego federal funding and retain full independence. But if you’d like to dip into federal coffers, you must agree to certain standards and maintain environments that foster more intellectual diversity. We’ll see whether this holds up whenever it’s challenged in court.

    Also, I think it’s interesting—and a welcome development—that the administration also snuck in some lines about tuition-freezing. Ballooning cost of attendance has been a huge problem for years, and shedding light on administrative bloat and wasteful spending is surely in the American public’s best interest.

    Scenes from New York: Last night, I hosted a book party for Leah Libresco Sargeant at my home in Brooklyn, alongside my dear friend Nicole Ruiz. We had in attendance homemakers, journalists from The Dispatch and The Atlantic, a pastor’s wife and mother of five, and a woman who detransitioned (and wrote about it), among many others. An eclectic bunch for sure.

    Liz Wolfe

    Leah’s book, The Dignity of Dependence, is premised on two claims: The first, that “women’s equality with men is not premised on our interchangeability with men”; the second, that “dependence on others is not a temporary embarrassment at the beginning (and end) (and much of the middle) of our lives but the pattern for how we live together.” I highly recommend it.

    QUICK HITS

    • If you enjoy this newsletter, would you do me the extraordinary favor of forwarding it to a friend? (Ideally with accompanying text like “I think you’d enjoy this newsletter that keeps me informed in a crowded and ever-stupider news environment” not “this libertarian chick belongs in the loony bin.”)
    • “They say my generation is wasting our lives watching mindless entertainment,” writes Freya India at Jonathan Haidt’s After Babel. “But I think things are worse than that. We are now turning our lives into mindless entertainment. Not just consuming slop, but becoming it.…Someday this generation, these influencers, will discover with dread what every celebrity and contestant and cast member has realized before them. That after offering everything up, every inch of their lives, every finite moment on this Earth, it does not matter how much they stage, how much they rehearse, how much they trade, how long they leave the cameras rolling, we will always wonder, eventually, what else is on?“
    • “The White House is halting $18 billion in New York infrastructure funding due to concerns over diversity and inclusion practices and as the first day of a federal shutdown grinds government work to a halt,” reports Bloomberg. Honestly, fair. Why should the rest of the country subsidize my state and city? And why should the city let so many residents off scot-free—i.e. rampant fare evaders—instead of choosing to enforce laws and improve the city’s fiscal situation?
    • “The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook can remain in her job for now and announced it will hear a case in January over President Donald Trump’s attempt to remove her,” reports The Washington Post. “The temporary ruling lasts until the justices hear the administration’s appeal of a lower court’s decision to allow Cook to remain on the job. The Trump administration had asked the high court to remove Cook immediately.”
    • Speaking of the Post:
    • “More than two years into a conservative takeover of New College of Florida, spending has soared and rankings have plummeted, raising questions about the efficacy of the overhaul,” notes Inside Higher Ed. “While state officials, including Republican governor Ron DeSantis, have celebrated the death of what they have described as ‘woke indoctrination’ at the small liberal arts college, student outcomes are trending downward across the board: Both graduation and retention rates have fallen since the takeover in 2023. Those metrics are down even as New College spends more than 10 times per student what the other 11 members of the State University System spend, on average. While one estimate last year put the annual cost per student at about $10,000 per member institution, New College is an outlier, with a head count under 900 and a $118.5 million budget, which adds up to roughly $134,000 per student.”
    • Yep:
    • I mostly agree with Aella, but grad school? Let’s maintain some standards.

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    Liz Wolfe

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  • Strengthening middle school literacy: What educators need to know

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    Key points:

    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
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    Laura Ascione

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  • I asked students why they go to school–this answer changed how I design campuses

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    This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe.at/newsletters.

    At first, the question seemed simple: “Why do we go to school?”

    I had asked it many times before, in many different districts. I’m a planner and designer specializing in K-12 school projects, and as part of a community-driven design process, we invite students to dream with us and help shape the spaces where they’ll learn, grow, and make sense of the world.

    In February of 2023, I was leading a visioning workshop with a group of middle schoolers in Southern California. Their energy was vibrant, their curiosity sharp. We began with a simple activity: Students answered a series of prompts, each one building on the last.

    “We go to school because …”

    “We need to learn because …”

    “We want to be successful because …”

    As the conversation deepened, so did their responses. One student wrote, “We want to get further in life.” Another added, “We need to help our families.” And then came the line that stopped me in my tracks: “We go to school because we want future generations to look up to us.”

    I’ve worked with a lot of middle schoolers. They’re funny, unfiltered, and often far more insightful than adults give them credit for. But this answer felt different. It wasn’t about homework, or college, or even a dream job. It was about legacy. At that moment, I realized I wasn’t just asking kids to talk about school. I was asking them to articulate their hopes for the world and their role in shaping it.

    As a designer, I came prepared to talk about flexible furniture, natural light, and outdoor learning spaces. The students approached the conversation through the lens of purpose, identity, and intergenerational impact. They reminded me that school isn’t just a place to pass through — it’s a place to imagine who you might become and how you might leave the world better than you found it.

    I’ve now led dozens of school visioning sessions, no two being alike. In most cases, adults are the ones at the table: district leaders, architects, engineers, and community members. Their perspectives are important, of course. But when we exclude students from shaping the environments they spend most days in, we send an implicit message that this place is not really theirs to shape.

    However, when we do invite them in, the difference is immediate. Students are not only willing participants, they’re often the most honest and imaginative contributors in the room. They see past the buzzwords like 21st-century learning, flexible furniture, student-centered design, and collaborative zones, and talk about what actually matters: where they feel safe, where they feel seen, where they can be themselves.

    During that workshop when the student spoke about legacy, other young participants asked for more flexible learning spaces, places to move around and collaborate, better food, outdoor classrooms, and quiet areas for mental health breaks. One asked for sign language classes to better communicate with her hard-of-hearing best friend. Another asked for furniture that can move from inside to outside. These aren’t requests that tend to show up on state-issued planning checklists, which are more likely to focus on square footage, capacity, and code compliance, but they reflect an extraordinary level of thought about access, well-being, and inclusion.

    The lesson: When we take students seriously, we get more than better design. We get better schools.

    There’s a popular saying in architecture: Form follows function. But in school design, I’d argue that form should follow voice. If we want to build learning environments that support joy, connection, and growth, we need to start by asking students what those things look and feel like to them — and then believe them.

    Listening isn’t a checkbox. It’s a practice. And it has to start early, not once construction drawings are finalized, but when goals and priorities are still being devised. That’s when student input can shift the direction of a plan, not just decorate it.

    It’s also not just about asking the right questions, but being open to answers we didn’t expect. When a student says, “Why do the adults always get the rooms with windows?” — as one did in another workshop I led — that’s not a complaint. That’s a lesson in power dynamics, spatial equity, and the unspoken messages our buildings send.

    Since that day, about a year and a half ago, when I heard, “We want future generations to look up to us,” I’ve carried that line with me into every planning session. It’s a reminder that students aren’t just users of school space. They’re stewards of something bigger than themselves.

    So if you’re a school leader, a planner, a teacher, or a policymaker, invite students in early. Make space for their voices, not just as a formality but as a source of wisdom. Ask questions that go beyond what color the walls should be. And don’t be surprised when the answers you get are deeper than you imagined. Be willing to let their vision shift yours.

    Because when we design with students, not just for them, we create schools that don’t just house learning. We create schools that help define what learning is for. And if we do it right, maybe one day, future generations will look up to today’s students not just because of what they learned, but because of the spaces they helped shape.

    Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

    For more news on district and school management, visit eSN’s Educational Leadership hub.

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    Enrico Giori, Chalkbeat

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  • NAEP scores for class of 2024 show major declines, with fewer students college ready

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    This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe.at/newsletters.

    Students from the class of 2024 had historically low scores on a major national test administered just months before they graduated.

    Results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, released September 9, show scores for 12th graders declined in math and reading for all but the highest performing students, as well as widening gaps between high and low performers in math. More than half of these students reported being accepted into a four-year college, but the test results indicate that many of them are not academically prepared for college, officials said.

    “This means these students are taking their next steps in life with fewer skills and less knowledge in core academics than their predecessors a decade ago, and this is happening at a time when rapid advancements in technology and society demand more of future workers and citizens, not less,” said Lesley Muldoon, executive director of the National Assessment Governing Board. “We have seen progress before on NAEP, including greater percentages of students meeting the NAEP proficient level. We cannot lose sight of what is possible when we use valuable data like NAEP to drive change and improve learning in U.S. schools.”

    These results reflect similar trends seen in fourth and eighth grade NAEP results released in January, as well as eighth grade science results also released Tuesday.

    In a statement, Education Secretary Linda McMahon said the results show that federal involvement has not improved education, and that states should take more control.

    “If America is going to remain globally competitive, students must be able to read proficiently, think critically, and graduate equipped to solve complex problems,” she said. “We owe it to them to do better.”

    The students who took this test were in eighth grade in March of 2020 and experienced a highly disrupted freshman year of high school because of the pandemic. Those who went to college would now be entering their sophomore year.

    Roughly 19,300 students took the math test and 24,300 students took the reading test between January and March of 2024.

    The math test measures students’ knowledge in four areas: number properties and operations; measurement and geometry; data analysis, statistics, and probability; and algebra. The average score was the lowest it has been since 2005, and 45% of students scored below the NAEP Basic level, even as fewer students scored at NAEP Proficient or above.

    NAEP Proficient typically represents a higher bar than grade-level proficiency as measured on state- and district-level standardized tests. A student scoring in the proficient range might be able to pick the correct algebraic formula for a particular scenario or solve a two-dimensional geometric problem. A student scoring at the basic level likely would be able to determine probability from a simple table or find the population of an area when given the population density.

    Only students in the 90th percentile — the highest achieving students — didn’t see a decline, and the gap between high- and low-performing students in math was higher than on all previous assessments.

    This gap between high and low performers appeared before the pandemic, but has widened in most grade levels and subject areas since. The causes are not entirely clear but might reflect changes in how schools approach teaching as well as challenges outside the classroom.

    Testing officials estimate that 33% of students from the class of 2024 were ready for college-level math, down from 37% in 2019, even as more students said they intended to go to college.

    In reading, students similarly posted lower average scores than on any previous assessment, with only the highest performing students not seeing a decline.

    The reading test measures students’ comprehension of both literary and informational texts and requires students to interpret texts and demonstrate critical thinking skills, as well as understand the plain meaning of the words.

    A student scoring at the basic level likely would understand the purpose of a persuasive essay, for example, or the reaction of a potential audience, while a students scoring at the proficient level would be able to describe why the author made certain rhetorical choices.

    Roughly 32% of students scored below NAEP Basic, 12 percentage points higher than students in 1992, while fewer students scored above NAEP Proficient. An estimated 35% of students were ready for college-level work, down from 37% in 2019.

    In a survey attached to the test, students in 2024 were more likely to report having missed three or more days of school in the previous month than their counterparts in 2019. Students who miss more school typically score lower on NAEP and other tests. Higher performing students were more likely to say they missed no days of school in the previous month.

    Students in 2024 were less likely to report taking pre-calculus, though the rates of students taking both calculus and algebra II were similar in 2019 and 2024. Students reported less confidence in their math abilities than their 2019 counterparts, though students in 2024 were actually less likely to say they didn’t enjoy math.

    Students also reported lower confidence in their reading abilities. At the same time, higher percentages of students than in 2024 reported that their teachers asked them to do more sophisticated tasks, such as identifying evidence in a piece of persuasive writing, and fewer students reported a low interest in reading.

    Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

    For more news on national assessments, visit eSN’s Innovative Teaching hub.

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    Erica Meltzer, Chalkbeat

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  • Goblins AI Math Tutoring App Clones Your Teacher’s Looks and Voice

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    Math students can soon call upon an avatar of their classroom teacher — a round-faced cartoon created by artificial intelligence to capture their likeness, voice, vocabulary and cadence — to respond directly to their questions in real time.

    A new application designed to scale up extra help, Goblins was launched in the winter of 2024. Since then, a disembodied voice has been assessing students’ work in fifth- through 12th-grade math and responding as they write out equations, speak or type their questions.

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    But come early October, the company says, that same gentle drilling will be delivered by the teachers they know best — but only if these often tech-wary educators allow the avatar feature.

    Sawyer Altman, Goblins CEO (Sawyer Altman)

    Sawyer Altman, who co-created the app and gave it a quirky name to stand out in a crowded field, bets they will: Goblins embraces — rather than replaces — their role, he said.

    “We believe the connection a teacher has with their students is very special and it’s an essential part of that social motivation, the idea that this person sees me, cares about me, is willing to invest in me,” Altman said. “We want to make it possible for teachers to step into this new era of education, which is AI enhanced, on their own terms, where they are still the center of teaching.”

    More than a quarter of Goblins’ 16,000 student users — whom Altman said he landed by cold calling their school districts — are located in New York City.

    But his technology can be found in 24 states spanning urban and rural communities, from Deer Valley Unified School District in Arizona to Putnam County School District in Florida and a string of Pennsylvania private schools, he said. Students use Goblins for help with Algebra 1 more than any other course.

    Michael Molchan, high school math and science teacher (Michael Molchan)

    Michael Molchan, high school math and science teacher (Michael Molchan)

    Michael Molchan, who teaches high school-level math and science to some 40 students at a regional, four-county education center in Pennsylvania, said he’s had good luck with Goblins so far and is open to being “cloned.”

    “If a little avatar of Mr. Molchan opens up and sounds like me, that could be another way of connecting with students and I would certainly be all for that,” he said, adding AI is evolving quickly and that teachers should accept rather than fear it. “If we embrace it and encourage it, but also help the students understand how to use it, they will be better for it.”

    Related

    Study: AI-Assisted Tutoring Boosts Students’ Math Skills

    Altman, 30 and a 2017 Stanford University graduate who majored in science, technology and society, served briefly as a precalculus teacher at a New York City high school.

    He loved working one-on-one with students to identify gaps in their knowledge — and the relief that came with addressing a problem that could harm their grades and self-confidence, he said.

    With up to 30 kids in a class though, there wasn’t enough of him to go around, he said. That frustration is what prompted him to create the app, which he markets as a math teacher cloning device.

    Altman knows of education technology’s shortcomings in the classroom and hopes his company can overcome the challenges others could not.

    “For so long, ed tech has been hampered by the fact that the tools they created are just not that engaging,” Altman said. “There has been this dream of personalization for at least a decade.”

    And now, he said, it’s here. Altman’s AI-powered learning competitors in the math space include the better-known IXL, IReady and the household name that is Duolingo.

    Related

    Language Learning App Giant Duolingo Thinks It Can Conquer Math, Too

    But, he argues, his company’s product, funded in part by the Gates Foundation, is more varied in its communication, conversing with students using speech, handwriting and text. The accompanying avatar will be a step beyond that.

    The cartoonish icons are surprisingly easy to make: Teachers upload a single selfie and then speak into their phone or computer’s microphone for just 30 seconds to create an image in their likeness, he said.

    Goblins works on multiple devices, including touch screen and non-touch screen Chromebooks, iPads and smartphones. Its verbal feedback is accompanied by a written transcript and guides students using Socratic or open-ended questioning, Altman said.

    Jenn Tifft is a sixth-grade math and science teacher at Rutland Town School in Vermont and has been using Goblins for about a year. She said her students enjoyed learning to craft their interaction with the app to get the type of support they need.

    “They get to learn how to use AI as a tool to help guide them, as opposed to doing their work for them,” she said. “They liked having it as an option in the classroom.”

    But at least one critic disagrees with Altman’s approach. Benjamin Riley is founder of Cognitive Resonance, a consulting company which seeks to help people understand cognitive science and generative AI. He’s long been skeptical about AI’s role in education — and even more so about this endeavor.

    “Whether the avatar looks and sounds like the actual teacher is irrelevant,” he said. “It is not sentient, and therefore has no capacity to imagine what is happening in the minds of students. This is true of all AI ‘tutoring’ systems. And having it look and sound like the actual human teacher strikes me as a particularly bad idea. What will happen to classroom norms when kids discover they can be rude to the avatar in ways they would never dare with an actual human?”

    Related

    Benjamin Riley: AI is Another Ed Tech Promise Destined to Fail

    Altman understands Riley’s concerns, admitting his is a novel technology that “has the potential to rewrite classroom norms.” But he said, too, the context of the classroom keeps kids accountable for their behavior.

    Goblins, a private company of just six employees, offers its services in more than 30 languages. And the type of information it generates helps more than the students themselves, Altman said: Classroom teachers have access to a truncated transcript of their students’ interaction with the app and analytics, helping them zero in on any weak points.

    This, Altman said, better informs their interaction with individual students, or, if several children are ensnared in a mathematical quagmire, rearrange the focus of their lessons.

    Meghan St. Cyr, achievement director for middle school math at KIPP NJ, piloted Goblins last school year before expanding its use to some 550 sixth graders in Newark.

    She said the technology helps them with geometry, ratios, fractions and rational numbers, among other topics — and agrees with Altman on the time-saving element.

    “Teachers’ response has been fairly positive overall,” she said, adding that it helps children understand more than whether they answered a question correctly.  “It identifies where they might have made a mistake and whether they are far away from the right answer — or close to it.”

    The Gates Foundation provides financial support  to The 74.

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  • BBC Learning Hub Launches Walking with Dinosaurs Virtual Field Trip Resources

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    San Antonio, TX (August 26, 2025)—Over 25 years since Walking with Dinosaurs first stomped across the screen and following its awe-inspiring return this past June, BBC Studios has launched a virtual field trip that brings the wonder of prehistoric discovery directly into grade 3– 6 classrooms around the world. Offering students unprecedented access to dig sites and discoveries, comprehensive new educational resources on the BBC Learning Hub will enrich how students experience paleontology, natural history, and STEM concepts.

    The virtual field trip includes six dinosaur dig sites to “visit,” each with specially chosen video clips from this year’s exciting reimagining of Walking With Dinosaurs. Students can fill out the printable Paleontologist Field Journal as they watch, and complete quizzes about each dig site to explore and imagine the prehistoric past. Fun extras include a “Which Dinosaur Are You?” quiz, links to videos about how to build a dinosaur in Minecraft Education, and an easy-to-use teachers guide. 

    Aligned with national science standards, the new materials are designed to support educators in creating engaging, hands-on learning experiences that inspire the next generation of scientists and paleontologists.

    “The Walking with Dinosaurs virtual field trips let students take the lead. Navigating the prehistoric world on their own fuels their fascination with dinosaurs, and empowers them to experience the scientific process in action,” said Dana Truby, executive director of content and partnerships for BBC Learning. “It’s a resource that makes science come alive.”

    Following the success of previous BBC Earth educational partnerships, including the Planet Earth III and Frozen Planet II Minecraft Education worlds that have reached millions of students globally, these new Walking with Dinosaurs resources continue to demonstrate the power of combining world-class content with innovative educational approaches. The collaboration leverages BBC Studios’ award-winning factual programming expertise alongside PBS’s deep commitment to educational excellence in American classrooms.

    This educational partnership draws from the latest paleontological discoveries featured in the

    Walking with Dinosaurs series. Students will explore the stories of iconic dinosaurs including Spinosaurus, Triceratops, and Lusotitan, while learning fundamental scientific concepts about evolution, ecosystems, and research methodologies. The resources are designed to support diverse learning styles for grades 3–6. 

    BBC Studios and PBS bring unparalleled expertise to this educational initiative. BBC Studios, the commercial arm of the BBC, has a proven track record of creating educational content that reaches global audiences, producing more than 2,800 hours of award-winning programming each year. Their commitment to scientific accuracy and engaging storytelling makes complex topics accessible to learners of all ages. PBS, with more than 330 member stations nationwide, serves as America’s largest classroom, reaching millions of students through PBS Learning Media and providing educators with trusted, high-quality digital content that brings lessons to life.

    “What makes these resources exceptional is how they connect abstract scientific concepts to tangible discoveries students can see and touch,” said Kimmie Fink, Senior Editor of BBC Learning and a former teacher. “When students learn about Triceratops through the lens of actual paleontological fieldwork, they’re not just memorizing facts—they’re thinking like scientists.”

    The resources are designed to address critical needs in STEM education while fostering curiosity about the natural world. By connecting students to real paleontological discoveries and the scientists making them, the materials help bridge the gap between classroom learning and realworld scientific inquiry.

    For educators, the resources offer professionally developed content that saves preparation time and helps them deliver engaging, standards-aligned instruction. The virtual field trip and supporting materials are available at no cost to educators, reflecting the BBC and PBS’s commitment to making high-quality educational content accessible to all students. Teachers and district leaders interested in accessing the Walking With Dinosaurs educational resources can visit the BBC Learning Hub.

    Walking With Dinosaurs is available to watch now on BBC iPlayer in the UK and on PBS, PBS.org and the PBS app in the United States. BBC Studios owns the global licensing and sales rights for Walking With Dinosaurs.

    BBC Studios is a commercial subsidiary of the BBC Group with sales of £2.1 billion (2021/22: £1,630 million). Able to take an idea seamlessly from thought to screen and beyond, the business is built on two operating areas: the global Content Studio, which produces, invests and distributes content globally; and Channels & Streaming, with BBC branded channels, services and joint ventures in the UK and internationally. Around 2,500 hours of award-winning British programmes are made by the business every year, with over 80% of total BBC Studios revenues coming from non-BBC customers including Discovery, Apple and Netflix. Its content is internationally recognised across a broad range of genres and specialisms, with brands like Strictly Come Dancing/Dancing with the Stars, Top Gear, the Planet series, Bluey and Doctor Who. BBC.com is BBC Studios’ global digital news platform, offering up-to-the-minute international news, in-depth analysis and features. 

    BBC Studios | Website | Press Office | Twitter | LinkedIn | Instagram |  

    eSchool News Staff
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  • The Great Student Swap

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    Out-of-state flagships became even more attractive after the Great Recession of 2008, as families with financial means started to question the value of paying full freight at more obscure private colleges. In contrast to a private school like Scripps, Skidmore, Chapman, or Clark, a flagship—even if it meant moving states—seemed like a relative bargain. Sure, these families had to pay out-of-state tuition. But a price tag of, say, thirty thousand dollars a year at the University of Minnesota looked pretty reasonable compared with the fifty thousand or so that a private school such as the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts expected them to pay annually.

    In some cases, high-school seniors were actively pushed to apply to out-of-state universities. Although most public universities expanded to take in more students from elsewhere, while still being able to cater to a sizable in-state student population, not all did. According to a study from 2017, a third of the nation’s flagships—all highly ranked and thus popular with out-of-staters—turned away some of their own state’s residents to make room for higher-paying students from elsewhere. For every two non-resident students who enrolled, the study found, one in-state student was shut out. That vicious cycle spins in states such as California, Illinois, and Texas. Residents apply to their local flagship. They get crowded out, and so they go to big public universities in other states which have space for them. Then students in those states get pushed aside, so they apply to public universities in other states, too.

    In other cases, strong applicants were pulled across state lines by a hefty discount or a boutique academic experience, such as an honors college. One prospective student I met from Pennsylvania had initially set her sights on the University of Chicago. Despite her near-perfect stats (a 35 on the ACT, a 1510 on the SAT, thirteen Advanced Placement courses, and a 3.95 grade-point average), she was rejected after applying early decision. At the time, she didn’t have a single public university on her shortlist. Her mother did some digging and landed on the University of Mississippi as a possibility. It has an honors college and generous scholarships, including some that come with stipends for study-abroad programs and undergraduate research. “I applied to appease my mom and get an acceptance under my belt,” she told me.

    It wasn’t until after she was accepted and had started the interview process for the university’s top scholarships that she seriously considered going there. She realized, “There were all these opportunities I could qualify for, and I was hearing about them before I heard I was even accepted to other schools.” Mississippi knew it was competing with much higher-ranked colleges, so it had to come in strong and early.

    By April, the student had acceptance letters and financial-aid packages from Rice and Vanderbilt. Neither included the full ride and other perks that Mississippi offered her. Before making her decision, she flew to Houston with her dad to visit Rice again. It was a weekday, but the campus felt dead. They walked to a nearby park, where she made a pros-and-cons list for Rice and Mississippi. Then she broke down in tears.“The only pro I could come up with for Rice,” she recalled when we spoke recently, “is that people will know I’m smart because I go to Rice.”

    With more tuition dollars coming in from out-of-state students, public universities such as Ole Miss could afford to offer discounts or even full rides to a select number of academic superstars. The University of Alabama, for example, spent $185.4 million on merit aid in 2023-24, more than twice what it allocated for need-based aid. These high-achieving students act as magnets, attracting others in their home towns who don’t mind paying an out-of-state sticker price that, to them, still seems like a steal.

    When Alabama started going after out-of-staters, it focussed on two types of places, according to a team of social scientists who studied how colleges recruit. It targeted high schools in prosperous suburbs around Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Miami, and Los Angeles, where the university knew that getting accepted to in-state flagships was very difficult for all but the top students. It also courted applicants from bedroom communities around New York; Washington, D.C.; Seattle; Boston; and eventually Chicago, where Alabama’s sticker price looked downright reasonable compared with the tuition at pricey private colleges and more expensive public options. Over time, these efforts paid off. By 2022, Georgia, Illinois, Florida, Texas, and California ranked among Alabama’s top sources of out-of-staters.

    When the big public universities first went on their out-of-state recruiting spree more than twenty years ago, they had an abundance of prospective students to choose from among millennials. Then, over the past ten years, they also saw a steady increase in interest from overseas, as the number of international students enrolling in U.S. institutions grew by twenty-seven per cent, amounting to more than a million international students attending school in the U.S.

    And yet those pipelines may be drying up. The class of freshmen arriving on college campuses this fall may be the last big one for years, owing in part to declining birth rates and fewer high-school graduates deciding to attend college. What’s more, the decline is not evenly distributed across the country. Only the South will see a net increase in high-school graduates, and that’s the region where out-of-state enrollment has swelled the most among public flagships. For those universities, the supply of students from elsewhere may begin to dwindle.

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    Jeffrey Selingo

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  • ST Math Students Double Math Gains Through Phillips 66 Partnership: 10+ Years of Lasting Impact and Local Commitment

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    Over 60,000 students have benefited from the math program built on how the brain naturally learns

    A new analysis shows that students using ST Math at Phillips 66-funded schools are achieving more than twice the annual growth in math performance compared to their peers. A recent analysis by MIND Research Institute, which included 3,240 students in grades 3-5 across 23 schools, found that this accelerated growth gave these schools a 12.4 percentile point advantage in spring 2024 state math rankings.

    These significant outcomes are the result of a more than 10-year partnership between Phillips 66 and MIND Research Institute. This collaboration has brought ST Math, created by MIND Education, the only PreK–8 supplemental math program built on the science of how the brain learns, fully funded to 126 schools, 23 districts, and more than 60,000 students nationwide. ST Math empowers students to explore, make sense of, and build lasting confidence in math through visual problem-solving.

    “Our elementary students love JiJi and ST Math! Students are building perseverance and a deep conceptual understanding of math while having fun,” said Kim Anthony, Executive Director of Elementary Education, Billings Public Schools. “By working through engaging puzzles, students are not only fostering a growth mindset and resilience in problem-solving, they’re learning critical math concepts.”

    The initiative began in 2014 as Phillips 66 sought a STEM education partner that could deliver measurable outcomes at scale. Since then, the relationship has grown steadily, and now, Phillips 66 funds 100% of the ST Math program in communities near its facilities in California, Washington, Montana, Oklahoma, Texas, Illinois, and New Jersey. Once involved, schools rarely leave the program.

    To complement the in-class use of ST Math, Phillips 66 and MIND introduced Family Math Nights. These events, hosted at local schools, bring students, families, and Phillips 66 employee volunteers together for engaging, hands-on activities. The goal is to build math confidence in a fun, interactive setting and to equip parents with a deeper understanding of the ST Math program and new tools to support their child’s learning at home.

    “At Phillips 66, we believe in building lasting relationships with the communities we serve,” said Courtney Meadows, Manager of Social Impact at Phillips 66. “This partnership is more than a program. It’s a decade of consistent, community-rooted support to build the next generation of thinkers and improve lives through enriching educational experiences.”

    ST Math has been used by millions of students across the country and has a proven track record of delivering a fundamentally different approach to learning math. Through visual and interactive puzzles, the program breaks down math’s abstract language barriers to benefit all learners, including English Learners, Special Education students, and Gifted and Talented students.

    “ST Math offers a learning experience that’s natural, intuitive, and empowering—while driving measurable gains in math proficiency,” said Brett Woudenberg, CEO of MIND Education. “At MIND, we believe math is a gateway to brighter futures. We’re proud to partner with Phillips 66 in expanding access to high-quality math learning for thousands of students in their communities.”

    Explore how ST Math is creating an impact in Phillips 66 communities with this impact story: https://www.mindeducation.org/success-story/brazosport-isd-texas/

    About MIND Education
    MIND Education engages, motivates and challenges students towards mathematical success through its mission to mathematically equip all students to solve the world’s most challenging problems. MIND is the creator of ST Math, a pre-K–8 visual instructional program that leverages the brain’s innate spatial-temporal reasoning ability to solve mathematical problems; and InsightMath, a neuroscience-based K-6 curriculum that transforms student learning by teaching math the way every brain learns so all students are equipped to succeed. Since its inception in 1998, MIND Education and ST Math has served millions and millions of students across the country. Visit MINDEducation.org.

    About Phillips 66
    Phillips 66 (NYSE: PSX) is a leading integrated downstream energy provider that manufactures, transports and markets products that drive the global economy. The company’s portfolio includes Midstream, Chemicals, Refining, Marketing and Specialties, and Renewable Fuels businesses. Headquartered in Houston, Phillips 66 has employees around the globe who are committed to safely and reliably providing energy and improving lives while pursuing a lower-carbon future. For more information, visit phillips66.com or follow @Phillips66Co on LinkedIn.

    eSchool News Staff
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  • 4 tips to help older K-12 readers

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    Key points:

    An oft-cited phrase is that students “learn to read, then read to learn.”  

    It’s time to put that phrase to bed.

    Students do need to learn the fundamentals of reading in the early grades, including phonics, which is critical for reading success and mastery. However, it is not true that students learn all they need to learn about reading by the end of elementary school, and then spend the rest of their lives as reading masters who only read to learn. 

    Teachers are noticing that older readers need ongoing support to read materials used in their classrooms. In a study commissioned by the Advanced Education Research and Development Fund (AERDF), a national nonprofit, 44 percent of grade 3–8 teachers reported that their students always or nearly always have difficulty reading instructional materials.

    In grades 6-12, students are still learning to read and are still reading to learn. However, “learning to read” matures into more advanced decoding of multisyllabic words, syntax (all those annoying grammar rules that the reader needs to pay attention to to understand a sentence), fluency on longer sentences and paragraphs, and comprehension, which requires an increasingly sophisticated understanding of a wide range of topics across content areas.

    Consider the word “sad.” Most elementary school students can decode the word sad and would easily recognize it in both speech and print. Now, consider the words “crusade,” “ambassador,” “Pasadena,” “misadvise,” and “quesadilla.” Each contains the letters “sad” within the word, none of the pronunciations are the same as “sad,” and none mean unhappiness or sorrow. Without instruction on multisyllabic words (and morphemes), we can’t assume that middle schoolers can decode words containing “sad,” especially with different pronunciations and meanings. But middle schoolers are expected to navigate these types of words in their language arts, social studies, and science classes.   

    “Sad” and its many appearances in words is just one example of the increasing complexity of literacy beyond elementary school, and middle schoolers will also encounter more interdisciplinary subjects that play a unique role in their developing literacy skills. Here are four points to consider when it comes to adolescent literacy:

    1. Reading and writing instruction must become increasingly discipline-specific. While foundational reading skills are universal, students must enhance their skills to meet the unique expectations of different subjects, like literature, science, social studies, and math. Texts in those subjects vary widely, from historical documents to graphs to fictional literature, each having its own language, rules, and comprehension demands. Students must be taught to read for science in science, for math in math, and for social studies in social studies. How and what they read in language arts is not sufficient enough to transfer to different content areas. The reading approach to “The Old Man and the Sea” is different from “The Gettysburg Address,” and both are different from a scientific article on cell division. Along with reading, students must be taught how to write in ways that reflect the uniqueness of the content.  
    2. This means that it’s all hands on deck for upper-grade educators. Adolescent literacy is often associated with language arts, but reading and writing are integrated practices that underpin every discipline. This calls for all educators to be experts in their discipline’s literacy practices, supporting and developing student skills, from reading and writing poetry and prose in language arts; to primary and secondary source documents, maps, and political cartoons in social studies; graphs, reports, and research in science; and equations and word problems in mathematics.
    3. Build background knowledge to enhance comprehension. As students advance to higher grades, their discipline-specific reading skills impact their ability to attain content knowledge. The more students understand about the discipline, the better they can engage with the content and its unique vocabulary. Precise language like “theme,” “mitosis,” “amendment,” and “equation” requires students to read with increasing sophistication. To meet the content and knowledge demands of their discipline, educators must incorporate background knowledge building, starting with the meaning of words to help students unlock comprehension. 
    4. Teaching fluency, vocabulary, and syntax is evergreen. Along with multisyllabic decoding, students should continue to receive instruction and practice in each of the above, as they all play a starring role in how well readers comprehend a text.

    And most importantly, the education community must take a K-12 approach to literacy if it’s serious about improving reading outcomes for students. As more data emerges on the reading challenges of adolescents in this post-COVID era, it’s more critical now than ever to include adolescent literacy in funding and planning. The data are clear that support for literacy instruction cannot stop at fifth-grade graduation.

    While middle school students are “reading to learn,” we must remember that they are also “learning to read” well into and through high school. It’s more important than ever that state and local education leaders support policies and resources that seamlessly provide for the ongoing academic literacy needs from kindergarten to 12th grade.

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    Miah Daughtery, EdD, NWEA

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  • State Board of Education OKs Texas-heavy social studies plan, setting stage for clash over history lessons

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    The State Board of Education on Friday approved a social studies teaching plan that will dedicate more time across school grades to Texas and U.S. history while placing less attention on world history and cultures.

    The Republican-dominated board voted 8-7 in favor of the proposal, which marks only one step in a longer effort by the group to revise Texas’ social studies standards and set new guidelines for what students should learn before they graduate. Republicans Evelyn Brooks and Pam Little joined Democrats in opposition to the plan.

    The final tally was a reversal from a preliminary vote on Wednesday, when a board majority signaled support for a different teaching plan that included what educators considered a more inclusive approach.

    Some members who voted Friday for the new plan, which was championed by conservative groups, did not participate in the preliminary vote on Wednesday. Will Hickman, a Houston Republican board member, voted with the majority Friday after having supported the former plan earlier in the week, telling his colleagues that he did not think there was “one right answer.”

    The board will soon begin the endeavor of developing official standards for social studies, which will include outlining specifically what the group expects students to learn in each school grade. That politically-charged process will provide the board’s Republican majority an opportunity to more heavily influence what happens in the classroom, following legislative action in recent years to restrict how schools teach about topics like race, racism, gender and sex. The board undertook that process in 2022 but delayed it after pressure from Republican lawmakers, who complained that the plan at the time amounted to indoctrination.

    The group is aiming to vote on the revised social studies standards by June 2026.

    The framework approved on Friday would teach students in kindergarten through second grade about the key people, places and events throughout Texas and U.S. history. It would then weave together lessons on the development of Western civilization, the U.S. and Texas during grades 3-8, with a significantly heavier emphasis on Texas and the U.S. after fifth grade. The topics are in chronological order, meaning children would learn about ancient history in earlier grades and approach instruction about the modern era as they advance.

    The teaching plan board members preliminarily approved Wednesday and later abandoned would have used kindergarten through second grade to teach children about local, state, U.S. and world history and geography. It would have then taught them Texas history in third grade; U.S. history in fourth grade; world history in fifth grade; world cultures in sixth grade; and U.S. and Texas history in seventh and eighth grade.

    Conservative groups who spoke in favor of the newly approved framework said they favored its story-based, chronological approach, which they believe will help students better analyze historical patterns. Others argued that it would also place America in a global context and allow students to critically analyze the country’s strengths and weaknesses.

    “Because students have this robust chronological and thematic instruction, they can then deeply explore the ideas that form the state in the Texas capstone,” said Matthew McCormick, a K-12 education policy analyst for the Texas Public Policy Foundation.

    But social studies educators criticized the plan’s lack of attention to geography and world cultures. They dislike how the plan fragments instruction, as opposed to dedicating specific years to teaching children about Texas, U.S. or world history. They also worry the plan’s chronological approach would disrupt historical continuity and make it harder for kids to see cause-and-effect relationships.

    “Relevance is what makes history memorable, and that comes alive from teaching it in context,” said Courtney Williamson, a parent of school-age children who taught eighth-grade social studies for 15 years and served as a social studies department head.

    Williamson added that the teaching plan favored by educators provides students with knowledge “that they can connect and apply.”

    Conversations among the board earlier in the week about the new teaching plan revealed some of the disagreements and tension to come when it begins revising Texas’ social studies standards.

    “When do people that look like me, Tiffany, Evelyn, Gustavo, Marisa, LJ, get to learn about themselves before the fifth grade?” asked Houston board member Staci Childs, referring to the people of color on the panel. “Just curious, if we adopt this.”

    Keven Ellis, a Lufkin Republican on the State Board of Education, expressed confusion about engaging in debates about the content of lessons so early in the process of revising Texas’ social studies standards.

    “I think those important questions, those very important questions, are going to come shortly as we start writing the actual student expectations,” said Ellis, who voted in favor of the teaching plan approved on Friday. “It’s going to be our job … that we make sure everybody’s story is told, because I 100% believe in that too, because, I think, that’s when students learn, is when they can see themselves in the material they’re learning.”

    Disclosure: Texas Public Policy Foundation has been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

    Three featured TribFest speakers confirmed! You don’t want to miss ​​Deb Haaland, former U.S. Secretary of the Interior and 2026 Democratic candidate for New Mexico governor; state Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston and 2026 Republican candidate for Texas Attorney General; and Jake Tapper, anchor of CNN’s “The Lead” and “State of the Union” at the 15th annual Texas Tribune Festival, Nov. 13–15 in downtown Austin. Get your tickets today!

    TribFest 2025 is presented by JPMorganChase.

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  • Local university warning students of sextortion incidents reported on campus

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    A local university is warning its students about reports of sextortion incidents occurring on campus.

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    The University of Dayton shared in a campus-wide email on Wednesday that the UD Department of Public Safety is investigating two reports of stalking via sextortion that occurred on Tuesday, Sept. 9, in Stuart Hall, a first-year dormitory on campus.

    TRENDING STORIES:

    Sextortion is a form of sexual exploitation that is typically carried out through social media apps and online games, according to the university.

    University officials said that the reported incidents followed the “typical pattern of sextortion,” where students receive a request on social media or a game platform to add someone they do not personally know.

    “Those who engage in sextortion adopt a fake persona that would be attractive to the potential victim to increase the likelihood of being added as a friend,” the email to students said. “Once added, the sextortionist will chat with the potential victim and eventually ask to exchange explicit images.”

    If the victim sends the images, the sextortionist then threatens to send the images to others, typically the victim’s followers/friends, administrators at their university, their employer, or family members, unless the victim sends the sextortionist money.

    Stalking via sextortion refers to situations where the offender’s threats or demands escalate to ongoing harassment, monitoring, or intimidation online, creating a persistent sense of fear or pressure for the victim.

    “It is not uncommon for the sextortionist to use publicly available information to threaten the victim,” the email said.

    The university is asking anyone with information about the reported incidents or those who have experienced similar incidents to contact the UD Department of Public Safety at 937-229-2121.

    You can find more information about sextortion here.

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  • Supporting neurodiverse learners requires more than accommodation: It demands systemic change

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    Key points:

    Approximately 1 in 5 children in the United States are estimated to be neurodivergent, representing a spectrum of learning and thinking differences such as autism, ADHD, dyslexia, and more. These children experience the world in unique and valuable ways, but too often, our education systems fail to recognize or nurture their potential. In an already challenging educational landscape, where studies show a growing lack of school readiness nationwide, it is more important than ever to ensure that neurodivergent young learners receive the resources and support they need to succeed.

    Early support and intervention

    As President and CEO of Collaborative for Children, I have personally seen the impact that high-quality early childhood education can have on a child’s trajectory. Birth to age five is the most critical window for brain development, laying the foundation for lifelong learning, behavior, and health. However, many children are entering their academic years without the basic skills needed to flourish. For neurodivergent children, who often need tailored approaches to learning, the gap is even wider.

    Research indicates that early intervention, initiated within the first three years of life, can significantly enhance outcomes for neurodivergent children. Children who receive individualized support are more likely to develop stronger language, problem-solving, and social skills. These gains not only help in the classroom but can also lead to higher self-confidence, better relationships and improved well-being into adulthood.

    The Collaborative for Children difference

    Collaborative for Children in Houston focuses on early childhood education and is committed to creating inclusive environments where all children can thrive. In Houston, we have established 125 Centers of Excellence within our early childhood learning network. The Centers of Excellence program helps child care providers deliver high-quality early education that prepares children for kindergarten and beyond. Unlike drop-in daycare, our certified early childhood education model focuses on long-term development, combining research-backed curriculum, business support and family engagement.

    This year, we are expanding our efforts by providing enhanced training to center staff and classroom teachers, equipping them with effective strategies to support neurodivergent learners. These efforts will focus on implementing practical, evidence-based approaches that make a real difference.

    Actionable strategies

    As educators and leaders, we need to reimagine how learning environments are designed and delivered. Among the most effective actionable strategies are:

    • Creating sensory-friendly classrooms that reduce environmental stressors like noise, lighting, and clutter to help children stay calm and focused.
    • Offering flexible learning formats to meet a range of communication, motor, and cognitive styles, including visual aids, movement-based activities, and assistive technology.
    • Training teachers to recognize and respond to diverse behaviors with empathy and without stigma, so that what is often misinterpreted as “disruption” is instead seen as a signal of unmet needs.
    • Partnering with families to create support plans tailored to each child’s strengths and challenges to ensure continuity between home and classroom.
    • Incorporating play-based learning that promotes executive functioning, creativity, and social-emotional development, especially for children who struggle in more traditional formats.

    Benefits of inclusive early education

    Investing in inclusive, high-quality early education has meaningful benefits not only for neurodivergent children, but for other students, educators, families and the broader community. Research indicates that neurotypical students who learn alongside neurodivergent peers develop critical social-emotional skills such as patience, compassion and acceptance. Training in inclusive practices can help educators gain the confidence and tools needed to effectively support a wide range of learning styles and behaviors as well as foster a more responsive learning environment.

    Prioritizing inclusive early education can also create strong bonds between families and schools. These partnerships empower caregivers to play an active role in their child’s development, helping them navigate challenges and access critical resources early on. Having this type of support can be transformative for families by reducing feelings of isolation and reinforcing that their child is seen, valued, and supported.

    The benefits of inclusive early education extend far beyond the classroom. When neurodivergent children receive the support they need early in life, it lays the groundwork for increased workforce readiness. Long-term economic gains can include higher employment rates and greater earning potential for individuals. 

    Early childhood education must evolve to meet the needs of neurodivergent learners. We cannot afford to overlook the importance of early intervention and tailored learning environments. If we are serious about improving outcomes for all children, we must act now and commit to inclusivity as a core pillar of our approach. When we support all children early, everyone benefits.

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    Dr. Melanie Johnson, Collaborative for Children

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  • Philadelphia expands successful dropout prevention program to four more schools

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    A Philadelphia program focused on addressing the city’s student dropout crisis is expanding into four new district schools this year.

    • This article originally appeared on Chalkbeat, a nonprofit news organization covering public education. Sign up for their newsletter here.

    Philadelphia Academies Inc. — a longtime partner in dropout prevention efforts in the School District of Philadelphia — announced this month it is bringing its 9th Grade Success Network to Building 21, Franklin Learning Center, Philadelphia Military Academy, and Hill-Freedman World Academy for the 2025-26 school year.

    The program focuses on schools that serve students from traditionally marginalized groups, particularly Black students, who have faced systemic challenges to persisting in their education, leading to higher dropout rates, research has shown.

    School leaders and educators in the program get specialized professional training in adolescent development, relationship building, and intervention techniques. Ninth grade assistant principals also get regular coaching and assistance analyzing student data to ensure those most at risk of dropping out get the attention and support they need.

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    LaTrina Stewart, ninth grade assistant principal at Franklin Learning Center, will be participating for the first time this school year. She said she’s hoping her students feel “ultra supported” this year.

    “I don’t want to have to dig a child out of a hole and I don’t want children to have to dig themselves out of a hole,” she said. “That safety net to catch them before they even get in the hole — that’s what the ninth grade academy provides for us.”

    With this expansion, the 9th Grade Success Network will operate in 28 district schools, with a goal to reach 32 schools by next year, said Christopher Goins, the president and CEO of Philadelphia Academies Inc., or PAI. This is the first year the program will work in selective admissions schools like Franklin Learning Center and Hill-Freedman. The program is funded through 2027 with $2.6 million from the School District of Philadelphia and $8 million from the Neubauer Family Foundation.

    Nadia Schafer, director of the 9th Grade Success Network at PAI, told Chalkbeat the program is expanding because it’s working.

    The program served more than 4,500 students in the 2024-25 school year, according to Philadelphia Academies data. A ninth grade student is considered “on-track” to graduation by the district and PAI if they earn at least one credit in each of the core subjects English, math, science, and social studies, plus one additional credit in a subject of their choosing. Students who earn all As and Bs in their four core classes plus at least one additional class are considered “firmly on-track,” Schafer said.

    For the students the program served last year, Latino boys and Black boys improved their “on-track” rates by 5 percentage points and 4.4 percentage points, respectively.

    Thomas Murtaugh, ninth and 12th grade principal at the School of the Future, said his student on-track data “drastically improved” since being part of the program. The share of students on-track to graduation went up 27% in the second year of the program and has remained consistently high, he said.

    District officials noticed too, Schafer said. In fact, district data shows the “on-track” strategy contributed to a 10.2 percentage point increase in the four-year graduation rate over the last seven years. Superintendent Tony Watlington has also reported the district’s dropout rate was down by more than a thousand students last school year, due in part, to the on-track program.

    There’s evidence this approach is working in other large urban school districts. Philly’s strategy was built off of a blueprint initiated in Chicago, which has also reported all-time high graduation rates.

    Ebony Hollingsworth-Lowery, ninth grade assistant principal at William Sayre High School is about to start her fourth year with the program, and she said it’s been a “roadmap for success.”

    As a former athlete, Hollingsworth-Lowery said the leadership coaching and regular check-ins work for her because they form a kind of “playbook” to help keep her and her ninth grade team of counselors, community advocates, educators, school staff, and administrators all focused on the same goals.

    “It forces you to really look at your students, your teachers, and what systems are in place to be able to be successful,” she said. The program instills a way to “know your students, know who they are, but also, most importantly, know their needs, because if we can’t meet their needs, they’re going to retract from school.”

    But not every high school is equipped to take on the program, according to Schafer, and there’s a competitive application process for schools to be selected. Schools with lower graduation rates and lower on-track rates are given priority because “we think it’s important to spend our resources where they’re going to make the most difference,” Schafer said.

    Schools must also have a ninth grade administrator and a ninth grade core team of educators dedicated to teaching solely ninth grade, “not someone who is teaching English 1, 2, 3, and 4,” Schafer said.

    With the ongoing teacher shortage and funding constraints in the city, those requirements can be a challenge for schools. That’s why PAI opened applications to criteria-based schools for the first time.

    “It’s tough when maybe it’s not quite time” for some of those neighborhood schools to join the program, Schafer said, but she said they are working with the district to get other neighborhood schools “ready to be able to take on this work in a future year.”

    For Stewart, the resources that the success network provides, “should be a part of what high schools get without it being left up to what principals have in their budget,” she said.

    But this year at least, she’s hopeful.

    “We need this,” Stewart said.

    Carly Sitrin is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Philadelphia. Contact Carly at csitrin@chalkbeat.org.

    Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

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    Carly Sitrin, Chalkbeat

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  • California Students, Faculty Walk Out Over Gender Policies

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    Southern California students and faculty staged a walkout at their middle school in protest of the Temecula Valley Unified School District’s policy that allows transgender girls in bathrooms and locker rooms. 

    During class on Tuesday, students, parents and faculty members at James L. Day Middle School walked out to protest against the district policy that affirms that transgender students can access bathrooms and locker rooms “consistent with a student’s gender identity.”

    Since the start of the new school year, a student who identifies as female has been using the girls’ locker room, parents report. 

    The Board Policy 5145.31: “Religious or Mental Health-Related Accommodations” does offer girls two “outs,” which are either to file a religious-belief accommodation or a mental-health accommodation.

    But parents at the protest told the California Family Council that neither option is acceptable. They don’t want to label their daughter with a mental health condition for wanting privacy or claim a religious exemption to avoid boys dressing in girls’ locker rooms, parents added. As one mom stated, “My daughter’s not anxious or sick. She just deserves a girls’ locker room.”

    Those who attended the protest wore white and pink bracelets that said “Save Girls’ Sports” and held up signs. 

     “The students were clear,” said Sophia Lorey, outreach director of the California Family Council. “This wasn’t about attacking anyone. They want safe, private, female-only spaces to change for P.E. The boys who joined were there to stand with the girls – not to make trouble, just to say, ‘Protect girls’ spaces.’”

    The Center Square reached out to Temecula’s schools superintendent, Gary Woods, for a comment, but has not received a response. 

    The district said in a statement that it “respects the rights of students and community members to engage in peaceful expression and assembly,” adding California law requires that students “be allowed to participate in sex-segregated programs and have access to facilities consistent with their gender identity. Any revised proposal will take this requirement into account while addressing the concerns raised by students, parents, and the community.”

    Temecula Valley school board members Jen Wiersma and Dr. Joseph Komrosky also attended the middle school walkout.

    Komrosky said the district’s “mental health and religious exemption accommodations” framework is the wrong tool.

    “I was elected to represent the values of the parents of my community, and the majority of our community in Temecula have traditional family values,” Komrosky said. “What’s happening at this middle school, when a biological boy enters the girls’ locker room, is anything but traditional. It’s social and political activism. I want every child to have a good and safe education. Parts of this aren’t safe, and students feel their innocence is being robbed. I will continue to fight this moral battle to defend the innocence of children and empower parents.” 

    TVUSD is expected to address Board Policy 5145.31 and related privacy measures at the next regular board meeting on Sept. 9.

    Syndicated with permission from The Center Square.

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    The Center Square

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  • Choice-ready: Exploring a new standard for preparing students for the future of work

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    Key points:

    According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025, nearly 40 percent of workers’ core skills will change in just the next five years. As AI, automation, and global connectivity continue to reshape every industry, today’s students are stepping into a world where lifelong careers in a single field are increasingly rare.

    Rather than following a straight path, the most successful professionals tomorrow will be able to pivot, reinvent, and adapt again and again. That’s why the goal of education must also shift. Instead of preparing students for a fixed destination, we must prepare them to navigate change itself.

    At Rockingham County Schools (RCS), this belief is at the heart of our mission to ensure every student is “choice-ready.” Rather than just asking, “What job will this student have?” we’re asking, “Will they be ready to succeed in whatever path they choose now and 10 years from now?”

    Choice-ready is a mindset, not just a pathway

    Let’s start with a quick analogy: Not long ago, the NBA underwent a major transformation. For decades, basketball was largely a two-point game with teams focused on scoring inside the arc. But over time, the strategy shifted to where it is today: a three-point league, where teams that invest in long-range shooters open up the floor, score more efficiently, and consistently outperform those stuck in old models. The teams that adapted reshaped the game. The ones that didn’t have fallen behind.

    Education is facing a similar moment. If we prepare students for a narrow, outdated version of success that prepares them for one track, one career, or one outcome, we risk leaving them unprepared for a world that rewards agility, range, and innovation.

    At RCS, we take a global approach to education to avoid this. Being “choice-ready” means equipping students with the mindset and flexibility to pursue many possible futures, and a global approach expands that readiness by exposing them to a broader range of competencies and real-world situations. This exposure prepares them to navigate the variety of contexts they will encounter as professionals. Rather than locking them into a specific plan, it helps them develop the ability to shift when industries, interests, and opportunities change.

    The core competencies to embrace this mindset and flexibility include:

    • Creative and analytical thinking, which help solve new problems in new contexts
    • Empathy and collaboration, which are essential for dynamic teams and cross-sector work
    • Confidence and communication, which are built through student-led projects and real-world learning

    RCS also brings students into the conversation. They’re invited to shape their learning environment by giving their input on district policies around AI, cell phone use, and dress codes. This encourages engagement and ownership that helps them build the soft skills and self-direction that today’s workforce demands.

    The 4 E’s: A vision for holistic student readiness and flexibility

    To turn this philosophy into action, we developed a four-part framework to support every student’s readiness:

    1. Enlisted: Prepared for military service
    2. Enrolled: Ready for college or higher education
    3. Educated: Grounded in academic and life skills
    4. Entrepreneur: Equipped to create, innovate, and take initiative

    That fourth “E”–entrepreneur–is unique to RCS and especially powerful. It signals that students can create their opportunities rather than waiting for them. In one standout example, a student who began producing and selling digital sound files online explored both creative and commercial skill sets.

    These categories aren’t silos. A student might enlist, then enroll in college, then start a business. That’s the whole point: Choice-ready students can move fluidly from one path to another as their interests–and the world–evolve.

    The role of global education

    Global education is a framework that prepares students to understand the world, appreciate different perspectives, and engage with real-world issues across local and global contexts. It emphasizes transferable skills—such as adaptability, empathy, and critical thinking—that students need to thrive in an unpredictable future.

    At RCS, global education strengthens student readiness through:

    • Dual language immersion, which gives students a competitive edge in a multilingual, interconnected workforce
    • Cultural exposure, which builds resilience, empathy, and cross-cultural competence
    • Real-world learning, which connects academic content to relevant, global challenges

    These experiences prepare students to shift between roles, industries, and even countries with confidence.

    Redesigning career exploration: Early exposure and real skills

    Because we don’t know what future careers will be, we embed career exploration across K-12 to ensure students develop self-awareness and transferable skills early on.

    One of our best examples is the Paxton Patterson Labs in middle schools, where students explore real-world roles, such as practicing dental procedures on models rather than just watching videos.

    Through our career and technical education and innovation program at the high school level, students can:

    • Earn industry-recognized credentials.
    • Collaborate with local small business owners.
    • Graduate workforce-ready with the option to pursue higher education later.

    For students who need immediate income after graduation, RCS offers meaningful preparation that doesn’t close off future opportunities, keeping those doors open.

    And across the system, RCS tracks success by student engagement and ownership, both indicators that a learner is building confidence, agency, and readiness to adapt. This focus on student engagement and preparing students for the world postgraduation is already paying dividends. During the 2024-25 school year, RCS was able to increase the percentage of students scoring proficient on the ACT by more than 20 points to 44 percent. Additionally, RCS increased both the number of students who took AP exams and the number who received a passing score by 12 points to 48 percent.

    Preparing students for a moving target

    RCS knows that workforce readiness is a moving target. That’s why the district continues to evolve with it. Our ongoing focus areas include:

    • Helping graduates become lifelong learners who can retrain and reskill as needed
    • Raising awareness of AI’s influence on learning, creativity, and work
    • Expanding career exploration opportunities that prioritize transferable, human-centered skills

    We don’t know exactly what the future holds. We do know that students who can adapt, pivot, and move confidently from one career path to another will be the most prepared–because the most important outcome isn’t fitting students into today’s job market but preparing them to create value in tomorrow’s.

    At Rockingham County Schools, that’s what being “choice-ready” really means. It’s not about predicting the future. It’s about preparing students to thrive within it wherever it leads.

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    Dr. John Stover, Rockingham County Schools

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