Latest news with #The74Newsletter
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Yahoo
From English to Automotive Class, Teachers Assign Projects to Combat AI Cheating
This article was originally published in EdSurge. Kids aren't as sneaky as they think they are. They do try, as Holly Distefano has seen in her middle school English language arts classes. When she poses a question to her seventh graders over her school's learning platform and watches the live responses roll in, there are times when too many are suspiciously similar. That's when she knows students are using an artificial intelligence tool to write an answer. 'I really think that they have become so accustomed to it, they lack confidence in their own writing,' Distefano, who teaches in Texas, says. 'In addition to just so much pressure on them to be successful, to get good grades, really a lot is expected of them.' Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter Distefano is sympathetic — but still expects better from her students. 'I've shown them examples of what AI is — it's not real,' she says. 'It's like margarine to me.' Educators have been trying to curb the use of AI-assisted cheating since ChatGPT exploded onto the scene. It's a formidable challenge. For instance, there's a corner of TikTok reserved for tech influencers who rack up thousands of views and likes teaching students how to most effectively use AI programs to generate their essays, including step-by-step instructions on bypassing AI detectors. And the search term for software that purports to 'humanize' AI-generated content spiked in the fall, according to Google Trends data, only to fall sharply before hitting the peak of its popularity around the end of April. While the overall proportion of students who say they've cheated hasn't fluctuated by much in recent years, students also say generative AI is making academic dishonesty easier. But there may be a solution on the horizon, one that will help ensure students have to put more effort into their schoolwork than entering a prompt into a large language model. Teachers are transitioning away from question-and-answer assignments or straightforward essays — in favor of projects. It's not especially high-tech or even particularly ingenious. Yet proponents say it's a strategy that pushes students to focus on problem-solving while instructing them on how to use AI ethically. Related During this past school year, Distefano says her students' use of AI to cheat on their assignments has reached new heights. She's spent more time coming up with ways to stop or slow their ability to plug questions and assignments into an AI generator, including by giving out hard copy work. It used to mainly be a problem with take-home assignments, but Distefano has increasingly seen students use AI during class. Kids have long been astute at getting around whatever firewalls schools put on computers, and their desire to circumvent AI blockers is no different. Between schoolwork, sports, clubs and everything else middle schoolers are juggling, Distefano can see why they're tempted by the allure of a shortcut. But she worries about what her students are missing out on when they avoid the struggle that comes with learning to write. 'To get a student to write is challenging, but the more we do it, the better we get.' she says. 'But if we're bypassing that step, we're never going to get that confidence. The downfall is they're not getting that experience, not getting that feeling of, 'This is something I did.'' Distefano is not alone in trying to beat back the onslaught of AI cheating. Blue books, which college students use to complete exams by hand, have had a resurgence as professors try to eliminate the risk of AI intervention, reports The Wall Street Journal. Richard Savage, the superintendent of California Online Public Schools, says AI cheating is not a major issue among his district's students. But Savage says it's a simple matter for teachers to identify when students do turn to AI to complete their homework. If a student does well in class but fails their thrice-yearly 'diagnostic exams,' that's a clear sign of cheating. It would also be tough for students to fake their way through live, biweekly progress meetings with their teachers, he adds. Savage says educators in his district will spend the summer working on making their lesson plans 'AI-proof.' 'AI is always changing, so we're always going to have to modify what we do,' he says. 'We're all learning this together. The key for me is not to be AI-averse, not to think of AI as the enemy, but think of it as a tool.' Related Doing that requires teachers to work a little differently. Leslie Eaves, program director for project-based learning at the Southern Regional Education Board, has been devising solutions for educators like Distefano and Savage. Eaves authored the board's guidelines for AI use in K-12 education, released earlier this year. Rather than exile AI, the report recommends that teachers use AI to enhance classroom activities that challenge students to think more deeply and critically about the problems they're presented with. It also outlines what students need to become what Eaves calls 'ethical and effective users' of artificial intelligence. 'The way that happens is through creating more cognitively demanding assignments, constantly thinking in our own practice, 'In what way am I encouraging students to think?'' she says. 'We do have to be more creative in our practice, to try and do some new things to incorporate more student discourse, collaborative hands-on assignments, peer review and editing, as a way to trick them into learning because they have to read someone else's work.' In an English class lesson on 'The Odyssey,' Eaves offers as an example, students could focus on reading and discussion, use pen and paper to sketch out the plot structure, and use AI to create an outline for an essay based on their work, before moving on to peer-editing their papers. Eaves says that the teachers she's working with to take a project-based approach to their lesson plans aren't panicking about AI but rather seem excited about the possibilities. And it's not only English teachers who are looking to shift their instruction so that AI is less a tool for cheating and more a tool that helps students solve problems. She recounts that an automotive teacher realized he had to change his teaching strategy because when his students adopted AI, they 'stopped thinking.' 'So he had to reshuffle his plan so kids were re-designing an engine for use in racing, [figuring out] how to upscale an engine in a race car,' Eaves says. 'AI gave you a starting point — now what can we do with it?' When it comes to getting through to students on AI ethics, Savage says the messaging should be a combination of digital citizenship and the practical ways that using AI to cheat will stunt students' opportunities. Students with an eye on college, for example, give up the opportunity to demonstrate their skills and hurt their competitiveness for college admissions and scholarships when they turn over their homework to AI. Making the shift to more project-based classrooms will be a heavy lift for educators, he says, but districts will have to change, because generative AI is here to stay. 'The important thing is we don't have the answers. I'm not going to pretend I do,' Savage says. 'I know what we can do, when we can get there, and then it'll probably change. The answer is having an open mind and being willing to think about the issue and change and adapt.'
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Opinion: Reading Reform Will Fail Without Families
Across the country, a wave of new reading legislation aims to fix literacy crises, yet there's little direct support for families to help carry the reforms forward. At a recent meeting in my community, one fact hit hard: Our reading pipeline is broken. Instead of the expected 80% of students succeeding with general instruction, only 11% of Milwaukee students are on track. A staggering 65% need frequent, in-depth, individualized support — far more than the system was ever built to provide. When a speaker cited these numbers, the crowd nodded at the urgency and applauded calls to retrain more than 1,000 teachers in evidence-based reading instruction practices. I applauded, too — schools have the greatest opportunity and obligation to provide high-quality reading instruction at scale. But I couldn't shake the feeling that teacher training alone clearly wouldn't be enough. Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter In classrooms crowded with kids who have extraordinary needs, even the best teachers can only do so much. Better prepared teachers would be able to gradually increase the share of kids who are on track with reading and prevent more students from falling behind. But many kids would still need targeted small-group support, one-on-one tutoring, and, crucially, support from home. Teachers, no matter how well prepared, build on the foundations kids have. The odds of reading success are largely shaped beyond the classroom. Longitudinal studies consistently confirm the essential role that families play in kids' reading achievement. The early language experiences and alphabet knowledge students bring to school profoundly shape their literacy trajectories. Once kids enter school, parents' influence remains powerful but increasingly overlooked. Too often, schools unintentionally sideline parents, treating them more as homework helpers than true partners. Related Parents facing economic hardship or lingering distrust from their own schooling may not immediately see the value in engaging. Even motivated families struggle to prioritize vague school requests amid a myriad of real-life demands. Rather than grow cynical, school staff must actively earn families' engagement. They need to clearly, specifically, and respectfully show families how their involvement benefits their children's development. This is Marketing 101: speak to what matters. Frame requests in ways that align with parents' hopes and addresses their real concerns. If parents don't understand how a request helps their child, schools have to connect those dots. Research from the Harvard Family Research Project shows that families make a measurable difference when they actively attend conferences, visit the classroom, and volunteer. Other studies document the value of parents engaging in literacy-specific activities like teaching letters, sharing books, and fostering reading at home. Schools can motivate parents by showing them that their efforts directly affect their kids' reading gains. Nearly 40 states have passed legislation to spur reading improvements and sprinkled amid the new curriculum and professional development requirements they've mandated are some directives for parents, too. Wisconsin's Act 20, for example, rightly emphasizes parents' critical roles: sharing family learning histories, monitoring learning disabilities, implementing literacy strategies, tracking reading plans, and even filing complaints when necessary. Yet, the law provides little tangible guidance or support. Ask a Milwaukee parent how to help their child meet reading expectations and you may get a shrug — not from indifference, but from genuine confusion. Schools must translate mandates into meaningful guidance. When staff get strategic about what they ask families to do, they create space for real partnership. Generic advice like 'read aloud every night' can evolve into more specific grade-level guidance like 'Read this book to practice the 'oo' sound your child is learning in class.' Related I recently observed a work session between school staff and local nonprofit tutoring groups. The educators invested months designing targeted, straightforward home literacy activities that were aligned closely with common student needs in the district. Next, they planned to test the tools with real families, revise the instructions based on feedback, and then film demonstration videos, so parents could clearly see what success looks like. Tips are helpful — but seeing another parent do it builds belief. Once complete, these tools will provide teachers with a library of targeted activities to share with families based on specific student needs. The anticipated result? Fewer, clearer asks for families and greater impact. Across the country, different family engagement models are emerging. In New York, the NYC Reads Family Ambassador program held 10-week online sessions to teach families the science of reading. The sessions aimed to strengthen home literacy routines, as well as inform participants who could then share effective strategies with other families. The Indiana Learning Lab hosts virtual workshops that are accessible to parents anytime, enabling them to tune in at their convenience. Both these programs acknowledge that families want to help, but need accessible, credible resources and consistent encouragement. Raising our nation's reading achievement is an all-hands-on-deck effort — inside and outside of school. Teachers, instructional coaches, literacy specialists, staff, administrators and community volunteers can all support families. But for these partnerships to flourish, we've got to get honest about who teaches kids: all of us. Ultimately, the strongest readers aren't shaped in classrooms alone. They're nurtured at home: word by word, story by story, conversation by conversation. To help reading reforms succeed, we need to do more than retrain teachers and revise curricula. We must support the first, most constant teachers all children have: their families.
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
L.A. Unified Sees ‘Major Gains' in Fight Against Chronic Absenteeism
Chronic absenteeism remains a problem for LAUSD, but the school district is making gains, Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said on his last house visit of the year aimed at driving student attendance. The district made progress this year with the tricky challenge, Carvalho said during the home visit last month, but officials could not say how much progress was made exactly in reducing chronic absenteeism, defined as missing more than ten percent of the school year. Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter 'Our approach is we support, we're not about penalizing,' said Carvalho of the strategy being employed in getting chronically absent kids to class. 'Two years ago, we were in a different position … [but] conditions have improved dramatically.' Carvalho said the number of chronically absent students is slowly dropping closer to pre-pandemic levels, in part because of the district's push to personalize its efforts to bring individual students to class, with well-known tactics like his house visits. Los Angeles isn't the only place struggling with persistent attendance issues. A study from the American Enterprise Institute found that chronic absenteeism nationwide rose over 10% from 2019 to 2024, peaking in 2022 at 28% of students. The same report said the national percentage of students with good attendance fell sharply between 2019 and 2023, compounding the problem. More and more research, in fact, is suggesting that higher levels of chronically absent students could become the new normal. In L.A., chronic absenteeism remains a problem. At the beginning of the school year, nearly one-third of all students in the nation's second-largest district were missing class enough to be deemed chronically absent. That's an improvement from the years following the COVID-19 shutdowns in the district, when nearly half of all students were chronically absent, the worst the problem ever got in LA Unified's history. Carvalho said it's gotten better because he and the district's attendance team got personal in their approach, tailoring efforts to individual families, and knocking on the doors where kids had repeatedly missed school. Attendance counselors, school principals, and sometimes Carvalho himself have visited with thousands of families personally each school year since then, and talked to parents about why their kids are missing class. They offer solutions, like free busing or new school uniforms, or whatever could help. The tactic is a standard tool for LAUSD, one that Carvalho and district attendance workers and officials trumpet as a reason for their success. But chronic absenteeism has been a serious problem for years in L.A. More than 32% of L.A. Unified students were considered chronically absent for the 2023-2024 school year, the latest year for which the data exists. That's well above the historic norms, but still an improvement from the abysmal previous years. Los Angeles Unified had 36% of students consistently missing class in 2022-2023, and just over 45% of students in 2021-22. Fallout from COVID-19 remains the main thing parents and educators blame for the historically high numbers. During Carvalho's last at-home visit of the year, the mother of a chronically absent student said that since the pandemic she's been confused over when to keep her sick home from class. At the start of the 2024-2025 school year, Carvalho said annual incremental gains will be how the district digs itself out. That plan appears to be working, he said in May, with last year seeing a dip and district officials expecting 2024 to have even lower numbers. LAUSD officials told the LA School Report that chronic absenteeism data for the 2024-2025 school year has not been finalized, so they could not quantify the gains. Still, Rudy Gomez, the director of iAttend, LAUSD's district-wide attendance program, said in an interview that the district has made progress fighting chronic absenteeism. 'We have had some significant gains in chronic absenteeism, although we still have a lot of work to do,' said Gomez. 'But we've seen some major gains, all across the board.'
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Nevada Legislature Approves State's First Open Enrollment System
An education reform package recently passed in the Nevada Legislature will launch the state's first open enrollment system for public school students. The legislation is a compromise between dueling education bills, one sponsored by Democratic state Sen. Nicole Cannizzaro and the other supported by Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo. It passed unanimously in the Senate on June 1 and with a 38-4 Assembly vote June 2. Lombardo said in a June 3 statement that the Legislature 'passed historic education choice and accountability, so that every Nevada student can graduate career or college ready.' The bill was sent to his desk June 6. Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter More than 40 states allow interdistrict open enrollment, according to the nonprofit Education Commission of the States. Nevada's new system will let students transfer to schools outside their residential zone if there's room in their grade. It will also provide transportation subsidies for students trying to leave low-performing schools. Many states don't require transportation to be provided for open enrollment students, as it is for residents, according to Education Next. In New Hampshire, for example, lawmakers recently passed an open enrollment bill that places responsibility for transportation on parents. Families can drive their child to a bus stop on an existing route if they are attending a school outside their attendance zone, according to the bill. Related Multiple times a year, districts will be required to publish open enrollment data online, including school vacancy numbers and the total number of students who transferred in and out of their attendance zones. Nevada school boards will have to create a method, such as a lottery, to determine which open enrollment students are accepted into a grade that reaches capacity. Schools that deny a student's application will have to explain why. The bill prohibits districts from considering factors like disability, English learner status, athletic ability and residential address when evaluating applications. Schools will be required to create a priority lottery for students who have low academic scores. Related Students can be denied if they were expelled or suspended for 10 or more days during the previous school year. Parents can appeal a rejection to the district superintendent. The Nevada Department of Education will have to provide transportation for students who want to transfer from a low-performing school but have no way to get there. According to the bill, the department will award grant funds 'to the extent money is available' to local organizations that provide transportation. The bill will also create a statewide accountability system for districts and charter schools. The department could intervene in persistently low-performing districts by replacing leadership or assuming state control. 'We implemented open zoning so our children can attend the school that best fits their educational needs, and we provided resources to allow those children trapped in underperforming schools transportation to attend the school of their choice — regardless of their zip code,' Lombardo said in his statement. 'Simply put, we have instituted more educational accountability measures than during any legislative session in the history of Nevada.' Related
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Yahoo
Opinion: The Road to Educational Equity: Can Ed Tech Solve the Digital Divide?
In a nation where ZIP codes often determine opportunity, the promise of educational equity remains out of reach for millions of students. Despite years of reform, the link between a child's environment and their academic outcomes still remains. Today, as schools integrate digital tools into everyday learning, a new dimension of inequality has come into focus: access to technology. While some students benefit from personalized platforms and high-speed connectivity, others are still left behind, struggling to participate in a system that increasingly assumes digital access. The debate is no longer whether ed tech can improve education, but whether it will reach those who require it the most. Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter The integration of technology into classrooms has the potential to improve learning, but only if access is universal. In reality, disparities in broadband connectivity, device availability, and digital literacy continue, especially in rural and low-income regions. A 2024 report by the Pew Charitable Trusts indicates that 43% of adults earning less than $30,000 annually lack broadband access, and nearly half of households making under $50,000 struggle to afford internet services. This leads to a 'homework gap' that disproportionately impacts students in excluded communities, limiting their ability to complete assignments and engage with digital learning resources. Beyond infrastructure, the challenge extends to technology deployment. Schools with more resources can invest in training educators, curating high-quality digital content, and supporting students with tailored interventions. In contrast, under-resourced schools may lack the technical assistance and instructional direction required for effective ed tech integration. Without thoughtful implementation, technology risks becoming a superficial fix rather than a meaningful equalizer. To bridge the gap, tech access should be treated as a foundational right, not a privilege. That means investing in affordable internet for all households, making sure every student has access to a reliable device, and providing the support systems that make digital learning meaningful and accessible. Ed tech, when designed and deployed with equity in mind, can be an effective tool to close learning gaps. AI-powered and gamified learning platforms, for example, offer the ability to personalize content to meet students where they are, regardless of age, ability, or background. Adaptive platforms, for instance, are able to recognise when a student is behind and make real-time material adjustments. Through milestones and rewards, gamified modules can keep students motivated. This is especially helpful for students who might otherwise lose interest in a strict, one-size-fits-all approach. These features can have a particularly significant effect on classrooms with a variety of learning demands but a small number of teachers. Too often, though, innovative learning technologies are piloted in affluent districts with the budget and infrastructure to support them, while the students who could benefit most remain out of reach. Without targeted strategies to expand access and usage, ed tech risks strengthening the very disparities it aims to address. True equity means creating educational technology that represents the diversity of the learners themselves. This includes considering various cognitive styles, linguistic backgrounds, and cultural situations. Platforms should offer multilingual support, dyslexia-friendly fonts, sensory-sensitive modes for neurodiverse kids, and culturally relevant material. Without these design considerations, ed tech may inadvertently exclude the very students it aims to uplift, even when devices and internet access are available. The answer lies not just in the tools themselves, but also in how and where they are deployed. Equity-focused implementation requires a commitment to both access and impact –- ensuring students can use the technology, and that the technology truly supports their learning journey. Related This is not a challenge educators can tackle alone. It requires coordinated action from policymakers, district leaders, nonprofit partners, and the tech community itself. Public investment should prioritize infrastructure development in under-served areas, such as expanding broadband coverage and subsidizing device distribution. Equally important is funding for professional development, helping teachers integrate digital tools into their pedagogy in ways that are culturally responsive, developmentally appropriate, and aligned with academic goals. At the policy level, educational equity must be embedded into procurement decisions, funding formulas, and accountability frameworks. Leaders must ask not just whether technology is available in schools, but whether it is making a measurable difference for students who have historically been left behind. Collaboration across sectors is critical. Nonprofits can help support communities in navigating the digital learning landscape. Tech providers can design solutions with accessibility and inclusion built in from the start. And local governments can act as conveners — aligning resources, reducing duplication, and ensuring families are supported beyond the school day. There is no silver bullet to educational inequity, but there is momentum. Across the country, districts are experimenting with community Wi-Fi programs, public-private partnerships, and learning models that prioritize flexibility and student engagement. These efforts prove that with the right intentions, innovation and inclusion can go hand in hand. What's needed now is sustained commitment. We should resist the temptation to view ed tech as a short-term fix or an optional add-on. Instead, it must be approached as a core element of a broader equity agenda, one that prioritizes student outcomes, not just new tools. Ed tech holds enormous promise, but only if we build systems that ensure its promise reaches every student. That starts with recognizing that the digital divide is not just a tech problem, it's an equity problem. And equity is something we must design for from the beginning.
