Weekend To-Do List

7/14 - 7/16

and

Jul 14, 2023

1. Prioritize K-12 Education to Diversify College Campuses

READ/LISTEN: Michael J. Petrilli argued in the pages of Education Next that the Biden administration’s college diversity efforts should start with closing the excellence gap in K-12 education:

Closing this gap will not be easy. It is related to a complex mix of social and historical conditions, including the impact of centuries of systemic racism, sharp socioeconomic divides between racial groups, and big differences in school experiences, family structures, and parenting practices. But frankly, as a nation, we’ve never really given it the “old college try.” If we focused on what schools can do to recognize and nurture excellence in all students, instead of just trying to work around the gaps at the end of their high-school careers, we could make significant progress toward the inclusive college campuses we all want to see.

Read more here. Richard Kahlenberg also joined an episode of Lost Debate this week to discuss the Supreme Court’s recent decision on affirmative action and the future of college admissions. Listen here.

2. California’s Math Reform Doesn’t Add Up

READ: Armand Domalewski wrote for Noahpinion about the new California Math Framework and offered a critique of recent “math reform” efforts:

The primary reason girls, for example, diverge from boys in math performance is because society teaches them that math is not for girls. That is not something swapping out actual math for a watered down “data science” course can solve, and it’s pretty gross for people to claiming to be trying to make math more equitable for women and people of color to be pushing a program that will actually make them worse at math. Dr. Boaler and the CMF are basically saying “women and people of color aren’t doing as well in math, so we should just give up on teaching them actual math.

3. Academic Recovery Stalls Nationwide

READ: Yet another national K-12 assessment released this week reiterated the stark reality that student learning is in crisis. Linda Jacobson at The74 reported on the latest results from NWEA, which showed that the progress made this year was insufficient to close pandemic-era learning gaps. NWEA’S Director of School and Student Progress, Karyn Lewis, calls the academic reality facing schools “education’s long COVID”:

Lewis compared pandemic learning loss to tornado damage. A hammer and nails, she said, might be sufficient to repair a lost shingle or a loose shutter. But if a garage is flattened or the roof is gone “a hammer and nail is not going to cut it,” she said.

NWEA estimates that, on average, students would need four more months in school to catch up to pre-pandemic levels. Read more here.

4. Outraged Parents Shifts New Jersey School Board Right

READ: Nicole Carr profiled the transformation of the Wayne Township, New Jersey school board for ProPublica. Carr described a jarring scene from an October 2021 meeting where outbursts and profanity caused one board member to press charges for threatening comments. One parent justified the crowd’s behavior in a Facebook post:

“However it’s voiced, whether we say fuck, shit, asshole, bitch, whatever, all of which we have all heard and used, all we wants is our parental rights to be respected and upheld,” the post continued. “And sometimes people Need to feel alittle uncomfortable in their own skin, maybe sleep with one eye open, because let me tell you, the thought of this going on in our schools makes us parents feel real uncomfortable.”

Since the 2021 meeting, three board members have lost seats to candidates endorsed by the 1776 Project. Read more here.

5. Chronic Student Absenteeism Leads to Jail Time for Mothers in Missouri

READ: Missouri’s Supreme Court will hear arguments over the state’s truancy statute after two mothers were sentenced to jail after their children missed about 15 days of class during the 2021-2022 school year. Shannon Najmabadi at the Wall Street Journal wrote about the nearly 600 charges filed for violating Missouri’s compulsory-education law over the last five years and the complicated reality that the statute does not define “regular” attendance. Najmabadi also spoke to one of the mothers suing the state about the anxiety the policy has caused:

She said she began having panic attacks, afraid she would be penalized if she was late dropping off her four sons at different schools in Lebanon. “I was busting my tail trying to make sure they had all the proof they need—all the doctor’s notes they need—calling them while at the eye doctor,” LaRue, 32 years old, said of the school district, speaking from the gas station she manages with her mother.
LaRue ended up serving 15 days in jail.

6. Defining School Funding Equality

READ: Adam Tyner questions whether education funding is still unequal in a new brief from the Fordham Institute. The brief pushes readers to acknowledge the dramatic rise in school funding over the last few decades and the ways school finance reform has worked to close gaps between low- and high-income schools while still recognizing that “adequate” funding is a subjective and fast-moving target:

Equalizing school funding and resources helps underserved students and provides basic fairness within our public education system. But as economist Eric Hanushek explains, the adequacy framework “ignores the simple fact that determining the level of public spending on schools is a political decision, vested with legislatures and governors.” Beyond more limited goals, such as equalizing student access to good teachers, there is simply no technocratic answer to the question of how much extra funding higher-needs schools deserve, and it is appropriate that different communities will adopt different funding priorities.

7. Indiana’s Voucher Program Grows. For Who?

READ/LISTEN: Casey Smith broke down Indiana’s Choice Scholarship Program analysis for The74, which found that the state’s voucher program supported private school tuition for 53,262 students during the 2022-23 school year, the largest increase of participating students in nearly ten years. Pro-voucher advocates celebrated the news:

“I think it’s great that Indiana is funding families and giving opportunities to families from across the income spectrum,” said Robert Enlow, president and CEO of EdChoice, an Indianapolis-based group that backs voucher programs. “It’s a really good thing to see this growth in the Choice program, and I expect it to grow even more next year.”

Meanwhile, critics have used other data points to question the purpose of the Program, billed initially as a tool for students in lower-income households to access alternative schooling. 28.1% of this year’s participants reported an annual household income below $50,000, down 9.3% from the 2021-22 school year.

Read more here. Chris also recently interviewed Robert Enlow about this topic on an episode of The Citizen Stewart Show. Listen to their conversation here.

8. Schools Must Prioritize Professional Development on AI

READ: Discussion continues over how (or whether) to use artificial intelligence in the classroom. With school systems scrambling to respond to the new tools introduced on a near-daily basis, Lauraine Langreo shed light on recent debates about whether teachers need training on AI:

But some districts—such as New York City—have taken a hard-line approach to ChatGPT specifically, essentially banning it from schools, except for limited use for certain students. That means most teachers are unlikely learning anything about AI in those districts.
Joseph South, the chief learning officer for the International Society for Technology in Education, or ISTE, said the major barrier for school districts providing professional development on artificial intelligence right now is that “you have to understand AI, and most of us don’t.”

Artificial intelligence will be one of the defining forces in K-12 education over the next decade. South explained the risk schools will face if they neglect to provide professional development on this topic:

“If you underestimate AI, you’re more susceptible to misinformation, you’re more susceptible to stealth advertising, and you’re more susceptible to systems that are not working in your best interests,” South added. “If you overestimate what AI can do, then you’re more likely to rely on an algorithm that isn’t ready for prime time, that is not going to give you the best or most accurate information even though it sounds like it is.”

9. Now Hiring: School Security Robots

READ: Megan Tagami at the Wall Street Journal reported on a New Mexico school district’s pilot program featuring a 5’10”, 400-pound robot. The robot provides 360-degree camera footage to the school’s security team and, with the help of artificial intelligence, is intended to detect aggressive behavior, alert the security team to intruders, and confront threats. Stokes Robotics co-owner and president Robert Stokes noted that the robot can also act as a utility player:

In most cases, schools will use robots in the classroom to teach students about coding, Stokes said. But in the face of an armed intruder, the robot could take more aggressive action, pointing a laser beam at a suspect’s chest or using flashing lights to try to induce them to drop their weapons.
Humans would be responsible for deciding the robot’s course of action in real-time but could remain out of the line of fire in the case of an active shooter, Stokes said.

The cost of one robot is estimated to be $60,000 to $70,000 for the 2023-24 school year. Read more here.