OTHER STORIES

How Speech Recognition Systems Struggle With Children’s Voices

LearnAgency

Despite Uncertainties, These Future Educators Still Want to Teach

EdSource

NYC Sues for Revoking $47 Million in School Grants

Chalkbeat

Big Oil Should Help Foot the Bill for Lost School Time, Students Say

Hechinger

How All That Masculinity Content Online Really Makes Boys Feel

EdWeek

Teacher Evaluations

This article by David Blazar examines the effect of the DCPS teacher evaluations for useful ideas and problems. Analyses of D.C. Public Schools’ high-stakes teacher evaluation system, IMPACT, show that while it improved overall performance, it also produced inequitable outcomes across teachers by race and experience. Since implementing IMPACT in 2009, DCPS adjusted its evaluation system to make incentives more equitable, particularly for teachers in high-poverty schools, which reduced— but did not eliminate—racial disparities. Blazar’s recent study finds that replicating DCPS’s success requires not only strong incentives but also an emphasis on equity in their design and a willingness to revise them when outcomes fall short. Brookings

Shutdown Tracker

This is a regularly-updated tracker from Education Week that shows how the federal government shutdown is affecting schools. Most of the 2,447 employees at the Education Department are furloughed, with no more than 122 full-time equivalent employees now on duty at any given time. Approximately 466 Ed. Dept. employees have received reduction in force notices, though these are temporarily blocked by a judge. Title 1, IDEA, and school lunch funds will continue flowing during shutdown. However, Impact Aid funds are on hold, and Head Start funds may be delayed. Grant-making and civil rights enforcement are halted during the shutdown. EdWeek

Latest Industrial Revolution

As AI continues to dominate popular thinking about education, EdSurge sought to dig deeper. EdSurge Research conducted a participatory project about how AI is changing teaching and learning. The purpose of this project is to share resources and to add nuanced perspectives to the very loud conversations about AI in education. EdSurge gathered a small group of 17 teachers and created a forum to encourage critical conversations about how AI is impacting their classrooms to better understand the challenges and opportunities. The research considered questions like: How are teachers using AI to foster student engagement and motivation? & How do we leverage AI to better support teachers? EdSurge