Studying over 4,000 students in grades 10 to 12 this past summer, ACT discovered that 46% have used different AI tools. Of this cohort, nearly half (46%) have used it for school assignments. They were used most commonly in language arts, social studies and science classes. Despite their use, the majority of the students surveyed reported that their teachers did not allow the use of AI for schoolwork, the report found.

ChatGPT was the most commonly used tool by far, taking up 83% of AI-savvy students. Dall-E-2 (17%) and Bing Chat (11%) comprised the second and third-most used tools.

One ominous correlation ACT found was students’ AI tool use was significantly related to their academic achievement. Students with higher composite scores were likelier to use AI tools than those with lower scores. For example, 53% of students scoring in the top quarter compared to other respondents used AI tools. Comparatively, only 36% used these tools in the bottom quarter.

Students with lower scores were considerably more likely than those with higher scores to report not using AI tools due to lack of access and information, strengthening calls by the Department of Education to limit the digital divide and the importance of establishing robust guardrails.

“As AI matures, we need to ensure that the same tools are made available to all students so that AI doesn’t exacerbate the digital divide,” ACT CEO Janet Godwin said. “It’s also imperative that we establish a framework and rules for AI’s use so that students know the positive and negative effects of these tools as well as how to use them appropriately and effectively.”

More from DA: What will drive more urgency around career prep in 2024?

Students exhibit concern about AI

Of the 54% of students who reported not using AI tools, the most common reason was a lack of interest. Aligning with faculty, about two-thirds of these students also expressed a distrust in the results the tool provides.

“A majority of the students who didn’t use AI tools were either uninterested in or distrusted the results that the tools provided,” explained Jeff Schiel, a lead research scientist at ACT and one of the report’s authors. “Even students who used the tools for school assignments found that they were far from perfect, as a majority reported errors or incorrect information within the responses that AI provided. This shows that as knowledge and awareness of these tools grow, information about how to use them correctly is just as important.”

The skepticism fueled 42% of respondents to say schools should ban AI tools. Only 10% said they were considering using it to write their college admissions essay due to negative consequences, dishonesty, quality of writing and its lack of an authentic voice.

“Students are already exploring how they can use AI,” said Godwin, “but there is real skepticism about its ability to create work in which students can be confident.”

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At the final DALI Summit this year at the Naples Grande Beach Resort in Florida, superintendents seamlessly shifted gears between commiserating with fellow district leaders and getting down to business to identify, diagnose and provide solutions to some of their most top-of-mind issues. Whether in a focused learning session or during a lunch break, the wheels spun passionately.

“You all know how difficult the role is, but we all have our challenges and our strategies, and we’re trying to do our best for students,” said Jose Dotres, superintendent of Miami-Dade Public Schools and Leader of Distinction awardee.

Such an incredible start to our Superintendents Summit in Naples! A huge thank you to Dr. Courtney Orzel for delivering a keynote that set the tone for excellence. Grateful for your authenticity and inspiration. #EducationLeadership #DALI #LiveYourLegacy @drorzel https://t.co/yNumvjtqgY

— DA Leadership Institute (@DA_Leadership) December 14, 2023

DALI’s inaugural award ceremony

At DALI’s inaugural Awards of Distinction ceremony, superintendents and district leaders across the nation celebrated their colleagues’ biggest accomplishments over the past year.

Ameca Thomas, superintendent of Laurens County School District 55 (S.C.), was awarded a Districts of Distinction award in the College and Career Pathways category for helping students enrolled in a pathway program achieve a 100% graduation rate. Alex Haltom, Director of Innovation, Technology, and Media Services for Hemlock Public School District (Mich.), received a Leader of Distinction award for ensuring students’ access to WiFi away from campus.

And Superintendent Alex Marrero of Denver Public Schools took home the award for Superintendent of the Year. Since assuming the position in 2021, Marrero has struck a deal with union bargaining groups to ensure a $20 minimum wage by 2025, and the graduation rate has increased by a district-high 2.5%. The DPS leader also guided his district through a school shooting that claimed one student’s life and injured two administrators.

Marrero turned to the crowd of superintendents, a position that continues to garner turnovers en masse, and addressed the challenge of making high-level executive decisions.

“There’s not many of us. There are a lot of fallen soldiers,” Marrero said. Then, quoting Richard Carranza, former chancellor of the New York City Department of Education: “You have to do your job even if it leads to you losing your job.”

More from DA: Latest school closures force leaders everywhere to make tough choices

In conversation

Superintendents and other district leaders covered a lot of ground together, exploring topics such as artificial intelligence and live learning. However, some topics seemed universal.

Teacher recruitment and retention tended to dominate the conversation. Cherie Washington, Chief of Student Support Services at Fort Worth Independent School District (Texas), described it as a staffing crisis that goes beyond employing teachers. Washington, who also won a Women of Distinction award, suggested forging stronger assistant principal-principal pipelines.

“We have to really focus on how we are going to recruit and retain great teachers, and I think that also spills over into administration,” she said. “We focus on the principals, but as they leave, are we focused on preparing our next leaders?”

In New York City, teacher hiring has returned to pre-COVID levels, but it’s still attempting to rebound from a falling retention rate. Kelly Shannon, deputy superintendent of District 2 of New York City’s Department of Education, discussed the importance of supporting teachers across multiple dimensions. Leaders need to ensure teachers are working in a healthy culture and climate, provide individualized mentorship opportunities, and support veteran teachers as much as their new ones, she said.

Superintendents also grappled with methods to keep students engaged and involved in school amid rampant absenteeism. One method leaders discussed was creating more intentional and exciting before and after-school programs to limit students’ distractions.

“Above all else, parents want their kids to belong,” said Dawn Bridges, vice president of educational affairs at Right At School. “Districts need capacity-building partners who can help build aftercare and enrichment programs.

Maura Horgan, superintendent of Newark City Schools (Ohio) and Women of Distinction awardee, has long been a proponent of developing STEM-focused afterschool programs to boost student engagement and camaraderie.

“If you’re not intentionally trying to make progress, you’re working in a vacuum,” she said.

Patrick Wnek, executive director of the North East Florida Educational Consortium, finished tooling together his Lego sculpture, emblematic of hands-on student inquiry. At first, embarrassed by the challenge, it reminded him of the chance students and leaders take every day to learn—and to lead.

“It’s important to fail forward,” he said.

The post What you missed at DALI Naples: Awarding this year’s outstanding superintendents appeared first on District Administration.

But building student pipelines between K12 and colleges is easier said than done. For one, creating partnerships can be extremely overwhelming: Consider the thousands of colleges and universities and the tens of thousands of K12 schools nationwide.

“It’s really hard for us, as an independent public K12 school, to build a relationship with each college or university across America,” says Josh Garcia, Tacoma Public Schools (Wash.) superintendent. “That’s what makes this work so complex. It’s all about partnership-aligned pipelines, but you’ve got to plumb each one of those pipelines individually to some level.”

And pipelines are only as good as the effort that goes into them. If there is no active intention behind them, they are destined to wilt.

“In some of my research, I’ll sometimes talk to leaders in other districts outside of Maryland who will say, ‘Well, we had a university partnership, but it just sort of fizzled out because we just didn’t feel like the university was preparing our students for what we need,'” says Dr. Christine Neumerski, faculty specialist at the University of Maryland (UMD) and associate director for its doctoral program in school system leadership.

However, educators in Maryland, California and Washington are leveraging several strategies to close the delta between K12 and higher education as the need for equitable student outcomes reaches its crescendo.

More from DA: Why fewer teachers can afford to live in their own districts

Formalized agreements create stronger K12 partnerships

The key to creating a diverse array of K12-higher education pipelines is a solid legal framework, says Garcia, who has been Tacoma’s superintendent since 2012. “That formalized agreement is really important to build trust and credibility with the students we’re trying to serve,” he says. “This is not just a ‘wink, wink.’ This is an actual, legitimized partnership.”

Tacoma shares a guaranteed admissions program with the University of Washington, Tacoma, which partners with its guidance counselors to clarify admissions requirements and provides community resources that students can use to ensure their success. Additionally, the University of Puget Sound has committed to grant 30 Tacoma district students a financial aid package that meets their total demonstrated financial need.

“If you’re going to create generational impact, it’s going to take 10 to 12 years,” Garcia says. “That can’t be dependent on a new leader’s vision; rather, it takes a sustained community vision. That’s why those formalized partnerships are so critical. It’s not just higher ed or K12 or leadership changes, but the promise has to sustain itself despite leadership changes.”

Outside of ensuring the success of Tacoma students, Garcia recognizes that binding legal frameworks must be broad enough to be replicated. This way, higher education institutions can easily partner with more districts. For example, the University of Washington, Tacoma’s guaranteed admissions program extends to 10 other districts.

Garcia’s focus on formalized agreements that are replicable and grounded in long-term change seems to be working. In the 2021-22 academic year, nine out of 10 of Tacoma’s high school students graduated in four years, which is 8% higher than the Washington state average, according to data from the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. And in the past nine years, its graduation rate increased by 23% for Black students, 33% for Hispanic students and 27% for low-income students. Along with Tacoma’s impressive graduation rates, more than 80% of its students have attained dual enrollment credits for higher education since the 2017-18 academic year, which applies to its Black, Hispanic and low-income students as well.

Community college pipelines

This year, the California State University (CSU) System unveiled a guaranteed admission program across its 23 campuses, beginning with the class of 2023. It’s different from Tacoma’s pathway in that first-time freshmen must start in the California Community College System, and it is specifically geared toward high school graduates whose personal or financial situation inhibited them from applying to a CSU institution directly.

In addition to offering under-resourced students a secure stepladder to a major state university, the Transfer Success Pathway provides them personalized support and resources from CSU, such as additional academic counseling and access to a transfer planner to stay on track with what they need to accomplish.

“We are excited about the opportunity to work with them earlier in their journey,” said April Grommo, CSU’s assistant vice chancellor of Strategic Enrollment Management, according to Sacramento State. “The Transfer Success Pathway is the CSU’s promise and commitment to those who don’t take a direct route to a four-year degree, particularly those who face academic, geographic, or financial barriers.”

The University of California system may also be embarking on a similar mission. In March, UC introduced to stake lawmakers its mission to enroll one community college transfer for every two first-year undergraduates, EdSource reports.

Preparing the new generation of superintendents

The job of the K12 school district superintendency is mired in political, logistical and administrative challenges that can often strain and overwhelm. Just ask the state of Maryland: Last year, about a third of its superintendent positions were up for grabs.

The University of Maryland’s practice-based doctoral program provides its students with real-world experience to prepare them for the complex political environment and performance objectives that have continued to change since the pandemic. One of those challenges UMD is preparing the next wave of superintendents for is ensuring success for the state’s changing student demographics.

“We pay attention to the needs of all learners in the state of Maryland, and more specifically, those students and populations of color, given that the research trends are showing us that the schools are becoming more heavily populated with the students of color,” says Dr. Pamela Shetley, associate director of UMD’s Education in School System Leadership, Ed.D. “Our workforce is not equally catching up to that change.”

Thanks to UMD’s partnership with state school districts, its doctoral school leadership program challenges students in its capstone project to take on a district’s real-time wicked problem that they’ve identified, diagnose its root causes and alleviate it under the guidance of the program.

While students are already experienced Maryland K12 educators and administrators, they receive a state-approved superintendent certification upon program completion.

“Our goal is to build a pipeline of system-level thinkers that are change agents that have a disposition for change, for equity, for students in a way that maybe hasn’t been as intentionally focused in other programs,” says Dr. Doug Anthony, the program’s director.

One of the guiding posts UMD’s program uses when teaching instructional leadership is the Maryland Blueprint, an equity-based legislative framework that prioritizes college and career readiness. It also intends to raise state funding for education by $3.8 billion annually over 10 years.

While the onus falls on the student-turned-superintendent to effect relevant change in his or her school district, it’s up to administrators in higher education to help equip them with the tools. Some of these lessons may require reckoning with uncomfortable truths.

“It takes courage at the university level to make sure that the curriculum, for instance, isn’t watered down or history isn’t erased when we talk about institutional barriers within the context of an educational setting,” Dr. Anthony says. “Problems exist because there are problems before it, and there are institutional barriers that exist. Many things exist in school systems that the superintendent has to be willing to unpack if they’re going to make a difference.”

The post Institutions are blending K12 and higher ed to improve student equity. Here’s how appeared first on District Administration.

The average score for the class of 2023 was 19.5, three decimal points below last year. When broken down by individual subjects such as reading, science and math, student scores still fell below the benchmarks the ACT says students must reach to have a high probability of success in first-year college courses.

These findings reflect a recent report from the National Assessment of Educational Progress that shows decades-low scores in math and reading among 13-year-old students. In both instances, education leaders believe students’ transition to remote learning during the pandemic has caused the setback. The class of 2023 experienced the pandemic during the spring semester of their freshman year.

“I didn’t have a hands-on, in-person class, and the information wasn’t really there,” said Virginia-based Diego Fonseca, 19, a computer science major struggling to pass a calculus placement exam, according to AP News. “I really struggled when it came to higher-level algebra because I just didn’t know anything.”

How low student test scores impact higher education

The swell of students falling behind in ACT scores may foreshadow students’ lack of preparation for the rigor of college courses. College students are increasingly placed in pre-college math courses as they find themselves struggling with basic fractions and exponents. One Temple University intermediate algebra class has seen its enrollment nearly double since the pandemic, AP reports.

In June, U.S. Education Department Secretary Miguel Cardona announced that schools have committed 60% of their American Rescue Plan money to recover students’ lost ground during the pandemic.

While standardized test scores may not be as critical for students looking to be admitted to college, ACT CEO Janet Godwin still believes in its value in gauging academic readiness. She believes the U.S. education system needs a deep reevaluation to combat the trend.

“The hard truth is that we are not doing enough to ensure that graduates are truly ready for postsecondary success in college and career,” Godwin said in a press statement. “These systemic problems require sustained action and support at the policy level. This is not up to teachers and principals alone—it is a shared national priority and imperative.”

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However, research from the CCRC shows that high schools and colleges typically implement dual enrollment with a “laissez-faire” approach, meaning that students arbitrarily choose classes without regard to their plans and interests regarding academics or careers. The lack of intention in these programs perpetuates a trend that completely counteracts the intent of dual enrollment.

CCRC discovered that dual enrollment outcomes among students who are learning English, have disabilities or are of American Indian, Black, Hispanic, multiracial, and Pacific Islander descent are far below that of native, White English speakers.

As a result, the independent research organization has created the Dual Enrollment Equity Pathways (DEEP) program to help K12 and higher education work together to help those who would benefit the most from dual enrollment actually realize success in the program. DEEP gained its insight from observing the practices of nine community college–high school partnerships in California, Florida and Texas that had achieved equitable access and early college outcomes for Black and Latinx students through their dual enrollment programs.

“Effective implementation of DEEP practices requires significant changes on the part of both colleges and high schools in how they reach out to students and families, align curricula and pedagogy and teach and advise students,” the report’s researchers wrote.

Leadership shifts:: Turnover at the top continues to churn coast to coast

1. Outreach to underserved students and schools

K12 districts and colleges that experienced strong dual enrollment results from their low-income students and those of color began to market these courses to students and their parents as early as middle school. Such forward thinking then helped revamp some elementary schools’ curricula in assisting students to prepare for what comes in high school.

2. Alignment to college degrees and careers in fields of interest

Students without long-term vision usually choose dual enrollment classes arbitrarily without knowing whether they will transfer successfully toward a bachelor’s program they are interested in. Like how community colleges “backward map” their programs to ensure they lead toward good job opportunities or a bachelor’s program, colleges should also map their programs for the dual enrollment level. This way, community college courses can help K12 students better understand what kind of college programs or careers might also interest them.

3. Early career and academic exploration, advising and planning

K12 districts and colleges adopting the DEEP framework need to ensure they are proactive in providing K12 students with proper advising that extends beyond just getting them to the high school finish line.

“High school students who receive help from an adult in developing an education or career plan are more likely to submit a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and apply to and enroll in college,” the researchers wrote.

4. High-quality college instruction and academic support.

Colleges must engage with K12 schools to share their most cutting-edge, research-backed teaching methods so that students interested in postsecondary education are exposed to more rigorous learning models. One such example is the flipped classroom, wherein lectures are delivered online and class time is used for instruction, lab work and class projects.

The post 4 ways to ensure underresourced students excel in dual enrollment outcomes appeared first on District Administration.

Even so, one can never be too confident about school safety.

The Gun Violence Archive has already recorded at least 40 shootings across K12 schools and college campuses in August, the majority of which took place at the high school level. Similarly, the K12 School Shooting Database has logged 208 shootings so far in 2023. Since beginning its tally in 1966, this is the third-most frequent year of shootings, with four months of the year remaining.

With a full semester ahead, leaders are always looking for effective new ways to tighten security. Here are several useful tools and resources to help them do so.

More from DA: How your teachers are feeling about AI and their jobs this school year

SchoolSafety.gov

The Biden administration has teamed with multiple federal departments to create SchoolSafety.gov, a hub of collaboration and communication on the latest campus safety practices in K12. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), along with the Departments of Education (ED), Health and Human Services (HHS), and Justice (DOJ), have made accessible hundreds of resources and evidence-based practices for school administrators, teachers, parents and guardians, and state and local government officials.

On this website, those interested can easily find resources on a range of topics, such as:

• school safety
• student mental health
• cyber bullying
• preventing violence
• improving emergency preparedness

Each topic is customizable to help meet stakeholders’ specific needs. For example, teachers and parents who need help addressing bullying can select help with prevention, protection and mitigation, and response and recovery. Bullying is also broken down by verbal bullying, cyberbullying and physical bullying.

Districts struggling to update their security practices due to budget constraints can apply for a grant.

Campus notification systems skyrocket in popularity

A 2023 report by Campus Safety found that more than seven out of 10 (71%) campus protection professionals in higher ed, K12 and hospitals say they either plan on deploying new or upgraded mass emergency notification solutions in the next two years, a 20-point increase compared to 2017.

When broken down by sector, however, K12 was the most interested: Four out of five campus protection professionals are either actively planning or thinking about making upgrades and purchases. They also showed the most interest in panic buttons and intercoms or overhead paging systems.

Two companies have recently joined forces to accentuate the strengths of mass notification systems and loudspeakers. Advanced Network Devices (ANetD) and Audio Enhancement have delivered an integrated solution that provides both visual and audio alerts and can configure bell schedules, messages, visual messages, and emergency alerts all in one system.

Intelligent video surveillance

Colleges and universities now have access to surveillance equipment with back-end systems that can analyze footage and transmute it into data that IT teams can access using a “database-like search,” according to EdTech.

Lancaster School District (Calif.) installed IP surveillance cameras, and its video analytics capacity allows schools to detect emergency incidents faster. School fights, for one, have dramatically decreased. The new camera system can send a text alert to administrators if students begin to quickly assemble, the tell-tale sign of a fight.

“Sometimes we stop a fight before it happens,” said Rebecca Cooksey, Lancaster’s assistant superintendent of innovation and technology services, according to EdTech.

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The House proposed a $12.1 billion reduction in funding for Education compared to FY23, for a total of $67.4 billion. On the other hand, the Senate’s $79.6 billion budget remains relatively the same, falling more than $10 billion short of Biden’s proposal.

With a House dominated by Republicans and a slight Democratic majority in the Senate, both bills differed widely. The reduction or enhancement of specific components in Education funding clearly reflects party preferences.

More from DA: How 5 superintendents cope with the stress of a job they cherish

House budget bill

The House managed to decrease the budget by 15% due to its priority to cut programs it found “do not fulfill the core mission, tasks and functions of the Department.” Specifically, the House proposes eliminating the Office of Communication entirely and funding for teacher training programs.

Moreover, the House targeted organizations it found to “undermine the unity of our country,” suggesting the GOP-majority House’s recent opposition toward diversity, equity and inclusion influenced its decision-making process. For example, it proposed reducing the Office for Civil Rights budget by 25%.

Additionally, Title I grant funding for states with K12 schools with a high makeup of low-income students would see a substantial 80% drop, with the House claiming residual pandemic funding can offset the deficit.

The budget bill proposes to maintain funding for disability support, school safety and charter schools.

Senate budget bill

Capping funding at the same level as FY23 to adhere to Congress’ debt ceiling deal, the Senate’s budget kept Biden’s wishes in mind, building on mental health initiatives, assisting under-resourced schools and communities of color and fortifying the teacher workforce.

The Senate proposed to increase funding for a multitude of student and teacher support services. For example, the bill proposed increasing funding for Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grants by $20 million to improve school conditions for student learning and upgrade technologies to boost student digital literacy. The Senate also prioritized K12-higher education pipelines through such initiatives as GearUP, a federal grant program that prepares students for post-secondary education and through their first year of college.

For teachers specifically, an additional $35 million will go toward addressing the teacher shortage through the IDEA Personal Preparation program as one example. The Senate bill also proposed advancing another $15 million toward teacher development programs via the Teacher Quality Partnership Program, as well as the Hawkins program to help cultivate a more diverse teacher workforce.

For mental health, the Senate proposed allocating $100 million toward qualified K12 professionals and counselors.

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School resources are strained. The American School Counselor Association claimed per their latest report that for every school counselor there is 408 students he or she is responsible for, on a national average. The American School Counselor Association recommends a 250-to-1 ratio.

With significant jumps in incidents that involve harmful student behaviors, coupled with a substantial shortage in school counselors, it is no wonder that 83% of K12 parents, educators, and administrators are worried about student mental health and violence in their schools.

“You cannot ignore the fact that students are struggling with depression. There are school shootings on what seems a biweekly basis. And there are oftentimes signs of these things,” says Jack Bostian, tech director at Almont Community Schools in Michigan. “If you can take steps to protect your kids, it’s worth every single penny.”

As students increasingly prioritize interfacing with the internet to learn and socialize, digital safety solutions services are becoming administrators’ new line of defense.

At least three different companies that specialize in online student safety attended the Future of Education and Technology Conference in New Orleans this past January. Among them were Netsweeper, Lightspeed Systems, and GoGuardian.

“What are kids doing online?” asks Ryan Keag, director of safety sales at Lightspeed Systems, at FETC 2023. “Realistically, kids are much more comfortable communicating and existing in an online world than they are talking face to face. So what kind of communication and collaboration are they having with their friends? What are they searching for online? This helps us paint a much more accurate picture of the struggles these kids have and the kind of help they need.”

Schools already have CIPA-mandated firewalls that filter out dangerous websites in broad strokes, but these digital safety solutions use data-driven machine learning algorithms to categorize billions of websites, which gives administrators the ability to customize content filters to a granular level, granting them control to update keywords and content to look out for that suggest risky online behavior.

And while content filtering can shield students from harmful content out in the ether of the internet, these services also provide monitoring solutions that can detect harmful student behavior in real-time, allowing administrators to react to a threat of suicide the moment it is searched on a browser, communicated via email or document, or even picked up on a chat forum. Netsweeper has onGuard, LightSpeed Systems has Alert, and GoGuardian has Beacon, which Jack Bostian, a tech director in Michigan’s Almont community schools, believes is the best solution out there by far.

“If the district came to me tomorrow and told me the budget is cut and we’re getting rid of GoGuardian to save money, I would say ‘OK, here is my resignation,'” he said. “I’ve already sold GoGuardian to two different schools.”

Before Tracy Clements became the student safety subject matter expert for GoGuardian, she was a director of school counseling in a district that had a “major suicide problem.” In fact, she says, their suicide rates were 30 times the national average. She was skeptical of an online solution because she didn’t believe she was “techy” enough. When she finally relented to using the product, it only took three weeks for her to realize it’s use when GoGuardian Beacon flagged a student’s web browser actively planning a suicide.

“I couldn’t reach her parents, so I just drove to her house, and when I knocked on the door she remembered me from school, and I said, ‘Do you know why I’m here?’ and she just started crying and said, ‘I was about to kill myself,'” Clements remembers. “She was literally on the cusp of killing herself, and I wouldn’t have known, and I wouldn’t have been able to intervene if it weren’t for Beacon. I’m a believer.”

For Bostian’s district, GoGuardian alerted him and his team last year of over 400 instances involving mental health crises – whether it be active suicide planning, ideation, self-harm, requesting help and support, suicide research – and instances involving guns and bombs, violent acts, and bullying.

Aside from this service’s ability to react to a major crisis, Clements believes that the strongest attribute of this service is its ability to detect troubling student behavior “higher upstream,” that is, before it gets to such a drastic level.

“Prevention is so much less costly than intervention,” she notes.

There are still those who are fearful of the implications of a student monitoring service, citing Big Brother, for example.

Emily Spadafore, public relations manager for GoGuardian cited that around every other student in the public education system has been touched by a GoGuardian product.

“We understand the criticisms, but we are open to having those conversations and are happy to answer any questions anyone has around specific privacy or data policies,” said Spadafore.

Still, nearly 90% of K12 parents believe school technology should be implemented in the classroom, and they are equally supportive of their school system using online educational technology to help detect signs of a student considering harming themselves or harming others.

And for Bostian, he sees the technology as a no-brainer.

“It’s required in this day and age for kids.”

The post Is student monitoring software the best solution for child safety? appeared first on District Administration.

Microsoft has recently pledged $10 billion toward OpenAI, a generative AI company, signifying that there are no signs of this technology slowing down. Burrus would refer to this development as a “hard trend,” a life development that can be confidently predicted with very little risk. And with healthy risk, he believes, comes opportunity.

“Something that gets more powerful, I don’t want it to be my enemy. I want it to be my friend. So as a teacher, I want to be asking myself, how can I use this to create more engagement in the classroom?”

One way he believes generative AI will allow educators to optimize their curriculum is to focus more on critical thinking and analysis.

“With AI, we can automate the lower end of the cognitive domain, and I say, ‘Thank GOD,'” he says. “We’re going to free teachers to teach the stuff they wanted to get to in the first place—the higher levels of the cognitive domain. There’s room for us all. This is the time for a revolution.”

ChatGPT has shown the capability to turn in B- and C-quality graded assignments, which teachers fear students will use to cheat, but Burrus believes “passable” isn’t good enough anymore. Students can now dedicate more time to analyzing sources and writing with values that the technology currently lacks: empathy, passion, and an understanding of its audience.

More from DA: An op-ed about ChatGPT’s impact on education… written by ChatGPT?

“As a teacher I would say, ChatGPT can help you write a pretty good article. We’re not here to be pretty good. My goal as a teacher is to help you be the best you can be.”

Moreover, as AI can deliver us the fast facts and figures—the tedious legwork—it will grant teachers the time to focus on their lessons’ real-world applications… the why.

“Teachers are too busy trying to teach you what an adverb is instead of teaching you how to write something someone else would want to read,” he said. “They’re too busy teaching you how to multiply and divide that they never get to show you what to do with it.”

As the technology progresses, administrators and teachers will have to adapt once again. He knows how much school officials already have endured, noting that if the CEOs of the Fortune 50, 100, and 500 companies he’s advised had to put up with what they have, “they would have been on the floor in the fetal position sucking their thumbs.”

But Burrus says that the alternative is much worse. Classrooms that refuse to welcome hard trends can be guiding them toward “a world that is ceasing to exist.”

“We are in a game of relevancy. Relevancy to our students, relevancy to our principals, relevancy to our school districts and parents. Relevancy to the future,” he said. “And right now, you’re either going to be more relevant or less. There is no middle. The middle is gone.”

Daniel Burrus is a business entrepreneur, adviser, and former educator who has spent his life analyzing innovative technological trends that disrupt the status quo and change the way humans live.

The post A futurist’s perspective on generative AI in the classroom appeared first on District Administration.

The report gathered information from 500 graduated students from the classes of 2019 to 2022 and asked them questions about their exposure to college readiness resources in high school and how confident they were in taking the next step. The results infer that female students were consistently underprepared compared to their male counterparts:

• Students who felt prepared to make a career choice or declare a major:
  • Male: 57% | Female: 41%
• Students who reported not being exposed to a wide variety of options:
  • Male: 29% | Female: 57%
• Students who had a conversation with a teacher or school counselor about opportunities after high school:
  • Male: 78% | Female: 63%
• Students who were aware that career and technical education options were available:
  • Male: 70% | Female: 50%

A possible reason this K12 gender gap exists has to do with lingering stereotypes about what industries males and females are “expected” to enter after high school.

“Gender stereotypes play a strong role in both educational and career awareness and preparedness,” states YouScience’s Student Ability report. “Our analysis shows that biases still exist and need to be addressed in order to turn the corner on the exposure and skills gap challenges.”

Using anonymized data from YouScience Discovery’s aptitude-based career guidance assessments, girls’ aptitude scores were compared with their self-reported interests in various career clusters. The conclusion: They are shorting themselves on their potential in STEM-based careers. For example, the data found that females have almost four times the aptitude for computer technology careers than interest. And, compared to men who have two times the aptitude for advanced manufacturing careers than interest, females clocked in at 10 times more aptitude than interest.

Interest alone is not a strong enough marker for students to make a successful career decision, according to another YouScience report that focused on women in STEM.

“Interest-based tools reflect primarily what the student already knows, while aptitude measures surface known and unknown talents that are less recognized and can surprise students, teachers and parents,” states the report.

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Males’ aptitude, or natural talent, is more clearly aligned with careers they are interested in, which could explain why 57% of them felt prepared to make a career choice or declare a major upon graduating high school compared to 41% of females, who clearly have high potential in STEM fields but aren’t sufficiently exposed to these resources to gain interest. In fact, 57% of girls reported not being exposed to a wide variety of options for college and a career.

YouScience proposes that the best way to close these disparities among young men and women is to provide them opportunities to earn industry-recognized certifications that carry weight outside the classroom and to apply work-based learning into student curricula.

As concerning as this gender disparity might seem, YouScience’s Post Graduation Readiness Report from November concluded that a majority of students across the spectrum reported feeling unprepared for college and a career—a whopping 75% of students, to be exact. They concluded that, overall, the root of the problem is that students simply do not see a strong correlation in their school curriculum to career-based opportunities outside of the K12 paradigm.

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