Author: studyblog

Key points: District leaders across the country are grappling with a deepening crisis: Student mental and behavioral health needs are growing more complex. In a recent national survey, 58 percent of school-based providers reported that student mental health has worsened, a noticeable jump from the previous year (46 percent). With needs rising and staff stretched thin, many districts are struggling just to keep pace. Leaders looking to fix these issues are quickly met with the realization that no single program, person, or department can meet this moment alone. What students need most is consistency in the form of caring adults,…

Key points: As artificial intelligence (AI) rapidly reshapes how work gets done, educators are being forced to rethink what students need to succeed after graduation. New research from the Burning Glass Institute and the AI Education Project shows that generative AI is reshaping the skills students need in the workforce, placing greater emphasis on human capabilities such as judgment and reasoning. In other words, while technology can generate information and automate tasks, people still need to evaluate options, weigh tradeoffs, and determine what to do next. These are decision-making skills–and demand for them is rising. Recent research underscores just how…

Key points: While nearly every industry is racing to integrate artificial intelligence, most schools are still teaching high school math the way it’s been done for decades–rooted in instructional material that is abstract, disconnected, and detached from the world students actually live in. It’s no wonder that so many students decide early on that math “isn’t for them.” The way we’ve structured math instruction makes it hard for them to see why it matters. Our standards were built for a university pipeline, not for the realities of a dynamic economy that values creativity, problem-solving, and the ability to ask the…

Key points: Most project-based learning workshops are built around three domains: design, assessment, and implementation. In a model we developed for the Buck Institute for Education (PBLWorks) almost 25 years ago, day 1 of the workshop focused on project design, day 2 on project assessment, and day 3 on project implementation. One of the key features of project implementation is the suggestion to launch a project with a Need to Know activity. The goal of this activity is clear: Every student should leave with an understanding of what they need to know and what they need to do to successfully…

Key points: In recent years, public educational institutions have moved at a rapid clip into the digital era. As learning, services, and engagement are increasingly delivered online, these institutions have often expanded their digital footprint while neglecting overall digital accessibility. Recent updates to the Americans with Disabilities Act means digital accessibility for public educational institutions can not be ignored. It will become a legal mandate. A fast-approaching deadline In 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a landmark update to Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), establishing clear and enforceable requirements for digital accessibility. Public educational…

Key points: Schools have seen rising problems with student behavior since the pandemic. For too many K-12 districts, these student behavior challenges are leading to violence against teachers. According to a survey from the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Psychological Association (APA), 80 percent of teachers experienced at least one incident of verbal or threatening violence from students during the 2021 to 2022 school year and 56 percent experienced incidents of physical violence from students.  Violence against teachers in the workplace contributes to issues like burnout and some educators leaving the profession altogether. To support teachers in doing…

Key points: Last fall, during a professional development session I was running with a group of teachers in São Paulo, a fifth-grade teacher raised her hand and asked a question I have since heard in every country I work in: “I want to use AI to plan better lessons. But how do I do that without just putting kids in front of another screen?” She already knew what the research said. She saw what too much screen time did to her students’ attention spans, to their handwriting, to their ability to sit with a problem that did not have a…

Key points: The world of work is changing fast. Careers no longer sit neatly within a single industry, city, or even country; they span disciplines, time zones, technologies, and cultures. If education is to prepare learners for this reality, it must shift from a narrow focus on content delivery to building the foundational skills that future careers demand. Because the truth is this: Many of tomorrow’s roles are not entirely new; they are hybrids. An AI Prompt Engineer, for example, sits at the intersection of language, logic, and technology, translating human intent into instructions machines can understand. Climate and Sustainability…

Key points: Recent findings on the negative impacts of AI on learning might be sparking national debate, but they are unsurprising to learning scientists. In fact, these results highlight a long-standing U.S. trend of using what “feels right” or “sounds good” instead of following well-established education research. A recent Massachusetts Institute of Technology study shows that students’ over-reliance on technology in general, and AI in particular, bypasses essential learning processes during crucial stages of childhood and adolescent cognitive development. Examples of technology interfering with the development of critical thinking skills are abundant. They include replacing handwriting with keyboarding, reducing the importance of students’ automatic…

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe.at/newsletters. Seventh-grade math teacher Dylan Kane decided to conduct an experiment in his classes by going cold turkey on ed-tech. Kane, like just about every other teacher in the country, has seen the use of screens proliferate in his classroom — its own sort of accidental experiment. Then, last December, Kane read “The Digital Delusion,” a harsh critique of ed-tech. Although he was not entirely convinced by its arguments, the book made him pause. “I had kept some of my technology routines the same for a bunch…