Education in Focus

As some students return to class this year with statewide or district-implemented cellphone bans, those who still have access to smartphones may be able to use an app powered by artificial-intelligence to complete their homework. The app, called Guath AI or Gauthmath, allows students to take pictures of their homework or tests, which it analyzes and solves. Critics have also pointed out that because it is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, user data may be accessible by that nation’s government. 

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Full story: https://www.chalkboardnews.com/issues/accountability/article_4d37743e-76ca-11ef-a42e-b7a5c9841da7.html

Earlier this month, a Texas special education teacher pleaded guilty to soliciting explicit photos from minors. The high school teacher posed as a 19-year-old boy to solicit the photos from a 14-year-old girl. The exploitation of children by teacher Juan Carlos Munoz highlights how adults posing as young people exploit minors, which federal law enforcement agencies say has been on the rise and must be discussed before it is committed. A Homeland Security Investigations special agent, Craig Larrabee, said in a press release that Munoz “abused his position of public trust as a special education teacher to prey on those he was entrusted to protect.”

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Full story: https://www.chalkboardnews.com/issues/safety/article_c923d28a-79b9-11ef-ba7b-2fba83125abb.html

Nearly two of three Detroit high school students did not complete selected online credit recovery courses the year after COVID-19. In the two following years, the district has seen higher completion rates for courses intended to help students graduate on time. Sample course completion data obtained by Chalkboard News through a public records request show that only 36% of Detroit Public School Community District students who took an online credit recovery course in the 2021-22 school year successfully completed it. The data show that students who had already failed a course were likely to fail the credit recovery course during that school year.

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Full story: https://www.chalkboardnews.com/issues/accountability/article_69364158-7605-11ef-97fd-2f8001b2f968.html

As teachers begin another school year and approach their first grade book deadlines, some school districts are adopting more “equity grading” reforms. Just last month, the Kansas City Public School district in Missouri gave the green light to a “no zero policy” in which students receiving a failing grade would have a 40% minimum grade through 59% instead of the 0-59% range it had before. According to Adam Tyner, national research director at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, this approach to grading rehashes some old approaches. Tyner was the coauthor of a research brief highlighting how these new “equity grading” standards were impacting students, both positively and negatively. 

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After the shooting at Apalachee High School in metro Atlanta last week, schools nationwide have closed due to threats, and dozens of students have been arrested. But what causes the uptick in school shooting threats after a mass shooting? According to Jaclyn Schildkraut, the executive director of the Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium at the Rockefeller Institute of Government, it’s not clear whether shooting threats actually increase or whether people are just more vigilant. But she said there are ways to reduce the likelihood of future attacks and threats. 

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School districts nationwide are facing a Sept. 30 deadline to spend the last round of nearly $200 billion in federal COVID-19 funds on helping students recover from learning losses due to school closures and other needs. The deadline, sometimes called a fiscal cliff, marks the last day districts can spend federal money on certain expenditures, but there are some extensions and deadlines to know about. According to the Edunomics Lab, which tracks federal spending nationwide, the money that is not spent by districts will return to the Department of the Treasury.

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Public school students in New York City will receive lessons critical of capitalism and asserting that Black Americans should receive reparations, that student loans are equivalent to “debt peonage,” the tenets of the Black Lives Matter movement and arguments for abolishing the police. The 520-page Black Studies Curriculum, which is being implemented by New York City Public Schools this fall, provides lesson plan outlines for teachers on controversial topics like the case for reparations, voter ID laws and the difference between defunding, reforming and abolishing the police. While many of the topics discussed would likely not be considered controversial, there are some classroom discussions that seem to be driven by stating controversial viewpoints as fact.

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State authorities have announced that the father of the suspect accused of killing four and wounding nine more at a metro Atlanta high school has been arrested for his part in providing weapons for the suspect to use. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation announced Thursday evening that it had arrested Colin Gray, the shooter’s father, in connection with Wednesday’s attack on Apalachee High School in Barrow County, Georgia. The move has a recent legal precedent: Prosecutors have previously convicted the parents of a school shooter who attacked a high school in Oxford, Michigan. 

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Full story: https://www.chalkboardnews.com/issues/safety/article_9ab681ce-6c60-11ef-81f1-ff19d7adc7e8.html 

The Washington State Board of Education is moving closer to officially updating and expanding a 2021 resolution that established an ethnic studies graduation requirement. Board members discussed “incorporating Ethnic Studies into the legislative platform, and/or addressing Ethnic Studies through the FutureReady graduation requirements initiative,” according to the agenda for Thursday’s virtual board of education meeting. According to the board’s website, FutureReady – implemented this summer – is an initiative to update graduation requirements to better prepare students for the future. However, the increasing focus on ethnic studies in all subjects is not without controversy.

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Full story: WA Board of Ed looks to expand controversial ethnic studies graduation requirement

Seattle Public Schools has amended certain student information policies after a parent complained to administrators that an identity worksheet handed out by an outspoken teacher may have violated federal and state laws, Chalkboard has learned. The district confirmed to Chalkboard News this week that it no longer asks students to provide protected information for a “social identity wheel” that could be linked to them without parental notification and an opt-out opportunity after a parent invoked federal laws limiting what schools can ask students. Chalkboard News obtained copies of a parent email sent to administrators through a public records request. The parent alleged that a world history ethnic studies class at Chief Sealth International High School required students to submit information violating federal law.

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