EdCircuit

0 Leadership storytelling has become one of the most important skills for modern technology leaders as districts face increasing expectations around accountability, transparency, and strategic investment. While dashboards and analytics provide valuable insights, numbers alone rarely create understanding. Technology leaders are increasingly discovering that their ability to communicate the story behind their work may be just as important as the work itself.

0 AI rules for schools should begin with one simple principle: Students should never have to guess whether AI is allowed. Yet that is exactly what is happening in many classrooms. A student may be encouraged to use AI for brainstorming in one class, prohibited from using it in another, and receive no direction at all in a third.

0 Teacher in-service has expanded far beyond the traditional school auditorium, transforming professional learning into a flexible, year-round experience for today’s educators. District leaders welcomed staff back for another school year, keynote speakers shared their vision, departments gathered for breakout sessions, and teachers left carrying binders filled with notes, handouts, and ideas they hoped to put into practice.

0 CoSN back-to-school resources can help ed tech leaders begin the 2026–27 academic year with practical guidance on AI, cybersecurity, screen time, procurement, and federal policy. These 10 resources provide useful tools, professional learning opportunities, and connections to help technology teams address immediate needs while planning for the year ahead. 1.

0 AI in rural classrooms is transforming what teaching and learning look like day to day, reshaping instruction, workload, and student engagement in meaningful ways. At 7:15 a.m., the classroom lights are already on. A teacher sits at her desk in a small rural school, coffee in hand, reviewing the day ahead. She teaches three different courses, across two grade levels, with students whose abilities span a wide range.

0 Educational technology benefits often extend far beyond teaching and learning, creating value in areas that districts may not initially anticipate. While conversations about EdTech frequently focus on devices, software, and classroom applications, technology investments increasingly influence communication, operations, safety, equity, and the overall experience students and families have with their schools.

0 Flock cameras in schools are becoming a new layer of campus security, even though many educators, students, and families may not realize the cameras are there. A teacher turns into the staff parking lot at 7:12 a.m. A high school senior arrives a few minutes before the bell. A parent enters the pickup line, a delivery driver pulls behind the cafeteria, and a visitor comes to an evening school board meeting. To the people inside those vehicles, it feels like an ordinary trip onto school property.

0 Like many districts across the country, our district saw a concerning decline in student math achievement after the COVID-19 pandemic. We could see the gap growing, but we struggled to pinpoint why it was happening. As Director of Curriculum & Instruction, I decided to take a deep dive into our math assessment data. When I broke it down by strand, I found the problem: key foundational concepts, like fractions, were consistently the weak point across all levels.

0 Summer jobs have long been considered a rite of passage for high school students, but their value extends far beyond earning a paycheck. Whether students are serving ice cream on a hot July afternoon, stocking shelves at a local grocery store, lifeguarding at the community pool, assisting at a summer camp, working construction alongside family members, or helping customers at a neighborhood coffee shop, each experience teaches lessons that cannot be replicated inside a classroom.

0 For decades, the default response to a student’s mounting absences was a letter. If the letter failed, a meeting. If the meeting failed, a formal hearing. The logic was compliance: escalate consequences until behavior changed. It rarely worked. And the escalation often never reached the families who needed help most: those experiencing housing instability, living in rural communities where mail runs slow, or juggling multiple jobs. Punishment was never going to bring students back.