The Hechinger Report

LOVELAND, Colo. — Just beyond the front doors of Namaqua Elementary School, past a banner that reads “attendance matters — every school day counts,” a stuffed wildcat in sunglasses sits in the lobby, observing the comings and goings of students. The school mascot is called Wyatt, and the students are told that he monitors attendance. Are the children arriving on time? Did they make it to school today?

This story also appeared in Mind/Shift Artificial intelligence is often promoted as a way to make teachers more effective by helping them write lesson plans, generate classroom materials and provide feedback to students in seconds. But one of the first randomized trials testing AI in real classrooms found that it can also undermine learning. Students whose teachers were given access to an AI teaching assistant feltless motivated to learn.

Confidence in higher education is declining across the United States. Fewer Americans say a college degree is very important: A growing share believe the system is headed in the wrong direction, particularly when it comes to preparing students for employment. Not surprisingly, college enrollment has fallen in recent years.

Even as job seekers fret about artificial intelligence and tech behemoths announce massive layoffs, Matt Walsh is finding it surprisingly hard to help technology companies hire certain kinds of workers. That’s what Walsh’s recruiting firm, Blue Signal, does. And in specialties including semiconductor production, “the unemployment rate is probably negative 20 percent,” the CEO of the Phoenix-based search company said. “It’s ridiculous.

In 2020, a 14-inch tall robot named Moxie was introduced to the world as a way to help children build social and emotional skills through conversations and interactive games guided by artificial intelligence. Kids became enthralled and attached to the oblong teal robot, referring to it as their best friend. Four years later, Embodied, the company that created Moxie, shut down. Children were distraught as parents broke the news to them that the $799 toy would soon stop working.

The students booing artificial intelligence at commencements across the country are not just worried about jobs. They have learned an urgent lesson from the not-so-distant past. They know that the familiar promise of empowerment and creativity will continue to give way to the pathologies of the online surveillance economy: viral slop, commercial manipulation and addictive apps — this time on automated steroids. The utopian promise of the tech industry is on life support.

When Jodi Carreon’s son returned to school full time after the pandemic, she expected teachers would roll back the use of the laptops they had relied on while students were home. But soon after her son started second grade, Carreon realized he was still using a Chromebook throughout the day. Then the teacher sent a note home: Her son was playing Minecraft and watching YouTube instead of doing his work. Could Carreon urge him to focus? “In my mind, I was like, ‘What do you expect? He’s 7 years old.

This story also appeared in Mind/Shift When ChatGPT arrived in late 2022, educators quickly asked whether students would use artificial intelligence to cheat, learn or simply get through homework more efficiently. Evidence is beginning to point toward a troubling answer: Many students appear to be completing assignments faster while learning less from them. This conclusion comes from one of the largest studies of how generative AI is changing student behavior and academic skills.

As a former teacher and now school leader, I know nothing is worse than missing the mark with your students. It is both disillusioning and frustrating to know that you are failing to provide them with the necessary tools to drive their own learning. It was this realization that convinced me that something needed to change. We needed to do high school differently.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Ask parent Janina Matuszeski what she has valued most about her twins’ experience in the Cambridge Public Schools to this point, and she is quick to cite the diversity and teacher quality. If there is one area in which the schools have performed less well in serving her children, who just completed eighth grade, it has been math.