Friday News Roundup

It’s Friday! Time for the News Roundup.

There’s Lots at Stake for Districts and Kids When Underenrolled Schools Stay Open (The 74)

When I worked for the Houston public schools, one of the hardest tasks we had to do was close underenrolled schools. In fact, I would say NOT closing schools that needed to be shut up was one of our greatest failures as a leadership team.

It seems like our story was not much different than other school districts across the country.

The 74 online reported this week that,

“At a research conference in late March, Princeton economist Richard DiSalvo presented some startling graphs comparing student enrollments against the number of schools serving those students.”

“By contrasting these two trends, DiSalvo could measure whether and how much districts suffer from what he called adjustment inertia. In other words, do districts open new schools as student enrollments rise, and do they close schools as enrollment falls?”

“His findings are not entirely surprising: On average, districts have an easier time growing when demand is rising than they do shrinking when enrollments fall. It’s also comparatively easier for districts to adjust staffing levels up or down than it is to adjust their physical footprint in the form of school buildings.”

No Teacher Raises. A Failed School Voucher Push. Armed Guards. Here’s What Changed for Public Education This Legislative Session (The Texas Tribune)

I watched a Texas Tribune-sponsored panel this week where legislative successes and failures were discussed when it came to public education. I’ll save you from looking it up and watching by providing a quick summary:

The elected politician said everything is going to get fixed in an upcoming special session.

The two public education representatives, one a superintendent and the other a pre-K teacher, complained that the Texas had forgotten teachers and public education during this past legislative session.

This is the way most of these panels go.

Here’s where things stand in Texas, at least for now:

No state-funded teacher pay raises.

No vouchers.

Every Texas school will not have an armed security officer (mainly because of Uvalde).

Open-source, high-quality instructional materials will not be available to every classroom teacher.

Booksellers Sue Over Texas Law Requiring Them to Rate Books for Appropriateness (The Texas Tribune)

The Texas Tribune online reported this week that,

“A coalition of Texas bookstores and national bookseller associations filed suit on Tuesday over House Bill 900, which aims to ban sexually explicit material form school libraries.”

“HB 900 passed in the Legislature and was signed by Governor Greg Abbott earlier this year. It is set to go into effect on September 1 and requires book vendors to assign ratings to books based on the presence of depictions or references to sex. In school libraries, books with a ‘sexually explicit’ rating will be removed from bookshelves. And students who want to check out school library books deemed ‘sexually relevant’ would have to get parent permission first.”

“According to the official complaint, which was filed in an Austin federal court, the plaintiffs [Austin’s BookPeople, West Houston’s Blue Willow Bookshop, the American Booksellers Association, the Association of American Publishers, the Authors Guild, and the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund] argue that HB 900 violates the First and 14^th amendments by regulating speech with ‘vague and overbroad’ terms and targeting protected speech.”

“The CEOs of both bookstores say it is not possible for them to comply with the rating system required of book vendors in HB 900. The sheer volume of titles they would need to rate is too much, Charly Rejsek, CEO of BookPeople, said in a statement.”

It will be interesting to see how the courts rule on HB 900, but maybe it’s just another law that sounds good to enough lawmakers inside a legislative chamber, especially those who are presently interested in “witch hunt” activities but doesn’t stand up to the realities of how the outside world works.

Review Finds States Slow to Give Guidance on How Teachers, Schools Should Use AI (The 74)

The 74 online reported this week that,

“Developments in artificial intelligence technology have exploded into the mainstream this year and welcomed people to summon text, audio and images with a few user-friendly AI prompts. The technology is rapidly evolving and poised to reshape functions of government, society and schools. But most state education departments have not publicly acknowledged this new breed of AI, or the considerations for using it in teaching and learning, according to a national review by the Center on Reinventing Public Education.”

Is this really news we should be concerned about? Do we really want state legislators to decide how AI will be used within our public education system?

Maybe AI should be used to create a personalized learning plan for every young learner in the nation, while being supported by a learning coach working with a cohort of young learners?

I’ll be away until August 7^th. Have a great weekend and try to stay cool out there! SVB