Friday News Roundup

My apologies for not being able to post articles this week until now. I’ve experienced some technical difficulties with Word Press, but, other than not being able to print a title, it seems like I’ve figure out a way to patch it together. Sorry for loading up your reading list at the end of the week!

Here’s your Friday News Roundup.

Capitol Recap: Lawmakers Confront the Rising Cost of Education (Vermont Public)

The cost of public education is rising. This news item comes from Vermont, but Vermont isn’t alone when it comes to states facing serious financial decisions about the future of their public schools. Vermont Public reports:

“At the end of the year, Vermont’s tax commissioner released a prediction that made headlines across the state. Education property tax bills were expected to rise an average of 18.5%. Now local school districts are finalizing the budgets they’ll put before voters in March, and lawmakers are back in Montpelier [Vermont’s capital].”

Lola Duffort, a Vermont Public reporter, put it this way:

“There are a lot of variables at play. Like most employers, schools are dealing with inflation, most notably with health care. Those costs are up 16% this year. And because of a labor shortage, educators also had more bargaining power to get better salaries.”

“But perhaps the single largest factor at play is the retreat of federal aid. Schools got hundreds of millions in additional federal money during COVID, and they used that money to put in a slew of new programs and services. Now that money is gone. But many schools are hesitant to cut those extra supports.”

“On top of that, the federal money that was sloshing around in the economy also meant that other tax revenues were going absolutely gangbusters for a couple of years. That extra money from things like sales taxes allowed lawmakers to pay for schools without having to rely as heavily on property taxes.”

The fact is that most of our public school districts bleed money. They are inefficient. Many are totally ineffective. There is a better way, in terms of efficiency and effectiveness, to get our kids to be smarter and stronger with their learning. That way is no longer what we have with our current public school system.

Can ChatGPT Get Into Harvard? We Tested Its Admissions Essay (The Washington Post)

Earlier this month, The Washington Post asked the question “Can ChatGPT get into Harvard?” Here’s part of the Post’s story:

“ChatGPT’s release a year ago triggered a wave of panic among educators. Now, universities are in the midst of college application season, concerned that students might use the artificial intelligence tool to forge admissions essays.”

“But is a chatbot-created essay good enough to fool college admissions counselors?”

“To find out, The Washington Post asked a prompt engineer – an expert at directing AI chatbots – to create college essays using ChatGPT. The chatbot produced two essays: one responding to a question from the Common Application, which thousands of colleges use for admissions, and one answering a prompt used solely for applicants to Harvard University.”

“We presented these essays to a former Ivy League college admissions counselor, Adam Nguyen, who previously advised students at Harvard University and read admissions essays at Columbia University. We presented Nguyen with a control: a set of real college admissions essays penned by Jasmine Green, a Post intern who used them to get into Harvard University, where she is currently a senior.”

“We asked Nguyen to read the essays and spot which ones were produced by AI. The results were illuminating.”

…

“At first, Nguyen was impressed by the AI-generated essays: They were readable and mostly free of grammatical errors. But if he was reviewing the essay as part of an application package, he would’ve stopped reading.”

“’The essay is such a mediocre essay that it would not help the candidate’s application or chances,’ he said in an interview. ‘In fact, it would probably diminish it.’”

…

“’ChatGPT is not there,’ he said.”

…

It’s not there now, but here’s betting it gets “there” fast.

Study: ‘Short Burst’ Tutoring in Literacy Shows Promise for Young Readers (The 74)

More on tutoring. The 74 reported this week that,

“Small, regular interactions with a reading tutor – about 5 to 7 minutes – are making a big impact on young students’ reading skills, new Stanford University research shows.”

“First graders in Florida’s Broward County schools who participated in the program, called Chapter One, saw more substantial gains in reading fluency than those who didn’t receive the support, according to the study. They were also 9 percentage points less likely to be considered at risk on a district literacy test.”

…

“The program’s ‘short burst’ model ‘leverages all the knowledge that we have about what works to help children learn to read,’ said Susanna Loeb, who leads the National Student Support Accelerator at Stanford University, a leading tutor research center.”

…

“Children making adequate progress might only see their tutor a couple times a week, while those who are far behind receive daily sessions. Later in the day, students spend another 15-20 minutes practicing with the same Chapter One software.”

“’It kind of runs itself,’ said Ingrid Rosales, a literacy coach at Orange Brook Elementary, a Title I school in Hollywood, Florida. ‘It doesn’t really interfere with our instruction.’”

…

It seems like Chapter One meets the definition hybrid learning – the best of technology along with the importance of the human relationship.

Finally, a quick update on my son Sam, the medical student. Sam told me this morning that, while studying for a test today, he felt that he had really arrived at a powerful “flow” over the 48 hours before the exam. Sam told me that he felt he was really in a learning groove, and, because of it, felt that he had performed well on his test.

That got be thinking. If learning “flow” can occur at any time for any length of time, then why do traditional school systems rely on incremental learning – 45 minutes classes, 5-day learning weeks, 180-day school years.

It’s time we change learning for our kids from incremental to a system that embraces “flow” and “breakthrough learning.”

Have a great weekend. Minus 16 in Iowa tonight. Til Monday. SVB