There is a Board of Ed meeting on Tuesday

 And you can find the agenda here.

The out-of-the-ordinary part of the piece of this is that they are meeting in Williamsburg at the Anne T. Dunphy School. For those not familiar, Williamsburg is northwest of Northampton, and it is quite lovely! I recommend visiting sometime, 'though perhaps not for a Board of Ed meeting; don't miss the general store. 

The meeting will start at 9:30, presumably so those making their way west can find it (I will observe here that the heavy traffic actually goes east, and yet, somehow, those are the meetings that start at 9).

In any case...the State Student Advisory Council is sharing their goals for the year, one assumes via student member Sara Khan, who is president of the group. Also on the agenda is the Commissioner's evaluation, and the proposed regulations on literacy.

There is also "K–12 Statewide Graduation Standards: Foundational Coursework and Postsecondary Planning" as an item. I will be interested to see if that notes that the graduation report is a proposal that requires legislative action to move forward--more on that this weekend--and not a done deal, as it has been framed by the Commissioner to date.

None of the above has any backups (which is unusual at least for the regulations, such that I wonder if that is an oversight) as of Friday evening at 6 PM. 

These are Worcester trees,
but I imagine we'll get to enjoy some pretty trees on the drive to Williamsburg.

And while we're talking about technology in the classroom

 ...don't miss the NBC News look at what videos students are watching on their school-issued devices. 

And don't miss Matt Barnum's coverage of the Trump administration official who likened ed tech to tobacco. The problem there is that its being used as an argument against continuing Erate (pendulum again...).

Hey, how about we don't do this

 5 'good' AI use cases that are bad for students

...and frankly, this is still too positive about possible uses. We need students to develop these skills, which they manifestly are not doing if they're outsourcing it! 

Some recommended reading about next year's school budgets

Some recent useful reporting on this coming year--and in some cases, even this year, and in all cases, beyond next year's--school budgets:

I've added "geopolitical forces" to my "impacts on future budgets" slide for school district presentations. While this was always true, oil prices show up multiple places in school budgets (not just the buses!), and I'm glad the Boston Globe captured that.

“The bottom line is there’s no wiggle room on municipal budgets almost across the board,” he added. “Any time there is a cost driver that exceeds the rate of revenue growth, yeah, it’s very concerning.”

This lengthy piece by Sam Drysdale at State House News (sharing there via WWLP 22) takes a hard look at declining enrollment and what the means for the state. 

On paper, declining enrollment should mean less state aid. In practice, Massachusetts’ funding formula cushions districts from those losses.

Overall Chapter 70 aid increased to $7.66 billion in fiscal 2027, up 4.03%, even as enrollment fell.

No district receives less Chapter 70 aid than it received the previous year, and every district is guaranteed at least its prior-year aid plus $160 per pupil in fiscal 2027. As a result, only 62 districts are receiving aid driven directly by the formula’s enrollment and need calculations; most are receiving hold-harmless funding plus minimum aid.

Lewis said that is itself evidence the formula needs attention.

“The high number of communities in held harmless is actually one of the clear signs that we need to be reviewing our funding formula again,” he said. “The formula is basically broken for many communities.”

Yet there is a fundamental question about what the formula can realistically accomplish.

Howgate said the state cannot simply create a funding formula that pays districts for having fewer students.

“I don’t think we’re going to be able to come up with a formula to give districts money for fewer kids,” he said.

(and cheers to Sam for correctly capturing hold harmless there!) 

speaking of Alpha Schools: update from Springfield

 I'd missed this from Springfield last week: 

Springfield Empowerment Zone Co-Executive Director Matthew Brunell clarified that the pilot was paused due to the cyberattack on Springfield Public Schools that occurred in the beginning of September. He said the pilot will likely not be in use this school year.

Alpha Schools and a foot in the door

 I hope that you've been keeping up with Ben Riley's reporting on Alpha Schools and specifically the experience of students there; you can find his sixth report from last week here. The way that students have been treated should concern us all. 

Largely, though, I am posting to urge you to read the Texas Tribune's report on Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath, who oversees the public schools of Texas, working to get Alpha Schools into the public school system there. It's a collaborative report with ProPublica, which draws on months of public records' requests. 

Over the last year, Morath and his staff at the Texas Education Agency exchanged a flurry of emails with leaders of companies connected to Alpha about possible partnerships, visited their campuses several times, helped with a one-page explainer about the program to share with school districts and connected them with district leaders, according to communications obtained by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune through public information requests. 

One email revealed that Morath offered to personally introduce an Alpha leader to the superintendent he appointed to lead the yearslong state takeover of Houston Independent School District, the largest in the state. 

“I’d also like to set up another site visit to visit both your Austin secondary and primary with my team,” wrote Morath. “The Superintendent of H.I.S.D. would also like to do a site visit, so l’ll connect y’all separately. And hopefully we can schedule them to happen on the same day.” 

The emails show that state education officials and Alpha affiliates approached at least 10 school districts about the AI program. After the coordination, at least three of those districts — Houston; Fort Davis, in West Texas; and Aldine, near Houston — launched pilot programs incorporating the AI tool. 

The full extent of Morath and his agency’s involvement, as well as the number of public school districts using the AI program, remains unclear. The TEA has not responded to questions about its efforts for months, initially failed to provide some of Morath’s emails in response to public information requests and continues fighting the release of additional communications.

It's bad enough that this is out there and sucking in families at all. That the influence of a state leadership is being wielded in its favor--and this in a state where the state board refused to allow Alpha Schools to open as a charter!--is worse. 

Possibly too many things to read on AI and tech in schools

 

It's a lovely time of year in Massachusetts. 
Do get out and enjoy it.
My photo of a former schoolhouse in Belchertown yesterday.

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