The clearest evidence is teen employment, which alone has been for nearly 50 years. 

The , “A Digital Divide in American Adolescence,” by Daniel Cox of the American Enterprise Institute’s Survey Center on American Life, was published in mid-August. It draws on the results of the , whose interviews were conducted in January and February with teens aged 13 to 17.聽

The study’s first key finding is that the bottom rung of the career ladder is disappearing. A generation ago, a summer job or an afterschool shift was a routine rite of passage. It was a place where teenagers learned to show up on time, take direction from someone who wasn’t a parent or teacher and get paid for reliability rather than talent. But today, only 15% of teens in the survey reported having a part-time job, and just 28% even among 16- and 17-year-olds 鈥� the group most likely to work. Bureau of Labor Statistics show teen labor force participation peaked at nearly 58% in the late 1970s and has been falling ever since. 

The survey also shows that even within adolescence itself, opportunities for growth become rarer as students age. Travel sports participation among boys falls from 52% in early adolescence to 35% by age 16 or 17; choir and band participation among girls falls from 30% to 17%; and only 7% of teens are in student government or debate.

None of these activities is glamorous. But they鈥檙e the low-stakes, repeatable settings where teenagers practice commitment, teamwork and how to lose gracefully. They鈥檙e the soft infrastructure that makes a first real job, internship or semester of college survivable rather than disorienting.

When that infrastructure thins out, an shows up later. Employers often young workers lack basic job skills. The real problem is many never had the chance to practice them.

The AEI survey’s second finding is that this erosion isn’t evenly distributed. Teens with college-educated parents participate in extracurriculars at roughly double the rate of peers whose parents didn’t attend college. Nearly 1 in 4 are in an academic club, compared with 13% of teens whose parents didn’t attend college. And they’re three times as likely to be in student government or debate.

Screen time follows the same pattern in reverse. Teens spend, on average, close to three hours a day on social media. But neither is that time evenly distributed. Girls raised in households without a college-educated parent spend more time on more apps and are less likely to have tried cutting back than girls of parents with a degree. Boys in the same households log substantially more hours gaming.

Third, teens’ plans for what happens after high school are shifting, and shifting unevenly. Only 48% now plan to attend a four-year college, far short of being the near-default path for high school graduates. A separate the share of teens planning on any college 鈥� two- or four-year 鈥� fell from 73% in 2018 to 45% by 2024. The AEI survey reports 17% plan on a two-year or vocational program, 10% a full-time job and nearly 1 in 5 aren’t sure what’s next.

Those plans split sharply by gender and socioeconomic class, with 74% of girls with college-educated parents planning to attend a four-year school, versus 46% whose parents didn’t. 

A separate released in late August 2026, Gallup and the Walton Family Foundation’s fourth annual “Voices of Gen Z” poll, makes essentially the same point from inside the school building. Its sample of 14- to 18-year-olds is close to the age range AEI surveyed, and its findings closely track AEI’s.

No more than 20% of students feel “very prepared” for any specific path after high school, college, trade school, an apprenticeship or the job they want. Even among students planning to attend college, only 19% feel very prepared to do so.

When adults talk with students about their futures, those conversations are overwhelmingly about one path, with 52% of students saying adults have talked to them a lot about going to college. That鈥檚 compared with 17% discussing apprenticeships and 14% talking about jobs that don’t require a degree. This gap holds even among students who’ve already said they don’t plan to go to college.

Put together, the two surveys describe the same experience gap from two directions. AEI shows that fewer informal, out-of-school experiences that build real-world readiness are happening. Gallup/Walton shows that inside school, the guidance students receive is aimed almost entirely at one route, regardless of which one they’re headed toward.

Neither survey is describing a generation that’s lost interest in a good future. But both paint a picture of a generation that’s been given a narrower set of tools to reach it than it needs.

Here’s what school leaders and policymakers can do.

• Treat work-based learning as core infrastructure, not as an elective add-on. States and districts should expand youth and paid internship pipelines that give students structured work experience during the school year.
• Protect and expand school-based extracurriculars. This is especially important for teenagers whose families can’t supply the equivalent privately. The disparity in sports and club participation is a resource gap schools can partly close by keeping programs funded and accessible.
• Focus on transportation and scheduling. The problem isn鈥檛 only motivation; much of the falloff in extracurricular participation among lower-income teens is logistical. Afterschool jobs and activities require rides and flexible hours many working families can’t provide.
• Use state Workforce Pell and career-navigation funding to reach younger teens. Don鈥檛 just focus on juniors and seniors, and extend information beyond college advising. Guidance concentrated almost entirely on college leaves the majority of teens who won’t take it with less support.

None of this calls for panic, but it does call for attention. The teenagers in these surveys aren’t disengaged or unhappy in any dramatic sense. Most report being satisfied with their lives, their friendships, even their relationships with their parents. What they’re missing is practice and preparation for adulthood.

The back-to-school season is usually treated as a fresh start for academics. This survey data suggests it’s worth treating it as a fresh start for something schools have quietly let slide: the ordinary, unglamorous work of learning how to show up, and helping every teenager, not just those who are college-bound, see a clear path toward what comes next.

The intention is good. But it鈥檚 not good enough.

A strong state policy can create urgency, define expectations and keep attention on what matters. But policies typically don鈥檛 recommend new schedules, establish guidelines for community partnerships, incentivize effective teacher training or help organize limited resources to achieve results.

That work happens in districts and in schools. And if we ignore that work, even the strongest policy will produce uneven results.

from Louisiana shows that states can improve outcomes at scale when they provide clear direction, aligned incentives and sustained attention over time. In other words, states can鈥檛 simply pass better rules and wait for results. States must also provide districts with the nuts and bolts that translate policy into day-to-day practice.

If districts would just 鈥渄o the thing,鈥� so the logic goes, results would follow. My decades of experience helping districts implement ambitious change suggest a different reality: District leaders want more meaningful pathways to college and career. But they lack a workable blueprint to make these changes feasible.

Consider literacy. A state can adopt strong standards aligned with the science of reading, a high-quality curriculum and early screening. But a district still has hard questions to answer: Where will uninterrupted literacy time fit in the day? How will schools know which students need extra help, and when will they get it? Who provides intervention and how will reading specialists, tutors and classroom teachers work together instead of operating in isolation? What professional learning is essential? And 鈥� perhaps most challenging 鈥� what current work has to stop so that teachers aren鈥檛 buried under one more add-on initiative?

Those questions may sound mundane. But they are the difference between a reading policy that changes lives and one that produces new paperwork.

The same challenge is even more visible in high school, where states are increasingly promoting stronger college and career pathways. They鈥檙e asking for industry credentials, work-based learning and dual enrollment. These ideas have real promise. But they鈥檙e as complicated as literacy programs 鈥� maybe even more complicated 鈥� to design well.

In one district my nonprofit organization worked with, scheduling logistics meant that some students couldn鈥檛 participate in a pathway without sacrificing graduation requirements. In another district, the schools were simply too small and too remote to offer the range of pathways their students wanted. In another, it turned out that students鈥� lack of proficiency in reading, writing and math was preventing them from succeeding in career pathways. And in many districts, students must choose between a focus on academics and technical learning.

If states want these reforms to reach more students, especially students who have historically been furthest from opportunity, they need to treat implementation as a design challenge, not a compliance exercise. They must go beyond setting direction to enabling transformation.

That means doing a few things differently.

• State guidance should include frameworks that explicitly address the district-level choices that matter the most. For literacy, there are tough decisions around scheduling, staffing, curriculum, teacher training and progress monitoring. For career pathways, district leaders have to consider course sequences, scheduling, partnerships, transportation, staffing, labor market alignment and an equal focus on strengthening foundational skills.

• States should collect and share work being done in districts that are making progress. Leaders need to see the schedules, staffing models, course sequences, funding strategies and partnership agreements that prove it鈥檚 possible and that can be adapted to each leader鈥檚 unique context.

• States should invest real dollars to support districts in redesigning existing systems 鈥� rather than layering a new initiative on top of old structures. They should provide technical assistance, tools or incentives that reward coherence rather than mere adoption.

• States and districts need a clearer division of labor. States should focus on coherence and establishing guardrails. Districts should take the lead on making it work for their students, their teachers, and their local context.

Researchers have made progress in identifying what works. They know that when high school connects academic learning to life after graduation. They know that a focus on reading, writing and math proficiency in ninth grade . They know that simple credentialing requirements . And we know there鈥檚 still more to learn.

But the next challenge is not just discovering what works. It鈥檚 making what works feasible at scale.

If states and districts want career-pathway investments to change students鈥� lives, they have to pay as much attention to the machinery of implementation as they do to the promise of policy. That machinery may not make for a flashy press conference. But that鈥檚 where reform either becomes real for students鈥攐r doesn鈥檛.

High school came with more responsibility and less accountability for Josiah Ulukita. Courses were much harder, teachers were less strict about attendance and it was easier to skip school with friends or go on his phone during class, he said. 

Ulukita went from easily passing middle school to failing freshman English and social studies. After missing roughly half of his freshman year due to poor attendance, he found out he needed to repeat ninth grade. The shame of being held back led him to lose motivation and skip more school, he said, until his counselor warned him that he may not graduate on time. 

鈥淚 was acing all my classes, and then I hit freshman year,鈥� Ulukita said. 鈥淚 thought it was going to be easy.鈥�

More than a thousand students in Hawai驶i share Ulukita鈥檚 experience each year. Roughly 1 in 10 students failed their freshman year in the state鈥檚 public high schools and had to repeat the grade in the 2021-2022 school year, the most recent year for which federal data is available. That鈥檚 more than double the national rate for this group of teens that year, according to an analysis of national data by Big Local News, an initiative of Stanford University.

In the school years since, the rate has decreased somewhat but remained high. In the 2024-2025 school year, 1 in 13 freshmen were held back, according to the state education department. 

Hawai驶i鈥檚 status as a national outlier is made all the more jarring considering younger Hawai驶i students rarely repeat a grade 鈥�  of elementary and middle schoolers overall. But that progress seems to come to a screeching halt in high school when more rigid requirements kick in to advance to the next level.

Other states like Mississippi and Florida are taking a more proactive approach to retention, holding students back as early as kindergarten through third grade. More than two dozen states require or allow schools to  who aren鈥檛 proficient in reading. Hawai驶i has no such law on the books.

While research on the effects of retention is mixed, some studies find that students have better outcomes when they鈥檙e held back in their younger years and receive additional support to catch up academically to their peers. There鈥檚 little evidence that holding teens back in high school improves their learning, and some researchers argue that it actually hurts students鈥� chances of earning their diplomas.

鈥淚n earlier grades, basically grade retention could work if retention is supplemented with educational supports for these kids,鈥� said Umut Ozek, a senior economist at RAND, a nonpartisan research and policy organization. 鈥淚n contrast, in middle and high school, the evidence suggests that retention could actually harm students.鈥� 

Hawai驶i students and teachers attribute the high number of ninth graders being held back to a number of factors. Some say there鈥檚 more peer pressure to skip class and dodge assignments. Classes are harder and require students to have strong foundations in reading and math. Many students are unaccustomed to the strict credit requirements they need to fulfill to move to the next grade. 

鈥淚t鈥檚 a shock for the kids to understand that unless they receive a certain amount of credits, they can鈥檛 move on anymore,鈥� said Dean Cevallos, principal at Kea驶au High School on the Big Island. 

Schools try to avoid holding students back by offering summer school, counseling, personalized learning plans and other resources, state education department Deputy Superintendent Heidi Armstrong said in a written statement. Freshman year can be academically challenging for some students, she said, and some teens might have challenges earning the credits they need to move on to 10th grade. 

The education department has declared a goal of promoting more freshmen to 10th grade by doubling down on students鈥� academic readiness and engagement beginning in middle school, according to its .

鈥淭he Department鈥檚 goal is to ensure students are prepared for continued academic success and remain on track toward earning a high school diploma,鈥� Armstrong said.

Repeating ninth grade comes with consequences, including the possibility that students drop out without earning their diplomas. Some say the embarrassment of taking classes with younger students led them to attend school less frequently and fall further behind in their studies, while others said it motivated them to take their academics more seriously and catch up with their peers. 

Ulukita, who had to repeat ninth grade, was able to earn the credits he needed to complete both his freshman and sophomore year through additional courses, after-school work and a better attendance record. Now a junior at Kaimuk墨 High School, Ulukita is on track to graduate with the rest of his peers in 2028. 

鈥淵ou鈥檝e got to lock in more, do all your classes, make sure you get all your credits and graduate on time,鈥� Ulukita said. 鈥淵ou don鈥檛 want to be that super senior.鈥�

Why Ninth Grade?

Freshmen must earn five credits 鈥� the equivalent of five yearlong classes 鈥� to move on to 10th grade. Most high school students take several classes during their freshman year, meaning that kids can fail one or two courses and still earn enough credits to move up. Students must continue to accumulate credits and pass their core classes throughout high school until they earn the  needed to graduate. 

When students repeat ninth grade, they鈥檙e not starting from scratch, said Elise Hannigan, Kea驶au High School鈥檚 Freshman Academy coordinator. Instead, students retake the freshman classes they failed but move on to 10th grade coursework whenever possible.

If students don鈥檛 have foundational academic skills by the time they get to high school, teachers say, it can make passing freshman classes more difficult. Students often take heavier course loads once they get to high school, and teachers may move through material more quickly. 

Students who scored below standards on eighth grade reading and math tests were less likely to pass all of their ninth grade courses and complete high school in five years, according to a 2024 report from , which studies students鈥� progress from preschool through college. 

It鈥檚 sometimes hard to determine if students are failing ninth grade because of academic or social issues, Hannigan said. 

If students attend school regularly, she said, they鈥檙e usually able to pass their classes, even if they need extra support from their teachers. But it鈥檚 difficult to get students up to speed if they鈥檙e not at school, she said, and teens may be less willing to engage in class if they already feel behind.  

鈥淚 would say, of the students who are not getting their five credits, the majority of them, it鈥檚 because they just have not been in school enough to do the work necessary to pass the classes,鈥� Hannigan said. 鈥淚f they鈥檙e not in school, it鈥檚 really hard to support a student.鈥� 

Coming out of the pandemic, ninth graders were struggling academically, especially in math, said Kim Williamson, principal of P膩hoa High and Intermediate on the Big Island. At the time, the school was retaining nearly a quarter of its freshman class,  from the 2021-22 academic year. 

The school strengthened its academic support for its students, Williamson said, offering after-school tutoring and setting aside blocks of time for kids to receive extra instruction in reading and math. Because ninth grade algebra can be especially challenging for some students, he said, the school has created a pre-algebra course to make sure freshmen have foundational skills before they start on the high school coursework. 

鈥淚f they didn鈥檛 get a basic skill when they were younger, it does amplify as they get older,鈥� Williamson said. 

In the 2024-25 academic year, the school鈥檚 ninth grade retention rate was 12%, a significant improvement from a few years ago.   

Lasting Effects

Shylyn Jimenez didn鈥檛 want to be at Leilehua High School in Wahiaw膩 during her freshman year. She had been dealing with bullying since middle school and fell in with the wrong crowd, she said. When she needed to repeat the grade, she lost motivation to attend class and complete her course requirements.  

鈥淭he more I kept messing up in school, the more I didn鈥檛 care, and the more it made it easy to not show up,鈥� she said. 鈥淚n my head at that time, the things that I was doing outside of school were way more fun than school itself.鈥� 

Only 57% of students who failed two or more classes in ninth grade completed high school in five years, compared to the state average of 89%, . Roughly 12% of freshmen who enroll in Hawai驶i high schools  within four years, although the education department doesn鈥檛 specify how many of these students had to repeat a grade.

After her freshman year, Jimenez appeared in court for truancy. She was referred to an alternative learning program, which offered extended school days and year-round classes for kids who fall behind and need significant help catching up on their credits. While she initially resisted coming to class, the staff never gave up on her 鈥� sometimes showing up at her house to make sure she came to school.  

鈥淚 needed somebody to tell me, 鈥業f you don鈥檛 get your ass in school, there鈥檚 going to be consequences,’鈥� Jimenez said. 

It took Jimenez an extra year to complete high school, but she earned her diploma last year and is now enrolled in a cosmetology program at Honolulu Community College.It鈥檚 hard to say how repeating ninth grade affects student achievement, said Francisco Martorell, a professor at the University of California Davis School of Education. Most studies focus on students who were held back in elementary or middle school. 

Generally, holding older students back can negatively affect their chances of completing high school and enrolling in college, said Ozek, the senior economist at RAND. Schools run the risk of students aging out before they earn their diplomas, meaning they can drop out at any time, and the stigma of repeating a grade may be stronger among older students. 

鈥淭he bottom line is grade retention in later grades, especially in high school,鈥� he said, 鈥渋s not really a good idea.鈥�

Gearing Up For High School

At Kea驶au High School, students鈥� transition to ninth grade starts weeks before the school year begins.

Incoming freshmen spend three weeks on campus in June taking classes, learning how to participate in clubs and athletics and painting a class mural in the ninth grade building. The most recent addition was a gray and white shark sternly folding its arms, surrounded by maroon and black block letters reading 鈥�2030 SHARKS.鈥� 

While the program isn鈥檛 mandatory, it typically draws 80 to 90 students 鈥� roughly 30% of the incoming freshman class. The summer initiative focuses on helping students develop a strong sense of belonging and community with their peers, which can translate to better attendance and lower retention rates during the school year, Hannigan said.

Typically, she said, around 6% of students need to repeat ninth grade at Kea驶au. 

Over the summer, freshman Tristan Hanley was worried about choosing the right classes and adjusting to Kea驶au鈥檚 campus before entering the school鈥檚 summer transition program. He came out of the program excited to join the school鈥檚 band program and football team and had gotten to know some of his teachers.

鈥淚t just allowed me to see all of these new opportunities at the school and hear about them and try them out a little bit too,鈥� Hanley said.  

While many schools are trying to ease students鈥� transition to ninth grade, some challenges start well before teens enter high school, prompting national debates on whether kids should be held back earlier.

Danni-Cheree Lee鈥檚 son began falling behind in elementary school. He frequently asked to stay home from school and felt ashamed to ask for help in class, she said. 

Despite his struggles, Lee鈥檚 son continued progressing through the grades until his attendance issues caught up to him in middle school, when he needed to repeat sixth and seventh grade. At the time, Lee was dealing with back and neck issues and didn鈥檛 have a car, she said, so it was hard to force her son to attend school.

Lee said her son might have benefited from being held back earlier, when his elementary school first began noticing problems with his attendance. While repeating grades in middle school gave him more time to learn the material, he also experienced teasing as his classmates noticed he had fallen behind.

Principals rarely hold kids back before high school and tend to have more discretion around student retention in the younger grades. The Hawai驶i Board of Education only specifies that schools must promote students based on their  and social development, and students must  like English, math, science and social studies to complete middle school. 

At Jarrett Middle School in P膩lolo Valley, Principal Reid Kuba said it鈥檚 a balancing act when deciding whether to move some students up to high school. Teachers offer after-school classes and summer school to prepare students as much as possible for ninth grade, he said, but he also knows that students who need to repeat a grade in middle school face a greater risk of aging out of the system before they earn their diploma.   

鈥淔or me, and I think all the middle school principals, that鈥檚 the main thing, is trying to get them to graduate,鈥� Kuba said. 鈥淪o they鈥檙e not only looking at grades, but their age.鈥� 

Ideally, Kuba said, it would be beneficial for some kids to repeat a grade when they鈥檙e much younger, such as kindergarten or first grade, when they鈥檙e developing fundamental skills and less aware that they鈥檙e a year behind their peers.

For Lee鈥檚 son, the turning point came when he enrolled in an alternative learning program, where the classes were smaller and teachers were strict about attendance, she said. Having adults who genuinely cared about his education motivated him to complete his high school classes and explore new topics like finance, she said. 

Even though he fell behind in middle school, he earned enough credits to graduate on time with the rest of his peers in 2022. 

鈥淚 do not think any child should have to wait to be held back once in high school because that鈥檒l make it worse,鈥� Lee said. 鈥淚magine how much schooling, how far behind they are in these subjects, and then they鈥檙e only going to be given four years to catch up on everything.鈥� 

 about being held back was produced in partnership with Big Local News and The Hechinger Report. Data analysis was conducted by Eric Sagara, senior data journalist with Big Local News.

. Civil Beat鈥檚 education reporting is supported by a grant from Chamberlin Family Philanthropy.

Just as the technology has rewired the relationship between young writers-in-training and their teachers, it has also changed how student journalists and their editors work together 鈥� or, in some cases, don鈥檛. 

And AI has created headaches for these journalists that mirror those afflicting their professional peers, with school newsrooms struggling to figure out how to respond.

As with their schools more broadly, student newsrooms have spent these years deploying surveillance software and, in many cases, drafting zero-tolerance policies for AI. Different newsrooms have developed different answers to the same basic question: How much do we trust teenagers to not let a chatbot do their work? 

社区黑料 spoke recently to three student journalists from three very different newsrooms about their experiences:

• Cid Frydman, a rising senior at Berkeley High School in California, who writes for the ;
• Veronica Mollod, a rising senior and current events editor at , the student newspaper at the High School of American Studies at Lehman College in the Bronx, N.Y.;
• Tova Weiss, a recent high school graduate in Ann Arbor, Mich., who has split her time between Pioneer High School and . Weiss has written and edited for the and , a publication written by and for Jewish teens.

Here are eight-and-a-half ways 鈥� including one counterintuitive, not-for-attribution observation 鈥� in which AI is changing their realities:

1. In a few schools, AI has overturned the culture of newspapers.

Frydman, the Berkeley student, said strict AI use policies at her publication have bred resentment among student writers. 

鈥淚 think a lot of the people higher up on my paper, and in journalism in general, don’t have a lot of trust in writers anymore, especially with so many AI resources that are out there,鈥� she said. 

Editors are 鈥渧ery harsh on writers鈥� over worries that they鈥檒l use AI, keeping strict controls over documents, she said. They鈥檒l poke around writers鈥� search histories and analyze their typing speed and word choices, matching drafts to previous work. 

鈥淚t’s very strict when you put it all together,鈥� Frydman said. 鈥淭hey don’t have a lot of faith in our ability to actually produce real journalism, and so just assume the worst automatically, which can be a little frustrating when you’re just trying to do your best as a writer.鈥�

At the Berkeley High newspaper, staffers have been let go over suspected AI use. 

Frydman sees the high cost of such heavy-handed policies: 鈥淲e’re here because we love journalism,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e’re here to write about things that we’re hopefully passionate about, and the heavy approach of 鈥楾here’s no tolerance whatsoever,鈥� and not even giving writers the grace and the trust to make their own decisions and do this work on their own 鈥� just minding it and monitoring it so heavily, I think it’s very discouraging.鈥�

More broadly, getting caught using AI to write academic assignments carries weighty consequences, she said. You鈥檙e unable to get a letter of recommendation from any teacher, Frydman said. 

And a single infraction travels fast: Get caught using AI once, she said, and teachers will tell all of their colleagues 鈥渢o watch out because this student has used AI before 鈥� they might use it in your class.鈥�

2. AI is changing how 鈥� and how much 鈥� students write.

Frydman said she鈥檚 adopting what鈥檚 basically a minimalist approach to writing these days, holding back details so she doesn’t draw suspicion from editors or teachers. 

Though she doesn鈥檛 use AI for writing, she said, 鈥淎 lot of times, I find myself sort of slimming down my writing to not go so into detail on things because it鈥檒l be suspected to be something that’s not original. You don’t have a lot of room to be creative in this process, so it’s definitely been a little challenging.鈥�

Ann Arbor鈥檚 Weiss said she鈥檚 also seeing many young journalists 鈥渁djust their writing voice鈥� to avoid being flagged as relying on AI. Many students, she said, now intentionally add typos to their writing to support its legitimacy. 鈥淚t’s absolutely devastating to watch how many people are intentionally damaging or diminishing the quality and authenticity of their work,鈥� she said. 

At Berkeley High, school-issued Chromebooks are locked down to block access to ChatGPT, Claude and other major AI tools outright 鈥� and any attempt to reach them gets flagged. 鈥淚t notifies the teacher through this program that we have called Go Guardian, which is embedded into a lot of the Chromebooks, where they can sort of see what you’re doing and be able to call you out on it,鈥� Frydman said.

3. A few newsrooms are writing AI policies.

At Youth Environmental Press Team, where Weiss is an editor, staffers have been talking 鈥渋n pretty much every director’s meeting鈥� about the implications and problems surrounding AI. 鈥淲e are an environmental publication, which means a lot of us are very climate-conscious.鈥�

The environmental impacts of AI data centers are a cause of great concern, Weiss said.

After fielding a wave of questions from reporters, the publication developed formal guidelines rather than instituting an outright ban on AI. 鈥淚t was always very clear for us that we would not publish or even entertain the idea of publishing anything that was written by a chatbot or any kind of generative AI,鈥� Weiss said. But they soon got queries from reporters asking if they could use AI for outlining, for formatting statistics, for interview transcriptions and the like.

The policy that emerged prohibits AI-written and AI-edited work, including work that heavily uses tools like Grammarly. But transcription services and basic spell-check are still allowed. 

The organization, she said, wants to make writing 鈥渁s accessible as possible so people can have their work published 鈥� but not if that means it’s not really their work, and especially not if that’s at the cost of the environment.鈥� 

4. Other newsrooms rely on experience and vibes.

Weiss helped craft the formal AI policy at the environmental journal. At jGirls+ Magazine, by contrast, she said there鈥檚 no written policy. But in practice the standard is clear: Submissions and even staff applications that appear to be AI-generated are not accepted. In one case, she recalled, an obviously AI-written editorial board application 鈥� with a stiff style that lacked personal voice 鈥� tested with an AI detector as 100% AI, 鈥渨hich was really something none of us had expected.鈥�

Weiss said AI detectors should be used only 鈥渨hen there is already prior reason to suspect something might have been AI generated鈥� 鈥� a student with a track record of misusing AI, for instance, or because something just simply reads a little 鈥渙ff.鈥�

5. In most cases, AI detectors are widely seen as unreliable.

Weiss described a tiered system in the environmental outlet鈥檚 workflow, with writers operating on an 鈥渉onor system鈥� but with student editors flagging 鈥渟ketchy鈥� pieces such as those that are missing statistical sources or those that quote dubious ones 鈥� or writing that doesn’t sound like a typical teenager’s.

鈥淭he thing about student voices is typically each writer has a distinctive style of writing,” she said. 鈥淲e’re high schoolers: We have typos, we make mistakes in there. And if we’re finding something that’s void of personal style or just generally reads in a way that doesn’t seem like it was written by a student, we’re going to look into that further.鈥� 

But she and others worry that using an AI detector could unfairly flag strong writing as suspicious simply because it’s polished 鈥� a phenomenon that happens more than you鈥檇 think in many schools, Weiss suggested.

AI detectors aren’t really reliable, said Frydman, the Berkeley senior, 鈥渟o even if you write something really well, it’ll just automatically assume that it might be AI and your writing will get flagged, which has happened to a lot of my friends.鈥� 

6. A few simple rules can keep AI from taking over, journalists say.

Mollod, the New York City journalist, said a somewhat arcane editing rule at her publication basically serves to help keep AI-generated content at bay: At Common Sense, every article is required to include a quote from a student in each grade level 鈥� a structural feature that makes it hard for AI to intrude, since students typically remember what they鈥檝e said to a reporter. 

7. In a few cases, teachers are using AI more than students.

The journalists described several instances in which teachers, not students, were the ones turning to AI, relying on the technology to formulate lesson plans, create assignments and grade them.

One student who asked not to be quoted directly spoke of a teacher who 鈥渨ill just copy and paste straight off of Chat GPT or Claude, and just give us assignments that are so clearly AI that it’s ridiculous.鈥�

Others rely on it for grading assignments, which 鈥渓eads to a lot of people getting unfair grades, because AI can mess up,鈥� said the student.

The more teachers rely on the technology, 鈥渢he easier it is to just forget that you’re there for a reason, you’re trying to do your job for a reason 鈥� and AI should not be teaching kids Spanish or English or math or anything like that. It can’t reproduce real thinking. So it’s definitely a little dystopian.鈥�

8. For many students, refusing AI isn’t a school rule. It’s personal.

Weiss, the Ann Arbor writer, said she has never used Open AI鈥檚 popular ChatGPT, due to environmental concerns over data centers as well as personal concerns over AI more broadly. 鈥淚t just does not align with my morals at all,” she said. 

But casual AI use has become normalized among many of her peers, she said, with students openly saying, sometimes within earshot of teachers, that they ran an assignment through a chatbot the night before it was due.

The best way to fight AI, she said, is basically to boycott it. 鈥淭he strongest way anyone can combat artificial intelligence is just by refusing to have anything to do with it,鈥� she said.

While AI-generated writing more broadly can damage the way that people learn and is worth thinking about, Mollod said, she鈥檚 not sure that it has gotten to the point where 鈥渏ust everyone is just cheating, and no one’s really actually taking their work seriously.鈥�

She reads the coverage and believes most people who don鈥檛 spend time in schools overestimate how much teens use AI. 鈥淧eople not in school are like, 鈥榃ell, I didn’t have this great tool. If I had it, I wouldn’t have done anything,鈥欌�� she said. But relying on the technology, which showed up in the middle of her eighth-grade year, isn鈥檛 yet common practice for most students she knows. 

Whether future students will warm to it more isn鈥檛 yet clear, Mollod said.

Weiss, the Michigan student, said her work 鈥� especially at the environmental publication 鈥� has taken on a new significance in the age of AI, pushing to celebrate and highlight 鈥渁uthentic youth journalism and youth narrative鈥� in the face of encroaching technology. 鈥淚n my view,鈥� she said, 鈥渄emonstrating our talents as humans and as youth is a form of silent protest against AI by proving that artificial intelligence isn’t necessary to produce professional-quality journalism.鈥�

Bonus: Non-AI cheating abides. 

On background, one of the students said she thought a lot of the news coverage about AI cheating, while serious, simply misses the point. The old-fashioned kind of cheating, for now, remains much more common. In 2026, students are still relying on copying each other’s homework, just as generations before them did. 

鈥淢ostly it’s just, like, circles of people, where there’ll be a math class and five people do the homework 鈥� and the other 20 got it from this person, [who] got it from this person, [who] got it from this person 鈥� which has always kind of been going on.鈥�

One topic will predictably return to the center of those debates: sex education.

Too often, the conversation begins and ends with one question: How do we prevent teenagers from becoming pregnant or acquiring sexually transmitted infections?

Young people are asking something different.

They want to know how to build healthy relationships, communicate boundaries, recognize misinformation, make decisions they feel good about, and imagine futures where their sexuality is a source of confidence rather than fear.

That disconnect matters.

While adults continue designing policies and programs around what we hope adolescents avoid, many young people are focused on who they hope to become.

For decades, our public conversation about adolescent sexual health has been dominated by prevention. Success is typically measured by declining pregnancy rates or lower rates of sexually transmitted infections. Those outcomes matter. They always will.

But they tell only part of the story.

If preventing harm is our only goal, we overlook the very capacities that help young people make healthy decisions in the first place: confidence, communication, agency, access to trustworthy information, supportive relationships and the ability to envision futures they value.

consistently shows that adolescents far more broadly than . They talk about respect, trust, communication, emotional readiness and feeling informed.

My own with Black adolescents supports this. Young people are eager for conversations about sexual health that extend beyond avoiding pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. They want space to talk about relationships, pleasure, communication, consent, identity and how to navigate conflicting messages from peers, social media, families, and schools. 

For Black adolescents, this narrow focus is especially consequential. Their sexuality is too often approached through risk, control and surveillance rather than possibility, agency and support.

They are not simply asking for more information. They are asking for guidance that helps them make sense of that information, align decisions with their values and build healthy relationships. Those insights suggest that preparing young people for sexual well-being requires more than delivering facts. It requires equipping them with the skills, confidence and support to navigate the complexities of adolescence.

Yet these priorities rarely shape how we design programs, evaluate success or decide what belongs in the classroom.

examining three decades of school-based sex education shows that comprehensive programs can help young people develop healthy relationship skills, recognize misinformation, respect sexual diversity and strengthen their ability to recognize and respond to dating violence and sexual abuse. The most promising approaches are not one-time lessons focused only on risk. They are age-appropriate, inclusive and designed to build knowledge and skills over time.

But access to that kind of education still depends heavily on where a young person lives. In its , SIECUS: Sex Ed for Social Change gave only seven states grades an A, while more than one-quarter received an F. Oregon and Washington earned A grades. The scores reflect whether state policies support medically accurate information, contraception, healthy relationships and LGBTQIA+-inclusive instruction, among other measures.

State policies do not tell us exactly what happens in every classroom. Still, some school districts are showing what a broader approach can look like. uses a curriculum and supplemental lessons that address consent, communication and healthy relationships alongside pregnancy and sexually transmitted infection prevention. Families can preview the lessons and access resources to support conversations at home.

To be clear, preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections remains critically important. No one is arguing otherwise.

But prevention should not be mistaken for the ultimate goal.

Back-to-school season reminds us what we expect education to accomplish. We don鈥檛 judge schools solely by whether students avoid dropping out. We also ask whether they are learning, growing, thinking critically and developing the skills they need to thrive.

Adolescent sexual health deserves the same standard.

Yet we continue to evaluate success largely by what young people don鈥檛 do. Did they avoid pregnancy? Did they avoid infection?

Those are important outcomes, but they are not the only ones that matter.

What if we also asked whether young people left school feeling more prepared? More confident communicating with a partner? Better able to recognize misinformation online? More equipped to make decisions that reflect their own values? More capable of building relationships grounded in mutual respect?

Schools and districts should evaluate whether students leave sex education better able to communicate, assess information, establish boundaries and make decisions consistent with their values, not only whether pregnancy and infection rates decline.

These are not 鈥渟oft鈥� outcomes. They are foundational skills that support lifelong sexual health and well-being.

Ironically, they are also some of the strongest tools for preventing the very outcomes our policies are designed to reduce.

The choice is not between prevention and well-being.

Well-being is one pathway to prevention. 

Expanding what schools teach and measure will require meaningful engagement with families. Parents should receive clear information about what will be taught, how lessons differ by grade level and how they can review the materials. Schools should make space for questions, communicate in the languages families use and be clear that sex education is not intended to replace conversations at home.

Schools and families have different but complementary roles. Schools can provide medically sound information and practical skills. Families can help young people understand that information in the context of their beliefs and values.

Schools should take parental concerns seriously without treating the loudest opposition as representative of all families. In a of Minnesota parents, approximately 90% said comprehensive sexuality education should be taught in schools. Where families have a legal right to opt their children out, schools can respect that right without allowing individual objections to narrow what is available to every student.

If we truly want healthier futures for young people, especially Black adolescents who too often encounter systems built around surveillance instead of support, then we have to stop asking only how to prevent harm.

We also need to ask how to prepare young people to flourish.

As students return to school this year, we should expect more from sex education than the absence of negative outcomes. Like every other part of education, it should give young people with the knowledge, skills, confidence, and agency they need to navigate the world they live in.

Taking a computer class at her Fayetteville, N.C., high school, she handed in a paper with the offending word: .

鈥淸The teacher] called me over, and she was like, 鈥業 don’t want to see you using AI,鈥� 鈥� the 16-year-old rising junior recalled. If she鈥檇 asked, Reaves would have said she didn鈥檛 use AI to write the piece 鈥� that鈥檚 just the way she talks.

鈥淪o it was kind of tense,鈥� said Reaves, 鈥渁nd I was definitely upset because she gave me a zero for that assignment.鈥� 

High school students, steeped for nearly the past four years in generative artificial intelligence, face this reality daily, attending class largely without a set of agreed-upon guidelines. Over the weekend, a small group of students came together to hammer out a few basic principles for the technology, something akin to an AI Bill of Rights.

Sponsored by a group that includes an and a national , 100 students from all 50 states gathered here to debate a first-of-its-kind set of recommendations, to be shared with district leaders nationwide as AI proliferates rapidly in the lives of both students and teachers.

The nonprofit , which brought the group together, didn鈥檛 make the final recommendations immediately available 鈥� they鈥檒l be released in coming weeks. But students told 社区黑料 in interviews they are concerned about a host of problems: cheating, transparency, hallucinations, cognitive offloading, mental health and environmental factors, among others.

Two students from every state debated and ultimately approved the recommendations by a Senate-style roll call vote on Sunday at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate, a museum and conference center that features a of the U.S. Senate Chamber where Kennedy served from 1962 until his death in 2009.

Despite the democratic nature of the proceedings, Day of AI refused to grant 社区黑料 access over three days to any of the student debates, save for the closing speeches and final vote. 

The organization also clamped down on the text of the proposal, refusing to release a draft that students spent nearly three days discussing freely.

By the time of Sunday鈥檚 debate and final vote, nearly 100 students sat in replicas of U.S. senators鈥� seats, paging through their copies of the bill as staff members and security personnel closely guarded the proceedings. A reporter who picked up a stray copy of the bill on an upholstered bench had the paper quickly snatched away by a staffer, while another swept the area for more copies, gathering them up and tucking them under an arm.

During the proceedings, a few participants called the proposal flawed or incomplete and even, at times, incoherent 鈥� one student referred to it as 鈥渁 block of Swiss cheese.鈥� But in the end he voted 鈥淵ea.鈥� In all, 83 students approved the measure, with 15 opposed 鈥� two students weren鈥檛 present for the final vote.

鈥業t鈥檚 an easy way out鈥�

In the students鈥� conception, Al literacy instruction should be mandatory as soon as they start using devices in the classroom. The lessons should focus not just on appropriate academic use but on misinformation, plagiarism, bias in Al systems, privacy, environmental impacts and how Al really works.

Ethan Liu, 17, a recent high school graduate from Morgantown, W.Va., said the recommendations are 鈥減retty fair,鈥� especially the section on students. 鈥淲e basically outline that AI, with the proper supervision, is a great tool for brainstorming and studying,鈥� he said. Liu was one of several students who spoke to 社区黑料 during breaks in the deliberations.

Liu recalled asking ChatGPT to create sets of practice problems. 鈥淭hat was one of the best ways that I would use to study for a test.鈥�

But he said using AI to answer test questions or to generate art, for instance, is a bridge too far. The guidelines, Liu said, suggest that AI should be a tool 鈥渢o help kids truly understand the topic without just spoon-feeding them the answer.鈥�

In candid conversations throughout the weekend, students said AI is basically turning their school experience upside down, simultaneously supercharging their ability to learn while threatening to derail many of their classmates 鈥� and sowing mistrust between students and teachers.

鈥淚t’s an easy way out,鈥� said James Baxter, 14, from St. George, Utah. 鈥淧eople like to know hard things, but learning it is a different story for most people.鈥�

While he relies on tools like Google鈥檚 Notebook LM to help him create study guides, Dillian Campbell, 17, a rising senior in Fayetteville, N.C., said that when teachers pass out assignments, he most often sees classmates simply pull out their phones and snap a photo, asking AI to do the rest.

He recalled a math teacher telling students, 鈥淚 don’t care if you use AI, but if you fail your test, that’s on you because you don’t really know the work.鈥�

Jaelyn Jensen, 17, a rising senior in Lee鈥檚 Summit, Mo., noted that early on in discussions, the group concluded that while limiting AI use for young students is crucial, giving middle- and high-schoolers more autonomy with AI makes sense. Teens, she said, need 鈥渢o make their own decisions, to learn from their own mistakes with AI.鈥� But schools must also teach them how to use it responsibly 鈥渁nd let them know that it is something that is going to be in their future.鈥�

Lucia Herrera, 17, a classmate of Jensen鈥檚 from Missouri, said AI has even crept into the speech and debate world, with debaters asking ChatGPT to help them respond to questions about their cases 鈥� this, in a world where critical thinking and original voice are a key to success.

While she can make a case for AI aiding in research, Herrera said, 鈥淚 think it just takes all of the human out of [it].鈥�

Bihmanji Acho, 16, a rising junior from St. Cloud, Minn., said she鈥檚 most troubled by the ways in which she sees AI undermining interpersonal relationships. She recalled attending a recent summit in which adults said they use AI 鈥渁t like two a.m. as a therapist. And I just don’t 鈥︹�� She paused for a moment. 鈥淚t hurts my heart. I feel like it hurts my heart to hear that.鈥�

While 鈥� or is it whilst? 鈥� many might believe that AI offers a crutch for low-skill students, Reaves said we should think again: Many of those who use AI most are 鈥渟uper-smart kids that are, like, just checked out.鈥�

That loss of student agency might be among the most pressing problems AI presents, said Gyimah Whitaker, of the Decatur, Ga., school district. That results in fewer students able to think critically and take risks.

Whitaker, who chaperoned two Georgia students to the event, said her 5,400-student district proudly embraces and the rigorous curriculum. But AI, Whitaker said, undermines the values in both systems, driving students toward completion rather than helping them master difficult tasks.

Luckily, young people are, for now at least, fighting back. She noted that students in her district鈥檚 IB program 鈥渃an be truly offended鈥� if a teacher uses AI to grade their paper. They鈥檝e even proposed a 鈥渢hree-strikes-and-you’re-out鈥� AI rule 鈥� for teachers. 

To be sure, the students urged AI literacy for teachers, and Cynthia Breazeal, who directs MIT鈥檚 RAISE research program, said that鈥檚 no longer optional. 

Actually, the advent of generative AI may require more than just literacy. To truly combat the technology, she said, schools may need to adopt an entirely different pedagogical model, one that encourages students to more deeply engage with material.

She invoked legendary MIT mathematician and computer scientist , who co-developed the Logo programming language in the 1960s and founded what became MIT鈥檚 Media Lab. Papert helped popularize the term 鈥溾�� to describe the productive struggle learning something complex often requires. In his conception, children should be encouraged to build things and embrace difficulty, not shun or outsource it. Upon hearing a teacher describe the difficulties a child encountered programming in Logo once in the 1980s, he concluded, 鈥淚 have no doubt that this kid called the work fun because it was hard rather than in spite of being hard.鈥�

鈥楢 Sputnik moment鈥�?

Chase Johnson, 15, a rising junior in Kenai, Alaska, uses AI 鈥渁 lot鈥� in his personal life. These days, he said, it鈥檚 helping him develop a business to automate processes such as customer service. 

As if to prove it, he鈥檒l pull out his phone to show off no fewer than 10 apps, all of which allow him to explore AI in different ways. 鈥淚 do a lot of research,鈥� he said.

But in his high school, he said, generative artificial intelligence is largely banned because of students using it to cheat.

Some of that responsibility should be borne by teachers, he said: In writing, for instance, instead of assigning essays that are easily outsourced to a bot, teachers should assign research projects that require students to present their findings in front of a class. 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 cheat your way out of that,鈥� Johnson said.

Sarah Zahka, a rising junior in Weston, Fla., said she鈥檚 not above using AI when needed. 鈥淚f I’m stuck on a math problem, I’ll ask it, 鈥楬ey AI, help me solve this problem step-by-step.鈥� 鈥�

While she鈥檚 worried about AI causing students to lose foundational skills, sometimes she simply needs help brainstorming. In writing, Zahka said, she might ask an AI bot how to approach a topic, 鈥渂ut then I’ll write ethically on my own. Although I’m going to sound like a teenager writing an essay and I might not get the grade that the cheaters get, ultimately I’ll know what level I’m at.鈥�

Jeff Riley, the former Massachusetts who now leads Day of AI, said he鈥檚 both excited by the technology鈥檚 possibilities 鈥� and a bit terrified. He predicted that AI could 鈥渒ickstart the next revolution in education,鈥� particularly with its ability to help teachers differentiate instruction and personalize learning. 鈥淏ut there’s some bad stuff with it too, right? Bias, voice clones, deep fakes, hallucinations, companions, energy concerns. The list goes on and on and on.鈥�

While deadly serious, he said, those concerns aren鈥檛 activating enough adults 鈥� this should, by all rights, be 鈥溾�� pushing schools and communities forward, but he sees little urgency. He noted that in 2029, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development鈥檚 international PISA exam will for the first time assess . 鈥淚 can almost guarantee you right now: American schoolchildren, 15-year-olds, are going to score 30th in the world on AI literacy 鈥� on a technology that was largely created in this country.鈥�

On the flight back to Atlanta on Sunday night, Whitaker, the Georgia superintendent, recalled that the two students she accompanied told her they鈥檇 split their vote on the recommendations, one approving the plan and one voting No. The one who opposed the measure told her the proposal 鈥渄idn’t meet the mark completely鈥� and needed more work.

鈥淚 think that’s exciting,鈥� Whitaker admitted. 鈥淲hat excites me is that our children are wrestling just like we are 鈥� and that level of inquiry as a superintendent is what you want to see in students every single day.鈥�

More than 40 states now mandate evidence-based reading instruction in public schools. The specifics in these new laws and regulations vary 鈥� most require that schools use high-quality curriculum based on the Science of Reading, many invest in new teacher training, and some ban discredited methods. But they all have one thing in common: a focus on the early grades. 

In my nonprofit鈥檚 work supporting districts to implement new curriculum and instruction, we鈥檝e seen educators work tirelessly to shift classroom practice. We鈥檝e then seen them joyfully experience the positive impacts on teaching and learning. And we鈥檝e been hearing a consistent question.

What about high school?

Time and again, school and district leaders would pose the same questions about grades 9-12 that we were exploring in K-8. They wanted guidance about what high-quality English curriculum should look like. They were looking for materials that would nurture literacy for older students, especially those who struggled with grade-level texts. They were asking: How could they identify well-designed materials that truly support strong English instruction in high school, especially as it relates to building knowledge through rigorous, content-rich texts?

At the same time, we were hearing from publishers. Some were expanding their programs for younger students to include high school English, while others were interested in strengthening existing materials. Several were just getting started developing something new. No matter where they were on this journey, publishers wanted thoughtful, evidence-based criteria and feedback to ensure their materials reflected the strongest research and instructional design principles. 

They weren’t simply looking for a rating 鈥� they wanted guidance that would help them build evidence-based curriculum that met the needs of high school teachers and students. 

These many questions converged. It became clear that there was an opportunity to create a shared framework that could support both sides of the equation: helping publishers develop stronger curriculum, while helping districts make more informed adoption decisions. That inspired the Knowledge Matters .

We had past experience to draw on: In 2023, we created a review framework for evidence-based, knowledge-building ELA in . We built on that foundation while bringing together additional experts with deep experience in high school English, to ensure the criteria reflected the unique demands of academic expectations and classroom instruction in grades 9-12. 

That yielded a set of about two dozen criteria across eight domains, starting with a curriculum鈥檚 alignment to the science of reading. A strong curriculum uses evidence-based practices that accelerate student literacy, such as building vocabulary and knowledge through reading a substantial and coherent volume of texts. That helps students grapple with challenging texts, including through communal close reads that build students鈥� stamina, confidence and ability to ensure that what they read makes sense. It also engages students with content-rich topics drawn from history, science, the arts and literature, because a rich knowledge base is what makes complex texts comprehensible and literary analysis meaningful. 

Our tool identifies the features of a curriculum that foster this growth, including activities that systematically develop academic and domain-specific vocabulary; guidance for educators to engage students in productive and sustained academic discussions; explicit instruction in writing and frequent writing opportunities anchored in texts; targeted supports to grant equitable access to grade-level content; and predictable, effective instructional routines and teacher-facing materials to inform professional learning.

We then field-tested the tool by reviewing Novel HS ELA, a knowledge-rich, novel-based 9-12 program published by , The curriculum was designed to foster engagement with rich literature while also developing the knowledge, analytical skills and reading experiences that prepare teenagers for success in college, careers and civic life. Working through the review process helped us refine the tool while providing meaningful feedback to support the development of the materials. It also provided insights into how hard many publishers are working to put strong curriculum into the hands of great teachers. 

Ultimately, our goal is pretty simple: help more educators gain access to the strongest possible instructional materials. We believe that better curriculum sets the foundation for strong teaching, and that clearer guidance helps both curriculum developers and school systems move the field forward. 

When educators have a common language of excellence, both teaching and learning thrive. Our hope is that this tool supports high school educators to develop a shared understanding of what high-quality literacy instruction looks like and where instructional time is best spent. The tool isn’t just a way to evaluate materials 鈥� it’s an opportunity to identify and inspire the rigorous, engaging, effective English curriculum and instruction that all high school students deserve.

Charters are built on the premise that all kids can learn when a culture of high expectations, great teaching and deep relationships with students and families works together to help each child in the school learn and grow.

This year alone, over 30,000 high school seniors in hundreds of high schools across the country that our fund invests in earned over a billion dollars in college scholarships. And close to 100% of them have been accepted and are going to college.

For individual students, this is an extraordinary outcome.鈥淔or my family, this scholarship means that all of their support and sacrifice over the years has truly paid off,鈥� said Laythan Davis, who is graduating from Uncommon Schools in Rochester, New York, this year, and headed to Cornell University on a QuestBridge Scholarship.

But it is surprisingly ordinary in a subset of public schools that have created an approach that works year after year. Our hope is that this becomes ordinary in all communities across the country. 

I had a chance to ask four great leaders of these extraordinary charter school networks about their 鈥渟ecret sauce,鈥� and this is what I learned:

At Friendship Public Charter School in the heart of Southeast Washington, D.C., CEO Pat Brantley and her veteran team of educators are not only graduating 100% of their senior class, but also helping students earn more than and acceptance to four-year colleges and universities across the country. Friendship leaders credit their success to creating a school environment where students are exposed early to college coursework, career pathways, internships and real-world experiences that help them see new possibilities for their future.聽

From NASA partnerships and architecture mentoring programs to dual-enrollment classes and study abroad opportunities, Friendship students are encouraged to see themselves not only as college students, but as future leaders, engineers, designers and innovators. For many, those pathways are already paying off: Students are leveraging their career training to earn real income while in college, taking on work in their chosen fields that goes well beyond what a fast food job or work-study position might offer. Educators at Friendship often describe the school community as a “village,” one where students are deeply known, challenged and supported long before graduation day.聽

Across the country, public charter schools like Friendship are helping students achieve outcomes that often go unnoticed and therefore uninterrogated. We should be looking to these schools for strategies that work, not only in the charter sector but in public schools across the country with similar needs and student populations. 

For example, at DSST Public Schools in Colorado, seniors have earned more than $48 million in scholarships this year alone, while maintaining a 100% postsecondary placement rate for every graduating class since 2008. Each student averaged more than six college acceptances while earning highly competitive national scholarships, such as QuestBridge, Daniels Fund and Posse Foundation scholarships. This success comes from a that begins long before senior year. Students receive individualized advising, support in navigating financial aid and scholarships and access to counselors and educators who help students see college and career success as attainable and expected.

In Chicago, Noble Schools, which serves roughly 10% of Chicago鈥檚 public school population, consistently account for over $500 million in scholarships, more than 30% of the district’s annual scholarship dollars. More than two-thirds of Noble seniors are first-generation college students, and the network has built a college-going culture where students are surrounded by counselors, mentors and alumni who help make higher education feel attainable rather than out of reach. More than 1,000 Noble seniors enroll in college each year, many the first in their family to navigate the process. Noble to rigorous academics, mentorship and a strong college persistence model that helps students succeed after high school graduation. 

At Uncommon Schools 鈥� a charter network operating in five Northeastern communities 鈥� graduating seniors earned more than $29 million in scholarships, while 95% of students were accepted to four-year colleges, continuing a long-standing culture of academic excellence and college persistence for first-generation students. Overall, Uncommon students graduate from college at nearly four times the national rate of their peers. Leaders to long-term alumni support systems that help first-generation students navigate the challenges of college enrollment, persistence, and completion. 

Students like Laythan represent what becomes possible when schools combine high expectations with real support. During high school, Laythan helped build an AI-powered litter detection program, volunteered in his community and launched an eco-friendly clothing business 鈥� all while preparing for college as the first student from his school to attend Cornell.

Through dedicated coaching and continued engagement after graduation, Uncommon works to ensure students not only get into college but also earn their degrees.

These stories aren’t just about scholarships and college acceptance letters; they are a call to action. These schools prove every day that excellence is possible and that potential isn’t in short supply: opportunity is.

For 22 years, Kansas leaders protected a law allowing some undocumented students to pay in-state tuition to attend the state鈥檚 public colleges, universities and technical schools.

Those days are over.

During the recently ended session, the GOP-dominated state legislature passed overturning the policy that has allowed thousands of young Kansans to pay for and earn a college education. Only the veto of Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, saved the law from repeal.

National challenges are also looming.

The has begun systematically suing the more than 20 states that have such laws. The Department of Justice argues in-state tuition laws incentivize unauthorized immigration and favor immigrants over U.S. citizens.

On June 3, , which is similar to the one in Kansas. Nebraska鈥檚 Republican governor had agreed to a consent decree to end the law after being sued.

Kansas Attorney General warns that Kansas could be next.

鈥淚f Kansas were to be sued by the federal government over this statute, Kansas would likely lose the lawsuit,鈥� Kobach said in given to state legislators.

Other GOP legislators are pressing the same message.

Sen. Mike Thompson, a Johnson County Republican, led efforts in the last legislative session to reframe in-state tuition as a public benefit, arguing the Kansas law is out of sync with federal law, a view that Kobach also holds.

鈥淭he DOJ is watching Kansas closely and if we allow this to continue, we will be sued, and we will lose,鈥� Thompson said in a social media post.

Targeting Dreamers

Since 2004, thousands of immigrant Kansas high school graduates, often called Dreamers, have used the law to earn degrees by paying in-state fees instead of far higher international student rates.

Republican legislators have targeted the law each session, trying to overturn it.

Supporters have long pushed back, including the Kansas Board of Regents, the Kansas Association of School Boards and immigrant rights advocates.

Rep. Louis Ruiz, a Kansas City, Kansas, Democrat who is retiring at the end of this term, fears what the future holds for the state鈥檚 undocumented K-12 students.

Ruiz has long supported the students, knowing that many were brought to the U.S. as young children by their parents. They view Kansas as home.

鈥淪ome people, especially some Republicans, try to claim that these students are getting a free tuition,鈥� Ruiz said. 鈥淣o, that鈥檚 not accurate. They are paying a rate as residents of the state.鈥�

Qualifications include graduating from an accredited Kansas high school after attending for at least three years.

An Obama-era program has also aided undocumented immigrant students. But it also is under heightened .

offers temporary protection against deportation for those who qualify and undergo vetting, including biometrics.

DACA recipients can get a work permit and often begin putting their degrees to work in chosen professions.

New applications to the program are on hold while federal court challenges play out.

DACA approval must be renewed every two years.

by the administration are causing people to lose their status. And some have been deported.

The Trump administration says extra vetting is behind the lengthened wait times.

鈥淚 was terrified that it wouldn鈥檛 be a quick renewal,鈥� said one Kansas City area DACA recipient of her renewal, which was granted in August 2025.

Still, her concerns linger. She requested to remain anonymous. Similar to several people interviewed for this story, she is protective of extended family and other immigrants in her social circles.

鈥淓ven if you鈥檙e a permanent resident, you鈥檙e not safe,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e looking for anything to detain you and deport you without giving you your day in court.鈥�

There were 505,940 active DACA recipients in the nation as of Sept. 30, 2025, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Kansas had 4,230 DACA recipients at that time. Missouri, which does not allow in-state tuition rates for undocumented students, had 2,490 DACA recipients.

Also, a Board of Immigration Appeals decision in late April found that holding an active DACA status is not sufficient alone to protect against deportation. The decision conflicts with rulings in federal courts that have upheld the program鈥檚 constitutionality.

The is trying to calm DACA recipients鈥� fears, releasing detailed information about the ruling. The center emphasizes that DACA still offers protections from deportation. But the situation can become more complicated if a person is detained by immigration officials.

鈥淚 feel like every day I wake up and it鈥檚 something else, something new,鈥� said Maria, a former DACA recipient and a graduate of Olathe East High School.

Last year, Maria completed the process to become a legal permanent resident through marriage to her U.S.-born husband.

Maria grew up in Olathe, with no memories of her native Puebla, Mexico.

She immigrated at 2 years old with her mother, reuniting with her father who had migrated earlier.

Maria fully understood her legal situation as a 16-year-old.

She wanted to study abroad, along with some of her classmates. Her mother explained that it would be impossible for Maria to leave the country and safely return, because of her lack of legal status then.

The Kansas in-state law made college financially feasible. She earned an associate degree at Johnson County Community College, then a bachelor鈥檚 degree in business administration and a minor in psychology from the University of Kansas.

Undocumented Kansas students, even with the in-state tuition law, cannot receive public federal or state grants and scholarships or subsidized student loans.

鈥淗ad it been out-of-state tuition, even for Johnson County Community College, I would not have been able to graduate at all,鈥� Maria said.

A mother鈥檚 plan to protect her U.S.-born children

Karina Valtierra prepared her four sons for the possibility that she could be deported.

Valtierra鈥檚 DACA status lapsed for eight tense weeks this spring.

A native of Durango, Mexico, she鈥檚 lived in the U.S. since the age of 11 and applied for her DACA renewal early. But it didn鈥檛 arrive by her February expiration date.

As a result, she couldn鈥檛 legally drive, or work, and had to step away from her job teaching young children at a school in Wichita.

She gave an aunt power of attorney. She arranged for house payments to be covered for the family home. She spoke to her oldest child, a 17-year-old, about assuming the role as head of the household.

The youngest, at 13, struggled to understand.

鈥淛ust having to have that conversation with them was awful,鈥� Valtierra said. 鈥淎nd trying to explain, 鈥業鈥檓 protecting you guys, making sure you鈥檒l be OK if anything happens.鈥� 鈥�

Valtierra鈥檚 renewal was approved in late March.

She鈥檚 resumed teaching, putting the early childhood/leadership degree she earned from Fort Hays State University into practice.

DACA was never intended to be a permanent fix. It was a stopgap for a generation of immigrants who had been brought to the U.S. without documentation as children.

Obama instituted it by executive order in 2012.

Congress, despite periods of strong bipartisan support, never passed the DREAM Act, which would offer a route to permanent legal status for some undocumented students.

DREAM stands for Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act. The act was first introduced in 2001.

Most of the original DACA recipients, and many former students known as Dreamers, are now in their 30s or older.

鈥淲e consider this our country, even though we don鈥檛 have a piece of paper that says this is our country,鈥� Valtierra said. 鈥淣ow we have kids, and we鈥檝e built a life in here.鈥�

鈥業n their crosshairs鈥�

Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach has been a leading critic of in-state tuition laws and DACA. He has either filed or joined lawsuits against both, in Kansas and through national networks.

鈥淐ongress declared that no state may give in-state tuition benefits to illegal aliens unless the state extends the same tuition benefits to out-of-state U.S. citizens,鈥� submitted during the last legislative session.

More than two decades ago, the law鈥檚 authors took care to , ensuring that undocumented students had a higher burden to meet than native-born people, who can often establish residency for the purposes of tuition, in a year.

Early predictions of thousands of Kansas immigrant students enrolling using the in-state law each semester never materialized.

Enrollment peaked at 670 undocumented students statewide at institutions in 2015 and then again in 2017. The low was 169 students in 2006, according to state enrollment data.

The enrollments have been steadily declining for nearly a decade, with 310 in 2024.

Advocates worry that students aren鈥檛 being told by some colleges or academic advisers that the law still exists. Also, young people might be discouraged, given highly publicized crackdowns on undocumented immigrants by the current administration.

So far, the Justice Department has settled lawsuits with Nebraska, Texas, Kentucky and Oklahoma, ending in-state tuition programs in those states.

Lawsuits are pending in Democrat-led states of Illinois, Minnesota, Virginia and California.

If Kansas is sued, the legal action could reignite conflicts between Kobach, a Republican, and Kelly, a Democrat, or possibly her successor.

As attorney general, Kobach would need to defend the state鈥檚 law. Kobach is seeking reelection. Kelly is barred from doing so by term limits.

The two have wrangled in court recently over their respective legal lanes.

, alleging that he was failing to defend the state against the overreaches of the Trump administration.

In March, the Kansas Supreme Court issued a narrow decision that dismissed Kelly鈥檚 petition. Both sides claimed victory.

Kelly said that if Kobach continued to 鈥渞efuse to stand up for the state, Kansans can be assured that I will,鈥� according to

Advocates for immigrant students are preparing for the possible court challenge and other headwinds.

鈥淭he environment has definitely changed around the issue,鈥� said Alejandro Rangel-Lopez, campaign manager for New Frontiers, Loud Light鈥檚 project in southwest Kansas. 鈥淏ut I do believe we still have a really good law in place.鈥�

Rangel-Lopez, of Dodge City, helped organize some of the pushback during debates on , the bill that sought to end in-state tuition.

Planning continues, including gaining insights from states that have already been sued. And national organizations such as the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, also known as , have also been contacted.

鈥淲e know the fight isn鈥檛 over yet because of the national environment and that we鈥檙e probably in their crosshairs,鈥� Rangel-Lopez said.

This first appeared on and is republished here under a .

Testing experts at the Education Department had been laid off and the board in charge of the program . But now, expansion is coming in the form of additional results that could give the public more information about how students in their states are performing.

The National Assessment Governing Board approved a new testing schedule Friday that allows for state-level results in 12th grade math and reading, eighth and 12th grade civics and eighth grade science. 

The vote was 16 to 3.

NAGB, which sets policy for the National Assessment of Educational Progress, has long aspired to add more granular results, said Executive Director Lesley Muldoon.

鈥淭hat’s what helps drive actual policy action at the state level,鈥� she said. 

The would take effect in 2028 for eighth grade civics and 12th grade math and reading. The eighth grade science test would be administered in 2029 and 12th graders would take a civics exam in 2032. Participation is optional, but NAGB wants to know states鈥� intentions by this summer.

The governing board isn鈥檛 alone in wanting NAEP to be more useful to state policymakers. In its on the future of the American workforce, the Bipartisan Policy Center, led by former Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, called for more state-level data in the same three areas and a shorter, six-month timeline between the assessment and the release of the results.

Some observers say the board鈥檚 vote underscores the importance of NAEP.

鈥淭his suggests an acknowledgment that standardized testing, and comparable data across states, still matters,鈥� said Dale Chu, an education consultant who frequently writes about assessment. 

At the same time, in its fiscal year 2027 budget, the administration is requesting less for the program than Congress has appropriated in recent years, $137 million compared with $193 million.

Muldoon told 社区黑料 that if Congress maintains $193 million for the program, no additional money would be needed to expand testing at the state level. But if all 50 states want to participate, they might need more resources. 

鈥榃e got busy鈥�

The response from states, she said, has been positive, but she doesn鈥檛 expect all to sign up. 

Board Member Julia Rafal-Baer, who voted against the plan, said while she agreed with the science and civics schedule, she鈥檚 concerned about whether enough states would participate in the 12^th grade assessments. The announcement, she said, would also come in the midst of a 鈥渃harged environment.鈥� 

鈥淵ou can see it bubbling up now 鈥� public trust around testing, technology, AI, screens and student data,鈥� she said during the meeting. 鈥淚n this room, we understand all the differences. Parents right now do not understand the differences.鈥�  

Others noted that with 39 governors鈥� races this year, those who show interest now might be out of office by the time they have to formally commit. But Board Member Ron Reynolds, formerly head of a California private school organization, said the elections shouldn鈥檛 affect the board鈥檚 decision.

鈥淚 think we would cross a dangerous line if we began to anticipate what the political environment might be at a specific time and then make decisions in advance that might foreclose an opportunity to assess and report,鈥� he said.

States would need to identify a sample ranging from 1,200 to 2,000 students in each of the categories for which they want new results. 

Tennessee Rep. Mark White, a Republican and current NAGB chair, told 社区黑料 that his state is among those that would likely 鈥渏ump on the opportunity鈥� to see how the state鈥檚 students are performing in science, civics and in their senior year.

鈥淭ennessee realized that our K-12 standards were not adequate in 2011 when we compared our performance to NAEP data,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e got busy.鈥�

In 2013, the state was the in the nation, and this week as a top performer in post-pandemic academic recovery.

Ang茅lica Infante Green, Rhode Island鈥檚 education commissioner, wants her state to participate in all of the assessments, but is particularly enthusiastic about state-level civics . The state passed in 2021 requiring students to demonstrate proficiency in civics to graduate.

鈥淚t’s important, based on where we are as a country,鈥� she said. 鈥淚f our students don’t know how the government works and how our democracy works, that poses a challenge.鈥�

Chu said he wouldn鈥檛 be surprised if Mike Morath, state chief in Texas, or Indiana Education Secretary Katie Jenner also take 鈥渁 keen interest,鈥� but predicted that 鈥渋n many other places the reaction would amount to little more than a shrug.鈥�

Former Florida Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. after the 2024 fourth and eighth grade results were released. The state saw a sharp decline in reading scores, which he attributed to a sample of schools that he said was not representative of the state overall and included two of the lowest-performing schools. He also blamed the shift that year on the switch to a digital test on school district devices. 

The Florida Department of Education did not respond to questions about whether the state might participate. 

鈥楶owerful source of information鈥�

Chu and others, however, question whether state-level data on 12th graders would be that useful. 

鈥淟ow student motivation has long been a cloud hanging over 12th grade,鈥� he said. 鈥淚鈥檓 not sure bringing those results to the state level adds much unless that issue is addressed.鈥�

Muldoon disagreed that motivation is a challenge, but said that getting a large enough national sample of 12th graders can be. Seniors, she said, are sometimes off campus for internships or college trips. 

Some states, like Nevada, require students to take the ACT for graduation. But Jhone Ebert, superintendent of the Clark County School District, and former state chief, said a college entrance exam might not be the best way to measure the skills of students planning to go straight into the workforce. NAEP, she said, would offer a fuller view of students鈥� skills.

鈥淣ot everybody鈥檚 going to college,鈥� said Ebert, also on the board. 鈥淭hat doesn’t mean that they’re not going to be successful participants in our society.鈥�

National results from 2024鈥檚 12th graders were discouraging. Twenty-two percent tested at the proficient level in math, a 2 percentage point decline since 2019. In reading, 35% were proficient, also a drop. As with fourth and eighth graders in recent years, the percentage of high school seniors scoring at the below basic level increased. But those results don鈥檛 tell states anything about their specific strengths and weaknesses. 

State-level data could be a 鈥渞eally powerful source of information,鈥� Muldoon said. 鈥淭here is no other nationally representative assessment of high school students鈥� achievement.鈥� 

鈥楤lue and red states鈥�

The same is true for civics. The last NAEP civics test was in 2022, and just in eighth grade. Average scores on the 300-point scale fell by two points, the first-ever decline in the 25-year history of the test, which measures students鈥� knowledge of government, the founding documents and politics. 

Twelfth grade results in civics haven鈥檛 been available since 2010. The 2032 civics test in 12th grade will also be an updated version. Patrick Kelly, chair of NAGB鈥檚 assessment development committee, told the members Friday that while the 鈥渂ones are good,鈥� the design of the civics assessment is old.

The last time the test was updated, 鈥渙ur president of the United States was playing ,鈥� he said. 

Shawn Healy, chief policy and advocacy officer at iCivics, a nonprofit that provides civics lesson plans and online games, called the state-level results and the update 鈥渁 big win for our field.鈥�

The results, he said, will offer insight into the success of civics education policies at the state level, such as requiring a dedicated course or completion of student projects, or offering diplomas that recognize achievements. This year, he鈥檚 tracked 240 civics education bills in 40 states.

鈥淭hat speaks to the interest in this issue across blue and red states,鈥� he said.

In science, 2029 won鈥檛 be the first time state results will be available. Most states voluntarily . But now, under a new design, the questions will more closely match what states expect eighth graders to know in science, said Christine Cunningham, senior vice president of STEM learning at the Museum of Science in Boston and a NAGB member. Large school systems,  those in the Trial Urban District Assessment group, would also be able to opt in to that science exam. Currently, only national data is available for those subjects and grades.

鈥淎t a time when science and engineering are having such a profound impact on our lives, it鈥檚 important to understand how our students are doing,鈥� she said. 鈥淓ducation leaders continue to see value in expanding opportunities for state-level reporting beyond reading and math.鈥� 

High school students will soon take part in a more than in American education: receiving yearbooks at the end of the school year.

Sergio Garcia is quick to the scene. He puts on a scuffed firefighter jacket, grabs an oxygen mask and crouches down on hot concrete to start chest compressions on a dummy body. 

At the Los Angeles Unified School District鈥檚 career technical education showcase, under an outdoor canopy in blistering Southern California heat, the fire academy student demonstrates CPR to other students who might also be interested in joining. 

Sergio represents one of 23 high schools and six middle schools that showcased a range of career technical education at L.A. Unified, including 15 comprehensive three- or four-year programs that prepare students for industries through real-world experience. The showcase, held last month at the , a private health equity foundation, featured student projects, live demonstrations and skill-based challenges, is part of the district鈥檚 鈥淒ream It, Achieve It!鈥� initiative that pairs students with local industry leaders.

鈥淲ith my degree, I鈥檇 rather know I鈥檓 going to help people,鈥� said Sergio, a senior and fourth-year deputy chief at the fire academy at Banning High School who is on track to earn a fire science degree at a technical college. 鈥淎lthough it is very physically demanding, the fact that you鈥檙e doing good in this world is a bigger gift than anyone could ever ask for.鈥�

Building technical and team-building skills 

At another canopy at the showcase, students cheered a remote-controlled battle of two robots, vying for the prize of a 3D-printed bot, while Madelynne Arevalo helped set up a mini flight simulator. Madelynne, a senior at Fremont High School in Los Angeles, is in the robotics program and is designing a rocket launch for her aerospace engineering project.

鈥淲e also compete with other high schools, and the competitions are really fun,鈥� Madelynne said. 鈥淚鈥檓 really proud of all the models (we made), even if they鈥檙e not the final ones we end up using.鈥�

Madelynne remembers designing an elevator system in a robot she worked on for a competition. Although she and her team chose a more time-efficient robot for the event, she said she learned how to develop new technical and team-building skills in a high-stakes environment. 

鈥淚t was a lot of our own ideas and a lot of collaboration,鈥� Madelynne said, 鈥渁nd I thought that even if it doesn鈥檛 work, at least the process was nice.鈥�

In recent years, L.A. Unified has significantly expanded career technical education to about 435 pathways, from engineering and technology to business and construction, serving nearly 40,000 students. About 1,000 students completed internships in the 2024-2025 school year, and CTE programs have about a 97% graduation rate. 

鈥淐TE careers are the fastest growing careers in the United States, more than students going to a four-year university,鈥� said Jaime Medina, a firefighter and teacher in L.A. Unified鈥檚 firefighting program. 

Israel Urbina, a junior at Washington Preparatory High School in Los Angeles, is a third-year student in the photojournalism program. At the showcase, he displayed a photo in which he manipulated light to create different designs, objects and shapes, including one that spelled out his name. 

鈥淩ight now, my thing in photography is light painting,鈥� Israel said. 鈥淚 did a video about it in my photography class, and it鈥檚 about all my light paintings and the different ones I鈥檝e done and the different people I鈥檝e done it with.鈥�

Ken Kerbs, a photojournalism teacher at the school, described Israel as nearly an 鈥渆xpert鈥� on light painting. Through years of honing techniques related to perspective, reflections, texture, light and shadow, Kerbs said most of his students leave the program with greater curiosity about the world and a sharper eye for detail. 

鈥淲hat that says to me is that teaching them the basics is to be sensitive and have a different sensibility about their environment,鈥� Kerbs said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 what makes me come to school in the morning.鈥�

Blessed Thomas-Hill, a senior at Washington Prep, worked with Israel on a film about light painting and wrote poetry for the film鈥檚 narrative. She said she chose the photojournalism program because of Kerbs, who helped teach her to be more comfortable expressing herself.  

鈥淚鈥檓 an introvert, and talking with people, I really struggle with that a lot,鈥� Blessed said. 鈥淚 got to know a lot of great friends this year. I鈥檝e got to get closer to more people. It鈥檚 made me more sociable.鈥� 

Students 鈥榬ise to the occasion鈥� 

Blessed said she wants to be an artist and plans to incorporate photography in her personal art. She remembers a field trip to Cal State Northridge, where she learned about a photographer鈥檚 protest of immigration raids through his photos of L.A. communities, which inspired her to commit to art. 

鈥淚t鈥檚 really inspiring in a way because it shows that you鈥檙e not just alone in your community,鈥� Blessed said. 

Madelynne said she plans to continue studying robotics and will pursue a college degree in biomedical engineering. Because she had not committed to robotics until her senior year, she felt she was behind many students who had started coding in middle school. 

鈥淎t first, I didn鈥檛 believe in myself. I didn鈥檛 think I was smart enough to do something as complicated as engineering,鈥� Madelynne said, adding that the robotics program led her to Girls Build, a club where girls learn to code and build machines together. 

鈥淪preading the positivity around has helped me believe more in myself,鈥� she said. 

Sergio, the Banning High fire academy student, said he initially struggled with how physically demanding his training was, but that he learned to build speed and strength with each simulated fire alarm drill. 

鈥淚鈥檝e also learned that when it comes to rising to an occasion, I rise to that occasion. Whether it be someone鈥檚 in trouble, I help protect people,鈥�  he said. 鈥淭his academy has brought out leadership in me, the discipline, the social skills that I wouldn鈥檛 have learned any other way.鈥� 

Sergio said he also plans to become certified as a diesel mechanic, because the firefighting program has allowed him to combine two of his interests.  

鈥淚 love the whole firefighting part, but I鈥檝e also always loved working on cars. I figured if I鈥檓 going to be a mechanic, I might as well do it for a better cause,鈥� Sergio said. 鈥淲orking on fire engines, so when those firefighters go out and save those lives, I can say I helped with that.鈥�

This story was originally published on EdSource.

When Stamford High School students arrive at their personal finance class, they鈥檙e greeted by a stock ticker and a TV monitor showing the day鈥檚 business and financial news.

Printed below, on the yellow wall, is a collage of words like 鈥渋ndependence,鈥� 鈥済enerational wealth鈥� and 鈥渄ream big.鈥� 鈥淵our journey to financial freedom starts here,鈥� another wall reads.

This is the school鈥檚 recently renovated financial literacy lab. As schools across Connecticut work to meet a new graduation requirement, Stamford 鈥� with help from the city’s well-established finance sector 鈥� is staying a few steps ahead.

The district already offered personal finance as an elective before the statewide requirement went into effect. Now, it鈥檚 upping its game, in part with the help of a $150,000 grant from Stamford-based financial services company Synchrony.

It鈥檚 part of $3 million in grants Synchrony has rolled out nationwide under its “Empowering Financial Futures” initiative over the last two years. And it comes as interest in K-12 financial literacy grows around the U.S. 

鈥淜ids need to start to get focused on this, and they need to understand what true financial literacy is,鈥� Sue Bishop, Synchrony’s chief corporate affairs officer, said at the lab鈥檚 grand opening last month. 

The company’s grant to Stamford’s public schools went toward purchasing a live stock ticker and two TV monitors, along with dozens of finance-related games, books and activities. The materials will support a now-mandatory personal finance class, which includes topics ranging from household budgeting to investment and loan planning. 

Connecticut Financial Scholars, part of a national organization seeking to bring financial literacy into K-12 education, helped Stamford design the course. Director of Program Support Elisa Oliver said it鈥檚 exciting to witness students picking up new skills.

鈥淪eeing kids actually break down a loan amortization calculator,” Oliver marveled. “We鈥檙e seeing students having these conversations when they鈥檙e 15, 16 years old, which is awesome.”

Toward increasing economic mobility

Connecticut鈥檚 financial literacy requirement , with the state legislature voting overwhelmingly in favor. The mandate also received support from Gov. Ned Lamont and state Treasurer Erick Russell. 

“Personal financial management is one of the most important instructional tools that we can give young people to achieve economic independence and stability throughout their lives,” Lamont when the bill was signed into law. “Requiring it to graduate from high school is simply common sense.”

Under the requirement, starting in the fall of 2023, public high school students in the state had to take a half-credit personal finance course to graduate, starting with the class of 2027. The state is using curriculum developed by , a national organization that has developed the most-used personal finance curriculum in the country. 

In an interview with the Connecticut Mirror, Russell said the financial literacy requirement fits into broader wealth-building and financial security efforts supported by the state. He pointed to programs like , and the 鈥� the state’s 529 college savings program 鈥� as additional examples.

“Having that strong educational foundation and understanding of finances is also key,  so that people can take advantage of some of those opportunities,” he said. “We want to make sure, as we look at this investment from Synchrony and others like it, as we look at the financial education course requirement, that we’re setting people up for long term success in our state.”

In requiring personal finance coursework, Connecticut joined a growing national trend. According to , 39 states currently require students to take a personal finance course before high school graduation.

“As more states adopt these requirements, ensuring educators have the training, tools, and ongoing support to teach personal finance effectively is becoming increasingly important,” Steve Bumbaugh, the council’s CEO, said in a on Monday.

That sentiment is echoed by Connecticut Financial Scholars. In the years since the organization set up shop in the state, it has worked to promote financial literacy education, with a focus on Connecticut鈥檚 large cities and higher-need school districts.

The goal is to promote equity in access to financial knowledge in the state, said organization executive director Betsy McNeil.

“Without adequate financial education, students are more likely to struggle with debt or financial stress that really can impact them on a daily basis and can limit their economic mobility,” she said. “We’re looking to equip the students with the really essential financial skills, knowledge, awareness and confidence.”

Bishop, of Synchrony, said the need to teach financial literacy has grown as more and more young people, especially college students, get wrapped up in the world of sports gambling and prediction markets.

鈥淵ou can get that same high by investing in the stock market or saving in a mutual fund 鈥� in a much safer and much more beneficial way,鈥� Bishop said.

Connecticut Financial Scholars is active in a number of schools, using a four-part strategy of curriculum, teacher support, parent engagement and community involvement to further spread its message. 

After the Connecticut personal finance requirement was established, the organization on how to implement financial education curricula in their classrooms.

Efforts like the Stamford High School lab also help, McNeil said, by providing ways for community members and local institutions to support student learning. In the coming months she said she hopes more communities will benefit from this kind of investment.

鈥淲e continue to explore and listen for those opportunities in the other communities that we’re in as well,鈥� she said, noting that Stamford is one of the state鈥檚 鈥渁lliance districts,鈥� a group of under-resourced school districts in Connecticut. 

“This is needed in Stamford, and we recognize and understand it is needed in other communities across the state as well,” McNeil added.

Stamford ahead of the curve

Synchrony’s Bishop said she鈥檚 glad the personal finance course also devotes time to more mundane topics, such as building a good credit score. 鈥淵ou honestly cannot live in this country without credit,鈥� she said.

When she graduated high school, Bishop said the extent of her financial literacy was knowing how to balance a checkbook. That didn鈥檛 change until her first job, which happened to be at a mutual fund company.

鈥淚 was like, ‘I鈥檓 not good at math. I鈥檓 a communications person. What am I doing?’鈥� Bishop said. 鈥淚 still say it was the best thing that ever happened to me, because I learned about investing.鈥�

Courses like Stamford鈥檚 aim to put that kind of knowledge in the classroom where, in theory, every student will be exposed to it. Bishop said that also has an upside for banks themselves.

鈥淲e never want to loan money to someone who can鈥檛 pay us back,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e have a vested interest in developing young people to be responsible adults.鈥�

Stamford High School personal finance teacher Doug Taylor said for the final assessment of the class, students face a 鈥渓ife scenario鈥� in which they manage a household budget while handling unexpected problems like a car breaking down.

鈥淚n the end of that cycle, they must have had the budget balanced,鈥� Taylor said.

Stamford senior Nick Sutin said he鈥檚 landed a job with a nearby finance company, and he said he gives some credit to the finance classes he’s taken. He said that expertise helped him make a strong impression.

鈥淵ou already have the background to answer all these types of questions,鈥� Sutin said.

Stamford students who want to study finance topics beyond the state requirement have plenty of opportunities. The high school boasts 12 business teachers, most of whom have business or financial work experience. Their classes include entrepreneurship, business communications and investing. Some students even build stock portfolios and take part in competitions with other high schools.

鈥淭his is not vocational. This is finance. This is investments. This is starting a business,鈥� said Dorothea Mackey, the head of Stamford High School’s Career and Technical Education department.

Mackey, who previously worked as an analyst at Chrysler Capital, played a leading role in securing Synchrony鈥檚 support for the new financial literacy lab.

鈥淭his is just pushing this envelope a little bit forward to make sure that the business education is solidified,鈥� she said.

This first appeared on and is republished here under a .

Within weeks of ChatGPT鈥檚 release, hard rules appeared almost overnight. AI tools were banned throughout departments. Teachers watched what seemed like an existential threat materialize in real time, and they responded the way institutions usually do under pressure: They drew a line and told everyone not to cross it.

Three years later, that line is still there. And at many places, nobody ever asked whether it should be, at least not the people most affected by it.

When I looked into how my Austin, Texas, high school鈥檚 AI policy was developed, I found that my administrators made the decision internally. There was no student committee, no open forum, no campuswide survey. The rulebook was simply handed down. In K鈥�12 education, require districts to develop and publish AI policies; when they are published, they鈥檙e often developed without proper consideration of all stakeholders, including students themselves.

It鈥檚 reasonable to counter that students are minors, that institutions need coherent governance and that not all decisions can go to a committee. But AI policy isn鈥檛 a routine curriculum adjustment. It governs what tools students are allowed to use to think, draft, research and communicate 鈥� tools that increasingly shape how knowledge is produced and evaluated outside school. Getting those rules wrong produces consequences for students.

Brittany Carr鈥檚 situation is a well-known example. In early 2023, the had three assignments flagged by an AI detector. She provided her revision history and explained her process writing deeply personal essays about her cancer diagnosis, her depression and her personal recovery. It wasn鈥檛 enough. Fearing that a second accusation could cost her financial aid, she began running every essay through an AI detector herself, rewriting any sentence it marked until her writing voice felt flattened and unfamiliar. By the end of the semester, she left the university.

Carr is not alone. The same NBC News investigation found that students across the country deliberately simplified their vocabulary and avoided complex sentence patterns 鈥� not to write better, but to write less like themselves. Creative writing assignments exist to help students find their voice, which they can鈥檛 do in fear of an algorithm. Carr鈥檚 case shows a student reshaping her writing, and ultimately her education, around a software system she had no role in approving, in a policy she had no voice in developing.

Student involvement would not necessarily have guaranteed a different outcome in Carr鈥檚 case. But it might have changed the structure that enabled it. Students could have brought up concerns about relying on automated detectors without corroborating evidence. They could have described how fear of false accusations pushes students toward simpler vocabulary, safer syntax and less intellectual risk. They could have asked what procedural protections exist before a software flag becomes an academic charge.

Instead, at many institutions, enforcement architecture was built first. Conversation came later, if at all.

It doesn鈥檛 have to work this way. In Los Altos, California, did more than sit in on policy meetings 鈥� they designed and ran community workshops, facilitated discussions between sixth graders and administrators, and built an AI chatbot to help other districts draft policies. 

A found that students overwhelmingly want to be part of decisions about how AI is used in their education 鈥� and that many already hold sophisticated views on its risks and potential. The fact that Los Altos made national news tells you how rarely that invitation is extended.

But there is a deeper reason students belong in these conversations: We know something policymakers don鈥檛.

At my high school, I鈥檝e witnessed 鈥� and experienced 鈥� a secret loop in the learning process: we use  large language model tools like ChatGPT and Claude to genuinely improve learning by unraveling concepts, studying for tests and brainstorming ideas. 

A few days ago, a student asked a question about a formula in my AP Physics C class 鈥� and nobody knew the answer. Another student opened his laptop and asked Claude, and after a few minutes of back-and-forth, we had completely straightened out our question, improving everyone鈥檚 understanding of how circuits worked. I used an LLM to compile notes from my Multivariable Calculus class, which helped me study and earn a near-perfect score on my test. My friend used ChatGPT to learn Java syntax for a project 鈥� not to write code, but to understand the language.

A found that 54% of U.S. teens now use AI chatbots for schoolwork, with the most common uses being research and brainstorming 鈥� not copying and pasting answers. But that message hasn鈥檛 reached the people writing the rules. This secret loop goes completely disregarded by schools, simply because it鈥檚 easier to blanket-ban the technology altogether. The generation that grew up with these tools understands their texture in a way no outside committee can replicate.

These AI policies directly affect students鈥� outcomes and futures. To exclude them from the conversation is simply undemocratic.

If educational institutions are serious about preparing students for democratic citizenship, that commitment must go beyond coursework and into policy-making. The time to invite students into these critical conversations is now. Will schools treat students as subjects of policy, or as participants in it?

In the past few years, the world has seemed to change faster than ever. Smartphones, AI, social media and the constant flow of information have transformed daily life. Yet one thing has barely changed: the history curriculum in K鈥�12 schools. The world may be moving fast, but history textbooks are not.

The war in Iran shows how badly educators need to change the way we teach the past. We can鈥檛 begin with distant history 鈥� the 13 colonies, ancient Egypt or classical Greece 鈥� and expect students to figure out why any of it matters. We need to begin with the world students are living in now, with the headlines they already see every day. They need to understand what鈥檚 happening in Iran before they learn it was once the Persian empire. Once they understand the present, they can begin to understand why the story of how we got here matters.

History explains our nation鈥檚 politics, our institutions, our ideas and our wars. But why should students care about how we got to the modern world if they do not understand the modern world in the first place? It is hard to make sense of the past, or even care about it, if you do not understand the present.

And yet, America still teaches history from the colonial period or classical antiquity forward. Our curricula, though not our teachers, assume students will make the connection from past to present on their own. But the worldview of a 14-year-old, fresh out of middle school and getting most of their news from TikTok, will be incomplete at best.

Schools cannot begin with history without first asking what they know about the present: Do they know where Iran is? (.) What kind of government it has? How its economy works? Why the region matters geopolitically? If we asked, we would find that many students know very little about the wider world as it exists right now. That helps explain why they so often struggle to care about its history.

Because classrooms so often teach Ivan the Terrible and Alexander the Great in a vacuum, they get lackluster results. Scores in U.S. history have declined sharply, with just 13% of middle school students performing at grade level. Yet more than 75% of high school students following current events is important to them, and 93% say more opportunities to discuss current events in the classroom.

At our school, in the Bronx, we focus on computer science, technology and internships. But our mission is larger than that: to prepare students to navigate the economy and the world. A year ago, when we looked at our graduating seniors, we found that many knew little about the world they actually live in. That is why we revamped our 9th-grade history curriculum.

Before teaching U.S. and world history, we teach students about the world as it exists today. In 9th grade, they study geography, economic systems, governments and culture in the present. That way, they can understand history as an attempt to explain the world around them, not as a random collection of facts.

We examine major powers and regions 鈥� Iran, China, the U.K., Mexico, Russia, Venezuela, Nigeria and the U.S. 鈥� and ask basic questions. How does each country鈥檚 economy work? What is its political system? How well does it serve the people who live there? What languages do people speak and what religions do they practice? How do states compete for power?

The result is that students have a framework for everything they learn later in high school.

So when federal food assistance was suspended a few months ago and students in my class were struggling to afford groceries, we turned that into a short study of federal systems and how different levels of government work. When the war in Iran began, our students already had baseline knowledge. I asked why they thought we were at war, and they talked about the strategic value of oil and the challenges of an authoritarian theocracy. They were able to think critically about what they saw on TikTok instead of simply absorbing it.

The crisis led to serious classroom conversations. Students were equipped with knowledge.

Rethinking how schools teach history takes on new urgency because social media now delivers global events to students instantly. They see what is happening in the world whether adults are ready for it or not. As educators, we have a responsibility to help them process that information with reason. We want them to think independently, not simply absorb what an algorithm feeds them.

That is especially important in an age of misinformation. It is also more engaging. When students do not see a connection between school and their own lives, absenteeism rises and disengagement follows. Starting from what is relevant to students鈥� lives and backgrounds is critical if we want to build students who are curious and eager to learn.

To my fellow educators, especially history teachers: I understand the hesitation. In a hyperpolarized political climate, teaching current events can be a scary and thankless task. But we have to be brave.

If our families and our students see that we are helping them make sense of what is happening in the world right now, they will remember why school matters and why our profession matters to our communities and our country. And if more people understand both the world we live in now and how it got this way, we may be able to educate a generation of leaders better prepared for the crises yet to come.

TOPEKA 鈥� In what founding document does the phrase 鈥淟ife, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness鈥� appear? Why did the United States enter the Persian Gulf War? Why do U.S. representatives serve shorter terms than U.S. senators?

These are among the 128 questions on the U.S. citizenship test, and they could become study material for Kansas students.

Under a bill that also mandates teaching students about the dangers of communism and socialism, high school freshmen would be required to take a 100-question exam based on the civics test that prospective U.S. citizens take during the American naturalization process.

lumps the test into state-mandated American history and civics classes in public and accredited private and parochial schools, and students would have to pass the test before earning a diploma.

The bill passed the Senate on Thursday in a 26-14 vote. It also requires the State Board of Education to craft curricula that teaches K-12 public school students about 鈥渘egative impacts of communist and socialist regimes and ideologies.鈥�

The bill is rooted in conservative circles concerned about anti-Americanism and contested statistics that purport Gen Z Americans are attracted to communist and socialist ideals. Sen. Brad Starnes, a Riley Republican and former school superintendent, put forth the bill and assured the House Education Committee on Monday that neither the civics test nor the curricula will replace existing units on American history.

The committee on Tuesday approved an amendment to the bill to add fascism to the curricula.

Research on younger generations鈥� inclination toward socialist or communist causes is muddy. A 2019 Gallup poll found millennials and Gen Z, ages 18-39, . As a whole, however, Americans still than socialism.

Joshua Reynolds, a policy analyst for Cicero Action, a conservative think tank鈥檚 advocacy arm, backed the bill, citing three separate polls indicating favorable views of communism and socialism among 18-39 year olds.

Reynolds cited in testimony a 2020 poll from the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation that 鈥�63% of Gen Z and Millennials believe that the Declaration of Independence guarantees 鈥榝reedom and equality鈥� better than the Communist Manifesto, compared to 95% of the Silent Generation.鈥�

Leah Fliter, assistant executive director of advocacy for the Kansas Association of School Boards, said socialism and communism curriculum might be inappropriate and complex for early grades.

鈥淲e feel that this bill has been drafted without looking at the Kansas state standards for graduation,鈥� she said Monday.

The Kansas State Board of Education already recommends instruction on communism and socialism, according to Monday testimony from board members Cathy Hopkins and Beryl New. The board, they wrote, 鈥渉as established history, government and social studies standards that prepare students to be informed, thoughtful, engaged citizens as they enrich their communities, state, nation, world and themselves.鈥�

If passed, both of the bill鈥檚 provisions would go into effect July 1, making next school year鈥檚 freshmen the first group to be required to pass the civics test as a condition of graduation.

During the naturalization process, most prospective U.S. citizens must complete an interview and citizenship test, which consists of an English portion and civics portion. People must answer at least 12 of 20 civics questions correctly, which are selected at random from a cache of about foundational American events, figures, principles and procedures. Kansas high school students would have to take a 100-question exam containing questions substantially similar to those that appear on the citizenship civics test, the bill said.

Arizona has required its high schoolers to pass a civics exam based on the U.S. citizenship test since 2017, and in 2026 raised the passing threshold, requiring students to answer at least 70 of 100 questions right instead of the original 60. Wisconsin has required the test since 2015.

Arizona only offers the test in English while Wisconsin offers versions in Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Tagalog and Vietnamese.

The Kansas proposal does not specify a designated language. Students could request to take the test as early as seventh grade, and they can take it as many times as necessary to pass. Students must get an 80% or higher on the test to pass.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: info@kansasreflector.com.

As New York City schools ramp up their focus on job readiness programs, a parent board overseeing high schools is calling on the Education Department to implement career aptitude assessments for all ninth and 11th graders.

鈥淚t helps with the ever popular question of 鈥榃hat do you want to be when you grow up?鈥欌�� said Lawrence Lee, one of the sponsors . 鈥淚t鈥檚 a big world with lots of different options and choices. I think many people look around and think their choices are only what they can see around them.鈥�

, like other schools across the state and nation, are increasingly focusing on career education. There are more than 130 career and technical schools plus over 260 career and technical programs offering internships, apprenticeships, and job-focused courses across the five boroughs. But often, students are left to navigate a complicated application process without guidance on how various programs, electives, internships, career and technical tracks, and postsecondary paths might align with long-term goals, the high school council board members said. They believe the career aptitude assessments can help students reflect on their choices to improve how they select courses and work toward real-world goals.

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鈥淏y 11th grade, those decisions directly affect college applications, workforce credentials, and financial planning. Rather than leave those moments to chance, these assessments can give students the agency to better understand their own talents and to see multiple futures for themselves,鈥� said Deborah Alexander, one of the resolution鈥檚 sponsors.

Education Department officials said they will review the resolution, but added they currently use platforms that offer interactive career exploration activities and generate tailored career options based on students鈥� interests.

鈥淭his career planning is also embedded in 1:1 advising, ensuring each high schooler receives personalized support in mapping out their next steps,鈥� Education Department spokesperson Isla Gething said in a statement.

The high school council members want students to take 鈥渄evelopmentally appropriate, research鈥恇ased鈥� assessments in the fall of freshman year and spring of junior year, saying it will help provide more guidance especially for students from historically underserved communities and those learning English as a new language.

鈥淪ome students grow up surrounded by professionals who talk openly about their work and pathways, but many do not,鈥� Alexander said. 鈥淭hat difference can shape who sees themselves as an engineer, a nurse, a filmmaker, an entrepreneur, or who never considers those possibilities at all.鈥�

The online career assessment industry has exploded in recent years: An across the country use off-the-shelf advising tools from more than 20 companies, and many others use custom tech tools.

Some research suggests that career aptitude tools can help students better understand their strengths, that might otherwise not have been on their radar. Some experts suggest the tech tools can also help erode , when it comes to career advice.

But evidence of how effective these tools are remains scarce, which is why education research organization MDRC has embarked on a long-term analysis of two of the tech tools, expecting to release results in the summer. Though the tools offer schools a way to advise students without having to hire more counselors 鈥� doing deep dives into what kinds of careers fit a student鈥檚 aptitudes and personality as well as what kind of degree to pursue and potential salary ranges 鈥� they often need, said Rachel Rosen, a senior research associate at MDRC.

鈥淭hey鈥檙e not perfect,鈥� Rosen said of the tools. 鈥淭hey are better if there is a teacher or an adult who will take the information and really work closely with the students on understanding how it can help them think creatively about what the tools are saying.鈥�

While MDRC researchers don鈥檛 yet have definitive answers on whether the tool helped reduce bias, they did find that by the time students take the assessments, they already have some of their own assumptions about who they are and what kinds of careers they might do, Rosen said.

鈥淭hey felt like they knew themselves better than the tool,鈥� she said, and while the tools still had potential, 鈥渢hey need some good adult guidance to go with them.鈥�

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools. This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at .

Each has implemented at least one of five strategies to boost student participation and success in the subject, according to in its recent report. 

Some, through these efforts, have reduced the need for remediation at the college level. This is particularly relevant for low-income students and those of color, who are more likely to be placed in these noncredit courses, which can derail their college trajectories. 

Concern over the issue has risen in recent years thanks to COVID: More than 900 students at the needed catch-up math classes in the fall of 2025 compared to just 32 five years earlier. And their lack of understanding wasn鈥檛 confined to high school: they were missing material they should have mastered in middle and Other universities reported similar problems.  

鈥淭oo often we spend a lot of energy discussing the challenges and constraints related to education or redesigning math,鈥� said Shakiyya Bland, Just Equations鈥� director of educational partnerships. 鈥淭his report highlights states that are doing the work, showing what鈥檚 possible 鈥� and showing results.鈥� 

The report recognized efforts in other regions, too. The Virginia Community College System, for example, saw the need for remedial math plummet from 40% of incoming students to 4% between 2014 and 2021 after it changed how it judged college math readiness and how it teaches students who need additional help, Bland said. 

鈥淚nstead of a single placement test that pushed huge numbers into noncredit remedial tracks, colleges started using multiple measures like high school GPA and math coursework, expanding access for more students to go straight into college鈥憀evel math with added support,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hat shift, from assuming students weren鈥檛 ready to assuming they could succeed with the right help, is what drove the big drop in 鈥榬emedial鈥� placements.鈥�

Just Equations cited five strategies states can implement to align mathematics from high school to college, including course co-design, where secondary and post-secondary instructors unite to craft high school math sequences.  

The organization said, too, universities should have transparent expectations for incoming freshmen so these students know what is expected of them for various college majors. 

Just Equations also touts the value of senior year transition or readiness courses for high school students: These classes, the organization observes, help ensure students can handle the challenge of college-level work. 

States might also offer dual enrollment courses which allow high school students to earn college credit, saving them time and money, Just Equations concluded. They can also work to ensure public universities recognize new high school mathematics offerings so students are properly credited for those classes. 

Georgia redesigned its math pathway through a partnership with K-12 and higher education math teachers to make sure new high school courses aligned with college entry requirements. The state also added several new courses for high school seniors, including Advanced Placement Statistics and Mathematics of Industry and Government. 

California had given students conflicting guidance about how many years of high school math they needed: State law demanded two while school districts often required three and some colleges recommended four. State universities are now more transparent about what is needed for college success in general and in specific majors.

Just Equations notes Tennessee鈥檚 efforts date back 18 years when its high school students were first required to complete four years of math, including Algebra II. The state鈥檚 mathematics offerings have been reworked numerous times since then and statistics has emerged as a valuable course for many.

Out West, Utah鈥檚 dual-enrollment program made college-level classes more accessible and affordable. The state also expanded the range of math pathways for high school students beyond college algebra, a course that relies heavily on algebraic procedures where students often struggle with the material and finding its relevancy.

Students may now opt for quantitative reasoning, focusing on practical numeracy skills such as personal finance and statistical reasoning or introductory statistics, geared toward life sciences, business and social sciences.

Mike Spencer, secondary mathematics specialist for the state board of education, said the change has been helpful to many students who might otherwise be kept out of college by their inability to pass a course that often had no bearing on their major or career aspiration. 

But, he said, students were reluctant to make the switch. 

鈥淲hen it was first released, we saw a majority of our students were still taking college algebra, partly because of tradition,鈥� Spencer said. 鈥淪o, we made a significant effort to help inform students, families and counselors to understand why you would go into each of these.鈥�

Just Equations noted, too, Utah鈥檚 university professors help craft high school syllabuses, screen high school teachers to teach college-level courses, and 鈥渧erify grading consistency using common assessments.鈥� It credits these and other changes for a massive increase in the rate of high school seniors completing four years of math, from 28% in 2012 to 87% in 2020. 

Bland of Just Equations said states should routinely bring together K鈥�12, higher education, and workforce leaders to find the best math pathways for students. And, she said, they should invest in sustained professional development and K鈥�16 longitudinal data to track students into the workforce to learn which math experiences best supported their success. 

Five years ago, Oregon adopted new mathematics standards intended to be 鈥渕ore modern and equitable,鈥� moving away from the three-course sequence of Algebra I, geometry and Algebra II to a required two-year core curriculum focused on algebra, geometry and data/statistics. 

Students can now choose a course of study for a required third year 鈥� including mathematical modeling, data science and quantitative reasoning 鈥� and an optional fourth year. 

The changes required colleges to revisit their stated requirements. The University of Oregon, for example, mandated Algebra II for all incoming students, but now requires three or more years of high school math, which 鈥渃ould be satisfied by any math course with a primary focus on concepts in algebra, calculus, data science, discreet mathematics, geometry, mathematical analysis, probability or statistics.鈥� 

In addition to the five core states at the heart of the study, Just Equations also lauded North Carolina鈥檚 automatic enrollment policy, adopted in 2018, which places students who score high on state assessments into advanced mathematics courses for the following year, eliminating subjective recommendations. More than 95% of the state鈥檚 eighth-grade students who scored at the highest level were placed in advanced math courses in 2022鈥�23, up from 87% in 2017鈥�18, before the policy was enacted. 

While these states have made noteworthy progress, critics note problems remain. 

A lack of longitudinal data in Tennessee makes it difficult to understand the impact of the changes that have taken shape there, state officials say. 

鈥淥ne of the goals that I have over the next year or so is to better track the entire arc of the student journey,鈥� said Juliette Biondi, who directs the state鈥檚 Seamless Alignment and Integrated Learning Support program, as documented in the report. 鈥淚 want to understand how they do in their college math classes. Do they struggle? Does it influence graduation rates?鈥�

Utah, too, can also improve: Rural areas find it hard to recruit and retain qualified teachers for college-level courses, leading them to rely on virtual instruction.

And Jo Boaler, the Stanford professor who helped California reshape its math program, said she regularly observes ineffective teaching practices that undermine K-12 learning.

鈥淎ll I can see is that we have not built conceptual understanding or number sense well by the end of school,鈥� Boaler told 社区黑料. 鈥淲hen I visit classrooms, I still see students going through uninspiring textbook math. Maybe there has been some improvement but I have not heard about it or seen it yet.鈥�

Disclosure: The Gates Foundation provides financial support to Just Equations and 社区黑料.

Their preparation and evaluation focuses disproportionately on compliance and core academics, not on whether students graduate ready for what comes next. The result is a system that sidelines the very leaders who could drive change. School-level leaders should be the chief architects of high school redesign and high-quality pathways, connecting what students learn in classrooms with the real skills, experiences and credentials they鈥檒l need after graduation. 

Decades of research confirm what common sense suggests: Effective principals and assistant principals drive student success. The has shown that principals are second only to teachers on their impact on student learning. More recent from the UChicago Consortium on School Research finds strong school leaders affect not only high school achievement but also students鈥� college enrollment and persistence.   

These findings are especially relevant now as educators and policymakers across the country rethink the purpose and structure of high school.  New efforts from the, the , and aim to align education with the demands of today鈥檚 economy 鈥� emphasizing skills, credentials, and experiences that prepare students for college, career and adult life. But these initiatives will falter if the people responsible for running high schools aren鈥檛 prepared.

Despite the key role they play,  principals rarely receive the training or guidance needed to lead this kind of redesign and must simultaneously manage competing district priorities.  of district leaders consistently rank math and reading scores, chronic absenteeism and teacher recruitment as top concerns, while expanding access to career and technical education or dual enrollment programs ranks near the bottom. 

The message seems to be that academic recovery matters, but preparing students for life after graduation is optional. As a result, high school redesign efforts often sit on the margins, disconnected from the day-to-day work of teaching and learning. Principals, pressed by urgent academic demands, lack the time, resources, or cover  to connect those priorities with students鈥� long-term goals.

If states and districts want high school redesign to succeed, they need to put principals and assistant principals at the center of those efforts. This means aligning preparation, expectations, and accountability around the idea that postsecondary readiness is not a separate responsibility but a core part of the work of principals and assistant principals. 

First, it鈥檚 important to break down the silos separating high school redesign from broader school improvement priorities.  Postsecondary readiness is school improvement. Focusing on instructional achievement isn鈥檛 mutually exclusive with improving career-connected learning or access to accelerated coursework.  

Matt Gandal, President of Education Strategy Group recently , 鈥淚f we want to change the trajectory of student performance in high school, we have to do more to inspire them 鈥� including showing them the connection between what they鈥檙e learning in school and their future goals.鈥� Vermont has developed a framework that shows how this is possible by including mechanisms to help principals and assistant principals plan for increasing access to advanced coursework. 

Second, pathway planning, counselor supervision and high-quality advising need to be part of state school leader standards.  Across states, school leadership standards rarely reference or outline the specific knowledge and skills that secondary principals should develop in order to effectively lead students to postsecondary and workforce success. When these outcomes become part of what schools are held accountable for, principals can lead them with purpose.  Illinois鈥� offers a strong model by explicitly including college and career readiness as a leadership competency.  

Third, and most critical, the initial preparation, ongoing coaching and peer networks for school leaders should all emphasize high school redesign and pathways.  Skim most state certification for principals and you鈥檒l see mandatory classes on finance, instruction, child psychology and special education law. Licensure and preparation programs should treat college and career readiness as fundamental, not elective. Principals need to learn how to align schedules, curricula and partnerships to help every student graduate with a plan and the experiences to pursue it. They deserve ongoing coaching and peer networks that reinforce this vision.

Promising models exist and show a way forward. For example, since 2021-2022, the has partnered with over 300 school and district leaders through a multi-year coaching and professional learning partnership focused on the conditions that enable postsecondary readiness. This partnership is guided by an overarching research-based for leadership development oriented toward long-term student success. 

Reframing the principal鈥檚 job around students鈥� long-term readiness offers high returns. When principals connect academic learning with meaningful experiences such as dual enrollment, apprenticeships or credential programs, students are more likely to graduate with confidence and purpose. They see school as relevant to their future, not as a disconnected series of requirements. The cost of these changes is modest compared with their potential benefits. The estimates that comprehensive leadership development  can be implemented for about $42 per student. This cost is far less than the price of failed reforms. 

What鈥檚 missing is not evidence or funding but alignment: Policymakers and system leaders must decide that empowering principals to lead this work is worth the investment. High school redesign will not succeed through frameworks or pilot programs alone. It will succeed when principals have the preparation, authority and support to make postsecondary readiness central to their mission 鈥� and when states and districts create the conditions for them to do so.

Disclosure: 社区黑料 receive financial support from the Wallace Foundation.

This story was originally published by . for their newsletters.

At CART High near Fresno, there is no gum stuck to the floor. The saffron-yellow walls are unmarred by graffiti. Toting laptops, students file calmly down spacious, light-filled hallways to classes like biotechnology and digital marketing. There鈥檚 no fighting, no shouting, no bells. No one even cuts class.

It鈥檚 hard to believe CART High is a public high school. But in the future, this may be a model for every high school in California.

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鈥淲e can see from the data that the big, old-fashioned factory model of high school 鈥� where students run from class to class with a locker as their only stable point of contact 鈥� is not succeeding,鈥� said Linda Darling-Hammond, president of the State Board of Education. 鈥淲e need to overhaul the whole idea of what high school can be, and right now we have an opportunity to do so.鈥�

The California Collaborative for Educational Excellence, a state agency, is launching a to redesign high school and middle school. Groups of districts already working on escaping the factory model applied for grant money, and winners will meet, brainstorm, work through challenges and share their experiences statewide, in hopes of inspiring other districts to create innovative high school options. The money will come from $10 million recently allotted in the state budget, as well as state programs promoting career pathways and dual enrollment in high school.

The idea is to move beyond the traditional high school 鈥� with its rigid 50-minute periods and stand-alone classes 鈥� and replace it with a new type of school that offers work experience, academics tailored to students鈥� interests, stronger personal connections with staff and multidisciplinary courses that link directly to careers and community needs.

Students sit at tables in a hallway and in an engineering class at the Center for Advanced Research and Technology (CART) in Clovis on Oct. 6, 2025. (Larry Valenzuela/CalMatters/CatchLight Local)

鈥淚t should be a joy to go to school every day,鈥� Darling-Hammond said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 what we鈥檙e looking for.鈥�

Countless schools in California use elements of this idea, with schools-within-schools that offer career academies or other specialized programs. But very few high schools are devoted completely to it.

How high school came to be

Public high schools have only existed for about a century in the U.S. Education for younger children has existed for hundreds of years, but the idea of school for teenagers only came about in the early 20th century. The original high schools were based loosely on a factory model of efficiency, with learning measured in Carnegie units 鈥� 120 hours spent over a year studying a particular topic. at the time in an effort to standardize education, the measure is still used at nearly all high schools and colleges.

But have shown that teenagers learn more in a flexible environment with plenty of hands-on projects and teamwork. Instead of sitting quietly at desks and listening to a teacher, students are more likely to be engaged if they鈥檙e allowed some autonomy to pursue topics they鈥檙e interested in, with their peers.

Alternative schools 鈥� typically, schools for students who aren鈥檛 succeeding in traditional school 鈥� have been experimenting with this approach for decades. The state鈥檚 aim to not only help students graduate, but also pair them with internships, teach them practical life skills and address their emotional well-being. They often have flexible schedules and small classes, with teachers getting to know students and their families personally.

There鈥檚 plenty of evidence that traditional high schools may be outdated. In the most recent , nearly half of 11th graders said school 鈥渋s really boring.鈥� Almost 25% of 11th graders were chronically absent last year.

Academically, the numbers were equally dismal. Just 30% of California 11th graders performed at or above grade level in math last year, with some student groups faring much worse. Although the graduation rate was 87%, fewer than half of those students had finished a college or career preparation track.

鈥淭he data speaks for itself,鈥� said Russlynn Ali, head of XQ Institute, which advocates for high school redesign, and a former head of the U.S. Department of Education鈥檚 Office for Civil Rights under President Barack Obama. 鈥淭here are young people today who鈥檝e graduated from high school but can鈥檛 calculate the tip on a split bill, grasp the main idea in an op-ed piece. The case for change is unmistakeable.鈥�

Transcripts and units

There are a few obstacles to transforming high schools statewide to look like CART. One is higher education. The University of California and California State University require high school students to pass a series of classes, known as A-G, to qualify for admission. Advocates for high school redesign say those requirements are too rigid, and high schools need some flexibility in creating new classes that are more interesting to students and more connected to life outside the classroom. They also say that traditional letter grades, which colleges rely on to admit students, are too limiting and that colleges need to consider a new kind of transcript that more accurately reflects students鈥� abilities.

Another obstacle is the Carnegie unit, which is an integral part of the way high schools and colleges are structured. Even the Carnegie Foundation has been , arguing that schools should measure students鈥� progress based on what they know, rather than how much time they鈥檝e spent in a classroom. But so far, colleges have shown little interest in dropping the Carnegie unit.

A school for 鈥榯he C kid鈥�

CART High, which stands for Center for Advanced Research and Technology, opened about 25 years ago in a renovated water pump facility in Clovis. A joint initiative between Clovis Unified and Fresno Unified, the idea was to reach students who were floundering in school and give them some career experience that could also boost the local economy. It wasn鈥檛 quite an alternative school, but it wasn鈥檛 an honors program, either.

鈥淲e weren鈥檛 looking for the top students. We were looking for the disengaged kids,鈥� said Staci Bynum, CART鈥檚 dean of curriculum and instruction who鈥檚 been at the school since its inception. 鈥淭he C kid is going to excel here.鈥�

CART is open to 11th and 12th graders from both districts, with students selected through a lottery. Last year, more than 2,200 students applied and 1,000 were accepted. Nearly 80% of CART鈥檚 enrollment is low-income.

First: An assortment of bones sits on a desk for students to identify during a forensic science lesson. Last: Forensic science Instructor Erin Andrade shows animal skulls to a classroom of students for a lesson at the Center for Advanced Research and Technology (CART) in Clovis on Oct. 6, 2025. (Larry Valenzuela/CalMatters/CatchLight Local)

Students spend half their day at their regular high school taking math, foreign language, art and other classes, and half their day at CART, where they choose an area of focus. Options include law and policy, business, forensics and psychology, among other topics.

Classes, which the school calls labs, are three hours long, and are taught by a trio of teachers who weave in literature and other academic subjects that are relevant to the subject. In biotechnology, for example, students read 鈥淭he Andromeda Strain鈥� and 鈥淭he Martian,鈥� and write their own science fiction stories based on concepts they鈥檙e learning in class. In the law class, students read Othello or Hamlet then subject characters to a mock trial.

鈥淲e work really hard to get kids to see the bigger picture of why they鈥檙e learning what they鈥檙e learning,鈥� said English teacher Emily Saeteurn. 鈥淲e want them to have that 鈥榓ha!鈥� moment.鈥�

Attendance is nearly 100% and discipline problems are almost unheard of, said principal Rick Watson. More than 90% of students scored at least 鈥減roficient鈥� on the English portion of the Smarter Balanced test. Students take the math portion at their other high school.

When he鈥檚 not running the school, Watson is giving tours. Education officials from around the world often visit, in hopes of replicating the CART model. Numerous CART-inspired schools have opened around California.

鈥淵ou have kids in comprehensive high schools everywhere who are falling through the cracks,鈥� Watson said. 鈥淐omprehensive high schools don鈥檛 work for some B, C, D students. The students聽 have potential but they鈥檙e disconnected.They鈥檙e desperate for a different model of education.鈥�

Senior Madelyn Quiroga, who鈥檚 in the biotechnology class, said she has mediocre grades at her regular high school, but all A鈥檚 at CART.

鈥淎t my other school, they just throw stuff at you and never really explain it. Here, they actually teach us,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd it鈥檚 all stuff we actually want to know, so it sticks in your brain. Like when I hear someone talk about CRISPR (gene editing technology), it鈥檚 like, 鈥極h, I know something about that.鈥欌��

Audrey Riede, an 11th grader in the law class, said she鈥檚 so inspired she wants to be a defense attorney.

鈥淐ART is way better than normal school,鈥� she said. 鈥淭he teachers aren鈥檛 just trying to get you to pass, they really want to make you think. It鈥檚 just a totally different environment.鈥�

The state will announce the winning pilot proposals in November.

This article was and was republished under the license.

And bedrock attitudes about attendance seem to be changing. A recent noted that one in four students now doesn鈥檛 think being chronically absent from school 鈥渋s a problem.鈥� The study found that about 40% of school districts consider reducing chronic absenteeism among their top three most pressing challenges. One in 12 ranks it as their biggest challenge. 

As school districts push to lower absenteeism rates, the software company , which helps schools keep track of students and communicate with parents, examined four years of its own attendance intervention data across hundreds of school districts. It analyzed 3.3 million text messages across 15 states, representing 88,000 students and 22,000 educators. 

In a , it finds that improving attendance often comes down to a handful of basic tasks. Here鈥檚 a breakdown of the key takeaways:

1: Early intervention works

Contacting families before students become chronically absent is crucial. Once a student crosses the 10% threshold, fixing their attendance becomes much harder, so intervening when students register just three to five absences is most effective. Contacting parents early with a letter improved attendance dramatically, reducing absence rates by 28%.

Researchers found that 51% of students whose families receive just one letter don’t need a second one. The 鈥渟ave rate鈥� for these students suggests that many families simply don’t realize how quickly absences accumulate. 

2: Timing and communication methods matter

Parents are highly responsive to text messages, researchers found, with 73% of texts garnering a response from parents in just 11 minutes. They鈥檒l engage with schools when communication is 鈥渁ccessible, timely and specific.鈥�

鈥淭he method does matter,鈥� said Joy Smithson, a SchoolStatus data scientist. 鈥淲e get a lot higher rates of response with text messages.鈥� Placing a phone call, on the other hand, is 鈥渇or those more critical conversations,鈥� she said.

Kara Stern, the company鈥檚 director of education, agreed. 鈥淣ot every parent is in a position where they can pick up a phone call during the day. For many people, it might jeopardize your work situation, and so to assume that that’s the best way to reach a parent is not necessarily to be in tune with the actual realities of the parents in your community.鈥�

The best times to text families, the data suggests, are either around 8 a.m., when parents and students are preparing for school, or 2-4 p.m., typically during pickup times. These align with natural breaks in parents’ daily routines, when they’re most likely to check their phones.

The best time of year to engage families is August or September. Parents who hear from schools early maintain higher response rates throughout the year 鈥� 77% vs. 71% 鈥� and respond, on average, one minute faster. By January, 33% of these parents are still engaging with schools, compared to just 16% of parents who first heard from schools later in the fall term. 

That suggests that early conversations 鈥渄o extra work,鈥� researchers maintain, establishing trust, opening communication channels and signaling to families that working together matters.

鈥淚t’s important to reach out at the beginning of the year, so that you’re not waiting for a crisis,鈥� said Smithson, 鈥渂ecause it’s too late to build a relationship at that point.鈥�

3. Plain language outperforms edu-jargon

Researchers found that being specific about how much school a student has missed outperforms vague messages such as, 鈥淲e’ve noticed some absences.” 

Direct offers of help, such as 鈥淩eply if you need support with transportation or health concerns,” also outperform lengthy explanations of attendance policy.

And when students are older, direct messages can be very effective.

鈥淲hat this data shows us is that connection is really driving so much of a student’s experience,鈥� said Stern. 鈥淲hen a school is able to reach out to the kid and say, 鈥楬ey, Greg, we missed you today, what’s going on? What do you need to help you come to school?鈥� that’s a really different experience than having a form letter appear at your house saying, 鈥楪reg has missed school six days.鈥欌�� 

She added, 鈥淲hat I hope districts will take away from this report is that communication is intervention,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t’s not extra work. It’s the work that makes everything else stick.鈥�

4: Three key moments merit extra attention

Students at three moments in their school careers are more likely to be chronically absent: in pre-K, sixth grade and high school. Stern called them 鈥渉igh alert moments.鈥�

Surprisingly, pre-K students have the highest chronic absenteeism rates of any group, mostly due to the high frequency of illness and families underestimating the impact of missing school. 

Sixth grade is 鈥渢he tipping point,鈥� said Stern, with chronic absenteeism spiking by 3.3 percentage points from fifth to sixth grade, the sharpest increase across all grades.

Smithson said middle-schoolers typically have more autonomy. They鈥檙e often getting their first mobile phones. And current sixth-graders, she said, were in kindergarten when COVID hit in 2020. 鈥淪o just imagine knowing that patterns get established in kindergarten,鈥� she said. For those kindergartners in 2020, school 鈥渞eally got disrupted,鈥� with their baseline experience of school being 鈥渃ategorically different鈥� from what it should have been.

And for many students, the transition from elementary school to middle school represents a shift from a safe, contained environment, where both students and parents are highly engaged, to a less personal one, with less consistency and connectivity, said Stern. Students 鈥渄on’t know that there is someone who’s really paying attention, who cares that they’re there, who knows what’s happening with them, and so maybe it doesn’t really matter if they’re there or not.鈥�

And middle school can also be the place where many students first experience bullying, which also worsens attendance.

In high school, chronic absence rates more than double, and students have lower response rates to traditional methods like letters, suggesting that schools should contact students directly 鈥� actually, they found that direct student messaging could work for students as young as 11. 

A text message to a high school freshman can start a conversation that wouldn’t happen otherwise. Pairing these messages with notes to parents can improve response rates in these critical years, researchers found.

鈥淭he chronic absenteeism numbers in high school suggest that kids are really voting with their feet,鈥� said Stern. 鈥淎nd so one way to get them back would be to invite them in to be part of the solution, to say, 鈥榃hat is it that is not meeting your needs? How can we include your voice in the process of making high school what you want it to be?鈥欌��

In many ways, the new findings echo what researchers like Johns Hopkins University鈥檚 and have long suggested. Chang, the founder and executive director of the nonprofit , said Wednesday鈥檚 report 鈥渞eflects what we know from common sense and research. Improving attendance is possible when we use data to take early action as well as determine where we should invest in building relationships so we can partner with students and families to encourage showing up, monitor absences, and address barriers to getting to school.鈥�

But Chang said that while timely, data-informed engagement of families is essential, 鈥渋t is not always sufficient and should be combined with other strategies for identifying and addressing barriers to getting to school.鈥� Those barriers could exist in the community or in schools and should be addressed in 鈥渁 comprehensive, systemic approach.鈥�

She suggested that of interventions is sometimes necessary, including 鈥渋ntensive interventions鈥� for students who miss more than 20% of school days. It could include housing supports, a student attendance review board, a community-based, non-criminal truancy court, individualized learning and success plans and even, as a last resort, legal intervention.

Stern and Smithson said the findings boil down, in a larger sense, to the importance of what they call 鈥渁ctive noticing鈥� about attendance. 

鈥淚 really think that it would be a big plus for faculties to actively notice every week and go through their rosters,鈥� said Stern. 鈥溾�榃ho do we not know? Who can’t speak about this child? Who doesn’t know anything about this student’s life after school? We have someone that we need to actually pay attention to learning more about 鈥� who’s suddenly not coming to school, who’s turned it around and suddenly being there?鈥� 鈥澛�

Smithson said the biggest takeaway for educators is that 鈥淭iming is everything. Do not wait. Act with urgency. It’s about building those relationships, and it’s just so important 鈥� and it’s so important to start right away.鈥�

COLUMBIA 鈥� South Carolina high schools posted their highest graduation rate in a decade, but a quarter of students still aren鈥檛 ready for college or the workforce, according to released Monday.

Generally, South Carolina鈥檚 schools improved , according to the statewide data that gauges how well schools perform based on test scores, classroom surveys and student growth, among other metrics. Education officials applauded a 10-year high in the number of students graduating on time 鈥� meaning they graduated four years after entering ninth grade 鈥� while saying they would continue pushing for programs to improve how well those students were prepared for life after high school.

鈥淲e have to make sure that our diplomas are worth more than the piece of paper that they are written on,鈥� said state Superintendent Ellen Weaver.

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Overall, 270 schools rated 鈥渆xcellent鈥� this year, an increase from 232 last year. The bottom tier of 鈥渦nsatisfactory鈥� decreased from 49 to 31, and 鈥渂elow average鈥� schools dropped from 186 to 145.

Any time the number of schools in the lowest tier shrinks, that鈥檚 good news, since it means children across the state are getting a better education, said Patrick Kelly, a lobbyist with the Palmetto State Teachers Association.

鈥淭here鈥檚 encouraging information here,鈥� Kelly said of the report cards.

Officials from the state Department of Education and the independent Education Oversight Committee, which is tasked by state law with grading schools, announced the results at Annie Burnside Elementary School in Columbia, which jumped two tiers this year, from 鈥渁verage鈥� to 鈥渆xcellent.鈥�

At the Richland District One school, 83% of the 306 students live in poverty. The school鈥檚 big rating boost was due to significant student improvement, as shown by their test scores, and results on a survey about the school鈥檚 general environment, according to its report card.

鈥淥ur academic gains are no coincidence,鈥� said Principal Janet Campbell. 鈥淭hey are the result of setting measurable goals, challenging our students to reach them and supporting them along the way.鈥�

Graduation rates and readiness

This year, 87% of high schoolers graduated on time, up from 85% last year. That鈥檚 worth celebrating, Kelly said.

鈥淥ur goal should be for every student in South Carolina who has the ability to earn a high school diploma,鈥� he said.

Three-quarters of students were ready for either college or a career after graduation, a gain of 3 percentage points, . Less than a third were ready for both.

Although the gap between students who are graduating and those who are prepared for what comes next continues to shrink slightly, state officials remain concerned about it, Weaver said.

鈥淎t the end of the day, we want our students, when they leave a South Carolina high school, to know that that diploma that they carry is a diploma of value,鈥� Weaver said. 鈥淭his is a diploma that is going to ensure that they are ready to go onto whatever post-secondary success looks like for them.鈥�

All 11th graders in the state take a test assessing skills commonly needed for jobs, divided into four areas: math, reading, understanding data and 鈥渟oft skills,鈥� which include aspects of a job such as dressing professionally and working well with others. Results are graded from 1 to 5, with higher scores suggesting students are ready to pursue more careers.

Students are considered career-ready if they receive a score of 3 or higher on that test, earn a technical education certificate, complete a state-approved internship or receive a high enough score on the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery to enlist in the military. This year, 73% of students met that benchmark, compared to 70% last year, according to report card data.

College readiness is based on a student鈥檚 score on the ACT or SAT college entrance exam, college credit earned through a dual-enrollment course and/or scores on end-of-course Advanced Placement tests.

One-third of graduating students were college-ready, which is on par with at least the past five years, according to state data. The rate of high school students applying for college also continued to decrease, with 59% reporting filling out applications this year, compared with 61% last year.

A gap between graduation rate and readiness for the next step suggests schools are sometimes passing students without actually imparting the skills they need to succeed in life, Kelly said.

For instance, district policies setting teachers can give makes it easier for students to pass their classes, even if they haven鈥檛 actually done the work, Kelly said. Alternatives for students who fail tests or classes are sometimes easier, meaning a student can catch up without actually learning the same skills as their peers, he said.

鈥淲e鈥檝e put some policies in place that make it harder to evaluate what a student knows and can do,鈥� Kelly said.

Beginning this school year, students can follow a so-called pathway to that build on each other every year, allowing students to learn more advanced skills meant to make it easier to find a job in the field they want to pursue, said , chair of the Education Oversight Committee鈥檚 governing board.

鈥淎t the same time, we recognize that strengthening the system must go hand-in-hand with addressing the barriers that keep students from wholly engaging in school,鈥� said Allen, who鈥檚 also a government relations director for Continental Tire.

Chronic absenteeism and test scores

For example, the number of students who missed at least 10 days of school this year remained a concern, Allen said.

Around 23% of students were chronically absent, essentially the same number as last year. The more days of school a student misses, the less likely they are to perform as expected for their grade level on end-of-year tests, the committee put out last year.

Those tests, in turn, play a role in determining how well a school or a district is performing. Officials and teachers鈥� advocates credited the Palmetto Literacy Project and a change in how early educators for improving English scores, but , with less than half of third- through eighth-graders able to perform on grade level, according to state testing data.

Just over half the state鈥檚 high school students scored at least a C, which is a 70%, on their end-of-course Algebra I exams, often taken freshman year, according to report card data. Nearly 69% passed their English 2 exams, typically taken sophomore year.

While rooting for improvement, teachers鈥� advocates also warned against depending too heavily on a single exam score in deciding how well teachers and students are performing. A single, high-pressure exam at the end of the year is not necessarily the best indicator of school performance, said Dena Crews, president of the South Carolina Education Association.

鈥淚f people are making judgments based on that, they鈥檙e missing a whole lot about schools and districts,鈥� Crews said.

Teacher support

The Department of Education plans to focus on teachers in 2026, Weaver said.

鈥淭he No. 1 thing that we have to do to support student learning is take care of our teachers,鈥� Weaver said.

She is asking legislators to raise the minimum pay for a first-year teacher to $50,000, up from $48,500. Legislators have increased the pay floor in increments for years, with the stated goal of reaching $50,000.

Weaver is also asking for $5 million to continue a that based on how well their students perform on tests. She also wants to start a program that offers extra pay to exceptional teachers who mentor others. The additional responsibility would be another way to earn more money without leaving the classroom to go into school administration, she said.

Supporting teachers is key in improving how well schools are performing, Kelly said. The promising results in this year鈥檚 report cards came after the first since 2019, he added.

鈥淚t should not be a surprise to see school performance improve as teacher vacancies go down,鈥� Kelly said.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. SC Daily Gazette maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Seanna Adcox for questions: info@scdailygazette.com.

Admittedly, I was on the fast track toward becoming one of the or NEETs 鈥� youth between the ages 16 to 24 who are 鈥渘ot in education, employment, or training鈥� 鈥� who live here in southern Nevada. I was on the verge of becoming a statistic. 

Across the country, , , were considered NEETs. Alarmingly, this propensity to disconnect seems to afflict boys more than girls. , the share of young men aged 18 to 24 who were NEETs increased from 4% to 8%. In my home state of Nevada, the percentage is 19%, the second highest in the country. Moreover, as a male in Nevada, I was 15% more likely to drop out than my sisters. 

Not surprisingly, outcomes for NEETS are troubling. About without a high school diploma are either incarcerated or on parole at any given time. Among African American males, the proportion is closer to 30%. Lower educational attainment is associated with isolation, loneliness, and addiction. 

The trajectory that I had been moving along for those first two years pivoted sharply after I landed my first job. The summer following my sophomore year, I told my parents that I wanted to work. Knowing that I was on the verge of dropping out or failing out of school, my parents were desperate. A grand bargain was struck: I could work as long as I stayed on top of my schoolwork. 

Not only did I stay on top of my schoolwork 鈥� I outperformed. Throughout my junior year and beyond, I worked at least 20 hours a week while maintaining a 4.0 grade point average and an above average course load.

Having a job was rewarding and valuable on several fronts. First, my job helped me connect what I was learning in the classroom to the real world. I am applying my health science knowledge to my work as a lifeguard. Additionally, I have invested most of my wages, which has helped me understand the importance of mathematical concepts, such as compounded interest, that previously seemed so irrelevant. Second, my work 鈥� both as a lifeguard and an internship with the county government 鈥� is teaching me important durable skills: like showing up on time (even when I鈥檓 tired), being responsible, and working with people with whom I have nothing in common. 

Finally, my employment has given me confidence and purpose and helped me realize that “” 鈥� taken from 鈥淚nvictus,鈥� a poem by William Ernest Henley that I memorized in fifth grade.

My experience is not unique. Research indicates that students who work and participate in internships, apprenticeships, and employment have better outcomes. One reported that the 鈥渆vidence to date indicates that summer youth employment programs have the potential to reduce delinquent behavior, enhance academic aspirations and performance, and improve social and emotional development.鈥� 

Youth employment programs are associated with 鈥�, who saw improvements in their sense of belonging, ability to contribute to their communities, and conflict resolution skills.鈥�  A found that 鈥減rivate sector job experience significantly increases attendance, reduces course failures, and raises proficiency on statewide exams. Participants are more likely to take the SAT and enroll in college with a shift from two-year to four-year institutions.鈥�  

According to the , 鈥淓xpanding employment opportunities for opportunity youth 鈥� including through proven year-round and summer job training programs 鈥� can help improve work readiness, expand professional networks, boost earnings, and reduce interaction with the criminal justice system.鈥� The potential cost of not helping a disconnected youth at $13,900 annually. 

While I have meaningful employment, my experience feels like an outlier, especially among my African American peers. Many friends have been looking for jobs and internships for months without success. Workforce development experts have confirmed my observation鈥攏oting that internships and jobs are rare. 

As 社区黑料 has reported, at most 5% of students have the chance for the gold standard of work experiences: apprenticeships or internships.  As of , the U.S. unemployment rate among youth ages 16 to 24 was 10.5%, significantly higher than the national rate of 4.3%. Among African American youth, the rate was over 14%. 

Given the benefits of youth employment and the association with lower crime rates, governments and political leaders should do more to offer incentives to businesses to provide internships and job opportunities. Currently, only a handful of states provide programs to encourage businesses to hire young people. 

In , the state provides an 鈥淓xperiential Learning Tax Credit Program,鈥� which offers a $2,000 tax credit for every apprentice, pre-apprentice, or student intern that a business employs. has a Work-Based Learning Tax Credit that offers businesses a $2,500 credit if they hire a youth. Earlier this year, there was a to provide $15 million to support NEETs in Nevada. Sadly, the bill didn鈥檛 even get a hearing. 

While barriers remain, such as transportation or student schedules,聽 some states are getting creative to address these. For example, Indiana has that grant students funds to cover the cost of getting to work, and have rolled out more flexible school schedules in some schools so that students can work at an apprenticeship, job, or internship.聽

There are millions of young people 鈥� especially young boys like me 鈥� who are wandering, feeling disconnected, and facing significant barriers. College is expensive. Jobs are hard to come by. There are fewer organized ways to engage. 

As such, opportunities to work and learn 鈥� in the form of internships, apprenticeships, and employment opportunities 鈥� are the best vehicles to help youth learn about and connect to their interests, and from that, build confidence to explore and connect to their community.  Increasing job opportunities for young people is a proposition that will benefit the entire community.