Sixteen tables, two seats to a table, all in rows, face front 鈥渂ecause that’s where the instruction is coming from,鈥� he said.

About the only technology in the room: small handheld whiteboards, dry-erase pens and small stacks of index cards. The walls are almost entirely bare. And phones are out of the question, stowed in backpacks before class.

It鈥檚 intentional, said Harvard, who teaches Advanced Placement Psychology at James Clemens High School in Madison, Ala., a suburb of Huntsville.

Over the past decade, he has become something of an expert in focus, memory, forgetting and distraction.

Harvard has put these principles into his first book, published last week, titled, appropriately, . 

Harvard hopes the book will offer practical advice to teachers on how to use the principles of cognitive science to create better learning environments.

The time is right for a new book about attention, said , a professor of English at the City University of New York and founding director of CUNY鈥檚 Futures Initiative. She said she鈥檚 excited to see Harvard鈥檚 work.

Davidson noted several indicators of rising inattention, from falling reading scores to the growth of media misinformation and the higher prevalence of young people who say they鈥檙e with traditional education. 

鈥淚 think people are really seeing that what it means to pay attention is important,鈥� said Davidson, who wrote 2011鈥檚 . 

Harvard mostly focuses on more intentional teaching methods that reduce distractions and help students manage the vast amount of content they鈥檙e called upon to remember 鈥�  often called 鈥�.鈥�

These ideas are decidedly not on tap in most teacher preparation programs, said Harvard, who earned his master鈥檚 degree in education in 2006. His coursework contained 鈥渘othing on cognition 鈥� there was nothing on the brain, nothing on how we learn.鈥�

鈥榃hy don鈥檛 I already know about this?鈥�

It wasn鈥檛 until 2016, a decade after graduate school, that Harvard happened upon the now-defunct Twitter account 鈥淭he Learning Scientists.鈥� In plain language, educational psychologists from around the world laid out the basics of cognitive science for educators. 

Harvard was gobsmacked. Instead of just shooting in the dark, he finally saw research on the effectiveness of various learning strategies. 

He found himself instantly hooked and soon for the group. That led to his own website, which eventually became the popular blog .

Nearly a decade later, he鈥檚 traveling the world, speaking at conferences about strategies that affect students鈥� ability to channel ideas into long-term memory. He鈥檚 lost count of how many times he鈥檚 had to inform audiences that 鈥� humans can鈥檛 consciously focus on more than one thing at a time.

Harvard subscribes to something he calls the 鈥淪AR method,鈥� an accessible way for students and teachers to think about memory. When they鈥檙e about to start a lesson, he tells students that memory follows a three-step process: Sense, Attend and Rehearse. 

鈥淵ou can hear your teacher,鈥� he said. 鈥淵ou can see your teacher. You can see the board. You can sense it. But are you attending to it? Are you paying attention to it, or are there things getting in your way? Are you trying to multitask? Is the person sitting next to you talking?鈥�

Once a student attends to the material, the rehearsal happens. That鈥檚 perhaps the most important and tricky part. In the book, he likens it to an athlete鈥檚 ability to learn a new routine. If he or she doesn鈥檛 rehearse before the big game, he writes, 鈥渢hat would not be a good recipe for success on the playing field.鈥�

Rehearsing in the classroom can take the form of a multiple-choice quiz, a discussion or a project. The key is to access the material from memory and use it appropriately.

Accordingly, he begins many classes by simply asking students to review what came the day, the week or even the month before. Retrieving those memories, he said, makes them more likely to be there the next time the brain goes looking for them.

Another principle he employs is 鈥渨ait time.鈥� When most teachers ask a question, they鈥檒l settle for the first student with her hand up. But Harvard adds a step, ordering students to retrieve their handheld whiteboard. Before anyone can answer out loud, everyone must attempt an answer in writing.

鈥淣ow they’re committed to thinking,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hey’re committed to writing something down. It seems like such a simple thing, but when you make the students do that, you give them time to think.鈥�

As they鈥檙e studying, he鈥檒l often give students a kind of slow-motion, three-stage assessment he calls 鈥淏rain-Book-Buddy鈥� to offer a more honest take on what they actually know.

In the first assessment, they answer a series of questions from memory. Then they fill in the answers they couldn鈥檛 remember with the help of their notes. In the final test, they can talk to classmates.

鈥淭hey end up getting all the right answers, but they’re also acutely aware of what they actually knew, what they knew with their notebook, and what they had to ask their buddies, their peers, about,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t’s an ongoing conversation of them thinking about their thinking.鈥�

鈥楢ttention Contagion鈥�

Lately Harvard has been evangelizing most eagerly about an emerging topic in cognitive science known as 鈥�.鈥� Only a handful of small-scale studies exist on the topic, but Harvard says the evidence is compelling.

In the research, students pose as attentive or non-attentive classmates, and researchers judge how well actual subjects attend to lessons in their presence 鈥� how many notes they take and their performance on post-lesson quizzes. The results suggest that seatmates鈥� behaviors have a profound effect: When a student is surrounded by inattentive peers, the behaviors are contagious. It works the other way as well: If a student is surrounded by peers who are visibly paying attention, they鈥檙e more attentive. 

had undergraduates watch a video lecture with a 鈥渃lassmate鈥� posing as someone who either seemed attentive 鈥� leaning forward and taking notes 鈥� or slouched, shifting his gaze, glancing at the clock and taking infrequent notes. Researchers found that being seated behind these classmates had a profound effect: Subjects sitting near attentive students took significantly more notes and rated themselves as being on task. They also scored more than five points higher on a multiple-choice quiz.

Other studies have replayed the dynamic, with similar results. The findings even hold true for students observing one another in a Zoom-like virtual environment, where all that鈥檚 visible is a student鈥檚 face staring into a webcam.

In other words, Harvard notes, attention and inattention can actually pass through the Internet.

He considers the findings especially resonant because the 鈥渃ontagion鈥� doesn鈥檛 come from obviously bad behavior like yelling, interrupting a teacher or staring at a phone. It鈥檚 stuff that he and most other teachers would typically let slide.

鈥淭hey’re just slouching in their chair,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hey’re just not taking notes. They’re gazing out the window.鈥�

What the studies show is that attention operates by a kind of quiet osmosis, in some cases literally felt but not seen.

, the researcher who has pioneered this work, emphasized the 鈥渘on-distracting鈥� nature of the inattentiveness in his studies, noting that it鈥檚 鈥渄riven by more than just peer distraction.鈥� Peers can detect these inattentiveness cues, he told 社区黑料, even via tiny changes in the case of the online environment, suggesting that students 鈥減ay attention to their peers on webcam 鈥� even when the video thumbnails are quite small.鈥�

More data needed

In an email, Forrin cautioned that attention contagion 鈥漢as not yet been studied in real classrooms,鈥� only in laboratory settings with video lecturers. But he said he鈥檚 confident that attention and inattention 鈥渃an spread between students during lectures,鈥� and that this spread affects learning. Students 鈥渁re attuned to their peers’ motivation to learn鈥� and pay more attention when they infer that others have strong learning goals. They pay less attention when they sense weak or no goals. 

He suggested that teachers do their best to cultivate these goals in their students. They should also let students choose their own seats so they鈥檙e not consistently sitting near inattentive peers.

But he said more data are needed to determine whether these phenomena occur in real classrooms, especially with live teachers and different levels of student motivation.

Davidson, the CUNY scholar, said research on topics similar to attention contagion go back all the way to , who at the turn of the 20th century was studying the social aspects of 鈥渧ivid鈥� thoughts, distraction and focus. More recently, she noted, the psychologist Danie Kahneman, who helped establish what has become behavioral economics, studied .

And of course TV producers who pioneered the 鈥渃anned laughter鈥� of laugh tracks on early TV knew that suggestions of an engaged audience make viewers respond in kind. 

But perhaps the greatest experts in attention contagion, Davidson said, are stand-up comedians 鈥� she interviewed several for her 2011 book, and they told her that visibly bored audience members are 鈥渢he kiss of death鈥� in live performance. 鈥淧eople fall asleep in the front row, and pretty soon they’re falling asleep in the whole theater,鈥� she said.

Harvard, for his part, is convinced that attention contagion in the classroom is real 鈥� and he tells students about the research.

鈥淚t鈥檚 powerful for students to hear that simply being inattentive can distract someone else from learning,鈥� he said.

More broadly, he said, cognitive psychology has simplified his approach to teaching, allowing him to focus on proven strategies that are neither traditional nor progressive. 

The most cynical person, he said, would probably say his classroom is 鈥渢oo traditional. But I’m not thinking, ‘Do I want a traditional or a progressive classroom?’ When I designed it, I’m thinking, ‘How can I put my students in the best situation where they can pay attention to what they need to pay attention [to] and be distracted the least?’ That’s everything that I’m thinking about, and nothing else.鈥�

In a ruling denying immediate relief to the student, filed Wednesday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul Levenson said nothing about the case suggests teachers at Hingham High School were 鈥渉asty鈥� in concluding that the student and a classmate had cheated by relying on AI. He also said the school didn鈥檛 impose particularly heavy-handed discipline in the case, considering that the students had violated the school district鈥檚 academic integrity rules.

An attorney for the family on Friday noted the ruling is merely preliminary and that 鈥渢he case will continue鈥� with more discovery. But a former deputy attorney general who follows AI in education issues said the likelihood of the family winning on the merits in a trial 鈥渓ook all but over.鈥�

After an Advanced Placement U.S. History teacher last fall flagged a draft of a documentary script as possibly containing AI-generated material, the pair received a D on the assignment and were later denied entry into the National Honor Society. The group鈥檚 faculty advisor said their use of AI was 鈥渢he most egregious鈥� violation of academic honesty she and others had seen in 16 years.

Jennifer and Dale Harris, parents of one of the students, sued the district and several school staffers in September, alleging that their son, a junior at the time and a straight-A student, was wrongly penalized. If the judge didn鈥檛 order the district to quickly change his grade, they said, he鈥檇 risk not being admitted via early admission to elite colleges.

He has not been identified and is referred to as 鈥淩NH鈥� in court documents.

The complaint noted that when the students started the project in fall 2023, the district didn鈥檛 have a policy on using AI for such an assignment. Only later did it lay out prohibitions against AI. But in court testimony, district officials said Hingham students are trained to know plagiarism and academic dishonesty when they see it. 

While he earned a C+ in the course, the student scored a perfect 5 on the AP US history exam last spring, according to the lawsuit. He was later allowed to reapply to the Honor Society and was inducted on Oct. 15. Ultimately, the school鈥檚 own investigation found that over the past two years, it had inducted into the Honor Society seven other students who had academic integrity infractions, said Peter S. Farrell, the family鈥檚 attorney.

In his ruling, Levenson said the case centered around simple academic dishonesty, and that school officials could reasonably conclude that the students鈥� use of AI 鈥渨as in violation of the school鈥檚 academic integrity rules and that any student in RNH鈥檚 position would have understood as much.鈥�

The students, he said, 鈥渄id not simply use AI to help formulate research topics or identify sources to review. Instead, it seems they indiscriminately copied and pasted text that had been generated by Grammarly.com鈥� into their draft script. 

Levenson said the court doesn鈥檛 really have a role in 鈥渟econd-guessing the judgments of teachers and school officials,鈥� especially since the students weren鈥檛 suspended. Farrell on Friday said he expected the case to continue, but Benjamin Riley, founder of , a think tank that investigates AI in education, said the judge鈥檚 ruling suggests the family鈥檚 chance of winning in a trial are slim. Riley, a former deputy attorney general for California, said the issue at the core of the case isn鈥檛 鈥渢he whiz-bang technology of AI 鈥� it’s about a student who plagiarized and got caught. The judge’s decision explains at length and in detail how the school district had academic integrity policies in place, as well as a fair process for resolving any issues arising under them.鈥� 

Everyone in the district, he said, 鈥渇ollowed these rules and imposed an appropriate (and frankly light) punishment. As is often the case, few will see the diligent and quiet work of thoughtful educators at Hingham Public Schools, but I do 鈥� and I’m hoping they felt good when this decision came down. They should.鈥�

Had the family not sued the district, Farrell said, it wouldn鈥檛 have come to light that he had been 鈥渢reated differently than other students admitted to National Honor Society鈥� who had academic integrity infractions on their record. He also noted that the school admitted the student into the National Honor Society within a week of a hearing in the case last month. 鈥淭he timing of that action was not a coincidence.鈥�

Hingham Public Schools did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

High schools in states that start after Labor Day end up with fewer instructional days before the exams than those that open their doors in mid-August, and sometimes even in late July. Does this discrepancy create a difference in results?

Having had three children in NYC public high schools, where classes start in September, I’ve repeatedly heard from their teachers that they don鈥檛 have enough time to cover all the material on the AP tests.

My daughter reports of her AP Calculus class, 鈥淲e have to do a lesson a day. Every time we take a test we are, technically, falling behind, because it takes a whole period. So we鈥檙e learning new material (sometimes in a different unit) while still studying for the test on material we鈥檝e already moved on from.鈥�

I asked fellow NYC moms and dads whether the same was true at their schools.

鈥淢y student goes to Stuyvesant,鈥� an NYC mom confirmed. 鈥淭he AP European History class follows a ridiculously regimented schedule. The entire year is already mapped out to the day. This is surely an artifact of the tight timeline the teacher is forced to follow to cover the material before the spring exam.鈥�

鈥淚 experienced it as a student in the early ’90s in a post-Labor Day-start school system,鈥� Elizabeth Jones Polkovitz, another NYC public school parent, said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a month of instruction or more! It can make a really big difference for Calc BC in particular. We really had to rush sequences and series. And we had to rush through sections of [AP U.S. History]. My kid experienced the same. The end of [these classes] were a sprint for both of us, 30 years apart.鈥�

A contributor with a student in an NYC private school revealed that her child鈥檚 teacher 鈥渙ften has students do a unit or two of work in summer before school starts for many of the AP classes.鈥�

This is not a problem exclusive to NYC. National message boards like find parents lamenting: Living in a state that goes back after Labor Day and having multiple kids take AP, I have seen firsthand how teachers push topics together to try to get everything to fit in. 

While over on Reddit, teachers and students :

• Schools that don鈥檛 start until late August and early September are at a disadvantage. States that start school in early August get an extra month of instructional time before AP tests.

• We don鈥檛 start until after Labor Day. I teach AP Calc AB, and it is impossible to cover all of the material without feeling like I have to rush every lesson.

• To teach my AP class using the minimum recommended time described by the College Board, I would have to see my students for over 27 more class periods than I currently have.

• My school started around Aug. 3. My friend in New York started after Labor Day. I had an entire month to teach the same material for the same AP test.

• I鈥檓 in NY and recently learned that the states that start school sooner (August, like AZ) get 40 weeks to prep for the exam, versus our 32.

• My AP Biology teacher 鈥� told us that we would have to study the last part of the course ourselves.

• There were 鈥� not enough instruction days to cover all the material. [My teacher] would choose a few chapters that were purely homework, and then have one or two optional afterschool workshops to go over the material.

It鈥檚 out of concern for this AP inequity, among other factors, that of U.S. public school students now begin class before Labor Day.

: An earlier start to the school year鈥� lets students and teachers have the maximum amount of instructional time prior to the start of standardized tests and assessments.

: The early start calendar gives鈥� AP students more learning time before taking exams in the spring. (The district changed to a September start but planned “to offer more learning time for AP 鈥� students during ‘Saturday academies’ and summer school.”)

And : It鈥� gives students more time to prepare for鈥� Advanced Placement exams.

The assumption is that more time to prepare for AP tests will lead to better outcomes.

Surprisingly, the data doesn鈥檛 show that.

The with the 鈥渉ighest percentage of public high school graduates scoring a 3 or higher on an AP exam,鈥� according to the College Board, are Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey, all of which begin school at the end of August or after Labor Day. The three lowest-scoring states, Oklahoma, Kansas and Mississippi, start , and in , respectively. 

Not coincidentally, the wealthiest states by are Massachusetts, Connecticut (ranked No. 5 by AP scores), New York and New Jersey. Mississippi is the poorest, with Oklahoma and Kansas placing in the bottom half.

The College Board by socioeconomic status in 2021. But a concluded, 鈥渢he performance levels for low-income test-takers has not dramatically shifted from the early 2000s: 60% of students from this demographic group only earned a 1 or 2 out of a possible 5 on the exam.鈥� It鈥檚 highly unlikely that鈥檚 changed since.

So maybe all that cramming isn’t necessary if you live in a high-income state. For low-income students, some teachers may generously schedule extra study sessions to fit in material they don鈥檛 have time to cover. But students of means, even if their teachers decline to go above and beyond, will still do just fine 鈥� because their families can simply hire a .

Despite what seems like inequity, success on AP exams may have less to do with when classes begin and more with whether you live in a state where students can afford to learn everything they need outside of them.

To others, it鈥檚 simply a case of helicopter parents gone wild.

The case, filed last month, tackles key questions of academic integrity, the college admissions arms race and even the purpose of school in an age when students can outsource onerous tasks like thinking to a chatbot.

While its immediate outcome will largely serve just one family 鈥� the student鈥檚 parents want a grade changed so their son can apply early-admission to elite colleges 鈥� the case could ultimately prompt school districts nationwide to develop explicit policies on AI. 

If the district, in a prosperous community on Boston鈥檚 South Shore, is forced to change the student鈥檚 grade, that could also prompt educators to focus more clearly on the knife鈥檚 edge of AI鈥檚 promises and threats, confronting a key question: Does AI invite students to focus on completing assignments rather than actual learning?

鈥淲hen it comes right down to it, what do we want students to do?鈥� asked John Warner, a well-known and author of . 鈥淲hat do we want them to take away from their education beyond a credential? Because this technology really does threaten the integrity of those credentials. And that’s why you see places trying to police it.鈥�

鈥楿nprepared in a technology transition鈥�

The facts of the case seem simple enough: The parents of a senior at Hingham High School have sued the school district, saying their son was wrongly penalized as a junior for relying on AI to research and write a history project that he and a partner were assigned in Advanced Placement U.S. History. The teacher used the anti-plagiarism tool Turnitin, which flagged a draft of the essay about NBA Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul Jabbar鈥檚 civil rights activism as possibly containing AI-generated material. So she used a 鈥渞evision history鈥� tool to uncover how many edits the students had made, as well as how long they spent writing. She discovered 鈥渕any large cut and paste items鈥� in the first draft, suggesting they鈥檇 relied on outside sources for much of the text. She ran the draft through two other digital tools that also indicated it had AI-generated content and gave the boys a D on the assignment. 

From there, the narrative gets a bit murky. 

On the one hand, the complaint notes, when the student and his partner started the essay last fall, the district didn鈥檛 have a policy on using AI for such an assignment. Only later did it lay out prohibitions against AI.

The boy鈥檚 mother, Jennifer Harris, last month asked a local , 鈥淗ow do you know if you鈥檙e crossing a line if the line isn鈥檛 drawn?鈥�

The pair tried to explain that using AI isn鈥檛 plagiarism, telling teachers there鈥檚 considerable debate over its use in academic assignments, but that they hadn鈥檛 tried to pass off others鈥� work as their own. 

For its part, the district says Hingham students are trained to know plagiarism and academic dishonesty when they see it. 

District officials declined to be interviewed, but in an affidavit, Social Studies Director Andrew Hoey said English teachers at the school regularly review proper citation and research techniques 鈥� and they set expectations for AI use.

Social studies teachers, he said, can justifiably expect that skills taught in English class 鈥渨ill be applied to all Social Studies classes,鈥� including AP US History 鈥� even if they鈥檙e not laid out explicitly. 

A spokesperson for National History Day, the group that sponsored the assignment, provided 社区黑料 with a link to its , which say students may use AI to brainstorm topic ideas, look for resources, review their writing for grammar and punctuation and simplify the language of a source to make it more understandable.

They can鈥檛 use AI to 鈥渃reate elements of your project鈥� such as writing text, creating charts, graphs, images or video. 

In March, the school鈥檚 National Honor Society faculty advisor, Karen Shaw, said the pair鈥檚 use of AI was 鈥渢he most egregious鈥� violation of academic honesty she and others had seen in 16 years, according to the lawsuit. The society rejected their applications.

Peter S. Farrell, the family鈥檚 attorney, said the district 鈥渦sed an elephant gun to slay a mouse,鈥� overreacting to what鈥檚 basically a misunderstanding.

The boys鈥� failing grade on the assignment, as well as the accusation of cheating, kept him out of the Honor Society, the lawsuit alleges. Both penalties have limited his chances to get into top colleges on early decision, as he鈥檇 planned this fall.

The student, who goes unnamed in the lawsuit, is 鈥渁 very, very bright, capable, well-rounded student athlete鈥� with a 4.3 GPA, a 鈥減erfect鈥� ACT score and an 鈥渁lmost perfect鈥� SAT score, said Farrell. 鈥淚f there were a perfect plaintiff, he’s it.鈥� 

While the boy earned a C+ in the course, he scored a perfect 5 on the AP exam last spring, according to the lawsuit. His exclusion from the Honor Society, Farrell said, 鈥渞eally shouldn’t sit right with anybody.鈥�

For a public high school to take such a hard-nosed position 鈥渟imply because they got caught unprepared in a technology transition鈥� doesn鈥檛 serve anyone鈥檚 interests, Farrell said. 鈥淎nd it’s certainly not good for the students.鈥�

Ultimately, the school鈥檚 own investigation found that over the past two years it had inducted into the Honor Society seven other students who had academic integrity infractions, Farrell said. The student at the center of the lawsuit was allowed to reapply and was inducted on Oct. 15.

鈥淭hey knew that there was no leg to stand on in terms of the severity of that sanction,鈥� Farrell said.

鈥楧istricts are trying to take it seriously鈥�

While Hingham didn鈥檛 adopt a districtwide AI policy until this school year, it鈥檚 actually ahead of the curve, said Bree Dusseault, the principal and managing director of the , a think tank at Arizona State University. Most districts have been cautious to put out formal guidance on AI.

Dusseault contributed an affidavit on behalf of the plaintiffs, laying out the fragmented state of AI uptake and guidance. She more than 1,000 superintendents last year and found that just 5% of districts had policies on AI, with another 31% promising to develop them in the future. Even among CRPE鈥檚 group of 40 鈥渆arly adopter鈥� school districts that are exploring AI and encouraging teachers to experiment with it, just 26 had published policies in place. 

They鈥檙e hesitant for a reason, she said: They’re trying to figure out what the technology鈥檚 implications are before putting rules in writing. 

鈥淒istricts are trying to take it seriously,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hey’re learning the capacity of the technology, and both the opportunities and the risks it presents for learning.鈥� But so often they鈥檙e surprised by new technological developments and capabilities that they never imagined. 

Even if they鈥檙e hesitant to commit to full-blown policies, Dusseault said, districts should consider more informal guidelines that clearly lay out for students what academic integrity, plagiarism and acceptable use are. Districts that are 鈥渢otally silent鈥� on AI run the risk of student confusion and misuse. And if a district is penalizing students for AI use, it needs to have clear policy language explaining why.

That said, a few observers believe the case boils down to little more than a cheating student and his helicopter parents.

Benjamin Riley, founder of , an AI-focused education think tank, said the episode seems like an example of clear-cut academic dishonesty. Everyone involved in the civil case, he said, especially the boy鈥檚 parents and their lawyer, 鈥渟hould be embarrassed. This isn’t some groundbreaking lawsuit that will help define the contours of how we use AI in education; it’s helicopter parenting run completely amok that may serve as catnip to journalists (and their editors) but does nothing to illuminate anything.鈥�

Alex Kotran, founder of , a nonprofit that offers a free AI literacy curriculum, said the honor society director鈥檚 statement about the boys鈥� alleged academic dishonesty makes him think 鈥渢here’s clearly plenty more than what we’re hearing from the student.鈥� While schools genuinely do need to understand the challenge of getting AI policies right, he said, 鈥淚 worry that this is just a student with overbearing parents and a big check to throw lawyers at a problem.鈥�

Others see the case as surfacing larger-scale problems: Writing in this week, Jane Rosenzweig, director of the and author of the newsletter, said the Massachusetts case is 鈥渓ess about AI and more about a family鈥檚 belief that one low grade will exclude their child from the future they want for him, which begins with admission to an elite college.鈥�

That problem long predated ChatGPT, Rosenzweig wrote. But AI is putting our education system on a collision course 鈥渨ith a technology that enables students to bypass learning in favor of grades.鈥�

“I feel for this student,鈥� said Warner, the writing coach. 鈥淭he thought that they need to file a lawsuit because his future is going to be derailed by this should be such an indictment of the system.鈥�

The case underscores the need for school districts to rethink how they interact with students in the Age of AI, he said. 鈥淭his stuff is here. It’s embedded in the tools students use to do their work. If you open up Microsoft Word or Google Docs or any of this stuff, it’s right there.鈥�

Perhaps as a result, Warner said, students have increasingly come to view school more transactionally, with assignments as a series of products rather than as an opportunity to learn and develop important skills.

鈥淚’ve taught those students,鈥� he said. 鈥淔or the most part, those are a byproduct of disengagement, not believing [school] has anything to offer 鈥� and that the transaction can be satisfied through 鈥榥on-work鈥� rather than work.鈥�

His observations align with recent research by Dusseault鈥檚 colleagues, who that four graduating classes of high school students, or about 13.5 million students, had been affected by the pandemic, with many 鈥渟truggling academically, socially, and emotionally鈥� as they enter adulthood.

Ideally, Warner said, AI tools should offer an opportunity to refocus students to emphasize process over product. 鈥淭his is a natural design for somebody who teaches writing,鈥� he said, 鈥渂ecause I’m obsessed with process.鈥漌arner recalled giving a recent series of talks at , a small, alternative liberal arts college in California, where he encountered students who said they had no use for AI chatbots. They preferred to think through difficult problems themselves. 鈥淭hey were just like, ‘Aw, man, I don’t want to use that stuff. Why do I want to use that stuff? I’ve got thoughts.’鈥�

The concentration of white and Asian students in advanced programs in public education has spawned a movement to dismantle gifted-and-talented programs, schools that require admissions exams and other advanced programs on the grounds that they promote racial and economic segregation. But in many instances, talented Black and Latino students stand to lose the most; the backlash against advanced education hurts the very students critics hope to help.

The best way to solve the controversy is to embrace both excellence and equity, supporting advanced learning but widening the range of students who can access it to better reflect public education鈥檚 rapidly diversifying enrollment. In a recent FutureEd report on the state of gifted education, , I outline five steps school systems can take to increase opportunity for capable learners and present some case studies describing how particular districts have done just that. 

Retire the word 鈥済ifted.鈥� Academic promise is not limited to a special few, and innate ability does not trump hard work in achieving success. Opening advanced learning to all who want to try as Arizona鈥檚 Gadsden Elementary District 32 does with accelerated math, unlocks young people鈥檚 potential. Gadsden dropped the word 鈥済ifted鈥� to bury stereotypes, more accurately reflect the nature of the programs and give hard work the privileged place it deserves. 鈥淲e are looking for kids at the higher end of proficiency and who want to do the work,鈥� says Homero Chavez, a guidance counselor who built Gadsden鈥檚 advanced program from the ground up.

Seek talent everywhere. Ideally, school systems screen all students at least once, preferably twice or more times, through their school careers for evidence they can take on advanced work. It鈥檚 also important for districts to use multiple measures to identify highly capable learners rather than rely on a single test or teacher recommendation. In New York City, Chancellor David Banks established a universal screening system in public preschools, where teachers were trained to recognize potential in every classroom by identifying high performers relative to their neighborhood peers and inviting their families to apply for their children to attend advanced classes. This is one example of a process called universal screening with local norms. New York preschoolers are screened again in second grade, with students scoring in the top 10% in English, social studies, math and science automatically invited to apply for advanced programs.

Front-load advanced learning. 鈥淪tarting a program for advanced learners in high school and hoping to achieve anything like equitable outcomes is simply not going to happen,鈥� says Jonathan Plucker, an expert on gifted education and a research professor at Johns Hopkins University and past president of the National Association for Gifted Children. Instead, provide opportunities for elementary and middle school students to advance and accelerate their learning. For example, North Carolina law requires the state鈥檚 highest-scoring third graders to receive advanced math coursework in fourth grade.  

End the scarcity mentality. Like many school districts around the country, Maryland鈥檚 Montgomery County Public Schools had not kept up with the times when it came to providing advanced learning. Despite a growing and demographically changing population, for many years the school district reserved these opportunities to just four magnet middle schools: two focused on humanities and two centered on math and science. After many stumbles, the district has landed on a promising formula: universal screening plus a race-neutral lottery for seats in the four magnet middle schools, coupled with expanded opportunities in its other middle schools. 鈥淲e鈥檝e made it a high priority to add advanced curriculum,鈥� says district spokesperson Christopher Cram. 鈥淸Parents] are making it known what they want. And we want to give it to them.鈥�

Provide appropriate instruction. Acceleration can take many forms, from rapid movement through individual courses to grade-skipping or early college enrollment. shows that one of the most effective ways to support advanced learners is to create flexible groups within classes, based on readiness, interest and potential. These can be reconfigured easily to reflect student growth and changing interests. However, the burden of keeping advanced learners engaged cannot fall entirely on classroom teachers. Classrooms frequently contain children at . Making high-quality materials available for teachers instructing academically capable students is than simply telling them to differentiate their curriculum on their own. 

Parents take note when their children express the interest, motivation and drive to learn more. Affluent families supply enrichment or opt for private education if they sense their children鈥檚 needs are not being met. Students from all walks of life are entitled to the same opportunities.

In January, the surveyed more than 1,600 public K-12 schools from every state and the District of Columbia 鈥� where 53 percent in low poverty neighborhoods said they do a 鈥渧ery good鈥� or 鈥渆xcellent鈥� job preparing students for college and 52 percent said the same for the workforce.

But public school educators in high poverty neighborhoods were lower at 33 and 43 percent respectively.

鈥淚f they鈥檙e assessing themselves based on the post-graduation success of their students, it makes sense why they feel they’re not doing as well,鈥� said Josh Wyner, founder and executive director of the .

Wyner said the college enrollment rate of high school students from low-income backgrounds is generally less than those from higher income areas, and they end up facing lower wages long-term if they go directly into the workforce.

鈥淲hile it’s discouraging that schools serving lower income and more diverse students believe they’re not doing as good a job, something they can do about it appears in the study,鈥� he added, noting the correlation between offering more advanced coursework 鈥� such as Advanced Placement and dual enrollment 鈥� and their perception of how they prepare high school students for the next stage of their lives.

The survey, which serves as part of the latest tracking the pandemic鈥檚 impact on public education, asked educators how they viewed their preparation of high school students for college and the workforce on a five-point scale 鈥� from 鈥減oor鈥� to 鈥渆xcellent.鈥�

About 47 percent said they do a 鈥渧ery good鈥� or 鈥渆xcellent鈥� job preparing students for college and 50 percent said the same for the workforce.

鈥淚 hope this data will spark important conversations that lead to improved opportunities for all students,鈥� said NCES commissioner Peggy Carr in a statement.

Here are four things to know about the survey findings:

1. Public school educators in high poverty neighborhoods with more students of color were less likely to say they鈥檙e preparing students well for college and the workforce.

The report found public schools in low poverty neighborhoods were more likely to say they do a 鈥渧ery good鈥� or 鈥渆xcellent鈥� job preparing students for college compared to those in high poverty neighborhoods 鈥� a difference of 53 and 33 percent respectively.

Statistics were similar about the workforce 鈥� a difference of 52 and 43 percent respectively.

The report also found public schools with fewer students of color were more likely to say they do a 鈥渧ery good鈥� or 鈥渆xcellent鈥� job preparing students for college compared to those with a majority 鈥� a difference of 57 and 36 percent respectively.

Statistics were similar about the workforce 鈥� a difference of 55 and 41 percent respectively.

Wyner said the contrast based on poverty level and the number of students of color comes from the disproportionate access to advanced coursework.

鈥淲e’ve known for a long time that AP access is inequitable, but the fact that dual enrollment access is also inequitable鈥s troubling,鈥� Wyner said.

The study found 73 percent of public schools offered at least one of the following: Advanced Placement, Pre-Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate or dual enrollment courses.

About 76 percent of public schools in low poverty neighborhoods offered advanced coursework compared to 65 percent of those in high poverty neighborhoods.

But the difference was greater based on the number of students of color.

About 84 percent of public schools with fewer students of color offered advanced coursework compared to 65 percent of those with a majority.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a little bit of a surprise because [a majority] of those courses are offered by community colleges which are often located in areas that serve high need high school students,鈥� Wyner said. 

鈥淪o you would think that those partnerships would be stronger and enable expanded access to advanced courses 鈥� but they don’t.鈥�

2. Public school educators with smaller student populations were less likely to say they鈥檙e preparing students well for college and the workforce.

Public schools with less than 300 students were the least likely to say they do a 鈥渧ery good鈥� or 鈥渆xcellent鈥� job preparing students for college and the workforce compared to those with a larger population.

Wyner said this is because public schools with fewer students are generally located in less densely populated areas, such as towns and rural areas, with less resources and proximity to other educational institutions.

鈥淪ome of this has to do with urbanicity,鈥� Wyner said. 鈥淚n some communities, economic opportunity is limited鈥o high school students, no matter how well-prepared, may not readily be able to find a job if they’re staying in these areas.鈥�

3. Public school educators in towns were less likely to say they鈥檙e preparing students well for college 鈥� but those in cities had similar attitudes for the workforce.

Public schools in towns were the least likely to say they do a 鈥渧ery good鈥� or 鈥渆xcellent鈥� job preparing students for college compared to those in cities, suburbs or rural areas.

But those in cities were the least likely to have the same attitude about preparing students for the workforce.

Wyner said the local economies are likely driving these perceptions 鈥� with public schools in towns and rural areas having a higher number of blue collar jobs compared to cities having a higher number of college opportunities.

鈥淭he reality is that schools that are in knowledge-based economies, which tend to be centered in cities, will consider themselves more capable of preparing students for a liberal arts education whereas schools in areas with a higher percentage of jobs in agriculture, manufacturing or some of the more blue collar jobs will view themselves as stronger in preparing students for the workforce,鈥� Wyner said.

鈥淭here are also many parts of the country that have long traditions of having jobs that don鈥檛 require postsecondary training,鈥� he added, pointing to the lingering impact of careers in the automotive, steel mill and manufacturing industries.

4. Public school educators in the Midwest were less likely to say they鈥檙e preparing students well for college 鈥� but those in the West had similar attitudes for the workforce. 

Public schools in the Midwest were the least likely to say they do a 鈥渧ery good鈥� or 鈥渆xcellent鈥� job preparing students for college compared to those in the Northeast, South and West.

But those in the West were the least likely to have the same attitude about preparing students for the workforce.

鈥淚t makes sense why we see a correlation between location, morality and postsecondary and employment opportunities for students,鈥� Wyner said.

鈥淭his study should offer guidance to [public schools] to find the right ways to prepare students for college and the workforce鈥nd give them that sense of self-efficacy that they know what鈥檚 right for them.鈥�

This expansion is critical because many students with high potential do not have access to or participate in advanced learning. For example, students in Title I schools than non-Title I schools are identified for advanced education, and Black and Hispanic students are among Advanced Placement exam takers. Inequities in student participation are so stark that some parents are for the dismantling of advanced programs entirely. But that鈥檚 not what’s needed. We need more of these programs, coupled with systematic examination of participation and outcomes to identify inequities, eliminate barriers to inclusion and build programs that involve students from all backgrounds. 

Collecting, reviewing and acting upon student participation and performance data is essential. Administrators can utilize state, district, school and classroom data to understand who participates and how they fare, and to identify programs where students are systematically underrepresented. There is little need to collect new statistics; existing enrollment and standardized test data will provide sufficient information. For example: 

• At the elementary level, educators should track and examine enrollment in gifted and advanced classes and the percentage of students reaching the highest level on state assessments in math, reading and science.

• In middle school, educators should track and examine enrollment and grades in honors courses, data on how many seventh- or eighth-graders complete algebra and the percentage of students reaching the highest level on state assessments in math, reading and science.

• In high school, educators should track and examine enrollment in AP or International Baccalaureate courses and performance on subsequent examinations; honors coursework; participation in dual degree programs or college courses; and the percentage of students reaching the highest level on state assessments in math, reading and science. 

In addition, student growth should be measured in each grade. of students begin school each fall at grade level, because students in the United States are grouped based on their age, not knowledge levels. Comparing performance at the beginning and end of each year can help ensure that all students learn, even those who are ahead of the curve. 

Most importantly, data should be disaggregated by gender, race/ethnicity, family income and English learner status, to identify discrepancies that can be addressed with targeted programming or outreach. Annually reviewing participation and outcome data can help educators identify students who might benefit from advanced learning, need more support to succeed or are underrepresented.

When I directed the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation鈥檚 research initiative, I visited Virginia鈥檚 Department of Education to discuss the Governor鈥檚 School Program for advanced learners. Staffers described numerous barriers to participation faced by lower-income students, including parents鈥� disparate access to information, lack of teacher referrals and language gaps. Yet ,when I asked how many lower-income students were enrolled, they did not know. Why? Because student income is captured by the financial aid department, not the system鈥檚 enrollment database.

We don鈥檛 know what we don鈥檛 measure. Many useful data exist, but pulling them together coherently requires intention. Data can be shared internally with administrators or externally with all stakeholders. Analysis can range from reporting head counts in a table to building interactive comparative displays of statistics. While directing gifted education in Paradise Valley district in Arizona from 2006 to 2022, for example, Dr. Dina Brulles annually reported state assessment math and reading results broken down by district and school, to make clear the percentage of students scoring as proficient versus advanced. Every year, she created pie charts by grade, gender and ethnicity, so administrators could see where discrepancies were and create flexible learning groups so all students were challenged.

New software tools make this even easier. For example, Virginia’s Fairfax County Public Schools uses , a data analytics platform, to generate an . This website publishes annual performance measures at the school and district level using interactive displays that viewers can customize to show data for specific schools or student populations. For example, the figure below shows the percentages of various student groups scoring at or above grade level for third grade reading. It鈥檚 great that the district shares these data publicly; even better would be if they also reported learning at the advanced level.

Last month, the Supreme Court ruled that colleges cannot use race in admissions decisions. Yet racial differences still drive the percentages of students who have access to and successfully complete advanced courses that are often heavily weighted in admissions to selective colleges and universities.

Using data to understand which K-12 students participate in advanced learning, how they are doing, who might benefit from inclusion and who is being excluded can identify places where educators need to redesign coursework or bolster supports to enable more students from all backgrounds to successfully complete these courses and become college-ready. This will help ensure that colleges and universities have access to a pool of academically talented students whose demographic backgrounds match the nation鈥檚 great diversity, preserving education’s role as a pathway to upward mobility. To do anything less sells short the American Dream of opportunity and advancement for all.

It’s an overdue debate that impacts every school, because they all have advanced learners. In fact, most classrooms do. For example, my colleagues and I and found students performing at up to seven grade levels of readiness. In , 2 out of every 3 fourth-grade and 1 out of every 3 eighth-grade math classrooms we examined had students meeting the full range of benchmarks on (TIMMS).

All this means that academic diversity is the norm within individual schools and even classrooms. But when it comes to advanced or honors classes, the ongoing debate demands the answers to two key questions: Is the honors class in question truly an honors class? And is it fair to exclude some students from it?

These are not easy questions to answer in the abstract. In concept, honors classes exist to provide rigorous content at an accelerated pace for students who would otherwise be underchallenged. But whether a school should offer a specific honors class, and admit only selected students, depends on whether the class truly provides additional rigor 鈥� or whether it is an honors class in name only. 

Consider the following question: When is it acceptable for a school to provide an experience to some students but not others? After all, schools do this all the time. Most children don鈥檛 start kindergarten until age 5. Some high school seniors take calculus, or AP biology, and some do not. Some students are assigned a solo in the fall choir concert, and others are not. Education scholar came up with three criteria to answer that question 40 years ago: Would all students want to do it? Could all students do it? Should all students learn it (right now)?

If the answer to any of these is 鈥測es,鈥� then schools should not restrict access and instead open the learning opportunity to all interested students 鈥� or even them. 

Applying this to an eighth-grade honors math class, the essential question is whether the class is so different and so much more rigorous than regular eighth-grade math that not all students would want to do it; not all students could do the work and benefit from it because they have yet to learn the prerequisite content; and not all students should learn the material (yet). 

If the class is an introduction to Algebra 1, which many eighth-graders would not be ready for, it would be appropriate to limit the class to those eighth-graders 鈥� or even seventh-graders 鈥� who are interested and have mastered the prerequisite skills. The rest might be better off waiting until ninth grade, when Algebra 1 is part of the regular curriculum.

But if the “honors” class follows the exact same curriculum and pacing guide and uses the same textbook as 鈥渞egular鈥� math, then there is nothing about the level of rigor that would prevent some students from benefitting. Therefore, it is not truly an advanced class and it would be indefensible to separate out students along what will most likely be class, racial and ethnic lines. This kind of 鈥渉onors鈥� class, in name only, perpetuates inequities and should rightly be criticized.

All this gets to the heart of the 鈥渟hould a school offer that honors class鈥� debate 鈥� and it is where the conversation must go before cuts or changes are made. Instead of debating whether honors classes should exist, schools should reflect on whether their honors courses truly provide advanced learning opportunities. If the evaluation highlights that honors classes were that in name only, the next logical step is to either remove them or change them so they are truly advanced.

This also establishes a better foundation for schools to then examine how they are meeting the needs of advanced learners. All schools have them, and they deserve support and instruction that appropriately challenges them and exposes them to the rigor they need. At the same time, no students should be denied access to classes they want to take and could benefit from, or prevented from attaining skills they should learn to be successful in the future.

Now, three organizations are working with students in LAUSD high schools to increase the district鈥檚 college enrollment, with strategies such as helping students write college essays, hear from professionals, and be mentored through high school into college. 

Despite a 2.5% increase between the  and  school years, LAUSD had just a  in students attending four-year colleges between the 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 academic year.

LAUSD college counselors are faced with a daunting task 鈥� letting students know about their post-graduate options and helping them get there. An obstacle they face, said college counselor Tricia Bryan, is ensuring students are aware of how to reach their goals.

鈥淚 would like to see a little bit more support in the alignment between career and college so that students have a better understanding of what their pathways can possibly be,鈥� said Bryan, the only counselor at John Marshall High School. 

鈥淯sually students will say, I want to go to a good college or get a good job, but they don鈥檛 really know what the pathways are for that.鈥�

College Path LA brings in volunteers to assist Bryan to help with applying to college. Roughly half of John Marshall High School students attend a four-year college while the other half attend junior college, she said. 

A key element of College Path LA is essay writing. Mentors help students with their essays while also providing guidance beyond the college process, often checking in on students as they attend college. 

Because John Marshall High School is located in the heart of Los Angeles, a city full of writers, lawyers, and other professions, College Path LA utilizes these people as a source for students. 

 conducted by UCLA and Claremont Graduate Institute found only 25% of those LAUSD students graduated within six years.

LAUSD A-G Intervention and Support provides resources for the college application process, focusing on those who need additional intervention to complete the A-G requirements, which allow students to apply to California State Universities and UC schools. More than half of the students in the program reported learning about college majors, academic requirements for college admission, and financial information. 

UCLA EAOP, 鈥渆xpands postsecondary education opportunities for California鈥檚 educationally disadvantaged students,鈥� working to take students beyond the minimum requirements for college admission, with 72% enrolling in 4-year institutions. 

But UCLA EAOP officials say there is still value in attaining a community college degree. 

鈥淲hat many families still don鈥檛 know is that their son or daughter can attend a community college for free for two years after graduation,鈥� said Hugo Cristales, a first-generation college graduate and associate director of UCLA EAOP.

The organizations 鈥撀�,听, and聽聽鈥� differ in their methodologies and missions, but have the shared goal of ensuring LAUSD high school students are ready to apply to college and get the assistance they need.聽

This article is part of a collaboration between 社区黑料 and the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.

As Gov. Ron DeSantis continues to chastise the century-old College Board and its related programs 鈥� from honors-level Advanced Placement courses to college entrance exams 鈥� eliminating those activities could create a dramatically different school experience for Florida high schoolers.

In just 2022, nearly 200,000 students in Florida took the college entrance exam called the SAT, and tens of thousands of high school students have participated in Advanced Placement courses that could lead to earning college credits ahead of schedule.

If those programs are eliminated in Florida public high schools, it鈥檚 not clear how families would react if DeSantis makes changes. The debacle arose last month over an AP African American studies course that has become a national controversy.

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DeSantis reiterated his skepticism of the College Board at a press conference Tuesday while responding to聽 media questions. He said that high school students should still be able to earn college credits, but the Florida Legislature may look into other vendors.

鈥淎re there other people that provide services? Turns out there are. IB courses, they鈥檙e actually more rigorous than AP, and the colleges accept it. You have the Cambridge, which is also more rigorous,鈥� DeSantis claimed at the press conference in Jacksonville. He did not provide any data or metric for comparisons.

DeSantis is referring to International Baccalaureate (also known as the IB program) and the Cambridge聽 Assessment. He did not provide information about those other two programs.

In addition, Florida also offers what鈥檚 called dual-enrollment courses, which allow high school students to take a college-level course at their own schools or at a community college.

It鈥檚 not clear how well any of these programs would serve as a replacement for AP courses.

DeSantis continued: 鈥淪o, Florida students are going to have that ability (to earn college credit). That is not going to be diminished. In fact, we鈥檙e going to continue to expand it. But it鈥檚 not clear to me that this particular operator is the one that鈥檚 going to need to be used in the future.

鈥淪o college credit: yes. Having that available to everyone: absolutely. Does it have to be done by the College Board? Or, can we utilize some of these other providers 鈥� who I think have a really, really strong track record. So I don鈥檛 think anyone should be concerned about, somehow, our high schoolers not having opportunities for that. They absolutely will. I just think it鈥檚 a matter of what鈥檚 the best way to do it,鈥� DeSantis said.

Currently, not every student takes AP classes in public high schools. And not every school provides an IB or Cambridge program.

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten issued a statement Tuesday after DeSantis threatened Florida students and families with the elimination of all Advanced Placement classes:

鈥淎P classes have become an avenue for American students to get a head start to college. They provide enrichment and rigor and engage the curiosity and ambition of the young scholars who choose to enroll. Threatening to ban all AP courses because the governor is in a political spat with the College Board is the behavior of a bully, not a statesman. Gov. DeSantis has chosen to put his political ambitions over the aspirations of Florida鈥檚 students鈥攊ronically, in the same state that, to date, has incentivized educators to teach AP.

鈥淭he alternatives floated by DeSantis鈥攖he International Baccalaureate and Cambridge Assessment鈥� don鈥檛 provide the same breadth of course offerings and are not widely accepted by other colleges and universities. As a former AP government teacher, I would hope he would stop these threats and uphold his duty to help children, not ransom their hopes and dreams for a better life.鈥�

The rift between the DeSantis administration and the College Board started over a new AP African American studies course. The Florida Department of Education rejected the course, according to a letter sent to the College Board in mid-January, causing a nationwide outcry and concerns that the move diminishes the importance of Black history and Black culture.

鈥淎s presented, the content of this course is inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value,鈥� the Jan. 12 letter said.

The College Board has since pushed back against the department鈥檚 comments on the African American studies course, calling it 鈥渟lander鈥� in a

Meanwhile, Democratic Sen. Shevrin Jones Wednesday morning and a press conference about the governor鈥檚 comments regarding AP African American studies. Jones represents part of Miami-Dade County.

He was joined by civil rights activist Al Sharpton, a handful of religious leaders, students and parents to discuss the DeSantis鈥檚 administration rejection of the AP course.

Here is some data for readers, which was not included during DeSantis鈥檚 press conference.

As to Advanced Placement courses:

According to a College Board report from April 2022 on data from the year prior, there were 2,548,228 students who took at least one AP exam in 2021 across the United States. Because many students take multiple AP courses at a time, the College Board reports that there were 4.5 million AP exams taken in 2021 in a variety of course options.

In terms of the SAT college entrance exam:

In 2022, there were 190,427 Florida students who took the SAT, according to data from the College Board.

The data refers to what the College Board calls 鈥渞eadiness benchmarks鈥� which means a 鈥渟ection score associated with a 75% chance of earning at least a C in first-semester, credit-bearing, college-level courses鈥� in either math or English and writing courses.

In Florida, only 31 percent of students who took the SAT in 2022 met the benchmark score for the math portion of the exam and 59 percent met the benchmark for the Reading and Writing portion.

But compare that to the 1.7 million students who took the SAT nationally in 2022. Of the 1.7 million, 45 percent of students met the math benchmark score, and 65 percent met the benchmark score for the Reading and Writing portion.

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Diane Rado for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com. Follow Florida Phoenix on and .

O.K., you鈥檝e probably figured out by now that ChatGPT wrote that self-congratulatory opening. But it raises a question: If AI can produce a journalistic lede on command, what mischief could it unleash in high school English?

Actually, the chatbot, by the San Francisco-based R&D company Open AI, is not intended to make high school English teachers obsolete. Instead, it is designed to assist teachers in their work and help them to provide better instruction and support to their students.

O.K., ChatGPT wrote most of that too. But you see the problem here, right?

English teachers, whose job is to get young students to read and think deeply and write clearly, are this winter coming up against a formidable, free-to-use foe that can do it all: With just a short prompt, it , , , song lyrics, short stories, , , even outlines and analyses of other writings. 

One user asked it to explaining that 鈥淪anta isn鈥檛 real and we make up stories out of love.鈥� In five trim paragraphs, it broke the bad news from Santa himself and told the boy, 鈥淚 want you to know that the love and care that your parents have for you is real. They have created special memories and traditions for you out of love and a desire to make your childhood special.鈥�

One TikToker noted recently that users can upload a podcast, lecture, or YouTube video transcript and ask ChatGPT to take complete notes.

ChatGPT Taking Notes From YouTube

Many educators are alarmed. One high school computer science teacher last week, 鈥淚 am having an existential crisis.鈥� Many of those who have played with the tool over the past few weeks fear it could tempt millions of students to outsource their assignments and basically give up on learning to listen, think, read, or write.

Others, however, see potential in the new tool. Upon ChatGPT鈥檚 release, 社区黑料 queried high school teachers and other educators, as well as thinkers in the tech and AI fields, to help us make sense of this development.

Here are seven ideas, only one of which was written by ChatGPT itself:

1. By its own admission, it messes up.

When we asked ChatGPT, 鈥淲hat’s the most important thing teachers need to know about you?鈥� it offered that it鈥檚 鈥渘ot a tool for teaching or providing educational content, and should not be used as a substitute for a teacher or educational resource.鈥� It also admitted that it鈥檚 鈥渘ot perfect and may generate responses that are inappropriate or incorrect. It is important to use ChatGPT with caution and to always fact-check any information it provides.鈥�

2. It鈥檚 going to force teachers to rethink their practice 鈥� whether they like it or not. 

Josh Thompson, a former Virginia high school English teacher working on these issues for the National Council of Teachers of English, said it鈥檚 na茂ve to think that students won鈥檛 find ChatGPT very, very soon, and start using it for assignments. 鈥淪tudents have probably already seen that it’s out there,鈥� he said. 鈥淪o we kind of have to just think, 鈥極.K., well, how is this going to affect us?鈥欌��

In a word, Thompson said, it鈥檚 going to upend conventional wisdom about what鈥檚 important in the classroom, putting more emphasis on the writing process than the product. Teachers will need to refocus, perhaps even using ChatGPT to help students draft and revise. Students 鈥渕ight turn in this robotic draft, and then we have a conference about it and we talk,鈥� he said.

The tool will force a painful conversation, Thompson and others said, about the utility of teaching the standard five-paragraph essay, which he joked 鈥渟hould be thrown out the window anyway.鈥� While it鈥檚 a good template for developing ideas, it鈥檚 really just a starting point. Even now, Thompson tells students to think of each of the paragraphs not as complete writing, but as the starting point for sections of a larger essay that only they can write.

3. It鈥檚 going to refocus teachers on helping students find their authentic voice.

In that sense, said Sawsan Jaber, a longtime English teacher at East Leyden High School in Franklin Park, Ill., this may be a positive development. 鈥淚 really think that a key to education in general is we’re missing authenticity.鈥�

Technology like ChatGPT may force teachers to focus less on standard forms and more on student voice and identity. It may also force students to think more deeply about the audience for their writing, which an AI likely will never be able to do effectively.

鈥淚 think education in general just needs a facelift,鈥� she said, one that helps teachers focus more closely on students鈥� needs. Actually, Jaber said, the benefits of a free tool like ChatGPT might most readily benefit students like hers from low-income households in areas like Franklin Park, near Chicago鈥檚 O鈥橦are Airport. 鈥淭he world is changing, and instead of fighting it, we have to ask ourselves: 鈥楢re the skills that we’ve historically taught kids the skills that they still need in order to be successful in the current context? And I’m not sure that they are.鈥�

Jaber noted that universities are asking students to do more project-based and 鈥渦nconventional鈥� work that requires imagination. 鈥淪o why are we so stuck on getting kids to write the five-paragraph essay and worrying if they’re using an AI generator or something else to really come up with it?鈥�

4. It could upend more than just classroom practice, calling into question everything from Advanced Placement assignments to college essays.

Shelley Rodrigo, senior director of the Writing Program at the University of Arizona, said the need for writing instruction won鈥檛 go away. But what may soon disappear is the 鈥渟implistic display of knowledge鈥� schools have valued for decades.

鈥淚f it’s, ‘Compare and contrast these two novels,’ O.K., that’s a really generic assignment that AI can pull stuff from the Internet really easily,鈥� she said. But if an assignment asks students to bring their life experience to the discussion of a novel, students can鈥檛 rely on AI for help.

鈥淚f you don’t want generic answers,鈥� she said, 鈥渄on’t ask generic questions.鈥�

In looking at coverage of the kinds of writing uploaded from ChatGPT, Rodrigo, also present-elect of NCTE, said it’s easy to see a pattern that others have commented on: Most of it looks like something that would score well on an AP exam. 鈥淧art of me is like, 鈥極.K., so that potentially is a sign that that system is broken.鈥欌��

5. Students: Your teachers may already be able to spot AI-assisted writing.

While one of the advantages of relying on ChatGPT may be that it鈥檚 not technically plagiarism or even the product of an essay mill, that doesn鈥檛 mean it鈥檚 100% foolproof.

Eric Wang, a statistician and vice president of AI at Turnitin.com, the plagiarism-detection firm, noted that engineers there can already detect writing created by large-language 鈥渇ill-in-the-next-word鈥� processes, which is what most AI models use.

How? It tends to follow predictable patterns. For one thing, it uses fewer sophisticated words than humans do: 鈥淲ords that are less frequent, maybe a little more esoteric 鈥� like the word ‘esoteric,’鈥� he said. 鈥淥ur use of rare words is more common.鈥�

AI applications tend to use more high-probability words in expected places and 鈥渇avor those more probable words,鈥� Wang said. 鈥淪o we can detect it.鈥�

Kids: Your untraceable essay may in fact be untraceable 鈥� but it鈥檚 not undetectable. 

6. Like most technological breakthroughs, ChatGPT should be understood, not limited or banned 鈥� but that takes commitment.

L.M. Sacasas, a writer who publishes, a newsletter on technology and culture, likened the response to ChatGPT to the early days of Wikipedia: While many teachers saw that research tool as radioactive, a few tried to help students understand 鈥渨hat it did well, what its limitations were, what might be some good ways of using Wikipedia in their research.鈥�

In 2022, most educators 鈥� as well as most students 鈥� now see that Wikipedia has its place. A well-constructed page not only helps orient a reader; it鈥檚 also 鈥渒ind of a launching pad to other sources,鈥� Sacasas said. 鈥淪o you know both what it can do for you and what it can’t. And you treat it accordingly.鈥� 

Sacasas hopes teachers use the same logic with ChatGPT.

More broadly, he said, teachers must do a better job helping students see how what they鈥檙e learning has value. So far, 鈥淚 think we haven’t done a very good job of that, so that it’s easier for students to just take the shortcut鈥� and ask software to fill in rather meaningless blanks.

If even competent students are simply going through the motions, he said, 鈥渢hat will encourage students to make the worst use of these tools. And so the real project for us, I’m convinced, is just to instill a sense of the value of learning, the value of engaging texts deeply, the value of aesthetic pleasure that cannot be instrumentalized. That’s very hard work.鈥�

7. Underestimate it at your peril.

Open AI鈥檚 Sam Altman earlier this month tried to lower expectations, that the tool 鈥渋s incredibly limited, but good enough at some things to create a misleading impression of greatness.鈥�

Ask ChatGPT to write a , for example, and 鈥� well, it鈥檚 not very good or very Dylanesque at the moment. The chorus:

Baltimore, Baltimore

My home away from home

The people are friendly

And the crab cakes are to die for.

Altman added, 鈥淚t鈥檚 a mistake to be relying on it for anything important right now.鈥� 

The tool鈥檚 capabilities in many ways may not be very sophisticated now, said , an English teacher in northern California. 鈥淏ut we’re fooling ourselves if we think something like ChatGPT isn’t only going to get better.鈥�

Carr asked the tool to write a short story about 鈥渒ids who ride flying narwhals鈥� and got a rudimentary 鈥淕olden Books鈥� sort of tale. But then he got an idea: Could it produce an outline of such a story using Joseph Campbell鈥檚 鈥溾�� template?

It could and it did, producing 鈥渁 pretty darn good outline鈥� that used all of the storytelling elements typically present in popular fiction and screenplays.

He also cut-and-pasted several of his students鈥� essay drafts into the tool and asked it to grade each one based on a rubric he provided.

Revolutionizing the English classroom with AI鈥攈ow can we use technology to enhance student learning and engagement?

鈥淚 tell you what: It’s not bad,鈥� he said. The tool even isolated each essay鈥檚 thesis statement.

Carr, who frequently posts TikToks about tech, admitted that ChatGPT is scary for many teachers, but that they should play with it and consider how it forces them to think more deeply about their work. 鈥淚f we don’t talk about it, if we don’t begin the conversation, it’s going to happen anyways and we just won’t get to be part of the conversation,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e just have to be forward thinking and not fear change.鈥�

But perhaps we shouldn’t be too sanguine. Asked to write a haiku about is own potential for mayhem, ChatGPT didn’t mince words:

Artificial intelligence

Powerful and dangerous

Beware, for I am here

Amid back-to-school debates over vaccinations, mask requirements and the right lens for , the troubling lack of opportunities for many high school students to take advanced coursework they need for success in college and beyond has unfortunately fallen off the education policy radar.

Advanced coursework can include International Baccalaureate, dual high school-college enrollment or Advanced Placement courses, with AP being the most popular and widely available mechanism. Taking such courses helps students gain college credits while still in high school, earn admission to top colleges and flourish in the work world.

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Yet a recently released report from the Center for American Progress that Black, Indigenous and rural students were far more likely to attend schools offering fewer AP courses than schools attended by their white, Asian and suburban counterparts.

And even when students have similar access to AP courses, lower percentages of Black, Indigenous and rural students enroll in the courses and pass them. In high schools offering 18 or more AP courses, white students taking at least one AP exam had an average passing rate of 72 percent. For Black students in these circumstances, the average passing rate was 42 percent. Latino students are not experiencing the same gaps in access as other ethnic and racial groups, but they do have lower enrollment and pass rates.

This speaks to what many educators and advocates already understand: Equitable access and success in advanced coursework require more than availability, and there are policy investments that schools and districts can leverage to help students succeed in advanced courses.

The first is creating a national database on student participation and performance in advanced coursework (including dual-enrollment courses offered at local universities), disaggregated by race. Currently, no comprehensive national dataset exists for multiple dual enrollment options, and individual state report cards vary greatly in what is publicly reported.

Much of the research on advanced coursework, by default, is limited to AP participation and performance, because that is the only data that is easily aggregated, transparent and comparable among all 50 states and Washington, D.C. Future iterations of the U.S. Department of Education鈥檚 Civil Rights Data Collection should also report on IB and dual-enrollment participation and performance.

Another crucial investment is to remove entry barriers to AP and other advanced courses. and subjective gatekeeping measures have a way of creeping into the enrollment process for advanced courses through overreliance on teacher referrals or counselor recommendations. This often results in students being overlooked for enrollment in at the elementary school level and at the high school level.

Districts have succeeded in combating this through the use of universal screening for gifted-and-talented programs and automatic-enrollment or academic-acceleration policies for AP courses. Automatic-enrollment policies, in several states, require that students who meet benchmark proficiency levels on statewide examinations be automatically enrolled in the next-highest available class, including advanced courses, though they can opt out.

In addition to making sure students are properly identified for enrollment in advanced courses, it is important to ensure they are prepared to handle the content and demands of the coursework. That takes regular communication and lesson planning among elementary, middle and high school educators to map out common instructional vocabulary and concepts, known as .

Moreover, supporting students and teachers during their experiences in advanced courses is critical. One strategy that many states and districts embrace is to associated with taking an AP or IB exam. Additionally, some schools are experiencing success through creating , where junior and senior AP students advise and tutor younger high school students to make sure they are setting themselves up for success.

Finally, both teachers and students benefit immensely from the creation of regional and statewide . This can take different forms but usually involves time outside the regular school day when students and teachers can refine their skills, learn from experts and get real-time feedback on teaching and learning.

None of these strategies alone can surmount the stubborn and persistent inequities in participation and success in AP courses. But when done in concert and with dedicated leadership, they can help broaden access to and success in advanced coursework.

Roby Chatterji is a senior policy analyst for K-12 education at the Center for American Progress.