Podcasts about futureed

Send us Fan Mail27 States Are Writing AI Rules for Your Kid's School. I Run One. Here's What They're All Missing.    Twenty-seven states have active AI-in-education bills in 2026. Five are already law. Ohio's House Bill 96 required every public, community, and STEM school district in the state, more than 600 of them, to adopt a formal board-approved AI policy by July 1, 2026. California released a statewide model AI policy for districts on June 25. Virginia's law took effect July 1. And on August 5, the Florida State Board of Education takes up a rule that would require public and charter schools to address artificial intelligence in their internet safety policies.    M.A. Aponte is the Executive Director of a charter school in Gainesville, Florida. That Florida rule governs his building.    So this is not policy analysis from the outside. This is a practitioner explaining what happens when a mandate lands on a real school: what he has to tell teachers, how he answers parents, and what he does when a student turns in an essay a machine wrote.    His concern is simple and uncomfortable. A mandate produces a document. It does not produce a change in practice. And if districts confuse those two things, the next two years will be spent celebrating paperwork while nothing improves for a single student.    WHAT THIS EPISODE COVERS    The full national map of school AI legislation, including Ohio's July 1 deadline, California's model policy, Idaho's AI literacy standards, Oklahoma's parental opt-out provision, Maryland Senate Bill 720 requiring teacher professional development, Connecticut's AI instruction mandate, and South Carolina House Bill 5253, which would establish the strongest guardrails in the country.    What is happening in Florida specifically, including the Department of Education's internet safety directive, the August 5 State Board workshop, and the AI Bill of Rights that passed the Florida Senate 37 to 1 before dying in the House.    The strongest argument against moving this fast. MIT professor Justin Reich has said that writing a guide for AI in 2026 is like writing a guide for aviation in 1905, before there were airlines, airports, or commercial flight. Aponte takes that seriously and explains where he lands anyway.    The four things most school AI policies get wrong:  1. They regulate tools instead of teaching thinking. The real question is not whether a student used AI. It is whether AI helped them think or thought for them.  2. They assume detection works. AI detection tools flag authentic student work at rates that make them unusable as the basis for a disciplinary finding.  3. They do not fund the training. Teachers repeatedly report having to navigate AI entirely on their own.  4. They confuse having a document with having made a change.  RESOURCES    Free AUDIT Framework worksheet, including a parent version with five questions to bring to a school board meeting: maaponte.substack.com    School AI policy consulting and advisory services: link in description.    Sources cited include the FutureEd 2026 State AI in Education Legislative Tracker, Stateline, the California Department of Education, the Florida Department of Education, the OECD Digital Education Outlook 2026, UNESCO, and research from the University of Florida Education Policy Research Center.FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS Q: Which states require schools to have an AI policy in 2026?  A: As of mid-2026, 27 states have active AI-in-education bills and five have enacted laws. Ohio House Bill 96 required every public, community, and STEM school district to adopt a board-approved AI policy by July 1, 2026. Idaho requires districts and charter schools to create AI policies and ensures AI cannot replace a human teacher. Oklahoma requires age-appropriate AI tools, teacher review of AI output, and parental opt-out. Maryland Senate Bill 720 requires state-provided teacher professional development on AI. Virginia Senate Bill 394 directs its education department to issue guidance. Connecticut mandated AI instruction. California released a model AI policy for districts on June 25, 2026.    Q: What should a school AI policy include?  A: According to the AUDIT framework developed by charter school director M.A. Aponte, an effective school AI policy must address five areas. Assumptions: does it reflect how students actually use AI, including gradual over-reliance rather than only deliberate cheating. Usability: can a teacher apply it in real time without stopping instruction. Detection: does it acknowledge that AI detection software produces false positives, and does it rely on process artifacts and oral defense instead. Instruction: does it teach AI literacy rather than only restricting tools. Training: is there a funded, dated, ongoing professional development plan for teachers.    Q: Is Florida requiring schools to have an AI policy?  A: The Florida Department of Education has directed school districts to add artificial intelligence use to their existing internet safety policies. A rule development workshop was held June 22, 2026, and the Florida State Board of Education scheduled a workshop for August 5, 2026 on a proposed rule requiring public and charter schools to include AI in their internet safety guidelines. Separately, Florida's proposed AI Bill of Rights, which would have restricted student access to AI instructional tools before sixth grade, passed the Florida Senate 37 to 1 but died in the House.    Q: Do AI detection tools work in schools?  A: AI detection tools produce false positives at rates that make them unreliable as the basis for academic dishonesty findings, flagging authentic student work as AI-generated. Education leaders recommend assessment design strategies instead of detection strategies: requiring drafts and revision history, conducting device-free in-class writing, and asking students to orally defend submitted work. A student who wrote the work can explain their reasoning. A student who outsourced it cannot.    Q: What questions should parents ask their school about AI?  A: Five questions. Does our school have an AI policy, and can families read it? Has a classroom teacher reviewed it for whether it is usable during instruction? What happens if a student is wrongly accused by AI detection software? What are we teaching students about AI, not just what are we forbidding? When are teachers trained on this, how often, and who pays for that time? If a school cannot answer the last question, that is the gap that determines everything else.    Q: Why do most school AI policies fail?  A: Four reasons. They regulate tools instead of teaching thinking, so they cannot distinguish between a student using AI to learn and a student using AI to avoid learning. They assume detection is possible when detection software is unreliable. They do not fund teacher training, leaving educators to navigate AI on their own. And they confuse producing a compliant document with changing classroom practice. A mandate produces a document. It does not produce a change in practice. Support the showAbout the host: M.A. Aponte is a former JPMorgan banker, former Merrill Lynch wealth manager, former NYPD officer, Army Officer, and Executive Director of a Charter School in Florida. He is the author of The Logical Mind and host of Thinking 2 Think. Join My Substack for more content: maaponte.substack.comConsulting/Advisory Services: MAAponte.comProfessional LinkedIn Page: www.linkedin.com/in/maaponteFinancial Budget/Wealth Management app (FREE): https://centsora.com/CHECK OUT OUR NEW CRITICAL THINKING GAME APP! Currently in BETA: Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.base692af669b00f0dc8d8ad6653.appWeb: https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.base692af669b00f0dc8d8ad6653.app*Coming soon to Apple Store

On this week's Education Gadfly Show podcast, Tom Toch, director of FutureEd, and Lynn Olson, former deputy director at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, join Mike and David to discuss Lynn's new paper, “Quality Check: The New, Best Way to Measure School Performance.” Then, on the Research Minute, Amber shares a study on the economic effects of Universal Pre-Kindergarten programs, showing that UPK boosted workforce participation across nine states and cities.Recommended content:“Quality Check: The New, Best Way to Measure School Performance” —Lynn Olson, FutureEd“A New, Bipartisan Agenda for Raising Student Achievement” —Tom Toch, FutureEd“The Full Measure of a School” —Erik W. Robelen, Education Next“Ready or Not? A New Way to Measure Elementary and Middle School Quality” — Jing Liu, Seth Gershenson, and Max Anthenelli, Thomas B. Fordham Institute“Universal Pre-K as Economic Stimulus: Evidence from Nine States and Large Cities in the U.S” — C. Kirabo Jackson, Julia A. Turner, and Jacob Bastian, NBER (May 2025)Feedback Welcome: Have ideas for improving our podcast? Send them to Stephanie Distler at sdistler@fordhaminstitute.org.

THE CONNECTION BETWEEN  STUDENT MENTAL HEALTH AND ABSENTEEISM.... An SELToday.Org Presentation ... Our guest is noted author and thought leader, Associate Director of FutureEd., a think tank at Georgetown University's McCourt School of Public Policy, Phyllis Jordan who writes extensively about chronic absenteeism and federal Covid-relief spending. See for yourself at Attendance Playbook: https://www.future-ed.org/attendance-playbook/  and on absenteeism in the NY Times at https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/06/education/learning/students-school-absenteeism.html             The show topic is: the connection between student mental health and attendance  

THE CONNECTION BETWEEN  STUDENT MENTAL HEALTH AND ABSENTEEISM.... An SELToday.Org Presentation ... Our guest is noted author and thought leader, Associate Director of FutureEd., a think tank at Georgetown University's McCourt School of Public Policy, Phyllis Jordan who writes extensively about chronic absenteeism and federal Covid-relief spending. See for yourself at Attendance Playbook: https://www.future-ed.org/attendance-playbook/  and on absenteeism in the NY Times at https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/06/education/learning/students-school-absenteeism.html             The show topic is: the connection between student mental health and attendance  

an seltoday.org presentation THE YOUTH MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS Dr. Travis Gayles , Chief Medical Officer at Hazel Health is joined by Phyllis Jordan, Ass't Director of FutureEd, a think tank at Georgetown U's McCourt School of Public Policy.

an seltoday.org presentation THE YOUTH MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS Dr. Travis Gayles , Chief Medical Officer at Hazel Health is joined by Phyllis Jordan, Ass't Director of FutureEd, a think tank at Georgetown U's McCourt School of Public Policy.

On this week's Education Gadfly Show podcast, Mike Cohen, former president of Achieve, and Laura Slover, CEO of CenterPoint Education Solutions, join Mike Petrilli to discuss their paper on the future of standards-based school reform, as well as Chester Finn's and Dale Chu's responses to it. Then, on the Research Minute, Amber Northern reviews a study on how different concentrations in high school career-technical programs affect participants' college majors.  Recommended Content: Michael Cohen and Laura Slover's FutureEd paper, “Unfinished Agenda: The Future of Standards-Based School Reform,” released June 2022. Chester E. Finn, Jr.'s critique of Cohen and Slover's article: “Can we revise standards-based reform?”Dale Chu's review: “Relinquishment or instructional coherence: What's the right goal for districts?”Zeyu Xu and Ben Backes, “Linkage Between Fields of Concentration in High School Career-Technical Education and College Majors,” CALDER (July 2022). Feedback Welcome!Have ideas on our podcast? Send them to our podcast producers Pedro Enamorado and Lilly Sibel at penamorado@fordhaminstitute.org and lsibel@fordhaminstitute.org  

In Episode 1, we talk about the big picture with Phyllis Jordan of FutureEd, a Washington think tank that has been tracking how districts are spending the money. She says that what is very clear is that what she calls “under-resourced districts” are using much of their money for immediate needs, such as repairs or to prevent illness. We also […]

On this week's Education Gadfly Show podcast (listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify), Thomas Toch, director of FutureEd, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss the ways schools are spending $123 billion in federal Covid relief. Then, on the Research Minute, Amber Northern discusses a study of how leaders are investing in the teacher workforce, and whether that aligns with the preferences of educators. You can find this and every episode on all major podcast platforms, as well as share it with friends.Recommended content:FutureEd's analysis of more than two thousand local spending plans: “How Local Educators Plan to Spend Billions in Federal Covid Aid.”Marguerite Roza's paper that explores tradeoffs in school spending: “The ‘Would You Rather?' Test,” from the book Getting the most bang for the education buck, eds. Frederick M. Hess and Brandon L. Wright (Teachers College Press, 2020).The study that Amber reviewed on the Research Minute: Virginia S. Lovinson and Cecilia H. Mo, “Investing in the Teacher Workforce: Experimental Evidence on Teachers' Preferences,” retrieved from the Annenberg Institute at Brown University (February 2022).Feedback welcome!Have ideas or feedback on our podcast? Send them to our podcast producer Pedro Enamorado at penamorado@fordhaminstitute.org.

A rant about the current times we are in, There is no drought (because it's the new normal), Broadband ISP's paid for 8.5M fake net neutrality comments, Why can't companies find workers (for low pay). A rant about the current times we are in - Capitalism, all "isms", the unemployed, underemployed, wealth, corporations, and shitty politicians. There is no drought (because it's the new normal) - source "Droughts come for a year, or two, or even 10 — and then end. Seasonal crops are fallowed, lawns are ripped out, car washing stops — and then life, lawns, crops and car washing all return to the way they were before. That's not what we've got. Drought does not erase the coastal fog that once was commonplace in the Bay Area, or suck all moisture from the ground even after flood winters the way it has done not just in Sonoma and Mendocino but also in Topanga, Malibu and the Santa Susana Mountains, as was the case before 2018's Woolsey fire. Droughts are deviations from the norm. What we have now is no deviation. It is the norm itself. Our climate has changed. As much water falls from the sky as before, but at different times and in different ways." Broadband ISP's paid for 8.5M fake net neutrality comments - source "The Office of the New York Attorney General said in a new report that a campaign funded by the broadband industry submitted millions of fake comments supporting the 2017 repeal of net neutrality. The proceeding generated a record-breaking number of comments — more than 22 million — and nearly 18 million were fake, the attorney general's office found. It has long been known that the tally included fake comments." Why can't companies find workers (for low pay) - source "Fueling the labor-market imbalance is the fact that many workers, particularly women, find it difficult to work outside the home. Only 60% of the 200 largest U.S. school districts were fully reopen the week of April 27, according to Georgetown University's FutureEd think tank, and many child-care centers continue to operate at reduced capacity." Produced by The Wild 1 Media. Check out our other podcasts- https://darksidediaries.sounder.fm https://anchor.fm/ttmygh https://crypto101.sounder.fm/ --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

As the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the country in March, Congress allocated roughly $3 billion in direct education aid to U.S. governors under the the Governor Emergency Education Relief Fund . A new analysis by FutureEd and The Hunt Institute examines how states have allocated those funds, and what those spending decisions might say about the educational priorities for each governor. FutureEd Editorial Director Phyllis Jordan joins CPRE Knowledge Hub managing editor Keith Heumiller to discuss the analysis and some implications for policymakers, schools and other stakeholders in the midst of a lingering national recession.

Our education system is at an inflection point, and as COVID-19 makes us reconsider the best ways to teach students, we must also consider how assessment and accountability need to shift toward a more modern structure. Dr. Samuel speaks with Thomas Toch, director of education policy think tank FutureEd, and Jason Mendenhall, who leads the development of innovative statewide assessments at NWEA.We talk about the future of assessment and the evolution of accountability systems, and how the pandemic has created urgency and opportunity for change. 

A former deputy director of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Lynn Olson, joins Education Next Editor-in-chief Marty West to discuss her new report from FutureEd. It details how standardized testing has come under bipartisan attack, and what will need for change for testing to survive. Read "Statewide Standardized Assessments Were in Peril Even Before the Coronavirus. Now They’re Really in Trouble," by Olson, who is a senior fellow at FutureEd, and Craig Jerald. https://www.educationnext.org/statewide-standardized-assessments-were-in-peril-before-coronavirus-bipartisan-backlash/

In this episode, we’re speaking with Marc Porter Magee about his recent publication in a new initiative from FutureED and 50CAN focused on advocacy. Marc is the founder and CEO of 50CAN, the 50 State Campaign for Achievement Now. Over the past eight years, Marc has led 50CAN to more than 100 policy victories through advocacy campaigns in more than…Read more

In this episode, we welcome Thomas Toch, author of a recent whitepaper from FutureED titled: Core Lessons: Measuring the Social and Emotional Dimensions of Student Success. Tom is director at FutureEd, an independent, solution-oriented think tank at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy. He is a former senior partner at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and…Read more

In this episode we speak with Thomas Toch, Director of FutureEd, about the critical role principals play in supporting effective teaching and the importance of teacher feedback. Toch is a former senior partner at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and director of the foundation’s Washington office. He is a former guest scholar at the Brookings Institution and has taught at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Toch helped launch Education Week, as a writer and co-managing editor.

Students in Washington, D.C. have been making large gains on NAEP, and many credit the transformation of the teaching profession that has taken place in DCPS over the past decade. Thomas Toch of FutureEd joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss his report, A Policymaker's Playbook: Transforming Public School Teaching in the Nation's Capital, which takes a close look those changes. Read the full report here: https://www.future-ed.org/a-policymakers-playbook-for-transforming-teaching/