Bonus: Techlash Week 26
In this week’s Secret Bonus Section: ‘Toy Story’ is a hit, the techlash keeps growing, and why’s everyone still arguing about No Child Left Behind?
Above: Few movies have been as exquisitely well-timed as Toy Story 5, the Pixar hit that premiered a week ago (New Yorker, Vulture, NPR, TIME, The Guardian).
TECH-LASH WEEK 26 IN REVIEW: Here are some of the best techlash stories we saw this week, which I’m naming #26 because it seems like we’ve been at this at least half a year, right?
WSJ Parent uprising against screen time at school (WSJ)
Cellphones got the boot from the classroom. Screens are next. (Politico)
NYC delays school AI guidance after backlash (Chalkbeat)
San Diego Unified Moves to Rein in Screens (Voice of San Diego)
Virginia Beach schools expands Chromebook ban to first grade (Pilot Online)
Santa Barbara Unified bans YouTube at junior highs, high schools (EdSource)
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools votes on major i-ready deal (Charlotte Observer)
School Board to weigh AI pause, months after heralding program (Sun Sentinel)
Greenville County Schools limit student screen time (Post and Courier)
HELPFUL ADDITIONS: In addition, the Fordham Foundation published a piece from the folks behind i-Ready (There’s more to the i-Ready story), The 74 published a helpful list of questions to ask before making tech purchases (What School and District Leaders Need to Know Before They Invest in AI), The Atlantic got to the heart of what edtech still can’t do (AI Can’t Fix the Student-Motivation Problem), and the Subversive podcast highlighted what may be the most ubiquitous tech in schools besides Google Classroom (How ClassDojo Built Network Effects to Reach 95% of US K-8 Schools).
3 BIG THOUGHT PIECES OF THE WEEK: A trio of thought-provoking year-end essays in the Globe and the Times: No, American schools aren’t failing (Globe/Freddie deBoer*), I Thought ‘No Child Left Behind’ Would Fix Public Schools. I Was Wrong. (NYT/ Ross Weiner), and Did an antiracism break Boston’s best charters? (Steven Wilson and Charles Chieppo/ Globe). *I hope to have my interview with deBoer up as soon as possible.
Even though he hated himself for doing it afterwards, Chad Aldeman wrote and published a thoughtful response to Weiner’s New York Times piece: Accountability, done well, is not about reducing schools to test scores. Here’s also Morgan Polikoff’s response: We Need Accountability, But We Aren’t Going to Re-make the Mistakes of NCLB
Link to last week’s bonus posted Monday