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Education Slice helps you stay ahead of essential education news shaping your profession. With a dedicated daily National Edition and three strategic State Editions in California, Texas and Florida, we bring our unique blend of AI and education expertise to research and monitor 100,000s of articles to share a summary of the most relevant and useful content to help you lead, innovate and grow.

From Kindergarten to K-12, Edtech news, school management and teaching strategies… Education Slice is the only trusted online news source in the US dedicated to covering current headlines, articles, reports and interviews to make sure you’re at the forefront of changes in the education industry.

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National
Rural Southern school districts giving way to school choice push

For years, many rural Texas school districts, often barely scraping by on lean operating budgets, have relied on their local representatives in the Republican-led state legislature to fend off school voucher programs. Some of these GOP lawmakers, along with many of their liberal colleagues from larger cities, have argued that giving families taxpayer dollars to send their children to private schools, or to educate them at home, would drain money from public schools. On the back of a multimillion-dollar political offensive led by Gov. Greg Abbott, and heavily funded by billionaire out-of-state allies committed to spreading school choice nationwide, that wall of resistance is now on the verge of collapse. Similar dynamics have been on display in other states where rural opponents, sometimes aligned with labor groups and teachers unions, have sought unsuccessfully to head off the school choice push. In Arkansas, lawmakers sent a phased-in school voucher plan to Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders last year after proponents overcame years of opposition from rural Republicans allied with Democrats. In Oklahoma, Tom Newell, a former Republican state legislator who works for a foundation that advocates for school choice, says rural resistance has also steadily diminished in that state too, enabling lawmakers to equip parents with education tax credits that became effective this year.

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Education Slice
California
Report recommends policy changes to address charter school fraud

A new report recommends more than two dozen legislative and policy changes to address weaknesses in California's charter school laws. The report focuses on improving the two main safeguards that California law puts in place to hold charter schools accountable, audits and charter authorizers. It also homes in on non-classroom based charters, where more than 20% of instructional time happens off-campus. The report makes recommendations to increase oversight requirements for authorizers, require charter schools to undergo the same audit process as school districts, and establish more transparency for third-party entities. It also suggests changes to the funding determination process for non-classroom based charters. The report's recommendations are seen as a starting point for potential changes in charter school laws and regulations.

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Education Slice
Texas
Women in educational leadership face biases and inequities

Women in educational leadership report a range of biases, ranging from interpersonal slights and structural inequities, that make it difficult to attain and persist in top positions. According to a survey by Women Leading Ed, 57% of respondents have been passed over for career advancement opportunities offered to male colleagues, while 53% believe their gender influenced salary negotiations. The gender imbalance is notable as 77% of teachers are women. The survey also revealed concerns about work-life balance, unfair expectations about appearance and behavior, and bias affecting career persistence. To address these challenges, Women Leading Ed has proposed recommendations such as more diverse candidate pools, clear goals for leaders, job coaching, and comprehensive family leave policies. The organization will also work on designing a superintendent contract that addresses structural barriers and provides training in negotiations. Over 700 educational leaders have signed an open letter in support of these recommendations.

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Florida
Emerging themes from states' artificial intelligence guidance

An analysis by the Digital Promise nonprofit indicates that several themes are emerging across the states that have released guidance on using artificial intelligence (AI) in K-12 settings. As of late February, California, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Virginia, Washington, and West Virginia, have all released guidance to help school district leaders navigate AI in K-12. Common themes include AI literacy instruction, equity and inclusion concerns, protecting student data privacy, and securing personal information. A separate review of state AI policies, by Arizona State University’s Center on Reinventing Public Education, found conversations shifting away from last year’s focus on plagiarism and bans, and moving toward urging teachers to use AI to enhance student learning, and their own effectiveness in the classroom. The varying guidance documents from states also echo a theme initially pushed out in May 2023 by the U.S. Department of Education, which emphasized a human centered approach when using such technology. The report stressed that schools adopt a “humans in the loop” strategy, meaning educators should be the key decision-makers for the use of AI in their instruction, rather than allowing AI tools to completely replace teachers. It’s expected that the department will release more resources for K-12 school leaders on AI use at the end of this year.

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