CHEERS
Montgomery County Public Schools (MD) will no longer cover community college tuition bills for students who aren’t prepared for postsecondary work. Talia Richmanreports that “the district will only cover these costs for students who are deemed ‘college and career ready,’ based on a specific state definition that factors in GPA, course completion, and standardized test scores.” Some expressed disappointment at this change, but I think it’s an improvement. Nobody should pay for courses that students are unlikely to pass—and that should go for the federal government’s Pell Grants and student loans, too.
JEERS
Dana Goldstein describes the many ways AI helps students cheat and the challenge facing educators trying to maintain some semblance of academic integrity:
In some cases, the very same companies selling detection tools are also making apps that allow students to cheat, including by writing papers for them or rephrasing text written by others. The apps promise to help them avoid accusations of misconduct by scanning their work before they submit it, allowing them to rewrite passages identified as AI.
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Patrick Anderson shares disappointing news from Rhode Island, where “Governor Dan McKee signed a three-year moratorium on new public charter schools into law on Thursday, June 18, completing a full reversal on an issue in which he was once a staunch charter backer. The legislation blocks new charters from opening through 2029 and lowers the statewide cap on charters from 35 to 28.” This despite Rhody’s charters’ strong record of success and overwhelming popularity—and the fact that McKee appears likely to lose his primary anyway.
Editor's note: This was first published on Mike Petrilli's Substack, SCHOOLED, a twice-weekly free Substack and email newsletter restarting the education-reform conversation.
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