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"Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day…" - 5 new articles
Sentences Of The Week geralt / Pixabay
I thought readers might, or might not, find this new regular post useful. Each week, I highlight several sentences, with links to their sources, that I find interesting/concerning/useful. And they may, or may not, be directly connected to education. I may also include my own comments or related links. This regular post will join my other regular ones on teaching ELLs, education policy, Artificial Intelligence, infographics, and Pinterest highlights, not to mention sharing of my regular Education Week posts. Here are this week’s sentences: He presents American history as a perpetual struggle between a Puritan North dedicated to liberty and equality and a Cavalier South predicated on hierarchy and domination. Many kids “do not care about the things we are teaching them,” Justin Reich, the director of the MIT Teaching Systems Lab, told us. Instead, he said, they care about impressing their teachers and cooperating and competing with their peers. “They care about the people.” A 2025 paper in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that several large language models had a low opinion of text written by humans, creating a “potentially consequential form of implicit ‘anti-human’ bias.” One brilliant feature of the Costco experience is, paradoxically, the constraint: as opposed to Amazon, with its near infinite assortment, or even Walmart, which has approximately 130,000 SKUs (stock keeping units, or distinct items) in the average Supercenter, any given Costco will only hold 4,000 SKUs to choose from. Civic education at its best cultivates a disposition of curiosity and friendship that invites disagreement: asking thoughtful questions, listening carefully, evaluating evidence, considering competing viewpoints, and learning how to disagree without questioning another person’s dignity. At every moment in our past, those who led through exclusion and isolation have tried to win power and enrich themselves by turning us against one another. The real question isn’t, “How much screen time is okay for kids?” but, “How can we make children’s screen time more meaningful?” In Lampedusa, island gateway to Europe, the U.S.-born pope stressed human dignity and told America: “in every generation” immigrants “helped to shape the nation’s character.” A recent study found that research subjects were speaking tens of thousands fewer words a day over time.
     It’s Malala’s Birthday – Here Are Learning & Teaching Resources
Today is Malala Yousafzai’s birthday. You might be interested in The Best Resources On Malala Yousafzai.  An Intriguing Way To Use AI To Support Parent Engagement For Our ELL Students geralt / Pixabay
There was a recent article in The Conversation, Generative AI can play a role uplifting family and community in early childhood education, that shared some interesting ways researchers used Artificial Intelligence to engage parents of young people. It got me thinking. When I was in the classroom, I tried to create lessons where my ELL students had to interview their parents/guardians about old family stories, which they would then write about. It might make an interesting Back To School night to have students be at their computers, ask their parents/guardians some pre-set questions in their home language (some family lore, or a bedtime story their parents told them, etc.), input them into an AI tool (like Google Storyboard), and then have it create a bilingual version of the story. Students could read it at home and at school, as could parents. I can think of far worse ways to use AI…..  This Week’s “Round-Up” Of Useful Posts & Articles On Ed Policy Issues
Here are some recent useful posts and articles on educational policy issues (You might also be interested in seeing all my “Best” lists related to education policy here):
Stop Blaming Black Students for the Failure of Adults To Teach Them Properly is by Sharif El-Mekki. I’m adding it to New & Revised: The Best Resources For Understanding Why We Need More Teachers Of Color.
Randi Weingarten said Newark Public Schools visit confirmed her fears about AI in the classroom is from Chalkbeat. A Great University Undermines Its Mission is a NY Times editorial supporting the professors who are demanding SAT be required again for admissions because they claim students aren’t prepared for their classes. Perhaps these professors might actually have to teach instead of lecture?
Hanushek Plays The Hits (Chicken Littling The NAEP) is from Peter Greene.
No internet, no screen time? FCC weighs cutting subsidy that lowers school internet bills is from NPR. Some Republican states push for new college accreditation agency is from NPR.
 Holding A Kid Back A Grade? Not So Fast, New Study Suggests
Despite substantial evidence that it harms students more than it helps them, some states continue to be enamored by the idea of retaining students, particularly third-graders (see The Best Resources For Learning About Grade Retention, Social Promotion & Alternatives To Both). Another new study finds that it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. You can find the study, and read a summary of it, at Chalkbeat’s article, Holding kids back in 3rd grade can raise test scores — but a new study shows a long-run cost.  More Recent Articles
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