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A common set of problems consists in maintaining the leaders of education at night: will there be enough teachers to provide American schools? Can artificial intelligence improve learning without deepening inequalities? How can educators approach the mental health crisis among young people? None of these elements has easy answers.
New data confirm that these problems are in the lead for school heads and that education innovators are working to find solutions. THE Canopy projectA current national study of schools which focus on the design of learning -focused and fair learning environments – and challenge hypotheses On what school must be – just up to date database With the results of the 189 innovative school survey.
In the survey, most participants have agreed that teachers’ labor problems, AI and mental health crisis will shape the future of education. They also work on solutions – but fear having adequate resources to support these efforts.
School managers have selected teachers’ labor problems as the most important factor which, according to them, will transform the education sector. While some respondents said they had trouble recruiting teachers in general, they particularly find it difficult to find skills intended to work with non -traditional educational models. A leader of Bostonia Global, a charter school which is part of the unified school district of Cajon Valley in California, wrote that accreditation programs should “change to meet the needs of our current and future workforce”. The educational model based on school’s skills forces teachers to implement an individualized approach, not only to teach the same content at the same rate in a classroom of 30 children.
Canopy’s survey data show that many schools innovate to solve these labor problems: 65% said they had implemented a form of flexible or alternative endowment model. For example, the Center for Advanced Research and Technology, a high school that registers students from two partner districts in California, leads industry professionals to work alongside teachers. Several Canopée schools promote collaboration, using endowment models Opportunity culturewhich offers mentorship, opportunities for teaching in small groups and professional development.
Artificial intelligence was the second engine of the most selected change. The responses of school heads have shown that they wanted to exploit its potential while remaining attentive to the problems of access, confidentiality and equity. Only 7% of canopy’s school heads declared that they had a policy in place by the use of generative AI students, but 38% said they developed one. Despite the shortage of formal policy, the experimentation appeared abundant.
Howard Middle School for Math and Science, based at Howard University, said that school policy was to use AI “to improve educational results, personalize learning experiences and rationalize administrative tasks, While guaranteeing the security, privacy and well-being of all students and staff. Anastasis Academy, an independent microscope of Colorado, wrote: “We have formed a GPT on our model, our writings and our study program to help personalize learning.”
THE mental health crisis claimed third place on the list of factors which, according to school heads, transform the education of kindergarten to the 12th year. Four out of five leaders have indicated that their schools already integrate social and emotional learning in all areas and activities of students, which makes it one of the most commonly implemented practices in canopy schools this year. In addition, two thirds of the schools interviewed provide mental health services to students, either directly or by a partner as a community health organization, and a little less than half have said that they also support the well-being of adults .
Certain responses have underlined an even more important problem beyond the acute mental health needs of students: fight despair On what the future can contain. A leader wrote: “Students develop an increasing feeling of despair about the world beyond school.” Many young people with lower and average income, he said, believe that social mobility is “not possible for them”.
Many schools work towards solutions that fight this feeling of despair. As in previous years Canopy surveys, most schools said they have designed solutions to meet the needs of marginalized students. In Buildup Community School in Alabama, students for most blacks and economically disadvantaged of the school have mostly blacks and economically disadvantaged to divide their time between classrooms and workplace learning in construction and Real estate, revitalizing their communities and open a path to the property. And 5280 High School, in Colorado, helps students recover from dependence on re -engage in their education and explore their passions in a framework that gives priority to mental health.
A majority of leaders were concerned about their ability to maintain resources in the coming years. Among these, the main concerns were the availability of local public, private and philanthropic financing. More than a third of those who have worked also said they were worried about staff shortages, inflation and the expiration of federal recovery funding.
Some leaders have stressed that inadequate funding will not only make the light on the light – this will strengthen the development of innovative ideas to resolve the enormous challenges to come. Indeed, Recent report shows a reduction in philanthropic investments in a broader systemic change in the sector.Funding for deficits In many districts and states will also mean that even basic education services may lack adequate resources, which makes leaders to defend funding for higher risk innovation efforts.
Too often, the extent of problems in sector K-12 leads to education leaders, decision-makers and donors to deplore a lack of daring solutions or flock to attractive but still theoretical ideas that fail at the stage of the implementation. Innovation efforts at school deserve to be looked at because they show unconventional ideas become reality – and some can allude to what success can look like. Canopy schools are examples of choice, whether it is a school in New York Charter acceleration Learning and well-being of students thanks to summer programs or a district school in North Carolina realization High growth rate with an innovative personnel approach.
The Canopy project will publish a complete research report later this year. For the moment, the titles of this year’s investigation should encourage education leaders, decision -makers and donors to take note of schools, such as those of canopyers national data setwhich work towards daring and unconventional solutions.
Indeed, a response to what will stimulate the transformation of kindergarten to the 12th year in the coming years is that it will result from innovation not only in technological companies and ED reflections, but in schools in the country.
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