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What if we removed the passive course-to-course drudgery of the school day? What if there was no schedule?

What if teachers were seen as mentors for projects designed to help students meet those benchmarks?

What if the students initiated these projects and the teachers spent their time recording TED-style talks that would serve as inspiration and help students generate benchmark-related ideas?

Students still sit in classrooms, but lessons rely heavily on information found on the Internet and on interactive software. Students will be allowed to learn at their own pace. Homework is done on computer and sent to the teacher for grading and parents can access the school’s network to read teacher feedback on their child’s progress.

[T]extbooks and blackboards are out, so are paper and pens. There aren’t even books in the library. Everything is done on laptops

‘One half of the period you’re learning math, the other half of the period you’re learning science. But it all comes together,’ said one student.

Discovery Center Museum has provided after school activities within the Rockford School District #205 for the past 10 years. The After School Achievement Program is provided to schools within the Rockford School District that are defined as Title One schools. These schools are all located in predominately low-income neighborhoods and have a high number of children on the free or reduced lunch program, and have been placed on a statewide Watch List due to their low academic test scores. This program runs from September-May each year.

safe environment, positive mentoring and lessons that foster success in school and the community at large. Our program helps children succeed, develop a positive self-image and stay in school by improving their English language, reading, math, science and creative skills. Our program also teaches social and personal life skills, team building, and exposes children to a wide variety of cultural experiences

These after school programs are partially funded by the state of Illinois. Discovery Center provides approximately $100,000 of in-kind services for the five schools in which we serve as Lead Agency. This support is in the form of donated staff salaries, a free Family Nights at the museum for participating children and their families, materials, food, student incentives, contractual costs to other participating organizations, free admission to the museum for a field trip one time each year and free family memberships to the museum to all lead agency schools (approximately 500 families).

students also want to see this emphasis on mental health occurring school-wide, even education system-wide, in the midst of a pandemic.

her class has been more “bold” in asking for less of that busy work, as well as in asking for extended time for work or test preparation, compared with pre-pandemic school.

The pandemic made even more visible systemic inequities that made safety and school most challenging for the families who needed the most help — the conditions that often worsen mental health in the first place. Students are pushing both for interesting classes and a feeling of safety at school in the ways they can.

(City students were excluded from the analysis because no city schools had adopted four-day weeks. Only rural, small town and suburban students were included.)

The switch seemed to hurt reading achievement more than math achievement.

Rural schools accounted for seven out of 10 schools on the four-day schedule in this study.

The Biden administration is concerned that the widely used technology can screen out people who have disabilities that do not affect their ability to do the job; gamified personality tests could select against even slight mental disabilities, while software that tracks speech and body language could discriminate against physical disabilities that may be invisible to the naked eye.

A week ago, the EEOC filed its first algorithmic discrimination case — an age-discrimination suit naming several Asia-based companies operating in New York under the brand name iTutorGroup.