“Most-clicked story of the week: Miami-Dade County Public Schools is considering the closure or consolidation of nine schools in the 2026-27 school year. The Florida district’s Attendance Boundary Committee recommended the plan amid a reported enrollment drop of about 13,000 students between the 2024-25 and 2025-26 school years, which outpaced a projected decrease of about 5,000 students in that period. Number of the week: 1,400 Roughly the number of students statewide in Maryland who benefit from services provided by the Maryland School for the Blind each year. Superintendent and CEO Rob Hair — who has shepherded the private nonprofit through two strategic plans to tackle financial concerns and work to improve the school’s campus and services — detailed how his institution serves blind and low-vision students in K-12 Dive’s most recent Lessons In Leadership. Federal policy roundup A U.S. Department of Education notice of final priorities on promoting patriotic education in discretionary grant programs raised concerns among commenters over the inclusion of Judeo-Christianity in its definition of “American political tradition.” The definition, which will inform the agency’s preferences in funding for certain projects, also includes founding documents, key literary and artistic works, and the influence of ancient Greece and Rome. Louisiana became the second state to receive a federal waiver from certain K-12 funding requirements under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, allowing the state to consolidate funding streams and direct more money toward improving student achievement, according to a May 20 announcement from the Education Department. The waiver reflects the one approved in January for Iowa, as both states will be able to combine four federal education funding streams into one. The National Assessment Governing Board is restoring part of its original schedule for the National Assessment of Educational Progress following cuts made last year due to a pared down staff and shifting resource allocations. NAGB — which sets policy for and administers the exam also known as the Nation’s Report Card — decided in its latest quarterly meeting that it would restore assessments for state-level 12th grade reading and math in 2032. The exams had been cut last year among a list of other changes. Tech talk Harmful screen use by children and teens has become a “ public health concern ,” according to a surgeon general’s advisory issued May 20 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The surgeon general’s advisory came alongside a 29-page toolkit that calls for schools to “limit screen use by assigning work in books or on paper whenever possible.” To boost students’ artificial intelligence literacy , experts suggest using a curricular rather than technological lens, integrating the tech into the classroom offline with younger children, ensuring everyone knows how it works, and making sure students in particular know that chatbots are not people. “Think about the full K-12 curriculum in all content areas, and find ways to attach AI literacy to existing standards,” said Jessica Garner, managing director of innovative learning at ISTE+ASCD. For example, she said, “There are language arts standards that address looking at the source of information.”
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