What 'evidence-based' actually means when an edtech vendor says it
Under federal law there are four tiers of evidence, and most sales decks are quoting tier IV — the tier that means 'a logic model.'
By Marta Kowalczyk • August 28, 2026
Latest
The pandemic's test-score gap, in the federal government's own numbers
2022 brought the largest math declines in the NAEP's history; two years later, the 2024 results show recovery stalled and reading still falling.
By Kara Williams • August 26, 2026
EdTech News
2U's bankruptcy restructuring is done — and the OPM model it built shrinks on
The online-program manager emerged from Chapter 11 in late 2024 with debt cut and owners changed; the university partnerships that made it big keep expiring.
By Zara Nasser • August 24, 2026
Trends
Why AI detectors still get student writing wrong
A Stanford study found detectors flagged 61% of non-native English writers' essays as AI-generated, and a growing list of universities is dropping the tools rather than trusting the score.
By Kara Williams • August 23, 2026
AI detectors don't prove a student used AI to cheat
Turnitin's own documentation calls its report inconclusive, and independent research finds detectors misfire most against non-native English writers and Black students.
By Michael Hayes • August 21, 2026
Classroom audio systems and hearing access: worth the spend?
Sound-field amplification has some of the best evidence in classroom technology, but only for the youngest students and only when installed well.
By Michael Hayes • July 23, 2026
What the studies on adaptive math software actually show
Adaptive math software produces small positive effects on average, with the best results tied to usage time and teacher integration, not to the algorithm.
By Marta Kowalczyk • June 30, 2026
Technology
School Wi-Fi requirements for digital testing days
Digital testing fails on three preventable things: access point density, power negotiation, and proctor devices on the wrong network.
By Michael Hayes • June 7, 2026
From the past month
Education
Retrieval practice works, but not as much as trainers claim
A 2007 federal practice guide gave testing-based study strategies its strongest evidence rating, but newer classroom studies show the real gains are smaller and more subject-dependent than professional-development slides suggest.
By Marta Kowalczyk • August 17, 2026
Business News
Why FERPA's vendor exception decides what ed-tech can access
Federal law never says a classroom app can have student data by default. A narrow exception does the work, and a wave of new state laws is now building stricter rules on top of it.
By Marta Kowalczyk • August 10, 2026
Culture
How a book actually gets pulled from a school library
Removing a title from a school shelf is rarely one decision. It is a process with a form, a committee, and an appeal — and 2025’s record numbers show who is actually setting it in motion.
By Kara Williams • August 14, 2026
Education News
Why district edtech pilots rarely become contracts
Per the Pilot-to-Purchase research on K-12 pilots, most pilots never convert — and the reasons are structural, not product-quality problems.
By Zara Nasser • August 5, 2026
What FERPA actually permits before a new app touches student data
The 'school official' exception is why a class can start using an app without a permission slip for every family — but only when a vendor clears three specific conditions written into federal regulation, not its own privacy page.
By Samuel Achebe • August 19, 2026
Micro-credentials rarely change teaching or pay, research shows
Digital badges are pitched as a cheaper, faster alternative to a master's degree. The strongest independent study on the market found most teachers who start one never finish, and finishing didn't move student test scores.
By Samuel Achebe • August 12, 2026
Part-time doctoral programs for working teachers: the cost-benefit
An Ed.D. costs $35,000-$120,000 and four to seven part-time years, and pays off only where salary schedules pay for the lane — or where you plan to leave for administration.
By Zara Nasser • July 27, 2026
Resume language that gets teachers into edtech interviews
Edtech screeners spend seconds per resume and reject classroom vocabulary on sight — the fix is translating teacher work into outcomes, tools, and scale, not adding buzzwords.
By Samuel Achebe • July 5, 2026
School morning announcements: the rituals that stick
The morning announcement is school culture's oldest broadcast, and the buildings that do it well treat it as ritual infrastructure rather than admin housekeeping.
By Marta Kowalczyk • August 10, 2026
What the substitute shortage does to school culture
When absences go unfilled, the cost lands on the teachers who show up, and the school's culture quietly reprices itself every winter.
By Marta Kowalczyk • July 18, 2026
Culture
The late work policy debate dividing faculty rooms
Whether to accept late work, with what penalty or none, has become the sharpest culture war inside American faculty rooms, and both sides argue from fairness.
By Marta Kowalczyk • June 25, 2026
Culture
Teacher social media accounts and classroom boundaries
Teacher TikTok turned classroom moments into content, and districts are still writing the rules faster than anyone can enforce them.
By Kara Williams • June 3, 2026
What FERPA actually lets edtech vendors do with student data
The law doesn't ban vendor access to school records. It makes the district the gatekeeper — and most of what happens next depends on a contract clause few people read.
By Zara Nasser • August 15, 2026
How states are writing AI disclosure rules for classrooms
Every state introduced AI legislation in 2025, but in education most of the binding work is still guidance and task forces — and disclosure expectations are being written into district policy templates first.
By Kara Williams • August 1, 2026
Experts
Filtering and VPN rules on school devices at home
The same take-home Chromebook that satisfies CIPA on school Wi-Fi carries a moving mix of law, policy, and family expectation into the living room.
By Kara Williams • July 9, 2026
Experts
What actually changes when a free edtech tool goes paid
The pricing change is the visible event; the quiet ones are the data terms, the feature walls, and the teacher who quietly rebuilds their course in something else.
By Zara Nasser • June 16, 2026
Open educational resources and real cost savings
Districts that replace publisher courses with OER cut textbook spending sharply — but the honest accounting includes curation, printing, and the salaries behind the swap.
By Zara Nasser • July 14, 2026
What happens when federal tutoring contracts wind down
Emergency relief money built a tutoring industry in record time; the wind-down shows what districts keep, what evaporates, and what the next funding cliff teaches.
By Marta Kowalczyk • June 21, 2026
Education News
The E-rate program explained: school broadband subsidies
E-rate discounts of 20 to 90 percent pay for most of the connectivity and Wi-Fi in US schools, and its rules shape what districts can buy and when.
By Victor Petrov • May 29, 2026
Education News
What Title I funds can legally spend on technology
Title I, Part A carries no percentage cap on device and software purchases, but supplement-not-supplant rules and the Title IV-A 15 percent cap decide what actually survives an audit.
By Victor Petrov • May 6, 2026