Author: Nelson Rosario

When a new technology is introduced into schools, Silicon Valley experiences a certain level of confidence. Transformation, personalization, equity, and efficiency are all quickly promised. The slidedecks appear tidy. The pilot programs seem promising. Almost without hesitation, the money follows. Therefore, it didn’t make headlines the way it probably should have when Stanford University researchers discreetly published a report this spring that suggested much of the evidence behind today’s AI classroom tools is thinner than the industry lets on. Over 800 scholarly articles on AI in K–12 education were evaluated by the Stanford AI Hub for Education. Only 20 studies…

The structure doesn’t appear to be revolutionary. There isn’t a grand campus or a photo opportunity with governors and venture capitalists wearing hard hats to cut the ribbon. Arizona’s newest AI-powered charter school, Unbound Academy, is virtually entirely online, which in some ways makes it seem more surreal rather than less. A startup in a desert state has determined that a child can learn artificial intelligence for two hours, with the remainder of the day being dedicated to “life skills.” The educational establishment isn’t exactly overjoyed. Traditional educators would recoil at the model’s simplification. Fourth through eighth graders log on,…

Something changed in Buenos Aires on June 3rd, 2015, for which there are currently no adequate words. Over 300,000 people flocked to the streets outside the Congressional Palace, many of them teenagers with slogan-painted bodies and handmade signs brimming with urgency and glitter. They were marching under the banner of Ni Una Menos, Not One Less, an anti-feminicide demonstration that had erupted with such force that even the women who initiated it were taken aback. The march spread to Mexico, Uruguay, South Korea, and Poland in a matter of weeks. It’s difficult to ignore the fact that something wasn’t created…

While the state does little and tuition-based preschools continue to be unaffordable for the majority of working families, there is a specific type of frustration that gradually accumulates in rural school districts—the kind that comes from witnessing children arrive at kindergarten already behind, year after year. That annoyance was eventually turned into a program in Grants Pass, Oregon. One that is free. In 2023, the Grants Pass School District began its early learning program, providing free preschool classes, family playgroups, and parent workshops from a single location at Highland Elementary School. It was never ostentatious. Press conferences and ribbon-cutting events…

When the purpose of old English buildings vanishes, a certain kind of silence descends upon them. It’s more like a held breath than a complete absence. Even though Stoke College is still in existence, you can still feel something of that quality when you stroll around its 34-acre campus in Stoke-by-Clare, on the Suffolk-Essex border. The walled gardens that Gertrude Jekyll once helped create, the Arts and Crafts wing with its subdued authority, and the flint walls all convey the unique gravity of a location that has held significance for a very long time. The school will permanently close by…

It took Jalen Brunson some time to become an NBA champion. Somewhere, a player who is composed under duress, accurate when it counts most, and capable of leading a team through four consecutive playoff games while scoring at least 37 points is developed. Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, Illinois, a peaceful northern suburb roughly 35 miles outside of Chicago, was Brunson’s “somewhere.” It’s not exactly where he grew up. Before his family moved to Lincolnshire in 2010, Brunson was born in New Jersey and attended middle school there. It’s the kind of move that could be easily overlooked as a…

A version of Carmelo Anthony that most casual basketball fans never really consider is the skinny, still-developing teenage boy who commuted to Towson Catholic High School in Baltimore and averaged a respectable 14 points and five rebounds as a sophomore while receiving virtually no attention from the outside world. Pro scouts gave him a quick glance before continuing. They said it was too thin. Not prepared for the NBA’s physical demands. In retrospect, it almost seems humorous. Then came the summer of 1999. Anthony’s growth was five inches. Everything began to change when he suddenly became a 6-foot-5 swingman. By…

Jaykob Knazur pulled into the Andrean High School parking lot at 5 a.m. on a Friday morning not quite sure what he was walking into. He had heard enough to know it was bad. He hadn’t heard enough to know just how bad. Standing in the early morning dark at the corner of Broadway and East 59th Avenue in Merrillville, Indiana, the school’s principal looked at what the night had left behind and found a single word: heartbreaking. The tornadoes that tore through Illinois and northwest Indiana on Thursday evening were part of a wider outbreak, one of those meteorological…

Observing a school district struggle to maintain stability with fewer staff members is subtly unsettling. That’s exactly what Jefferson Township Local Schools, a tiny district in Montgomery County, Ohio, with only 242 students, is doing, and the stress is evident even from the outside. The district had to lay off seven employees, including both of its principals, after voters rejected a school levy for the third time in about a year. That’s not a small change to the budget. It’s a structural disintegration. Superintendent Ronda Welch is referring to it as a “restructure,” which is a cautious term for something…

A picture of two people who once shared a life but parted ways before their child was even born standing together, grinning, and showing genuine warmth because their son recently graduated from high school is subtly amazing. Tom Brady recently shared that picture on Instagram, and it turned out differently than most pictures of famous people. With his diploma in hand, eighteen-year-old Jack Brady stood between his parents in a maroon gown and cap. Brady wearing a dapper blue suit. Bridget Moynahan wearing a dress with stripes of blue and white. They all three had genuine smiles on their faces.…