Digital Technologies and Artificial Intelligence in Education

Source: Bellwether

Date: 10/3/25

Measuring Artificial Intelligence in Education

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) - a system that produces new text, images, or other media in response to prompts - is rapidly impacting education technology, with hundreds of tools promising to save time, customize instruction, and disrupt teaching and learning.

Yet many conversations are outpacing evidence: Most tools are measured by easy-to-track outputs (e.g., hours saved, number or frequency of logins, or features used), rather than whether they improve instruction, advance performance, or foster deeper student learning. This gap leaves schools vulnerable to hype, popularity, and marketing claims while overlooking the potential harms of ineffective tools.

Drawing on expert interviews, case examples, and proven evaluation methods, this report offers a road map for school leaders and ed tech developers interested in shifting from outputs to outcomes, starting with logic models to clarify AI's intended impacts and track meaningful indicators. In addition to describing logic models, the report examines barriers to the measurement they require and strategies that school leaders and ed tech developers can take to address those barriers. By insisting on evidence that links early indicators to long-term goals, funders, educators, and developers can make deliberate choices that ensure AI works not only faster but also better for all students.

ESAs

Source: Common Sense Institute

Date: 10/3/25

ESA's in Arizona Q3 2025 Report

Since universal eligibility in 2022, Arizona's Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program has seen rapid growth. A lack of reliable and consistent data about who is using the program and how is contributing to public uncertainty. Applying scrutiny to hundreds of thousands of individual transactions on an almost real-time basis has made the program vulnerable to exaggeration, misinformation, and mischaracterization. No comparable program is subject to this kind of examination.

Subject to the available data, this regular report is intended to provide ongoing and data-based answers to some recurring questions that policymakers and the public have been asking.

Math Education

Source: WILL

Date: 9/28/25

Closing Wisconsin's Math Gap: A Call for Early Numeracy Reform

WILL has unveiled a new policy report, "Closing Wisconsin's Math Gap: A Call for Early Numeracy Reform," sounding the alarm on declining math achievement and offering solutions to reverse the crisis. The report draws on lessons from seven states that have led the way in implementing serious, practical, and bipartisan numeracy reforms. These efforts build on early literacy reforms adopted by dozens of states around the nation, including Wisconsin.

School Choice

Source: Reason Foundation

Date: 10/2/25

Public schools without boundaries 2025: Ranking every state's open enrollment laws

This study, the 4th edition of Public Schools Without Boundaries, updates Reason Foundation's 2024 ratings and rankings of states' open enrollment laws, highlights the latest open enrollment research, and provides other developments related to open enrollment.

School Finance and Funding

Source: University of Arkansas

Date: 10/1/25

2024-25 Arkansas Education Freedom Accounts Program Annual Report

The 2024–25 school year marked a strong second year for Arkansas's Education Freedom Accounts (EFA) program, with substantial growth in participation, expanded eligible uses (including homeschool supports), and encouraging indicators on family satisfaction, retention, and student performance. The program remained fiscally modest relative to the state's K–12 budget while continuing to build operational capacity and provider choice statewide.

School Finance and Funding

Source: Brookings Institute

Date: 9/30/25

A state-level perspective on school spending and educational outcomes

Elementary and secondary schools prepare young people to enroll in higher education, succeed in the labor market, and engage as active citizens. Quality education is also an important driver of innovation and economic growth, and improving schools for children growing up in low-income families or disadvantaged communities is a long-standing policy project. A hotly debated element of this effort in recent decades is the question of how much additional funding alone-without changes to the incentives, institutions, and regulations governing how schools operate-could improve student outcomes.

Teacher Employment and Retention

Source: NCTQ

Date: 9/30/25

State of the States: Building a Strong Teacher Workforce for Students with Disabilities and English Learners

Students with disabilities and English learners make up a growing share of public school enrollment, but chronic shortages and high attrition have created a cycle that leaves students underserved and teachers overwhelmed. If we want all students to succeed, we need to strengthen and support teachers serving these students.

Review of Directional Signals: A New Analysis of the Evolving Private School Choice Landscape

Source: FutureEd

Reviewed by: Christopher Lubienski, Indiana University

In recent years, at least a dozen states have created private school choice (aka voucher) programs that are universal-placing few or no restrictions on wealth or other factors that might limit which families can participate. A FutureEd report examines the expansion of such programs, and provides a generally useful, up-to-date compilation of basic facts and trends around universal voucher programs in 10 states.

Indiana University professor and Director of the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy Christopher Lubienski reviewed Directional Signals: A New Analysis of the Evolving Private School Choice Landscape. While noting the report's disregard for relevant existing research, Professor Lubienski nonetheless found it useful for its clear, up-to-date descriptive data.

Education Department brings back mental health grants

By: Kara Arundel, K-12Dive

Watch the pendulum swing...."The agency issued new priorities for the funding after having canceled the grants for not aligning with Trump administration priorities."

FCC removes school bus Wi-Fi, hotspots from E-rate

By: Anna Merod, K-12Dive

"The Federal Communications Commission vote reverses a Biden administration expansion of federal discounts for internet services for schools and libraries."

What schools stand to lose in the battle over the next federal education budget

By: Cory Turner, NPR

"Congress and the White House have released not one, not two, but three competing funding visions for the nation's K-12 schools in fiscal year 2026. And education researchers warn that two of those three proposals - from the White House and House Republicans - would impose steep cuts on some of the United States' most vulnerable students and disadvantaged school communities."

Federal Vouchers, Funding Cuts, Firings: What You Need to Know About the Impact on Public Schools

By: Public Funds Public Schools (PFPS)

WEBINAR SIGN-UP: "The Trump administration has issued harmful executive orders, halted funding already appropriated, gutted the U.S. Department of Education, created the first ever federal school voucher program, and generally wreaked havoc on public education over the past nine months. Don't miss this important Public Funds Public Schools webinar that will delve deeply into these actions and their implications for American public schools."

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