There’s a huge focus on reading and math (but, I’ll stick to my speciality, thank you very much). But the methods, rationale, and the assessment don’t mix. The people in charge of education policy at the school district are very much removed from the classroom, and the research that they use to make their decisions is shaky at best. There’s also a continuous tendency for school districts to always be chasing the next big thing. What’s the next big program that will help us achieve our results?

And of course if you wanted to make a guess, you would probably say they’re going to use some form of AI to inform the data and the instruction. And of course, you’d definitely be correct.

I haven’t heard it directly from any sources because news reaches the people on the frontlines last, and there’s a possibility that as a high school educator, I won’t be hit by this. BUT, it looks like the next big thing in CCSD for reading intervention is going to be I-Ready. Now, I-Ready is not a new program, but the direction it’s going like, most other programs, is going to heavily use AI to make decisions about what is most appropriate for students of a given need for intervention.