Digital Transformation

A new data dashboard in Ohio tracks rates of chronic absenteeism in schools across the state, potentially showing where school leaders need to conduct outreach to families, but participation is optional.

Educators moved quickly in the pandemic era to scale access to virtual learning — but governance, accountability and data systems have not kept pace. A patchwork of models and standards complicates solutions.

Researchers at Digital Promise position outcomes-based contracts (OBC) not as a guarantee of student proficiency, but as a method for making sure ed-tech tools are implemented and used properly.

An incoming doctoral student in the UM School of Information built a digital campus map focused on student needs: empty classrooms for studying, transit routes, university services and even weather information.

Six Tennessee universities will use a new online platform to match researchers with industry for sponsored research and development.

A high school in Ohio is collaborating with the state work-placement organization OhioMeansJobs to provide students with a digital directory of local companies, available positions and application information.

Iowa lawmakers are considering a deal with Tyler Technologies to use AI and public budget data to find cost savings by comparing the spending of school districts and local governments across the state.

A three-year collaboration between the two nonprofits aims to reach as many as 15 million students by 2028, signaling a national-scale push to shape how schools approach AI integration.

Alpha School, which opened in Austin, Texas, in 2014, is set to open a K-8 location in Chicago. It charges $55,000 a year in tuition and uses "guides," in lieu of teachers, to motivate kids to complete online lessons.

The National Science Foundation's new FINDERS Foundry initiative will fund up to $8.5 million in research by higher education institutions, nonprofits and government entities to solve problems in education.

An ed-tech company is offering online after-school courses for students in grades K-6 featuring project-based, standards-aligned curriculum focused on topics like STEAM, civic engagement and life skills.

In response to growing unease about students’ steady diet of screen time, some Oregon teachers, schools and districts are cutting back on how much class time is spent on school-issued iPads and laptops.

Wary of adopting too many AI tools too quickly, some K-12 leaders are moving toward more structured governance models, forcing school systems to rethink how decisions are made, who is involved and how risk is managed.

Students are consulting artificial intelligence tools for their college searches, finding it useful for tracking down programs they might be interested in, flagging schools they hadn’t thought of and tracking deadlines.

Overburdened administrators are relying on artificial intelligence tools to handle mandatory teacher evaluations, but some educators have concerns about risks, readiness and oversight.

Amid gamified lessons, video-directed read-alouds and assigned work on tablets for students as young as age four, at least 16 states have introduced legislation in 2026 to reevaluate screen time or vet ed-tech tools.

Given so many conversations in the public sphere about how devices and screen time are affecting developing minds (and adult ones), educators might consider how technology has changed how we live and communicate.

The Lexington-Richland 5 school board is considering changes to how the district expects students to use Chromebooks after hearing concerns from parents about how much their kids are on the devices.