New AI Toolkit to Empower Educational Leaders on Safe, Ethical, and Equitable AI Integration

New AI Toolkit to Empower Educational Leaders on Safe, Ethical, and Equitable AI Integration

The U.S. Department of Education’s (Department’s) Office of Educational Technology today released Empowering Education Leaders : A Toolkit for Safe, Ethical, and Equitable AI Integration, a new resource designed to support school leaders as they make plans to leverage artificial intelligence’s (AI’s) benefits for teaching and student learning while managing its risks. Responding directly to President Biden’s October 2023 Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence, this toolkit provides actionable guidance for state and local education leaders to develop a strategy for AI use that is safe, secure, and trustworthy while enhancing student learning outcomes.

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U.S. Department of Education Launches $1 Million CTE CHIPS Challenge

The U.S. Department of Education (Department) today launched the Career and Technical Education (CTE) CHIPS Challenge, a $1 million prize competition, funded by the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act of 2006 (Perkins V) that seeks to expand student recruitment, training, and placement strategies in good-paying semiconductor fabrication (fab) construction and advanced manufacturing careers. White House Domestic Policy Advisor Neera Tanden announced the CHIPS Challenge at a career and technical education roundtable in Detroit, Michigan today. Full details, including how to apply, are available at CTEChipsChallenge.com; submissions are due on December 20, 2024 at 8:00 PM ET.

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Five Ways to be a School Parent Superhero

A purple graphic with white text: "Five Ways to be a School Parent Superhero."

As parents, we have an incredible superpower: From everyday moments, we grow true and deep connections with our kids. When we spend quality time, create routines, and listen to and learn from them, we come to know their ever-evolving strengths and challenges better than anyone.

Similarly, parents often come to know their child’s school by prioritizing meaningful opportunities to connect, to learn, and to engage. In fact, family-school engagement has been proven to help get kids more engaged in school, more motivated, and earning better grades. It can improve your child’s emotional and mental health – all while laying a foundation of success for your child at school.

Want to deepen those connections & be a school parent superhero? Start with these five tips based on research & conversations with families across the country:

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What’s Next as Borrowers Return to Repayment

One year ago, Congress restarted student loan payments, and already more borrowers are current on their federal student loans than were before the payment pause began. Borrowers now have only three months until they face consequences for late payments – making our work to support student borrowers and reform the broken student loan system more important than ever. 

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Raising the Bar on College Excellence and Equity: Update on the Postsecondary Success Recognition Program

By: James Kvaal, U.S. Under Secretary of Education

Too often, the conversation on higher education focuses on a handful of colleges and universities that were founded centuries ago, have huge endowments and sparkling facilities, and admit very few students. While our country is lucky to have these institutions, we also need colleges and universities that are innovative, affordable, and inclusive – and that help students from all backgrounds graduate and find a career.

Secretary Cardona’s Raise the Bar initiative supports colleges that excel at pursuing a variety of missions. As part of that work, we launched Postsecondary Success Recognition Program in April 2024, a program that uses data and evidence to identify exemplars across the country. Today, after receiving feedback from the public on program design, we’re publishing the list of 200 institutions that clearly have a story to tell that demonstrates what institutions do matters to ensure student success – and inviting those institutions to submit an application to be recognized for their efforts.   

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Resources for Communities Following Natural Disasters

Recent natural disasters have significantly impacted communities and their education institutions. Since 2017, there have been over 500 presidentially declared major disasters across all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and U.S. Outlying Areas. The U.S. Department of Education (ED) closely follows the impacts of natural disasters on students, educators, staff, families, and others. Schools are a critical aspect of whole community recovery and provide education, nutrition, physical fitness, mental health counseling, and other resources to students and their families during day-to-day operations. When schools close after a natural disaster, it is critical that these resources remain available to the community and that schools are reopened and operating as soon as possible. In 2018, to better assist schools in dealing with impacts of natural disasters, ED’s Office of Elementary and Secondary Education formed a Disaster Recovery Unit (DRU) with the goal of increasing resources dedicated to K-12 schools disaster recovery efforts. ED’s Federal Student Aid (FSA) office and Office of Postsecondary Education (OPE) offer support to postsecondary schools.

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Updates for PSLF Borrowers: Payment Count Availability

By: James Kvaal, U.S. Under Secretary of Education

The U.S. Department of Education today announced another important step in its ongoing efforts to fix the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. Borrowers can now see their payment counts, updated through this summer, including how many payments they have left until they are eligible for forgiveness – one benefit of Federal Student Aid’s efforts to overhaul the administration of the program.

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Inclusive Higher Education STEM Pathways

Inclusive Higher ED STEM Pathways

By: Patti Curtis, Senior STEM Advisor, Office of the Deputy Secretary

On August 14, 2024, the Office of the Deputy Secretary, in collaboration with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), held a YOU Belong in STEM webinar entitled Inclusive Higher Education Pathways that featured grant programs for minority serving institutions (MSIs) of higher education and student work-based STEM learning opportunities. U.S. Department of Education Deputy Assistant Secretary for Higher Education Amanda Miller shared information about several Office of Postsecondary Education (OPE) programs that support MSIs and their students including HSI-STEM (Hispanic Serving Institution-STEM), MSEIP (Minority Science & Engineering Improvement Program), PPOHA (Promoting Postbaccalaureate Opportunities for Hispanic Americans) and Upward Bound Math and Science.  NASA Deputy Associate Administrator Torry Johnson and his colleagues shared information regarding MUREP (Minority University Research and Education Program), numerous student-focused NASA internships, STEM challenges related to the Artemis II Mission, and other educator resources.  Finally, the conversation featured five student beneficiaries of these federal investments to speak to their personal experiences.  Here are some highlights from their reflections:

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State and Local Report Cards as One Tool to Understand and Support Student Learning

State and Local Report Cards as one Tool to Understand and Support Student Learning

By: Victoria Hammer, Ph.D., Office of Elementary and Secondary Education 

More than 50 years of research indicates that family engagement is one of the most powerful predictors of a child’s development, educational attainment, and success in school and life.

Timely, accurate, and complete information and data about the quality of public education is vital to supporting active participation in student learning. The state and local report cards required under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) help ensure local educational agencies (LEAs), parents, families, educators, and communities have access to this information in a common framework for understanding educational progress and success. To support use of these report cards, the U.S. Department of Education (The Department) recently issued guidance based on a review of the key requirement to prepare and widely share report cards that provide information on state, LEA, and school performance and progress in an understandable, uniform format.

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Familia, Cariño, y Personalizado: Academic Advising at Hispanic-Serving Institutions 

By: Gabriel O. Bermea 

Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) are colleges and universities where at least 25% of the undergraduate full-time student population is Hispanic. HSIs make up about 20% of all higher education institutions in the United States, yet they enroll 63% of today’s Latino undergraduate students (Santiago, Arroyo, & Cuellarsola, 2024). As a result, HSIs bear the significant responsibility of advising and guiding the majority of Latino undergraduates across the country.

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La Familia, el Cariño, y lo Personalizado: Consejería académica en instituciones que brindan servicios a los hispanos

By: Por Gabriel O. Bermea  

Las instituciones que brindan servicios a los hispanos (HSI, por sus siglas en inglés) son universidades donde al menos el 25% de la población estudiantil a tiempo completo de pregrado es hispana. Las HSI representan alrededor del 20% de todas las instituciones de educación superior en los Estados Unidos, pero en ellas se inscriben el 63% de los estudiantes universitarios latinos de hoy. Como resultado, las HSI tienen la importante responsabilidad de proveer consejería y guiar a la mayoría de los estudiantes universitarios latinos de pregrado en todo el país. 

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Lead the World: How the U.S. Department of Education is Building Global Citizens

By: Isabel Prasad, Policy Intern, Office of the Deputy Secretary

Isabel is a rising junior at UC Berkeley studying Political Science, concentrating in International Relations and minoring in Human Rights Interdisciplinary Studies.

To build a globally adept citizenry, the U.S. Department of Education promotes biliteracy, collaborates with relevant domestic and international stakeholders, and participates in worldwide education summits as a part of the Raise the Bar: Lead the World Initiative.

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