In a conversation moderated by 社区黑料鈥檚 Beth Hawkins, three state leaders describe their creative uses of local and federal innovation laws. The director of college and career readiness at the South Carolina Department of Education, Stephanie DiStasio talks about creating a 鈥減laybook鈥� to let educators know what flexibility exists and what kinds of programs they’re allowed to try; Julie Murgel, chief operating officer for the Montana Office of Public Instruction, talks about her state鈥檚 assessment experiment, which measures student skills throughout the year instead of in one end-of-course exam; and Minnesota鈥檚 Lucy Payne, a member of the teacher education faculty at the University of St. Thomas, describes bringing students鈥� voices to policy discussions.

The recent $1.7 trillion federal omnibus package provides hope for improvement, with $70 million allocated to the Institute for Education Sciences to pilot a program akin to DARPA 鈥� the Pentagon鈥檚 hub for research and development that have produced innovative technologies like GPS, the internet and speech recognition software. A DARPA for education could help practitioners test and implement new approaches to teaching and learning, and understand what interventions are most successful.

For this program to succeed, the government should take what Project Evident calls a approach. Informed by five years of work with practitioners, funders, researchers and policymakers, and signed by over 60 field leaders, the Principles of Next Generation Evidence can provide a helpful framework for design and implementation. Specifically, this approach would mean doing the following:

• DARPA for Ed must work to understand the needs of education practitioners 鈥� teachers, principals, superintendents, and staff at state and local education agencies and nonprofits. Too often, funding programs have failed to take practitioners鈥� challenges, times and limited staff capacity into account, leading to unintended consequences like schools on time or not making hires for fear of a fiscal cliff. Furthermore, funders have been quick to jump from one approach to another in search of a magic bullet, while ignoring the less glamorous but critical work required for thoughtful implementation. This new program should support practitioners’ ability to effectively absorb funding and implement plans, and be realistic about the time it often takes to see measurable improvement.

• The pandemic has . New innovations must leverage data and evidence to ensure all students can reach their full potential. This requires considering equity both in how data and evidence are generated and in the outcomes sought. This includes understanding participation and outcomes by different groups; engaging practitioners and families in identifying challenges and designing solutions, and considering how racial and economic inequities impact learning.
  
• Students and families must participate in developing new solutions to ensure they are of real value (in a way that empowers them but does not cause undue burden). Rather than simply doubling down on preparation for standardized testing in response to 鈥� which many consider an outdated and narrow way to understand overall student success 鈥� DARPA for Ed should encourage practitioners to work with communities to define what success looks like for students, and to develop strategies for how it is achieved and measured.
  
• The education sector . DARPA for Ed is a step in the right direction and should support practitioners in developing processes for learning, testing and improving, and promote the exploration of new technologies such as ethical artificial intelligence.
  
• Funders and policymakers often equate evidence with research results alone and discount other types of useful data, including administrative (such as absenteeism rates) and qualitative (such as student voice). DARPA for Ed should encourage practitioners to leverage the wide variety of quantitative and qualitative data at their disposal to strengthen decisionmaking and outcomes.

Across the country, there are promising instances of practitioners taking a Next Generation Evidence approach. A few examples:

At the early learning platform , R&D is a key component of the content production pipeline. A cross-disciplinary team of content developers, instructional design experts and research scientists have developed a process for rapid-cycle research that allows them to continuously improve content as it is being developed and to quickly and economically test for evidence of learning impact. 

Baltimore City Public Schools and Project Evident to strengthen career and technical education programming by blending available data sets to conduct root cause analyses and facilitating over 100 stakeholder meetings. As a result, Baltimore was able to make rapid, scalable improvements to its CTE curriculum, resulting in stronger and more equitable programming. 

The education nonprofit Digital Promise is that uses school and student data to connect teachers with professional learning opportunities tailored to their students鈥� greatest needs. Digital Promise initially approached AI with skepticism, unsure about the resources required and concerned about potential bias. However, it has come to view AI as a powerful tool that will allow for the expansion of high-quality supports to more schools.

The capacity to do the type of work highlighted above should be the norm for nonprofits and school districts, rather than the exception. DARPA for Ed has the potential to help make that happen. Adopting a Next Generation Evidence approach can help ensure the program鈥檚 successful and sustainable implementation and lead to stronger and more equitable outcomes for students.

As the director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education, I鈥檝e been closely following the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on our education system. One of the most significant impacts has been the widespread school closures, which have disrupted the education of millions of students around the world.

As we start to emerge from the pandemic and schools begin to reopen, it鈥檚 important that we focus on helping students recover from the impacts of these closures. Here are a few key ways that we can do that:

1. Prioritize mental health: The pandemic has been a stressful and unsettling time for everyone, and students are no exception. It鈥檚 important that we prioritize their mental health and well-being as they return to school. This could include providing additional support for students who are struggling, as well as incorporating mindfulness and stress-reduction techniques into the curriculum.

2. Address learning loss: Many students have experienced learning loss as a result of the pandemic, with disadvantaged students disproportionately affected. It鈥檚 important that we provide additional support to help these students catch up, whether through summer programs, tutoring or other interventions.

3. Rebuild relationships: The pandemic has disrupted the social and emotional bonds that are so important for students鈥� learning and development. As schools reopen, it will be important to focus on rebuilding these relationships and creating a sense of community within the classroom.

4. Flexibility: Finally, it鈥檚 important to be flexible and responsive to the needs of students as they return to school. This may mean providing additional support for those who are struggling, or offering alternative learning options for students who may not be ready to return to in-person learning.

Not bad, right? ChatGPT ended that essay with a typical high school writing crutch: 鈥淚n conclusion 鈥︹�� and then a repeat of the same points. You鈥檒l also notice the AI didn鈥檛 recognize that schools are, in fact, open again.

I also asked ChatGPT to write me an op-ed for 社区黑料 on the topic of extraterrestrial education. The essay was coherent and relevant, citing the need for students to develop strong foundations in the science of supporting human life on other planets, environmental sustainability, and 鈥渋ntercultural communication and diplomacy.鈥�

It鈥檚 fun to play with these bots, which can write sophisticated comparative essays and even draft legislation. My communications manager quipped when she saw these essays that she is already out of a job. My colleagues at Arizona State University are wondering how they will assess student essays for plagiarism, even next term. 

If these bots, which are in their earliest and most crude state, can spit out writing like this already, what will they do in two years? How many jobs will disappear in that period alone 鈥� or shift to require radically different skill sets, higher-order thinking and the ability to collaborate with humans and robots? This is a sobering reminder that for CRPE鈥檚 25th anniversary is already here. 

We said the rise of artificial intelligence and other technologies, combined with the realities of climate change and geopolitical dynamics, could lead to rising inequality, civic unrest and other chaos. On the other hand, we argued, the future is still largely within our control. If we embrace change and innovation, we can prepare the next generations of thinkers, problem solvers and leaders to not only confront the complex realities ahead, but to also discover new ways to thrive. We could try to prevent bot-written essays by confining students to pen and paper in a room with no technology. But what if, instead, we asked them to analyze the AI essays to understand why it鈥檚 important to break the rules in writing to communicate more sophisticated thoughts and ideas?

As we kick off 2023, we face the urgency of addressing the pandemic鈥檚 immediate impacts, such as learning loss. But the bot serves as a potent reminder that we will have failed this generation if we do not also use this moment to shift public education toward the future. Here鈥檚 what the bot had to say on that:

The future of work is rapidly changing, and it鈥檚 important that our education system keeps up. The jobs of tomorrow will require a combination of technical skills, critical thinking and collaboration, and our education system must adapt to meet these evolving needs.

This is a daunting challenge, but we and others have been writing and thinking about this for several years. In my , a year before we at CRPE became consumed with pandemic response, I wrote that we needed to more aggressively design schools for kids who are complex learners; radically reshape the high school experience; shift more student supports to out-of-school time and community organizations; make public funds more flexible and longer-term to allow for lifetime education and career retooling; and shift oversight and accountability toward learning pathways and trained customized opportunities, such as tutoring and career training. 

Today, these recommendations seem even more relevant than ever.

A version of this essay originally appeared on the CRPE .