When Jody Hughes' daughter asked Adobe Express for Education, graphic design software provided by her teacher, to generate an image of "long stockings a red headed girl with braids sticking straight out," it produced nothing resembling the Swedish children's book character she had accurately described. Instead, using recently-added artificial intelligence, it generated sexualized imagery of women in lingerie and bikinis.
Protecting students from immigration raids was a priority for state legislators this year, resulting in several new laws, including one prohibiting school staff from allowing immigration officers to enter campuses or providing student or family information. The most controversial of the new laws is one meant to target antisemitism, although amendments made during the legislative session resulted in a bill that defines discrimination more broadly.
Bias risks: AI can amplify inequalities, like mislabeling non-native English writing as AI-generated. Privacy concerns: Schools face rising cyberattacks, and data misuse risks are high. Accountability: Human oversight is crucial to prevent over-reliance on AI.
The passion for teaching is a powerful force, but it's being tested like never before. Across the globe, educators are facing a crisis of burnout, and a significant, often overlooked, factor is the ever-increasing burden of administrative tasks. This isn't just about paperwork; it's a systemic issue that's driving talented tutors and teachers away from the profession, with profound consequences for the future of learning.
When we look more closely at how and why organizations actually invest in these systems, we can see that the popularity of adaptive learning has far less to do with pedagogical ambition and far more to do with operational pressure. Understanding this gap between how adaptive learning is marketed and how it is used in practice is critical for organizations trying to decide whether it is the right approach for their learning needs.
But as schools seek to navigate into the age of generative AI, there's a challenge: Schools are operating in a policy vacuum. While a number of states offer guidance on AI, only a couple of states require local schools to form specific policies, even as teachers, students, and school leaders continue to use generative AI in countless new ways. As a policymaker noted in a survey, "You have policy and what's actually happening in the classrooms-those are two very different things."
Teachers have almost no authority over student behaviors or academic grading, and are given little, if any, respect from administrators, parents or even students. Instead, students have all the authority but no responsibility for their success. Students do (or don't do) whatever they wish, while empty-handed teachers are left to take the blame. Teachers no longer have the ultimate tool of flunking students.
San Francisco, CA, January 12, 2026 - ClassDojo is now an all-in-one district communication platform, expanding ClassDojo for Districts with new capabilities that give K-12 leaders greater visibility and insight across schools without changing how teachers and families already use the platform. These updates strengthen districtwide coordination and communication while keeping teacher-family relationships at the heart of ClassDojo. The updates come amid growing demand from school systems.