Welcome back. Some interesting data this week, from a rise in middle schoolers' interest in sports betting to a closer look at what missed school days really cost students long term.
As we head into a new school year, chronic absenteeism stories keep showing up for good reason. Kids are still missing school, and it's still holding back academic growth. If proactive attendance strategies aren't built into your back-to-school plan, it's time to take a look at it.
1️⃣ Blocked Website Data Reveals Rising Teen Gambling
Data from GoGuardian shows student attempts to access gambling and betting sites are up nearly 30% since 2022, with roughly 140,000 blocks flagged monthly. Educators say sports betting terms are now common vocabulary among teen boys, and states like Massachusetts are starting to build gambling awareness into financial literacy courses. Schools without a plan for this may already be behind an app-driven habit with almost no barrier to entry.
2️⃣ Why One District Rebuilt Its Approach to Reading
Franklin Square Union Free School District in New York found that standard practice passages felt repetitive to students, and benchmark tests, given only a few times a year, missed real-time progress. So the district rebuilt its literacy approach, giving teachers more room to build relationships with kids around real books, backed by technology that supports their judgment instead of replacing it. It's a sign that Science of Reading implementation, with its sharp focus on phonics, still needs a second layer, decoding skills alone won't build lifelong readers.
3️⃣ Chronic Absenteeism Is Stalling Academic Recovery
A new NWEA analysis of MAP Growth data from 2,000 districts in grades 3 through 8 finds that districts with consistently high absenteeism are roughly 50% further from pre-pandemic math recovery than districts that avoided it. Attendance still hasn't bounced back either, 1 in 4 students misses a day every other week on average, and that rises to 1 in 3 in high-poverty districts. Those same high-poverty districts show the widest recovery gap, and NWEA argues attendance needs to be built directly into academic recovery plans rather than treated as a separate initiative.
4️⃣ Ed Tech Backlash Is Valid, But Incomplete
An ed-tech industry leader says much of the current pushback against classroom technology is fair. The common classroom scene, students working silently through tablets and reading programs while dashboards log the activity as engagement and personalized learning, is exactly what's drawing scrutiny from parents, politicians, and the nation's largest teacher union. For district leaders, the fix isn't necessarily less technology, it's auditing whether the tools already in place are chosen and measured by real learning outcomes instead of activity logs.
5️⃣ Teens Feel Ready for AI, Worried About Jobs
A new Junior Achievement USA and Ipsos survey finds most teens believe school is teaching them to work alongside AI, even as they voice real anxiety about what the technology means for future jobs. Students point to real-world application, not lecture-based instruction, as what actually sticks with them. The gap between skill confidence and job market uncertainty suggests schools are teaching the tools without addressing the disruption those tools could cause.
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