June 7, 2026

Gracia Lam for NPR

Welcome to an ed tech edition of our newsletter. First up: Our AI expert Lee Gaines brings you the findings of a new NPR/Ipsos poll of K-12 teachers that reveals many teachers are using AI to save time, even as they worry about its effect on their students’ critical thinking skills.

The nationally representative poll found that students aren’t using AI widely in the classroom — at least not yet. A little more than half of teachers surveyed said students aren’t using the technology in class at all, while about 2-in-5 teachers said their students are using it in class at least once a week.

Lee talked to many teachers about what AI looks like at their schools and in their classrooms.

One example: Longtime biology teacher Michele Naber, who works at a California high school, lets her students use AI during certain lessons so they can learn to properly prompt chatbots and check whether the information they are presented with is really accurate.

She might tell her students to ask ChatGPT to describe a particular animal’s physical characteristics and habitat, then use reliable sources to fact check the information. She says the lesson shows students that AI still gets it wrong sometimes.

“That's one of the things that has to be taught: You can't take it literally,” Naber says.

Naber told Lee she feels a deep responsibility to teach her students that humans must always interrogate and verify what AI generates.

“I want them to be able to look at the world and figure out things for themselves, not rely on a piece of software,” Naber says. “If we stop questioning what it says, we can be led to believe anything. And that's what really scares me.”

There’s a lot more in the survey results about teaching, learning and trust.

Read and listen to the story

Soraya Martin (left) is a ninth grader in Concord, Calif., who has made strides as a creative writer and in her academics since she embraced assistive technology. She says her mom Heather Martin is her biggest advocate.Jonaki Mehta/NPR

Classroom technology, when it involves a screen, is in the spotlight all over the country, with cellphone bans now commonplace, and a growing number of states considering more far-reaching restrictions.

Our Jonaki Mehta talked to students with disabilities and their families, who told her these fast-moving policy decisions aren’t taking all students into account.

For instance, ninth grader Soraya Martin, who has dyslexia, relies on her phone to take photos of her teacher’s notes and uses speech-to-text software in lieu of typing. Now that her school requires students to lock their cellphones in pouches all day, she sometimes feels singled out if she has to ask to get her phone out of its locked pouch for note-taking.

Soraya's individualized education program (IEP), a legal document that outlines the accommodations and modifications she is supposed to receive at school, says she can use her phone for note-taking, along with other assistive technology. But the cellphone ban is new, and because Soraya changes classes all day, she says it's easy for some teachers to lose track of her accommodations.

This is the kind of "unintended consequence" that worries Lindsay Jones, as schools move away from technology that she says has been game-changing for people with disabilities. Jones is the CEO of the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST), an education research nonprofit that focuses on making learning environments accessible.

When technology is used intentionally, she says, it can "actually allow us to create much more flexible environments, and those are really needed for people with disabilities."

Read and listen to the story

Newsletter continues after sponsor message

Good reads and listens...

Remote work — not AI — has sidelined recent college graduates, research finds: An analysis of federal employment data, paired with a deep dive into the flexible work arrangements at one unnamed Fortune 500 tech company, reveals that companies are less likely to hire recent college grads into occupations that can be done remotely, NPR’s Andrea Hsu reports. Researchers speculate that employers are reluctant to put such workers in a setting where it's harder to absorb lessons from coworkers.

Michigan found a way to reduce school vaccine waivers. Until it backfired: For years, state health officials in Michigan have been trying to make it harder for parents to send their kids to school unvaccinated. But those efforts have backfired in some places, NPR’s news partner KFF Health News reports. Local parents there can now bypass the usual protocols — which include attending a vaccine education session, in person, at a local health department — and get school vaccine waivers via email, days after they fill out a brief digital form. Instead of fighting it, Michigan's health agency has been helping more than 30 counties move away from a state policy once credited with sharply reducing the number of parents who opted their kids out of shots.

Trump seeks control of science funding: The Trump administration is attempting to gain control of decision-making for billions of dollars in federal grants, most of them science and health related. Advocates warn it could jeopardize the integrity of research in the United States. The administration quietly put forth this proposed rule change last week in a 400-page document. If passed, among other things, it would hand more of the authority on grant funding to political appointees, rather than scientists.

See a Tiny Desk Concert in person!

We're giving away a trip for one lucky winner (and a guest) to visit NPR HQ and see a Tiny Desk Concert live in person! The winner even gets to choose their preferred show from a top-secret collection of options. 🤐

It's free to enter, but you can get extra entries by supporting the NPR Network and picking up some limited edition merch. Every dollar makes a huge difference, not just for your chances to win, but in protecting essential journalism across the country. So enter today and maybe we'll see you at the desk!

Enter For Free ➔

And here's something to make you smile...

How Trout in the Classroom program brings hands-on ecology directly to students

It's a cloudless May afternoon in the small western Montana town of Hamilton. Under the white peaks of the Bitterroot Mountains, a fourth grade class cheers. They're celebrating the release of more than a hundred squirming, young trout into a pond a few miles down the road from their school. That's where the students raised the rainbow trout, from egg to release.

As Montana Public Radio’s Austin Amestoy reports, their release is the culmination of five months of hands-on science, getting students up close and personal with the aquatic ecosystems in their own backyard. Conservation nonprofit Trout Unlimited sponsors the program called Trout in the Classroom. It reaches more than 120,000 students nationwide, aiming to teach them what it takes to keep watersheds healthy.

Ten-year-old Auggie Rohrbach recounts the experience.

“It was really fun to see the fish, and it was really fun to see them as eggs and see them hatch and all the tiny, tiny — they were so tiny.”

Local chapters of Trout Unlimited partner with schools and provide them with tanks, water chillers, aerators and chemicals. The eggs usually come from local hatcheries, and the fish are released in local waterways.

“Adios, fishies,” Auggie says, “Adios.”

Listen to your local NPR station.

Visit NPR.org to find your local station stream.