Good news! AI contracts did not get approved last night at the PEP

A pretty amazing meeting of the Panel for Educational Policy happened last night.  The three AI contracts did NOT get approved by the Panel, for EPS/Amira (withdrawn or turned down for the third time!), Lumi and Kiddom., despite the push by the Chancellor and the DOE officials to keep rapidly expanding that risky technology in classrooms around the city.   

Thanks so much to the parent leaders, the teacher and student who spoke clearly and eloquently  in opposition – and also to many of you who sent comments to the Panel about this critical issue. It shows that the AI juggernaut can be stopped with enough organized opposition.

The Brooklyn BP rep, Camille Casaretti, thanked the many people who wrote in with comments.  Mine are posted on the blog below.   If you wrote in and would like to have your comments shared, please send them to me at leonie@classsizematters.org and I’ll post them as well. Soon I’ll post a video of those who spoke so well last night.

Also approved was a resolution urging the DOE and SCA to create more space to relieve overcrowding and allow schools to lower class size, and a resolution against renewing contracts for another five years for the same group of bus companies that have provided such unreliable service for the last 45 years. 

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My name is Leonie Haimson, I am co-chair of the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy.  I was appointed by the Chancellor as a member of AI working group last June, which was tasked with creating guidelines and guardrails for the use of this technology, which is controversial with many privacy experts because of the way AI tools data mine the personal information of students to improve their products, which is illegal under the NY State student privacy law. 

Many parents and teachers are also concerned because of the growing evidence that the use of AI in the classroom hampers the development of cognitive skills, creativity, and critical thinking, all central to learning, while undermining the human connection essential to a quality education. 

Yet since the AI working group was appointed, it has been sidelined.  We’ve been kept in the dark and essentially stonewalled – denied any  of the information we need to move forward, while the DOE goes full speed ahead, expanding the risky use of AI without any of the necessary precautions. 

One of our first requests to DOE was the list of AI products currently used in schools, along with their privacy policies.  Yet the DOE official briefing us refused to provide this list, saying they could not do so because of non-disclosure agreements with the vendors.  

We also asked for materials that DOE has used to train teachers in the use of AI, which the same official claimed had been provided to more than 84,000 teachers and other staff.  Yet these materials were denied us as well.  

I urge you to vote no on the contract for the EPS chatbot and other AI tools until DOE establishes rigorous privacy protections for their use, including independent security audits and privacy impact assessments, along with peer-reviewed research showing their positive impact on learning.  DOE should also explain how the serious risks of AI use related to algorithmic bias andtheir  negative impact on the environment and the climate will be prevented. 

Thank you for your time and consideration.

More evidence in the just-released Mayor's Management Report that DOE has no real class size plan

 

The just-released Mayor's Management Report has some questionable claims and troubling data regarding class size and school overcrowding, especially given the need for the administration to be implementing an actual plan to lower class size in accordance with the class size law, passed in June 2022.  (See our updated FAQ on this issue.) 

The MMR asserts that "Overall, average class sizes remained constant from Fiscal 2023 to Fiscal 2024 in grades 6 through 12 and increased slightly in grades kindergarten through 5."  Yet according to the DOE's own June 2024 class size report, average class sizes increased significantly last year in all grades but high school:

 

In the MMR, officials also state that they have no target figure for average class sizes, either for this year or next- which they should if they had a plan to comply with the class size law, as it requires a four-year phase-in of smaller classes in all grades.

Regarding the need to create more school seats -- critical to be able to reduce overcrowding and lower class size -- the MMR says DOE "target" is to have 10,222 more school seats in FY 25.  

Yet the data in the capital plan reveals that the number of new seats to open next year will likely be far less – only about 6,000 - with continuing declines thereafter.  Instead of ramping up construction of new schools after the class size plan was passed, Adams cut the budget for new capacity in the capital plan by over $2 billion.  [The SCA recently added another $2 billion to new capacity in the new five-year plan, in accordance with a state budget mandate, but haven't revealed where those schools will be sited and seem in no hurry to build them.]

 

It  is also strange that according to the MMR, they have no "desired direction" in creating new school seats, either upwards or down.  This is especially bizarre, as there was no progress in relieving school overcrowding last year according to the report - with the percentage of overcrowded elementary, middle and high schools remaining the same, respectively at 34%, 17%, and 29%.  The percentage of elementary and middle school students enrolled in overcrowded schools actually increased to 35%.

The DOE has estimated that they will need to hire 10,000 to 12,000 more K12 teachers to comply with the law within four years.  And yet the data in the MMR shows there has been a decline in the total number of teachers since FY 20 of more than 3,000.  What the decline would be if  the concurrent increase in the number of 3K and PreK teachers over that period would be is unclear, but our analysis of headcount data posted on the City Council website shows a sharp reduction in the teaching force of over over 4,000 full-time K12 teachers between FY 2019 and FY 2023.  Again, in the MMR, there is no "Desired Direction" up or down in the future for the total number of teachers on staff.

 

All this goes to further reaffirm our conviction that even now, more than two years after the class size law was passed, the DOE has no real class size plan - as we pointed out in a letter to the State Education Department in June 2024, urging them to require DOE to create such a plan and take affirmative, accelerated action to comply.