🛝 Houston 2-Year Turnaround, Charter Growth Stalls, AI’s Hidden Bias

Welcome to Playground Post, a bi-weekly newsletter that keeps education innovators ahead of what's next.

This week's reality check: One superintendent says he's "breaking myths" about how long district turnarounds take, while charter schools face their own reality check with slowing growth and increasing closures. Meanwhile, AI teaching tools are gaining traction but hiding concerning biases.

💎 Data Gem

Over 50% of parents prefer their child to learn at home at least one day per week, and 39% are using or seeking tutoring services, with willingness to spend around $360/month, according to EdChoice's August tracker.

Houston ISD Says It Broke the Turnaround Timeline

"We are breaking the myth that it takes five, six, seven years to turn around a district," Houston Superintendent Mike Miles told District Administration.

The numbers seem to back him up. 

When the state took over two years ago, 121 of Houston's 273 schools had D or F ratings. Now all 56 F-rated campuses have improved, and A and B schools grew from 93 to 197.

Miles attributes success to his "New Education System" covering 130+ schools. 

The approach? 

Completely overhaul everything at once: staffing, pay, professional development, curriculum, and instructional models.

No substitute teachers. 

Instead, teacher apprentices well-versed in instructional practices staff the buildings. Teachers get "everything" - curriculum, PowerPoints, lesson objectives, answer keys, even copies made for them.

The result? 

Only 28 of 10,000 teaching positions were vacant at the start of 2024-25.

But here's what makes this interesting for innovators: Miles flipped the traditional model. 

Instead of curriculum driving instruction, instruction drives curriculum. Teachers focus on delivery while the system handles everything else.

The Houston turnaround suggests massive opportunities for companies that can systemize instructional support with platforms that provide ready-made lessons, real-time coaching for principals, and comprehensive teacher support systems that eliminate administrative burden.

Charter School Expansion Hits the Brakes

Fifty charter schools announced closures in the first half of 2025, with 27 citing low enrollment as the primary reason. 

Nearly half of these schools had received a combined $102 million from the federal Charter Schools Program.

The broader picture shows charter growth slowing despite continued federal investment. The Charter Schools Program budget reached $500 million for fiscal year 2025, with Trump adding another $60 million in May.

What's driving the slowdown? 

The suspects: declining birth rates affecting all schools, plus what critics call underperformance and financial mismanagement. 

The National Center for Charter School Accountability argues the sector faces "stagnating enrollment, underperformance, waste, fraud and mismanagement."

Charter advocates push back, noting students gain 16 more days of learning in reading and six more in math annually compared to district school peers. 

They're calling for equitable funding and facilities support.

The market reality is clear: charter schools need better operational support to survive.

Companies focusing on enrollment management, financial oversight, and performance tracking could find significant demand as charter expansion slows and accountability increases.

AI Teaching Tools Hide Bias in Plain Sight

When researchers fed AI tools "white-coded" and "Black-coded" names, responses appeared similar on the surface. 

But aggregate analysis showed white-coded female names received more supportive responses while Black-coded names got shorter, less helpful answers.

"If you are just generating outputs on a one-off basis, you may not be able to see the differences," said Robbie Torney, senior director of AI programs at Common Sense Media. "It could be truly invisible and you may only see them at the aggregate level."

The tools themselves are gaining ground. 

K-12 seems to be adopting AI teaching assistants faster than higher education, with platforms like Google School and Adobe's Magic School specifically built for classroom use.

Schools want AI tools that save time - teachers report cutting planning time by nearly six hours weekly. They just need versions that won't perpetuate harmful stereotypes.

The bias findings point toward market demand for AI teaching assistants with built-in bias detection and mitigation. Companies that can solve this problem while maintaining time-saving benefits will have a significant advantage.

⚡️More Quick Hits

This week in education:

 Superintendents prioritize presence — School leaders say they'll focus on classroom presence and leveraging AI to free up time from administrative tasks

AI tutoring boom questions — Use of tools like Khanmigo surging but rigorous evidence is thin; experts recommend structured pilots and guardrails

Teacher ditches Chromebooks — Frustrated with distraction and passivity, educator reverted to paper-based methods, reporting better focus and engagement

AI saves teacher time — Teachers using AI assistants like ChatGPT and MagicSchool to cut planning time by nearly six hours weekly

New AI funding available — National Science Foundation invites proposals for AI education expansion and workforce pathway support

📚 Weekend Reads

Monthly roundup of resources you might like:

• The Fiscal Effects of Enrollment Changes on School Districts — EdWorkingPaper analyzing 1998–2019 data finds declining districts saw larger per-pupil funding increases than growing districts because revenue losses weren't proportional to enrollment drops

• Parent Perspectives on School Choice Research — Conjoint experiment reveals parents prioritize test scores and college outcomes, with subgroup differences based on income, age, and political/religious views on school selection

• UNESCO: AI and the Future of Education — Collection of 21 essays examining ethical, pedagogical, and policy challenges of AI in education, advocating for human-rights-centered approaches to human-machine collaboration

• Common App End of Season Report 2024-25 — Record 10.2 million applications from 1.5 million applicants, with faster growth among underrepresented and first-generation students

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