Education News Roundup, January 26, 2026

From a reader:

There has been some personnel movement heralded in the past week - Eckstein Middle school principal is headed to take over at Roosevelt this week, with Ambyr Burrell (Assistant Principal at Hale) assuming the interim principal role at Eckstein - and Rocky Torres Morales has been named as the new Superintendent in Vancouver WA staring July 1. 

TJB

My comment to that information is that there seems to be a lot of principal churn in the north end. 

As to Dr. Torres-Morales leaving, he serves as Associate Superintendent so that will be a fairly big hole for new superintendent, Benjamin Schuldiner, to have to fill. I could see him moving Mike Starosky up from Assistant Superintendent of Academics. 

The Seattle School Board is having one meeting this week on Wednesday, the 28th starting at 4:30 pm. It's a Work Session on the Budget. The agenda lists the first item as "Federal Response Update" but there is no further information. I'll try to ask what that's about. 

This is a VERY lengthy presentation and I sure hope staff leaves time for extensive Board questions. This is NOT "the" budget but all the pieces they are looking at and planning for. 

The Budget Presentation has some interesting items like:

- The 2025-2030 SPS Goals: - District Goals (per Policy No. 0020):

• 2nd Grade Literacy - Increase the percentage of 2nd graders meeting foundational literacy standards by 10 percentage points from Spring 2025 to Spring 2030.

• 6th Grade Math - Raise the percentage of 6th graders ready for 7th grade math (per Smarter Balance Assessment results) by 10 percentage points between June 2025 and June 2030.

• Life Ready - Boost the percentage of graduates meeting WA State requirements and completing at least one postsecondary readiness activity (e.g., dual credit, work-based learning, FAFSA/WASFA, or program applications) by Spring 2030, based on a Spring 2025 baseline.

I note the absence of "Black boys" as a focus. I don't know what that means in terms of already established programs for these boys. 

As well:

- They will convene the "Taskforce" for this budget work. 

- Make tradeoffs to invest in strategies and initiatives 

- I also see $17M for "ongoing cost of preschool programming" and it states that this is "grant and levy-funding." I'd be willing to bet that all the costs are not covered by outside sources. 

- Under Current Budget Situation - For 2026-27, there are no significant one-time solutions available to help balance the budget. To stabilize the system going forward, system changes and/or an increase in resources are required.

- Seattle spends nearly $2K more than "peer median" districts. 

- Realignments not being considered at this time:

• Targeted class size increases

• Reduction in school discretionary funding

• Portfolio of schools

And the last slide:

• As we transition to a new Superintendent, what are your thoughts on how this will impact decision making for the 2026-27 budget?

• How would you like options and impacts presented moving forward?

An interesting webinar coming up from Children and Screens - 

“Friendship in the Screen Age: What is it, and How is it Changing?” 

February 12 from 12:00pm ET-1:30pm ET.

Leading child and adolescent psychologists and researchers will provide guidance and practical strategies to help parents support healthy friendships and social development in a digital world. 

If you can't make it in person, they will be able to send you a link after the event.

From Upworthy - 

Gen Z is the first generation less cognitively capable than their parents but Denmark has a solution

Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath, a teacher turned cognitive neuroscientist who focuses on human learning, appeared before Congress to discuss concerns about cognitive development in children. In his address to the members of Congress, he says, "A sad fact that our generation has to face is this: our kids are less cognitively capable than we were at their age. Since we've been standardizing and measuring cognitive development since the late 1800s, every generation has outperformed their parents, and that's exactly what we want. We want sharper kids."

"Across 80 countries, as Jean was just saying, if you look at the data, once countries adopt digital technology widely in schools, performance goes down significantly. To the point where kids who use computers about five hours per day in school for learning purposes will score over two-thirds of a standard deviation less than kids who rarely or never touch tech at school," Horvath reveals.

France24 recently interviewed educators in Denmark following their seemingly novel approach to students struggling with cognitive development. Since the beginning of the 2025/2026 school year, Denmark has not only been having students turn in their cellphones, but they've also taken tablets, laptops, and computers out of the classroom. No more digital learning for the majority of the school day. Danes went old school by bringing back physical textbooks, workbooks, and writing assignments. The results have been undeniable. Even the students can't seem to deny the success of the countrywide shift in educational approach.

From The Free Press, an even more in-depth look at the topic with an excerpt from The Digital Delusion: How Classroom Technology Harms Our Kids' Learning - and How to Help Them Thrive Again by Jared Cooney Horvath. 

Over the past two decades, educational technology has exploded from a niche supplement into a $400 billion juggernaut woven into nearly every corner of schooling. More than half of all students now use a computer at school for one to four hours each day, and a full quarter spend more than four hours on screens during a typical seven-hour school day. Researchers estimate that less than half of this time is spent actually learning, with students drifting off-task up to 38 minutes of every hour when on classroom devices.

Driving this digital surge are global tech firms that have perfected the art of harvesting data and maximizing screen time. Many educational platforms openly track behavior, build long-term profiles, and use the same engagement-driven designs that keep adults endlessly scrolling on TikTok or Instagram. The business model is to hook kids early, and create customers for life.

I urge you to give this a read.