Tara Garcia Mathewson

From the horrors of boarding schools to a bicultural education A school on the Navajo reservation opened in 1966 as an experiment in what Indian education could be

Indian boarding schools have a horrific past, but when the Rough Rock Demonstration School opened to students in 1966 with classes in both Navajo and English, it was a model for a different future that still offers lessons for today. Read and subscribe!
taragarciam.substack.com/p/from-the-h...

'My grandmother never talked to me again' When schools insist families prioritize English at home, everybody loses

Check out my latest newsletter post and subscribe if you haven’t yet! #thefutureisbilingual

open.substack.com/pub/taragarc...

The “Science of Reading” ignores good science Biliteracy research has long been clear: develop English-learners’ speaking skills before pushing phonics

The #scienceofreading sounds great but it is sidelining some very good research about biliteracy. Check out the latest edition of my newsletter, The Future is Bilingual, for more: taragarciam.substack.com/p/the-scienc... #literacy #education #phonics #duallanguage

A whole new (bilingual) world A school district in Texas' Rio Grande Valley premiered a bilingual version of Aladdin in 2005. It brought the community to tears.

Did you know there’s a bilingual version of Aladdin with a plot twist? It premiered in Texas in 2005 and brought the community to tears. open.substack.com/pub/taragarc...

On Bad Bunny and being "American" TPUSA's "All-American" halftime show ignores Spanish's long history in America

I have been fuming over the TPUSA "All-American" halftime alternative to Bad Bunny's performance for awhile now. So I wrote about it. Come for the rant, stay for the history and the kid art! ;)

The Future is Bilingual Insights at the intersection of language, learning, and policy.

Care about #bilingualeducation or #equity in #education? What about #EnglishLearners or #EmergentBilinguals? Sign up for my newsletter, The Future is Bilingual. It's free! taragarciam.substack.com/p/whats-this...

The Future is Bilingual Insights at the intersection of language, learning, and policy.

It has been 5 years since I stopped writing the Future of Learning newsletter at @hechingerreport.org. Time to dive back in, but this time writing about bilingual education! Check out my new, self-published newsletter, The Future is Bilingual, and subscribe: taragarciam.substack.com/p/whats-this...

Digital Book Banning - The Markup Data-driven investigations of tech and how it influences society

Check out my "Digital Book Banning" series about K-12 schools, too, if you're interested. themarkup.org/series/digit...

From his email: "These restrictions and limitations just cause frustration among all and diminishes the advances made from providing technology while hampering the quality of teaching."

A teacher emailed me after reading the story. He is blocked from Youtube when he teaches in prisons, which keeps him from being able to make his courses as relevant and engaging as he'd like. CA has greatly increased access to tech in prison the last five years. But the effects have been stunted.

They're working toward degrees in California prisons, but tech limitations hold them back California and other states have pushed to expand prison education, but students regularly face dead ends.

Last year, I reported on how high schoolers were kept from much of the internet because of overactive web filters/blockers. As you might imagine, prison education contexts are even more restricted. calmatters.org/education/hi...

Chatbots help students be more independent, but the isolation could be career poison As students use chatbots for quick answers, they can lose the human connections that are key to success in college and careers.

There are serious social capital implications of #chatbot use for #college students. Students are already inclined to avoid asking for help. When chatbots make it even easier, they lose opportunities to build connections that lead to long-term success: calmatters.org/education/hi...

California schools are scrambling as Trump administration withholds almost $811 million Congress already approved the education funding, which pays for migrant education, after school programs and other services.

Congress already approved K-12 spending for 2025 and schools budgeted around it, but the Trump Administration isn't releasing more than $6 billion it owes districts -- all aimed at programs it wants to zero out in 2026.

calmatters.org/education/k-...

California colleges spend millions on AI detectors. Is the faulty tech worth it? Turnitin’s AI detectors are flawed and the company demands forever access to student papers.

"But honest students are caught in the crossfire of an arms race between technology that mimics human speech and technology that claims to identify it." #AI #Turnitin #highered #ChatGPT

calmatters.org/education/hi...

California colleges spend millions to catch plagiarism and AI. Is the faulty tech worth it? – The Markup Colleges and universities renew Turnitin subscriptions year after year even though its flawed detectors are expensive and require students to let the company keep their papers forever.

"But honest students are caught in the crossfire of an arms race between technology that mimics human speech and technology that claims to identify it."

themarkup.org/artificial-i...

"Turnitin tries to make the gray area of academic dishonesty into something black-and-white, and many faculty members drive demand, searching for the promise of algorithmic accuracy."

Turnitin charged colleges vastly different amounts to detect plagarism – The Markup Purchasing records show some colleges are paying three times more than others.

Actually, there were too many for one story so I wrote two. (This one's much shorter.) themarkup.org/artificial-i...

California colleges spend millions to catch plagiarism and AI. Is the faulty tech worth it? – The Markup Colleges and universities renew Turnitin subscriptions year after year even though its flawed detectors are expensive and require students to let the company keep their papers forever.

There are so many problematic things about Turnitin use in higher education it's hard to even write a headline. Can you just read the whole story?

themarkup.org/artificial-i...

AI Chatbots Can Cushion the High School Counselor Shortage — But Are They Bad for Students? – The Markup The more students turn to chatbots, the fewer chances they have to develop real-life relationships that can lead to jobs and later success

There are not enough school counselors for kids to get the college and career advising they need. But my latest story for @themarkup.org and @calmatters.org examines the downsides of turning to #AI #chatbots: themarkup.org/machine-lear...

Online Censorship In Schools Is ‘More Pervasive' Than Expected, New Data Shows – The Markup Nationally representative survey data from The Center for Democracy & Technology finds schools subjectively and broadly block students from information online

The Center for Democracy & Technology has new survey data showing the scope and scale of online censorship in schools. I spoke with a student in Northern California who said her Spanish class was recently derailed because Telemundo was unexpectedly blocked.
themarkup.org/digital-book...

PODCAST: ¿Cuáles son los desafíos que persisten tras el fin de la prohibición de la educación bilingüe en California? La ley no sólo frenó el crecimiento de los programas bilingües en las escuelas sino que provocó un fuerte descenso en la preparación del profesorado que se certificaban en el estado.

Gracias al Diario Sin Límites por invitarme a hablar acerca de la educación bilingüe en California en su podcast! Escucha aquí: citylimits.org/2025/01/13/p...

California prohibió la educación bilingüe durante casi 20 años y aún no se ha recuperado del daño Después de prohibir la educación bilingüe en 1998, los votantes de California la restablecieron hace ocho años. Las escuelas todavía están tratando de reconstruir sus programas.

La investigación original: calmatters.org/calmatters-e...

Escúchame hoy en Radio Bilingüe a las 12:30 PST/3:30 EST. Estaremos hablando acerca de la educación bilingüe en California, que investigué para CalMatters. En vivo: radio.radiobilingue.org.

You know, I didn't have this quote in the first draft. So glad I found a way to get it in there! You make a powerful point.

'We were punished for speaking Spanish': Inside California's slow recovery of bilingual education After banning bilingual education in 1998, California voters brought it back 8 years ago. Schools are still trying to rebuild their programs.

California is the nation's most linguistically diverse state. Fully 60% of kids younger than 6 speak a language other than English at home. Yet California banned bilingual education from 1998-2016 and it is far from recovered. Read my in-depth story here: calmatters.org/education/k-...

Schools Were Just Supposed To Block Porn. Instead They Sabotaged Homework and Censored Suicide Prevention Sites – The Markup The Trevor Project? Blocked. Planned Parenthood? Blocked. NASA? BLOCKED

And ICYMI, the original investigation is here: themarkup.org/digital-book...

I joined The Cyber|Show to discuss online censorship in K-12 schools and what I found in my "Digital Book Banning" investigation. Check it out: cybershow.uk/episodes.php...

An English teacher wanted her students to compare Emily Dickinson's letters and poetry. An athletic trainer wanted to create an exercise regimen for a high schooler. The sites they needed were blocked. Students aren't the only ones stymied by overzealous web filtering: themarkup.org/digital-book...

This is why the ACLU's "Don't Filter Me" campaign targeted web filter companies directly and urged them to get rid of the categories that segregate LGBTQ content. Do you think the source of the problem is the web filter tech or the ways schools use it?

That's interesting. I did hear from two districts that the "default" filter is extremely restrictive. A bunch of sites showed up in my block records that aren't actually blocked for students but guest users run into them (which ends up being students from other districts, sometimes).