The L.A. school board selected longtime insider Andrés Chait to lead LAUSD just three days after Alberto Carvalho resigned amid an FBI investigation.

Things to Do in L.A. Tap to enable a layout that focuses on the article. Alberto Carvalho, who resigned Sunday as LAUSD superintendent, addresses students at an elementary school in 2023. This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies here . Alberto Carvalho resigned Sunday night.

In a step forward from pandemic-era learning setbacks, standardized test scores in the Los Angeles school system made gains in all tested grade levels in math and English, Supt. Alberto Carvalho announced on Tuesday, although a majority of students remain below the state's grade level standards. At this time, the L.A. results can't be evaluated in a broader context because the California Department of Education has not publicly released statewide scores from the 2024 spring semester testing. Yet the scores suggest Los Angeles students have begun rebounding from sharp pandemic lows, when campuses were closed for more than a year and students kept pace as best they could through remote learning. In English, districtwide proficiency increased from about 41% to 43% of students year over year.

Alberto Carvalho said he is moving foward with his venture into artificial intelligence -- a platform designed to help students and families navigate the complexities of the district -- despite the collapse of the company that designed an AI chatbot. In his first extended interview about what happened, the L.A. schools chief described a fully functional AI-driven platform that is in place and owned by the district -- with everything but a chatbot for now. But parents and teachers are questioning this characterization, because the platform is not available across the school system and its signature feature is sidelined. They said they have no idea how or how well it works, how to access it or what it is supposed to do. Their only information, they said, came from splashy media events.

Alberto M. Carvalho sought to establish the nation's second-largest school system as a hub for innovation. "This is a technology that becomes a personal assistant to students," Carvalho said at a demonstration at Roybal Leaning Center, west of downtown. "It demystifies the navigation of the day ... crunches the data in a way that it brings what students need." Other school systems have pioneered similar platforms with chatbots -- as educators try to better engage students and families to improve learning and attendance. But Ed takes such efforts to the highest level yet, said Joanna Smith-Griffin, chief executive of Boston-based AllHere, which has worked with districts across the country and won a 6-million contract over five years to guide the L.A. effort. At its core, Ed is designed to give students immediate answers about where they stand, what they need to do to make progress -- or, more immediately, find out when their bus will arrive.

Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com. A total overhaul of bus routes for Louisville's school district turned into a logistical meltdown on the first day of classes because the new plan created too steep a learning curve for the system, district officials said Friday, forcing administrators to cancel two days of classes and leaving parents and state legislators fuming. It took just one disastrous day for Jefferson County Public Schools leaders to completely reexamine the transportation plan for Kentucky's largest district, which serves 96,000 students. Some kids arrived home hours late on Wednesday, and classes were canceled Thursday and Friday.

An AI chatbot named "Ed" will be Los Angeles Unified's newest student advisor, programmed to tell parents about their child's grades, tests results and attendance, Supt. Alberto Carvalho announced Friday in a back-to-school speech at Walt Disney Concert Hall that rivaled a Hollywood extravaganza. Carvalho took the stage as high-volume music pounded and fast-paced video flashed across a giant screen. The audience of district employees -- mostly administrators -- applauded as if on cue as lighting, singers, videos, dancers enmeshed in an annual address unprecedented for its production values in the nation's second-largest school district, a reflection of the superintendent's attentiveness to generating positive publicity. Amid the flashy production -- in anticipation of the Aug. 14 school opening -- Carvalho repeated his pledge to bring about full academic recovery from the pandemic within two years.

A professor says AI chatbot software, such as ChatGPT, could restructure postsecondary education by replacing some textbooks and promoting critical thinking. New York City is reversing course after restricting the use of OpenAI's artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT in public schools. David Banks, the chancellor of the Big Apple's school system, announced the shift in a Thursday op-ed in Chalkbeat. He said that while the technology had initially caught educators off guard, the school system is now determined to embrace its potential. "While initial caution was justified, it has now evolved into an exploration and careful examination of this new technology's power and risks," Banks explained.

Ransomware gangs have long sought pain points where their extortion demands have the greatest leverage. Now an investigation from NBC News has made clear what that merciless business model looks like when it targets kids: One ransomware group's giant leak of sensitive files from the Minneapolis school system exposes thousands of children at their most vulnerable, complete with behavioral and psychological reports on individual students and highly sensitive documentation of cases where they've allegedly been abused by teachers and staff. But first, WIRED contributor Kim Zetter broke the news this week that the Russian hackers who carried out the notorious SolarWinds espionage operation were detected in the US Department of Justice's network six months earlier than previously reported--but the DOJ didn't realize the full scale of the hacking campaign that would later be revealed. Meanwhile, WIRED reporter Lily Hay Newman was at the RSA cybersecurity conference in San Francisco, where she brought us stories of how security researchers disrupted the operators of the Gootloader malware who sold access to victims' networks to ransomware groups and other cybercriminals, and how Google Cloud partnered with Intel to hunt for and fix serious security vulnerabilities that underlie critical cloud servers. She also captured a warning in a talk from NSA cybersecurity director Rob Joyce, who told the cybersecurity industry to "buckle up" and prepare for big changes to come from AI tools like ChatGPT, which will no doubt be wielded by both attackers and defenders alike.

The challenges facing K-12 leaders as they start the new school year are enormous. For instance, the latest test results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) show that fourth graders' average reading skills have dropped by five points on a 500-point scale since the start of the pandemic--the biggest decline in more than 30 years. This isn't surprising news, as educators know their students are behind where they should be in terms of basic literacy skills. These skills underpin all other skills that students learn in school; if children can't read well, then their entire education is at risk. Making up this lost ground while continuing to ensure that students learn grade-level skills is hard enough.