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** Weekly Update
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A newsletter from The Hechinger Report
In this week's edition: Students seeking college scholarships are turning to AI tools for help with their application essays ([link removed]) . Community colleges are stepping in to run apprenticeship programs for heritage industries ([link removed]) . An executive order aims to begin dismantling the Department of Education ([link removed]) .
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** Students try using AI to write scholarship essays — with little luck
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Experts suggest limiting AI to help with brainstorming and checking for mistakes
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[Student logger Eric Aguilar walks through a logging site. He is part of a logging program based at Shasta College in Redding, Calif. Credit: Minh Connors for The Hechinger Report]
** Apprenticeships are bringing new workers to heritage industries
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Around the country, community colleges are stepping in to run apprenticeship programs for heritage industries, such as logging and aquaculture, which are too small to run. These partnerships help colleges expand the workforce development programs central to their mission. The partnerships also help keep small businesses in small industries alive by managing state and federal grants and providing the equipment, courses and staff to train workers.
As industries go, logging is small, and it’s struggling. In 2023 there were only about 50,000 logging jobs in the U.S., but the number of logging companies has been on the decline for several years. Most loggers are over 50, according to industry data, and older generations are retiring, contributing to more than 6,000 vacant positions every year on average. The median annual salary for loggers is about $50,000.
Retirements have hit Creekside Logging hard. In 2018 Gannon’s company had jobs to do, and the machines to do them, but nobody to do the work. He reached out to Shasta College, which offers certificates and degrees in forestry and heavy equipment operation, to see if there might be a student who could help.
That conversation led to a formal partnership between the college and 19 timber companies to create a pre-apprenticeship course in Heavy Equipment Logging Operations. Soon after, they formed the California Registered Apprenticeship Forest Training program. Shasta College used $3.5 million in grant funds to buy the equipment pre-apprentices use.
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** Tracking Trump: His actions to dismantle the Education Department, and more
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The president is working to eliminate the Education Department and fighting ‘woke’ ideology in schools. A week-by-week look at what he’s done
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Keep up with our tracker, updated regularly ([link removed])
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** Reading list
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When a hurricane washes away a region’s child care system ([link removed])
Nearly six months after Hurricane Helene hit western North Carolina, some child care centers remain closed and young kids are still reeling from the disruptions
A look at the kind of high quality child care many cannot find ([link removed])
Responsive teachers can affect child development, child care quality
OPINION: Here’s why we cannot permit America’s partnership with higher education to weaken or dissolve ([link removed])
Academic freedom is at risk in a new and fearful era, and we will use every tool possible to advance our cause
OPINION: Why Relational Intelligence is the key to thriving in the AI era ([link removed])
In our pursuit of data and efficiency, we have measured success by test scores and devalued the connections that matter most
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