The annual “end of year report card” from and the surveyed more than 2,000 students in grades 5 through 12, who gave their schools’ an overall grade of “B-” — the same score for the .

But students ages 12 to 19 had disparate opinions depending on their household income, with lower income students giving a “B-” compared to higher income students giving a “B” grade.

Stephanie Marken, Gallup senior partner for U.S. research, said students’ “neutral” remarks are concerning — particularly among those from lower income families who are “even more likely” to miss out on the support needed to thrive in school.

“At a time where we need an education experience to be anything but average, we continue to see students give their schools neutral scores on the metrics that matter most,” Marken said in a statement.

Here’s a snapshot of how students graded their schools this year:

Disclosure: The Walton Family Foundation provides financial support to ����Ӱ��.

Mayor, a 12th grade student at Santa Susana High School in Simi Valley, said she is often just going through the motions in her classes where she feels disconnected from her schoolwork.

It’s the work after school that excites her.

“If you’re not engaged with school and involved in clubs and have a group of friends that help you stay around, I understand why you wouldn’t feel that sense of comfort and purpose going to school,” Mayor, 18, told ����Ӱ��.

Mayor is one of many Gen Z students who feel disenchanted and disconnected from school.

A from and the surveyed more than 1,000 Gen Z students between the ages of 12 to 18, finding that less than half enrolled in middle or high school felt motivated to go to school. About half said they do something interesting in school every day.

The report found the most influential driver of Gen Z students’ happiness is their “sense of purpose” at work and school, with more than 60 percent considering themselves happy.

The sentiment among Gen Zers has forced educators nationwide to shift their strategies and way of thinking to find new ways to engage students — from offering a range of elective classes, such as graphic design and culinary arts, to internships that sync up with careers they’re interested in. 

This shift also comes as a growing number of high school students value on-the-job training over other postsecondary options, including a four-year degree.

Mayor said the survey results were “honestly not that surprising.”

She said many of her classmates have grown disconnected from school because teachers often position students’ future success with how well they perform in traditional academic courses.

“I’ve seen a lot of students struggle…but they’re good at other things like art or sports, and I feel like that’s something teachers should recognize and hone in because not every student is going to be good at academics,” Mayor said.

Tackling Student Disengagement

Courtney Walker, an assistant principal at Carrolltown High School in Georgia, addresses student disengagement by offering elective classes including graphic design and culinary arts. She also has students take career aptitude tests to gauge their skills.

“Anytime we add new elective courses, we use the [career aptitude test] data to help us plan courses that align with students’ interest that they could be very talented and successful in,” Walker told ����Ӱ��.

Walker said high school students who have already completed graduation requirements are “plugged into internships.”

“We had a student a couple of years ago that really knew he wanted to become a pilot so we were able to set up an internship at the West Georgia Regional Airport,” Walker said.

“We really want to make sure we’re providing students with opportunities to dig into fields that they really are passionate about,” she added, “so that they don’t just graduate from high school but also have a plan and support in place to be successful in that plan.” 

Kimberly Winterbottom, a principal at Marley Middle School in Maryland, said students need to feel “connected” with both their peers and adults, such as teachers or mentors they trust. 

“We spend a lot of time trying to connect kids to what they’re interested in, whether it’s joining a club, or if they’re struggling connecting them with an adult they really respond to,” Winterbottom told ����Ӱ��.

Winterbottom added how having direct conversations with students on the importance of engaging in school has proven helpful.

“Adults don’t spend a lot of time explaining to students the reasons why but I feel like when we do some light bulbs go off and students start to understand and become more invested,” Winterbottom said.

Disclosure: Walton Family Foundation provides financial support to ����Ӱ��.

Compared to other generations, few Gen Zers, born between 1997 to 2011, feel prepared for their future and less than half are thriving in their current lives — far fewer than millennials, according to a new report.

In stark terms, the report lays out Gen Z’s concerns — revealing what once was status quo no longer meets the needs of young people.

“This is a critical moment for youth and for the adults supporting them,” said Romy Drucker, director of the Education Program at the Walton Family Foundation, adding the survey’s findings will “generate insights and perspectives to help us all be better guides, better listeners, and better partners as the next generation rises.” (Drucker was co-founder of ����Ӱ�� and serves on its board of directors; she played no role in the reporting or editing of this article) 

More than 3,000 Gen Zers were polled by and the through a national survey that will follow the same group for three years — paving the way for tracking trends one-time studies can’t measure.

The survey, which includes more than 2,000 K-12 students and nearly 1,000 no longer in school, highlights Gen Z’s need for an education that matches the reality of the world they live in.

“Empowering Gen Z to achieve their goals and aspirations requires that schools provide students with relevant experiences and education that will help them navigate the workforce,” said Stephanie Marken, Gallup partner and executive director for education research in a press release.

Here are 15 key takeaways from the survey:

Disclosure: Walton Family Foundation provides financial support to ����Ӱ��.

The survey is the latest in a series commissioned by the Walton Family Foundation, which is tracking the topic, as well as attitudes about STEM education more broadly.

The researchers say Americans and teachers especially are beginning to see the potential of incorporating AI tools like ChatGPT into K-12 education — and that, in their experience, it’s already helping students learn. 

The new findings come as the U.S. Federal Trade Commission into OpenAI, ChatGPT’s creator, probing whether it put personal reputations and data at risk. The FTC has warned that consumer protection laws apply to AI, even as the Biden administration and Congress push for new regulations on the field.

OpenAI is also a defendant in several recent lawsuits filed by authors — including the comedian Sarah Silverman — who say the technology “ingested” their work, improperly appropriating their copyrighted books without the authors’ consent to train its AI program. The suits each seek nearly $1 billion in damages, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The latest results are based on a national survey of 1,000 K-12 teachers, 1,002 students, ages 12-18; 802 voters and 916 parents. It was conducted by Impact Research between June 23 and July 6. The plus-or-minus margin of error is 3 percentage points for the teacher and student results, 3.5 percentage points for the voter results and 3.2 for the parent responses.

Here are the top five findings:

1. Nearly everyone knows what ChatGPT is

About seven months after it first , pretty much everyone knows what ChatGPT is. It’s broadly recognized by 80% of registered voters, according to the new survey, by 71% of parents and 73% of teachers.

Meanwhile, slightly fewer students — just 67% — tell pollsters they know what it is.

2. Despite the doom-and-gloom headlines about AI taking over the world, lots of people view ChatGPT favorably

Surprisingly, parents now view the chatbot more favorably than teachers: 61% of parents are fine with it, according to the new survey, compared with only 58% of teachers and just 54% of students.

3. Just a fraction of students say they’re using ChatGPT … but lots of teachers admit to using it

In February, a found that 33% of students said they’d used ChatGPT for school. That figure is now creeping up to 42%.

But their teachers are way ahead of them: 63% of teachers say they’ve used the chatbot on the job, up from February, when just 50% of teachers were taking advantage of the tool. Four in 10 (40%) teachers now report using it at least once a week.

4. Teachers … and parents … believe it’s legit

Teachers who use ChatGPT overwhelmingly give it good reviews. Fully 84% say it has positively impacted their classes, with about 6 in 10 (61%) predicting it will have “legitimate educational uses that we cannot ignore.”

Nearly two-thirds (64%) of parents think teachers and schools should allow the use of ChatGPT for schoolwork. That includes 28% who say they should not just tolerate but encourage its use.

5. It’s not just for cheating anymore

While lots of headlines since last winter have touted ChatGPT’s superior ability to on essays and the like, just 23% of teachers now believe cheating will be its likely sole use, down slightly from the spring (24%).

Disclosure: The Walton Family Foundation provides financial support to ����Ӱ��.

Megan Monsour knew she was taking a risk last year when she pulled her two sons out of the Wichita, Kansas, district and enrolled them in Green Gate, a nature-focused microschool. Not only did she fret over her sons’ exposure to COVID-19, but wondered whether they’d get the attention they needed for persistent reading difficulties.

But then Green Gate arranged for a dyslexia specialist to tutor the boys during the school day — something the district wouldn’t do even though the Monsours were willing to pay for it.

“Although we believe in and want to support public schools, it was frustrating that there was no flexibility to have the tutoring I wanted,” Monsour said. Now, after a year in the program, she said their reading has improved. “I also like the independence and autonomy Green Gate teaches. They have a lot of time outside and I think children need more recess and chances to have hands-on learning.”

The Monsour boys are two of the roughly who left the Wichita district last year and among thousands across the country who aren’t returning to public schools this fall. While the pandemic provided the initial spark behind the growth of pods — and remains an important catalyst — parents say their reasons for joining have expanded as the concept has taken root. Those reasons are as varied as resistance to mask mandates, a desire for culturally relevant education and frustration with services their children were receiving in public schools. As the movement enters its second school year, many parents who formed small pods last fall are also recognizing their limitations and are now linking up with larger, more-established networks of homeschoolers for support.

“Now that they have a year under their belt, they are starting to find their legs,” said Kija Gray, a coach who advises mostly Black families in Detroit that have left public schools for homeschooling and pods. A year ago, she said parents were “really super nervous” about their decisions. Now she hears more excitement in their voices. “What I think they found was community.”

In July, Tyton Partners, a consulting organization, released on the durability of such alternative schooling models. Of the 2,500 parents responding, three-quarters of those who chose pods last school year — like the Monsours — planned to stick with them. The authors estimated that enrollment in pods and microschools, which are larger but still offer personalized instruction, would reach 1.5 million this fall.

But some of the skepticism that initially greeted the movement remains. The costs and logistics involved in maintaining pods, especially for families struggling financially or parents returning to work outside of the home, continue to present challenges.

“They’re not likely to scale substantially post-pandemic,” said Thomas Toch, director of Georgetown University’s FutureEd. Pods, he said, were a “rational response” to school closures, but “free public schools, we learned …, play a central role in most families’ lives, their very uneven quality notwithstanding.”

Critics of the pod movement that they would ultimately hurt public schools by taking away student funding. But some districts this fall have tried to reverse the trend and lure back those who fled public schools last year. In the , Virginia district, staff members have made phone calls and sent postcards, texts and emails to those who left for homeschooling or private schools. In Wichita, the district contacted 115 families, including those in pods or microschools. Half have returned, said spokeswoman Susan Arensman.

from EdChoice and Morning Consult shows participation and interest in pods peaked last fall and since then have held constant at about a third of parents. About a quarter of those in pods have left their public schools and about a third who say they are interested in joining one would do so as well. Those who are Black, Hispanic, Democrats, live in urban areas and in the West are among the most likely to participate in pods, while parents who are white, Republican and low-income are among the least likely to show interest, their polling shows.

Privately and publicly funded efforts to lower the costs of pods and microschools are available for those who can’t afford the option. Without such efforts, concerns about pods being a choice only for the more affluent will continue, the Tyton authors warned.

‘Centered on the virus’

School closures drove parents to form pods last year so they could spread the responsibility for teaching — or paying for a teacher — across multiple families. Now some of the restrictions schools put in place to avoid closures are also influencing their decisions.

“The first question I get is, ‘Do you mask?’” said Karla Withrow, who runs EarthChild Explorers, an outdoor program serving preschoolers and grades K-1 in a large Riverside County park in southern California. She doesn’t require masks, and the students are always outside, where transmission is less of a risk. A former preschool director who trained other teachers in San Diego, Withrow weaves nature into her curriculum and recruited her husband, a hot air balloon pilot, to give lessons on weather and wind.

The parents that seek out her program, she said, share a lot of the concerns she had last year when she decided to homeschool her kindergartner.

“I just felt in my heart that classrooms right now aren’t education- and student-centered,” she said. “I think they’re centered on the virus.”

Far from Southern California, on a five-acre farm outside St. Paul, Minnesota, Diane Smith formed a pod with two other families from the White Bear Lake Area Schools. A former fifth-grade teacher in a Catholic school, Smith teaches the students biology and they pooled their money to hire an Algebra II teacher. They’ve taken boat tours on the St. Croix River to study the region’s many bodies of water, and one student’s father, a medical researcher, helped the group dissect a pig’s heart for a science lesson.

But this fall, the parents realized that their children — mostly in high school — need more academic instruction than they can provide. The students are taking some classes from a large homeschool co-op. Smith said the parents have been “blown away” by the support they’ve received from the homeschool community. “Clearly, there is a movement,” she said. “You really aren’t alone.”

Opposition to the district’s mask mandate and restrictions such as keeping students in cohorts to eat lunch are among parents’ reasons for leaving the district. focusing on privilege and racial oppression also played a role. Sixth graders in a choir class were asked to consider how it would feel to be in a privileged group, which included being white, male, Christian or heterosexual, or in a targeted group, including being a person of color, female, Muslim, or LGBT. Smith said, “I thought, ‘Is this the direction we’re going?’”

‘A total place of liberation’

Perhaps one sign of pods’ staying power is that they’ve appealed to parents on all sides of the nation’s frequently polarized debates over race and discrimination in schools. Torlecia Bates decided to pull 10-year-old Kaden and 8-year-old Kaylee out of the Louisa County Public Schools, near Richmond, Virginia, last year when her worries over schools’ COVID-19 mitigation procedures were replaced with concerns about the impact of racial unrest on her children.

“I had a reality check,” she said. “I thought, ‘I have these cute brown kids, but will the world see them as a threat?’”

She began homeschooling and meeting up with other former public school families for playdates. She tagged along on field trips with , a homeschool group that serves Black and multiracial families. This year, she’s joined the group, where her children get help with math, visit museums, go kayaking and “get real-life coping skills,” she said. She teaches them on the other days, and then works the night shift at home for a banking company.

Initially unsure about her decision to leave the district, she said she “went from a place of extreme anxiety, and not being sure if I would be able to measure up, to a total place of liberation.”

She’s also saving money. Bates used to spend $13,000 a year on child care, plus the cost of afterschool programs and activities. Now, she’s spending $250 per month for two days a week at the co-op.

Cultural Roots is among the programs receiving support from the , which launched last year to support nontraditional options like microschools. Some programs use the funds to provide scholarships, and those leading larger pods and co-ops frequently offer sliding fee scales for families.

The microschool concept has caught the attention of choice-supporting policymakers, such as Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican. He announced last month that he’s allocating $3.5 million to the , an advocacy organization, to launch microschools. And in Nevada, the city of North Las Vegas used federal relief funds and worked with a nonprofit to create the , which targets city employees and other frontline personnel.

“It’s almost like free private school,” said Maria Austad, a senior office assistant in the city’s public works department. Last year, she pulled her daughter Isabella, who has Asperger’s syndrome, out of the Clark County School District, where she was frequently getting in disciplinary trouble because of problems with social interaction.

Austad enrolled her daughter in the academy, where students use an online curriculum with help from on-site teaching assistants.

Others found that their local schools were the most sensible choice. Amber Besson, a mother of three who lives north of Wichita, put her youngest in Green Gate for kindergarten last year, while her two other children, 12 and 14, stayed with the Valley Center district’s distance learning program. Now it’s just easier to have everyone together.

“Spending an hour or more in the car before and after work didn’t put me home at a time where I was able to make the best of our evenings with all of our kids,” she said.

To put the movement in perspective, those who have been able to make pods work represent less than 3 percent of the overall K-12 population. But “even a small shift in the enrollment behavior of families can have a big effect on K-12 systems, especially once federal pandemic recovery funding runs dry,” said Alex Spurrier, a senior analyst at Bellwether Education Partners. He wrote about pods and microschools in “,” a report released with the Walton Family Foundation in August. He counted those joining pods and microschools among the 8.7 million students who changed schools between 2019-20 and 2020-21 for reasons other than a normal promotion to the next grade.

Katie Saiz, who co-founded the Green Gate program with her husband in 2008, tells callers her program is full. For years, they only served preschoolers out of their home, but come fall 2020, “there was this huge need in the community,” she said, adding that 97 percent of the families that joined last year because of the pandemic are back this fall.

When the Monsours joined, their third grader was ahead in math, but struggling in language arts. Now, his mother said, he’s become a more confident reader.

“It’s really cool when you are able to put a kid where they need to be,” Saiz said, “and don’t worry so much about where they should be.”

Lead Image: Art teacher Khalid Thompson leads students from the Cultural Roots Co-op on a tour of the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia. (Cultural Roots Co-op)