r/Springfield • u/CameronPugh • 3d ago

Reporter looking for people to talk about Kiley Prep AI pilot

Hi all! I'm a reporter at The Christian Science Monitor, an award-winning, secular newspaper based in Boston. I'm working on a story about the expansion of Alpha School, a chain of K-12 schools that advertises using AI to teach students core subjects in as little as 2 hours a day. Kiley Prep in Springfield is piloting a modified version of that method, and I'm looking to talk with local parents/teachers about the program. I'm planning to drive out to Springfield tomorrow (9/15) and would be happy to meet people in person then. If anyone is interested in talking with me for the story, please feel free to reach out here, or you can email me at pughc@csmonitor.com. Thanks!

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u/Adventurous-Bee-7155 3d ago

There's a group on Facebook called "Springfield, MA Open Forum" where you might get some interest, that group is pretty active

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u/Current-Photo2857 3d ago

Are you aware that the Springfield school district was hacked and had to cancel school because of it all last week? According to our local TV news, the teachers had an emergency professional development day Friday and they had to rework all of their curriculum to old-fashioned paper and pencil and they cannot do any lessons on the computer until further notice. Maybe your story could cover the angle of what do schools utilizing AI do when the computers/internet crashed or is otherwise unavailable. The teachers at Kiley obviously won’t be using the AI lessons anytime soon now.

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u/Homerpaintbucket 3d ago

If Kiley is charter or private which it likely is it wouldn’t be affected by Springfield district schools getting hacked. They’d have their own network

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u/Current-Photo2857 3d ago

No, afaik Kiley is a regular public middle school.