Police in schools, aggression detectors, college affordability guides: What Education Lab is reading this week

School may be out for the summer, but Education Lab is not.

We have plenty of great stories coming your way in the next few months. While you wait, you can enjoy our weekly dose of the best education stories capturing our attention.

We’re sharing the “What We’re Reading” section from our weekly Education Lab newsletter right here.

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Here’s what we’re reading this week.

The nation’s largest school district has disciplined black and Latino students more than white or Asian children for decades, and that has often meant these kids interact with the police. That’s why Mayor Bill de Blasio recently announced new rules to limit arrests in the New York City school system, his “most dramatic attempt to change how students of color are disciplined — and how police interact with students in school,” The New York Times reports. The school district will add 85 social workers next year and focus on restorative-justice practices that stress defusing conflict instead of suspending students. 

More schools are using “aggression detectors” in attempts to prevent mass shootings before they happen. The devices mostly look like smoke detectors on ceilings but are equipped with microphones and algorithms that supposedly identify stress and anger before violence can occur. A ProPublica investigation found them to be less than reliable and in some cases intrusive. Their use highlights how U.S. schools have become increasingly receptive to such pitches in the wake of mass shootings like the one in Parkland, Florida. 

How do you survive the frequently expensive world of higher education if you’re paying your own way through college? There’s a guide for that. After the University of Michigan’s student government released an affordability guide aimed at the school’s average student — who has a family income of about $150,000 annually — low-income students began crowdsourcing their own guide. Students at other universities across the country soon began making their own “Not-Rich” guides with advice about jobs, housing, mentors, financial aid and the holy grail of college advice: where to find free food on campus. Listen to the NPR story about these guides here.