Schools are catching on to Big Tech’s playbook

Natasha Singer’s new book, Coding Kids, documents how large technology companies embedded themselves in K–12 education by providing curricula, devices and funding that promoted computer science learning and the use of company products. She describes a pattern in which firms positioned coding as essential for future jobs and supplied schools with the materials to teach it, often at low or no cost.

Singer details specific examples: Apple and Microsoft developed materials for Advanced Placement Computer Science Principles that featured their own tools, and Google’s inexpensive Chromebooks and Classroom app became central platforms in many districts, a trend that intensified during pandemic-era remote learning. Nonprofits backed by or allied with tech leaders, such as Code.org’s celebrity-backed campaigns and the “Hour of Code,” also helped popularize coding education nationwide.

The book highlights consequences and pushback. Singer reports that some graduates felt misled when entry-level jobs did not match the high-paying prospects they had been promised, and she cites research suggesting that simply adding technology to classrooms often fails to meaningfully improve learning outcomes. She warns that lessons from the coding era risk being forgotten as AI companies now promote generative tools to schools, a pattern she summed up by saying she “worry[s] we have collective amnesia.”

At the same time, Singer notes differences in the current moment: parents and districts are more active in questioning rapid AI adoption. Recent policy moves include New York City banning AI use in elementary and middle schools for the coming year and Los Angeles imposing broader restrictions that cover high school students. Singer expresses cautious optimism that teachers and students may seek a broader tech curriculum that teaches critical engagement with technology rather than primarily training pupils to use specific commercial products.