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.PRINCIPAL LEADERSHIP
Inside the student-led COVID walkouts
Wired
The student-led walkouts and petitions across the country have asked district leaders for broadly similar measures to safeguard students’ health, with demands like the provision of KN95 or N95 masks, regular testing, and safe outdoor spaces to eat lunch.
Notably, many of the student actions have called for a temporary return to remote learning or the creation of alternative options for students who want to learn remotely.
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Promoted By
Boosterthon
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Promoted By
The Daily Mile
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Grief has engulfed the learning environment. Here's what can help
Education Week
As teachers and students enter the third year of the pandemic, we face unprecedented levels of grief in the learning environment. An estimated 1.5 million children worldwide lost a caregiver to COVID-19 in just the first 14 months of the pandemic — more than 120,000 of those children grieving the death of a parent or caregiving grandparent in the United States alone. That number, for comparison, equates with the entire population of Hartford, Conn. And those losses are not evenly distributed.
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5 principals to watch in 2022
K-12 Dive
Just two weeks into the latter half of the 2021-22 school year, principals nationwide are continuing to grapple with the immense challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of these concerns — the need for inclusive and equitable education to close learning gaps, for instance, and the importance of strong and consistent communication and school culture to engage students and families — predate but were further amplified by the health crisis.
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The other angry parents: What a new 'parents union' is demanding (it has nothing to do with CRT)
Hechinger Report
The group's aim is lofty and clear: to carry the torch of underrepresented parents around the country, acting at times as a counterweight to powerful teachers unions, which Rodrigues says don't speak for families and represent their own separate interests. What's less clear is what this sky-high goal means in practice, and whether such an aim — which would entail reflecting the interests of millions of diverse parents across regions and political ideologies — is even possible.
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Feedback on teacher evaluations misses the mark
Brookings Institute
The recruitment, retention, and development of talented educators is a critical part of efforts to improve student outcomes. Over the past decade, policymakers in more than 45 states and the District of Columbia have invested in the design and implementation of next-generation teacher evaluation systems, which included tenure reforms, widespread use of standards-based teacher performance rubrics, and more frequent and structured observation processes.
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Teachers deliver less to students of color, study finds. Is bias the reason?
Education Week
When working with students of color, particularly Black students, teachers lower down the rigor of assignments, ask fewer open-ended questions, and assign worksheets instead of group assignments, according to a new study out of New York University. Researchers point to racial biases about the academic abilities of students of color as a major factor.
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Assessment is critical to helping English learners achieve language and content proficiency, especially as educators continue to work to close gaps caused by disruptions in learning. Learn more about the different types of assessments needed to ensure equitable support and academic excellence for ELs. Read the Whitepaper.
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I'm a former migrant student. Schools need to hire more educators who look like me.
EdSurge
Migrant students need to feel welcomed, affirmed, embraced and given as much support as possible. There is nothing better we can do for our students than to provide them a world-class education with role models who look like them, speak their language and provide a sense of belonging — especially since migrant students often face unique challenges.
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Let's use educator effectiveness funds to build collaborative communities
EdSource
I worry that we have returned with a vengeance to the model of schooling that treats students as containers to be filled with knowledge and their free time as a free resource for extending the school day. Most important, we have forgotten the reason why a return to in-person learning was so welcome in the first place: it allowed us to be together, learn and solve problems together and collaborate with and in the best interests of students and their communities.
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Corporal punishment, schools, and race: An update
Brookings Institute
The intervening five years have seen public conversations around racial inequities and systematic racism reach a crescendo, and these conversations presumably penetrate school and classrooms, too. Generally, social norms on issues like corporal punishment schools evolve very slowly. It's worth checking in to see what — if anything — has changed.
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.EDUCATION POLICY
No Child Left Behind was signed 20 years ago this month. Why it's making education's COVID recovery so much harder
The 74
While some good has come from NCLB's core approach — notably a clearer focus on outputs over inputs, the disaggregation of student results by race and ethnicity, and a revolution in education data — it is hard to argue that the law has lived up to its promise. Roughly one-third of students graduated ready for college or a career back then, and the same is true today. Performance on international assessments haven’t moved in 20 years, while recent trends on the National Assessment of Educational Progress indicate that performance is going in the wrong direction.
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.SCHOOL TECHNOLOGY
Incorporating coding in STEM classes
Edutopia
I've been teaching robotics for seven years now and recently added a STEM component. To keep up with the ever — changing world of technology, I've changed my course, infusing it with what I've learned about coding, computer science, and best teaching practices. Here's what I've learned about teaching robotics — and how I've used that in my science classes too.
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As school communities have struggled to address the mental health needs of their students, the focus has been on treatment. Understandable.
However, we can start proactively helping our students in elementary school. Brain-based mental health literacy & resilience training provide strong Tier 1 support.
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This technology helps school counselors better support student mental health
EdSurge
A few years ago, Neosho School District in Southwest Missouri realized they were in a crisis. Their suicide rates between 2014 and 2018 were well above the national average. In fact, this small district of roughly 4,700 children was averaging two suicides per year. They knew they had to take action.
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K-12 districts find interactive flat panels a key tool for teacher-driven learning
EdTech Magazine
The difference was immediate. After rolling out Promethean ActivPanel interactive whiteboards and document cameras in 600 of the classrooms at Albemarle County Public Schools, teachers reported an increased excitement for learning.
This is exactly why the district’s implementation team brought these new technologies to the Virginia district of 14,000 students and 25 schools.
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Our favorite websites for teaching kids and teens to code
We Are Teachers
There's no doubt about it — many of the best careers now and in the future are in computer science. That means that schools have a responsibility to ensure kids have a good grounding in the field, including a chance to learn coding languages like JavaScript and Python. Fortunately, there are a lot of terrific coding websites for kids and teens, both free and paid.
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The Steam Foundation teams up with MakerBot to expand access to 3D printing for students
eSchool News
The Steam Foundation is a California-based nonprofit with a mission to make STEAM education equally accessible to all students in kindergarten through 12th grade. The organization, which is also run by a team of students, offers free workshops that teach 3D printing, robotics, graphic design, and coding to students as well as programs to help bring 3D printing into schools.
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The surprise ingredient to STEM success: Belonging
Forbes
Through a recent effort called the unCommission, 600 young people, especially those most excluded from STEM, shared stories about math or science, technology or engineering from when they were in K-12 schools.
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Promoted by
Brainfuse, Inc. |
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- State-Aligned: 24/7, state-aligned online tutoring support
- Accessible Platform: Our easy to use whiteboard is available from any desktop or mobile device
- Experience: Brainfuse has completed over 15 million one-to-one online tutoring sessions since 1999
- High-Quality Tutors: Our tutors undergo a rigorous selection and training process
- Field-Tested: Brainfuse has consistently outperformed other online tutoring companies in head-to-head trials
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.PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Opportunities for student decision-making
Edutopia
When I returned to in-person learning this past fall, I realized that some students had not (physically) attended a traditional school setting for 18 months. In an effort to reengage all students, I intentionally incorporated choice within my high school English classroom. From activity selection to determining discussion topics and summative assessments, I now focus on providing multiple opportunities for students to influence instructional decisions.
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Improving reading skills through action video games
Science Daily
What if video games, instead of being an obstacle to literacy, could actually help children improve their reading abilities? Scientists have tested an action video game for children, aimed to enhance reading skills. The results demonstrate improved reading abilities after just twelve hours of training. Notably, these gains persist over time, to the point that language school grades are seen to improve more than a year after the end of training.
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Learn tips and strategies to deliver inspired feedback, master MTSS, and create a culture and curriculum that’s inclusive and effective for every learner. Bestselling author Katie Novak (Innovate Inside the Box and UDL Now!) and Mike Woodlock show you how. Order A UDL Playbook for School and District Leaders today!
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How to use homework to support student success
Psychology Today
School assignments that a student is expected to do outside of the regular school day — that's homework. The general guideline is 10 minutes of nightly homework per grade level beginning after kindergarten. This amounts to just a few minutes for younger elementary students to up to 2 hours for high school students.
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Formative assessment fuels literacy learning
MiddleWeb
Formative assessment is a key element in learning how to be a reflective practitioner who adjusts literacy instruction in ways to meet students’ needs and interests.
We want to use formative assessment to breathe life into our reading and writing lessons and across the day, not to replace valuable instruction time with unnecessary assessment time.
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'Am I your favorite student?'
Edutopia
It always catches you by surprise, even as you should know it's coming.
You're walking around the room, handling the hundreds of little things that keep class running smoothly. You're in the flow, the zone — what a musician I used to play with called "the pocket." Then you smile at someone, maybe congratulate them on an innovative bit of learning, and they hit you back with that awkward question: "Am I your favorite student?"
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The all-new AstroPure™ portable air purifier from AAF Flanders features an advanced interface that allows fine-tuning of settings and visualization of particulate levels. This interface can be locked to prevent unauthorized changes, and because the unit makes so little noise, distractions are kept to minimum.
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Imagination Playground
is a breakthrough playspace designed to encourage child-directed unstructured free play. Unlike traditional hardscape playgrounds, Imagination Playground is low cost, requires no installation, and can be used both indoors and out. Our Blue Blocks are proudly made in the USA from a closed cell waterproof foam, making them durable and easy to clean.
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.EDUCATION RESEARCH
Study: Popular students are not always well-liked
Tech & Learning
Middle school students generally liked classmates who were high-achieving academically, helpful, kind, and cooperative. On the other hand, the classmates they considered most popular were sometimes seen as mean and aggressive.
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Youngsters who self-identify as multilingual, perform better at school
Devdiscourse
Recent research has discovered that young adults who consider themselves multilingual tend to perform better across a wide range of subjects at school, regardless of whether they are actually fluent in another language. The study has been published in the Journal of Language, Identity & Education.
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Promoted by Stepping Stones Museum For Children

Empower your teachers with exciting new virtual STEAM-powered classes, clubs and workshops at award-winning Stepping Stones Museum for Children. The Stepping Stones Studio makes it easy to inspire and delight young learners with a celebrated lineup of play-filled, brain-building educational offerings now accessible to everyone, everywhere. “This is the most wonderful hands-on experience for children! The Traveling Seeds workshop was extraordinary. The students were engaged and learned a lot. I enjoyed watching the children play and learn at the same time,” a 1st grade teacher, Norwalk Public Schools, Norwalk CT. Click the link here for detailed information: https://www.steppingstonesmuseum.org/app/uploads/2021/12/21-School-and-Groups-Flyer-VIRTUAL-120821.pdf
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.IN THE STATES
Hochul proposes $2.1 billion increase for New York schools, extension of NYC mayoral control
Chalkbeat
Hochul’s proposal builds on her State of the State address earlier this month, which outlined plans to recruit and retain more teachers, boost mental health resources for schools, and get more New Yorkers to college.
Her plan to increase school aid was no surprise, as it solidifies commitments made last year to fully fund Foundation Aid — the formula that sends more dollars to higher-need districts and is the base for New York’s school budget.
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How did the CPS lockout affect school counselors and social workers?
WBEZ Chicago
School counselors and social workers were among the CPS staff who were locked out of the classroom by Mayor Lori Lightfoot during a recent standoff with the Chicago Teachers Union. Reset checks in with a counselor and social worker from a North Side CPS school about how the lockout has impacted their work.
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Country's biggest school districts resist going remote as closures spread nationwide
U.S. News and World Report
As the country's two latest school districts resist remote options, thousands of schools announced closures or temporary virtual instructions. The school tracking site Burbio identified 6,273 schools reported such disruptions by Friday, or roughly 6% of all public schools in the U.S. – an all-time high for the 2021-22 school year. The figures are up from the previous week when 5,513 schools recorded such disruptions.
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.ASSOCIATION NEWS
Webinar: Commit to Being a Bias-Conscious Leader
NAESP
Explore the relationship between implicit biases and stereotypes and learn how the stories we tell ourselves can spark connection and create blind spots, even when we have the best intentions. Please note: This webinar originally was scheduled for Jan. 26 and is now scheduled for March 16, 4 – 5 p.m. ET. If you've already registered, you do not need to re-register for the new date.
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NAESP Twitter Chat: Strategies to Re-Engage Equity Planning
NAESP
Pandemic leadership means principals have had to focus more on certain priorities than others. As the pandemic further brought to light inequities in schools, equity became a top concern for educators across the country. But due to a lack of bandwidth, professional development opportunities, and time when other priorities felt more urgent, equity was moved to the back burner, according to principals who took part in NAESP’s Leaders We Need Now research series. Join us on Wednesday, Feb. 9 at 8 p.m. ET as we look at strategies to re-engage equity planning in schools.
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