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| LATEST NEWS FOR PRINCIPALS |
The Washington Post
The nation's per-pupil spending on K-12 public schools dropped in 2013 for the third year in a row, reversing more than a decade of funding increases, according to federal data. Spending continued to vary widely across the country, from a low of $6,432 per student in Utah to a high of $20,530 per student in the District of Columbia. The biggest spenders were largely clustered in the Northeast, while the lowest were in the West and Southeast.
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eSchool News
The nonprofit EducationSuperHighway on Jan. 21 launched a beta version of Compare & Connect K-12, an online tool that makes the internet services that schools receive more transparent. Through Compare & Connect K-12, school district technology directors and superintendents can easily view broadband pricing and bandwidth information for school districts across the country. By creating transparency for K-12 broadband speeds and pricing, Compare & Connect K-12 empowers school leaders to make smart network purchasing decisions and get the most bandwidth for their broadband budgets.
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TakePart
In an increasingly tech-reliant economy, teaching kids computer science in school is so important that President Barack Obama included it in his final State of the Union speech. He told Congress and television viewers that every U.S. student needs "the hands-on computer science and math classes that make them job-ready on day one." Parents agree: Nine out of every 10 American parents want their kids to learn computer science in school. But just one in four public schools nationwide offer it as part of the curriculum, and nearly half of all states don't let students use coding or programming classes to fulfill a graduation requirement.
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The ST Math game-based math program makes learning tantalizingly tricky, teaching core math content while developing the grit and perseverance needed for complex problem solving.
Learn more about the kinds of games that can transform students into tenacious problem solvers.
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Scholastic Teacher Magazine (commentary)
Alycia Zimmerman, a contributor for Scholastic Teacher, writes: "Several years ago, I had the good fortune to attend a workshop by Rachel McAnallen (aka Ms. Math) about teaching geometry with a fun and tactile method: origami! Since then, introducing my students to modular geometric origami is one of my favorite teaching moments each year. Origami math gives my tactile and spatially gifted students a chance to shine, it helps students with sequencing and direction following, and it's a fun way to introduce a wide range of geometry terms and concepts."
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NPR
For kids up and down the East Coast, the snow that piled up over the weekend translates into a day or two without school. But in other parts of the country, snow days are taking on a new meaning. Students in Delphi, Ind., are expected to log onto their classes from home when schools are closed for snow.
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Scholastic Administrator Magazine
Teachers struggle day to day to meet the wide variety of student needs in their classrooms. In the special education classroom, these discrepancies can be even more profound. For example, students using Augmentative and Alternative Communication almost always lag behind in literacy development due to a limited number of tools designed to meet their needs. This presents a challenge for the classroom as a whole — for the students who are struggling, the teacher who has to balance the needs of all her students and the rest of the students who may have other learning differences.
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Education Next
In spite of Tea Party criticism, union skepticism, and anti-testing outcries, the campaign to implement Common Core State Standards (otherwise known as Common Core) has achieved phenomenal success in statehouses across the country. Since 2011, 45 states have raised their standards for student proficiency in reading and math, with the greatest gains occurring between 2013 and 2015. Most states set only mediocre expectations for students for nearly 10 years after the passage of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Now, in the wake of the Common Core campaign, a majority of states have made a dramatic move forward.
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Discover the revolutionary system of daily teacher actions that are transforming 1000's of classrooms across the nation. Order now on Amazon.com
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The Washington Post
Education experts have long viewed teacher turnover as a negative factor that erodes student achievement and contributes to an unstable school environment. But a new study of IMPACT — the controversial D.C. Public Schools teacher evaluation system that has been accused of contributing to the city's higher-than-average turnover — suggests that not all turnover is created equal. The departure of teachers who score poorly on IMPACT is actually a good thing because student scores on math and reading tests tend to improve substantially after such teachers depart, according to a working paper to be published Monday by the National Bureau of Economic Research.
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Reuters
Standing desks in classrooms could be an easy way to help make kids' time in school less sedentary, a new research review suggests. The study team analyzed data from eight previously published papers and found, not surprisingly, that kids spent more time on their feet when these desks were used instead of traditional classroom furniture. Standing desks were also linked to a decrease in sitting time ranging from 59 to 64 minutes per school day. "In schools, children spend over 50 percent of the school day sitting — traveling to school, during class, at lunch, sometimes during recess, traveling home after school, etc.," said lead study author Karl Minges of the Yale School of Nursing in Connecticut.
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Choose from 87 digital, conceptual K-8 science units, with STEM, in grade-level bands, to meet evolving standards. Email for free sample and details: rseela@seelascience.com MORE
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The Associated Press
An independent panel on obesity commissioned by the World Health Organization is urging governments, educators, agribusiness and food marketers to do more to help fight childhood obesity. In a report Monday, the Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity says 41 million kids under age 5 are now obese or overweight worldwide, up from 31 million in 1990. It warns rates could rise. The panel's co-chairs told reporters in Geneva that biological and behavioral factors contribute to the increase, particularly in parts of the developing world. Among other things, the panel calls for "effective taxation on sugar-sweetened beverages" and school policies to foster good diet and physical activities.
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News-Medical.Net
Playground equipment should be monitored more regularly to ensure toxic metals contained within paints do not present a danger to public and child health, a study recommends. Environmental scientists from Plymouth University analysed the metallic content of paints on equipment at almost 50 playgrounds, including some less than a decade old, across the south of England. They discovered lead content up to 40 times greater than recommended concentrations, along with higher than expected levels of chromium, antimony and cadmium.
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Playworks schools gain 21 hours of learning time each year by transforming recess. Smooth transitions, active games, and conflict resolution get kids ready to learn. MORE
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Education Week (commentary)
Peter DeWitt, a contributor for Education Week, writes: "What is your aspiration as a teacher? What about as a leader? Do you have one? What if a student walked up to you and asked if you knew their aspiration ... would you know it? As a teacher I'm not so sure I knew the aspirations of all of my students. Who has the time for all of that? We have so much curriculum to get to, tests to score, and grades to give. Unfortunately, the more we try to shove at them, the more they believe we don't understand them at all. Students want to know their teachers and leaders understand them."
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| FEDERAL ADVOCACY AND POLICY |
Education Week
How should the U.S. Department of Education regulate under the Every Student Succeeds Act? People got a chance to share their thoughts with the department face-to-face during two hearings this month. But the public also got a chance to submit public comments on the Internet. The comment period for those submissions just closed. And as of about 6 p.m. that day, there were more than 200 comments filed.
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Disability Scoop
The U.S. Supreme Court is asking the Obama administration to weigh in as it considers whether to take up a case brought by the family of a girl with cerebral palsy who sought to bring her service dog to school. The family of Ehlena Fry petitioned the Supreme Court to take their case last fall. Rather than accept or decline the case outright, however, the high court this week asked the U.S. solicitor general to provide the federal government's viewpoint before the court decides whether to hear the matter.
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The Hechinger Report
During his final stop on a tour of schools in four states and the District of Columbia, the acting U.S. Secretary of Education, John B. King Jr., defended the importance of academic achievement testing. The "Opportunity Across America Tour" brought him to Delaware, a state that was in the national spotlight in 2010 when it earned more than $119 million in federal funding to reform its public schools. The nation's second-smallest state was among the first — along with Hawaii and Oregon — to use computers for adaptive academic achievement tests, which change the difficulty of questions based on how a student performs. But it is also one of 13 states cited by the federal government last year for low participation on the annual state tests.
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Education Week
States are increasingly making their academic tests tougher to pass, and the Common Core State Standards are the key force driving those higher expectations, according to a study. The study, published in the journal Education Next, finds that since 2011, 45 states have raised the levels at which students are considered "proficient" on state tests. Thirty-six of the 45 did so within just the last two years. The report is the seventh in a series that examines states' proficiency rates over the past decade. Each study compares the proportion of students that scored "proficient" on states' tests in math and English/language arts to the proportion that scored proficient in those subjects on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP.
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The New York Times
Over the years, Etta Covington, a science teacher at Wadleigh Secondary School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Harlem, has seen her share of students who routinely show up late to class, cut classes or skip school altogether. It's a pattern that can increase the risk of flunking out. "My average that comes in on time is seven students out of 30," Covington told me recently as she surveyed a bank of empty laboratory tables in her first-period living environment class. Of the truant students, she lamented: "They stroll in. And then I have no-shows."
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NAESP
Over the past several years, NAESP has worked aggressively on Capitol Hill and with the Obama Administration to help lawmakers understand a very important facet of the educational ecosystem: the importance of school leadership. Without recognition and support for principals as the catalysts for continuous school improvement, it is virtually impossible to improve school conditions that lead to better instruction in the classroom and student learning outcomes. In addition, our efforts focused on showing the detrimental impact of a shortsighted, stick-driven approach to accountability on schools, which did nothing to uphold schools that were showing student progress, but not meeting arbitrary bars. As we sort through the provisions of the Every Student Succeeds Act, we are pleased to say that our persistence paid off.
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NAESP
The NAESP nominating committee has announced candidates for Vice President. Eric S. Cardwell, principal of Besser Elementary School in Alpena, Michigan, and David N. Wick, principal of Columbia Falls Junior High School in Columbia Falls, Montana, will be running in the 2016 NAESP election. Voting will take place March 16-29. Eligible NAESP members may vote for Vice President during this voting window.
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Students will enjoy reading all 5 books in the Cornbread Series (appropriate for 3rd - 5th).
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Students will enjoy reading all 5 books in the Cornbread Series (appropriate for 3rd - 5th).
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 7701 Las Colinas Ridge, Ste. 800, Irving, TX 75063
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