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| | LATEST NEWS FOR PRINCIPALS |
The Huffington Post
After years of inaction on the issue, the Obama administration is taking new steps to help schools achieve socioeconomic diversity. Included in the president's proposed 2017 budget is a $120 million competitive grant program to help districts devise and implement plans to get rich and poor children in the same classrooms. The initiative — called Stronger Together — provides funds for five-year projects to districts and groups of districts. The projects should allow schools to explore "ways to foster socioeconomic diversity through a robust process of parental, educator and community engagement, and data analysis," the proposed budget says.
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By: Dean Wiech
 Administrative technology in education is constantly evolving and changing. These improvements, as in any industry, are meant to better meet the needs of users. The difference in education is much of the technology employed throughout the organization is used by teachers and students who are engaged in the learning process, unlike in other sectors where the technology is designed to enhance business solutions or meant to deliver a sale.
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Education Week
In a recent interview, Sue Pimentel, a lead writer of the Common Core State Standards for English/language arts, told me she has at least one regret about how the standards turned out: They don't require students to read a large number of texts independently. She explained that students "develop stamina, efficacy, and persistence" by reading a series of texts that engages them. They can also build their vocabularies by seeing words in context and learning about a subject.
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Meet the Complete Testing System. Advantage is everything you need for scanning, analysis & reporting in one convenient bundle. Experience the benefits of our most popular scanner, answer sheets, and easy-to-use reporting software, packaged together. Learn more!
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MindShift
Take a look at this question: How do modern novels represent the characteristics of humanity? If you were tasked with answering it, what would your first step be? Would you scribble down your thoughts — or would you Google it? Terry Heick, a former English teacher in Kentucky, had a surprising revelation when his eighth- and ninth-grade students quickly turned to Google.
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By: Savanna Flakes
 Do your students take homework seriously? Are you finding that daily student homework completion is low? There is a lot of buzz and frustration from parents and students regarding homework. Homework or "practice makes perfect work" should be tasks students deem as valuable to success, and practice that students can complete successfully and independently, with support as necessary from the home.
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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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eSchool News
A new study from WestEd, a nonpartisan, nonprofit research agency, commissioned by Front Row Education, found that students using the adaptive, gamified and data-drive technology showed greater mathematics achievement outcomes when compared with students who did not. The study included more than 450 kindergarten, first and second grade students in a rural school, and is based on student scores on the Northwest Evaluation Association's Measure of Academic Progress in mathematics. The study compared classrooms in which teachers opted to use the Front Row technology, and those that did not over the course of the 2014-2015 school year.
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MindShift
In the age of information, factual answers are easy to find. Want to know who signed the Declaration of Independence? Google it. Curious about the plot of Nathaniel Hawthorne's famous novel, "The Scarlet Letter"? A quick Internet search will easily jog your memory. But while computers are great at spitting out answers, they aren't very good at asking questions. But luckily, that's where humans can excel.
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Education DIVE
The U.S. teacher shortage crisis doesn't only apply to traditional K-12 classrooms. It extends to areas that require more specific expertise, like special ed. Special education teachers are trained to work with a diverse population of students with disabilities ranging from learning, mental, emotional and physical impairments. Typically, they hold a Bachelor's degree as well as a state-issued certification or license. They can also engage in on-the-job training via internships or residencies.
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ADDitude Magazine
ADHD students can easily daydream, lose focus and drift off during school. Find out how to help children with attention deficit disorder fend off distractions and stay focused on the task at hand.
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"The Fundamental 5 maximizes teacher effectiveness. It is the best instructional system I have ever observed." Robert Brezina, U.S. Academic Decathlon Past President.
Order now on Amazon.com
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K-12 TechDecisions (commentary)
Scott Kinney, the senior vice president of Discovery Education and has more than 20 years of experience in the education industry, writes: "Q: What's the biggest mistake schools make when making ed-tech purchasing decisions? A: I think the thing you see most often is schools leading with the technology. For years we've talked about the challenges associated with technology from an implementation perspective and clearly the biggest mistake schools have made and continue to make is they look at it as a technology initiative instead of an educational initiative. "
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Lansing State Journal
In all likelihood, it had been there for decades — a sticker above a classroom sink saying the faucet should be flushed for five minutes to reduce the chance of lead poisoning. No one paid much attention to it until a few weeks ago, when someone at Glencairn Elementary School in East Lansing alerted administrators, who disconnected the faucet and ordered testing. The first sample drawn from that faucet contained an elevated level of lead, a neurotoxin known to impair learning and behavior in children.
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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 Atlantic
The racial disparities in school-discipline rates are well-known, as are the damaging effects that harsh disciplinary policies can have on school climates. Less clear is whether — and if so, how — these tendencies contribute to the race-based achievement gap, a problem so entrenched and pervasive that discussing it is almost cliché. The achievement gap has narrowed since researchers started paying attention to it in the 1960s, but not by much. Myriad factors, many of them out of schools' control, have stymied efforts to narrow it. Kids of color are less likely to have access to early-childhood education, which puts them at a disadvantage by the time they start kindergarten.
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| | FEDERAL ADVOCACY AND POLICY |
Education Week
President Barack Obama's final budget blueprint seeks new money to help schools become more socioeconomically integrated, and proposes increases for the administration's long-time priorities, including expanding preschool and helping school districts scale up promising practices. But the spending plan, which is unlikely to be adopted wholesale by a GOP-controlled Congress, would essentially flat-fund programs that nearly all school districts depend on to educate students in special education and disadvantaged students. And it asks for a modest boost overall for the U.S. Department of Education — $69.4 billion in discretionary funding, or a 1.9 percent increase over current levels.
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Transform your recess transitions from chaos to cooperation. Get tools and techniques to reduce conflicts and keep your students active on the playground. www.playworks.org
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USA Today
In his first major speech, the acting U.S. Secretary of Education John King apologized to the nation's teachers. Speaking to a small group of teachers, students and local politicians, just three weeks after taking over the post, King admitted the USA's education debate over the past few years has been "characterized by more heat than light," and that despite reformers' best intentions, "teachers and principals, at times, have felt attacked and unfairly blamed for the challenges our nation faces." King acknowledged the attacks had come from as high up as his own federal agency in Washington, D.C., where he'd served as a top advisor to former Education Secretary Arne Duncan for more than a year.
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EdSource (commentary)
California will begin its first statewide collection of data on students who are chronically absent, a key indicator of academic trouble, the California Department of Education said. The need for a statewide pool of absenteeism data long has been disputed by Gov. Jerry Brown, who in 2014 vetoed two attendance-collection bills and wrote, "Keeping children in school and learning is a priority, but collecting more data is not the primary solution." The change is the result of the new federal education law, the Every Student Succeeds Act, signed by President Barack Obama in December, which requires states to collect and report data on chronic absenteeism.
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The Associated Press via The Pantagraph
Lawmakers of all stripes have pledged support in recent weeks for overhauling the state's outdated school funding formula, a nearly 30-year-old system that nearly everyone agrees penalizes students in poorer districts. But the issue once again faces long odds in this spring's legislative session, amid a reluctance to balance the formula by taking funds away from more well-off school districts, especially during an election year. Some lawmakers say the issue can't be dealt with until more funds are available to distribute.
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Disability Scoop
Cameras could soon find their way into many special education classrooms in Texas, a reform some are welcoming while also raising concerns about ballooning costs and other implementation problems. The Texas Legislature in 2015 passed Senate Bill 507, which beginning in fall 2016 will require districts to install cameras in classrooms where a majority of the students receive special education services if a parent, staffer or district official makes a request.
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NAESP
In collaboration with the Wahl Foundation, NAESP has launched a school grant program called "UNThink My School" that will award a total of $40,000 to schools that champion themes of innovation and creativity. The Wahl Foundation will award one $20,000 grant and 10 $2,000 "UNthink My School" grants to schools that use artistic concepts and creative expression to solve school problems and spur innovation. Applications must be submitted by Tuesday, Feb. 15.
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NAESP
In-person teacher observations have some inherent challenges: They are extremely time consuming and rely on the administrator's notes, and students are often "on their best behavior" because an administrator is in the room. Can video technology transform classroom observations for teachers and principals, making the process easier and more reliable? That is the question that researchers from Harvard's Center for Education Policy Research set out to determine, summarizing their findings in The Best Foot Forward Project: Substituting Teacher-Collected Video for In-Person Classroom Observations.
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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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