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| | LATEST NEWS FOR PRINCIPALS |
The Washington Post
Strong principals are critical components of successful schools, and yet school leaders usually receive far less attention than teachers in the national conversation about education. The Wallace Foundation has been seeking to change that for years, investing millions of dollars in research into what makes a principal effective. Now the foundation is announcing that it will spend another $47 million during the next five years on an effort to improve principal preparation. The money will pay to redesign as many as six university training programs, each of which will be expected to partner with several school districts so that practicing superintendents and administrators have input into what aspiring principals need to learn in order to be well-prepared.
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TakePart
Arguing that education budget cuts have whittled away their futures, more than 1,000 Boston public school students took to the streets to protest. In Chicago, there's trouble on the horizon — if forced to take unpaid leave to balance the books, the city's public school teachers say it's "all but certain" they'll go on strike in April. In Detroit, meanwhile, the entire school system may shut down entirely by April 8 if the Michigan legislature can't reach a deal to restructure the system's finances.
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THE Journal
Teach without grades. Teach without tests. Teach without homework. That's the message from a growing number of educators who are not only advocating but actually making substantial changes in their classroom practices by eliminating grades and scores entirely. Sound like fantasy in this age of ubiquitous high-stakes standardized testing and "accountability" mandates? It's actually happening. In American schools. And it's working for many of those who are trying it.
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Education Next (commentary)
Michael J. Petrilli, a contributor for Education Next, writes: "A few years into my experience as a public school parent, I can confidently say that I know what angers us moms and dads the most: when a teacher puts on a movie during the school day. I don't care if it's the afternoon before winter break or the last minutes before summer recess: If anyone is going to use a video to babysit my kids, it's going to be me! Allowing our children to have screen time comes with a lot of guilt and shame; we parents might as well get some benefit out of it."
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THE Journal
Educational technology can help students develop social and emotional learning skills such as collaboration, communication and problem solving, which are critical factors for success in the 21st century job market, according to a new report from the World Economic Forum, prepared in collaboration with The Boston Consulting Group. The report, "New Vision for Education: Fostering Social and Emotional Learning through Technology," identifies the benefits of social and emotional learning skills, best practices in SEL and factors holding back adoption of SEL technology.
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Medical News Today
The age at which a child starts school may influence their likelihood of being diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, suggests a new study in The Journal of Pediatrics. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is estimated to affect around 6.4 million children aged 4-17 in the U.S., making it one of the most common childhood conditions. ADHD is characterized by poor attention, hyperactivity and impulsive behavior. It is most commonly diagnosed at the age of 7, and boys are more likely to be diagnosed with the condition than girls.
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Education DIVE
National data show that one in five new teachers will leave the classroom within five years; in urban districts, that number jumps to nearly 50 percent. Now, some experts are saying strengthening new teacher induction programs is the rising tide that will lift both the teacher retention and student achievement ships. The problem, however, is working around massive budget cuts in many states across the nation.
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By: Debra Josephson Abrams
 Regardless of how hard teachers work to create safe, welcoming environments in which our students can thrive, we cannot escape classroom disruptions that threaten to jeopardize not only our lessons but also the well-being of our students and, in fact, ourselves. Community or essential agreements — grounded in the practice of restorative justice — use responsive pedagogy to establish rules for appropriate conduct and consequences for rule breaking.
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The Associated Press
The smiling, blissful and confused-looking emojis dotting the electronic landscape may hold the key to ferreting out grade-school children's true feelings about foods, Kansas researchers say, and could help schools across the nation cut down on lunchroom food waste. Most school lunch programs in the U.S. already do taste tests, but their efforts pale in comparison to the scope of the research project at the Sensory and Consumer Research Center at Kansas State University Olathe, which is developing a scientific methodology to measure children's face-emoji responses to food. So far, kids in Kansas and Ghana have been the guinea pigs.
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"The Fundamental 5 improves instruction. The power of these practices will transform classrooms and schools," E. Don Brown, NASSP past president. Order now at Amazon.com
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The Atlantic
A few years ago, if a student arrived at an Ascend elementary school wearing the wrong color socks, she was sent to the dean's office to stay until a family member brought a new pair. Now, the school office is stocked with extra socks. Students without them can pick up a spare pair before heading to class. It's a simple shift, but part of a revolution in the culture at Ascend, which oversees five charter elementary schools, three middle schools and a high school in Brooklyn. Making sure students and parents were sweating the small stuff, once integral to the network's philosophy, was simply producing "too many unhappy children," Ascend's CEO Steve Wilson explained recently.
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By: Michael S. Haro, Ph.D.
 Lack of discipline. Not paying attention to what one is doing. Unwillingness to listen, develop and grow. These are all ways of defeating ourselves before we even get out of the starting gate. Life is our avenue to success. Over time, we learn to see more clearly that failure is a momentary status, to overcome with new direction and effort. So why do we — especially parents — actively participate by giving praise and flattery when kids experience disappointment or failure?
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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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Education Week
Thomas Kane has a piece in Education Next in which he concludes that American education research has failed to have any positive effect on American education policy or practice. He would, "...characterize the past five decades as a near-complete failure." Kane seems to suggest that the problem is not with the quality of the research but with the lack of an effective way to get the research to practitioners. "The What Works Clearinghouse," he says, "is essentially a warehouse without a distribution system." But then he goes on to say something a little different; that there is no effective demand for the product the researchers are producing.
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THE Journal
More teachers said that technology has changed how they approach time management (93 percent) than how they approach instructional delivery (88 percent). It has also transformed how they handle parent communication. A solid 7 in 10 reported that they now use tech to do that. On the instructional front, most teachers apply tech to classroom lecture time (84 percent) and differentiated instruction (74 percent). Those results came out of a survey of nearly 1,000 American teachers who were contacted in January and February 2016 by TES Global, a company with a teacher community and marketplace. The findings were shared during a panel at SXSWedu taking place this week in Austin, Texas.
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The Christian Science Monitor
Kids in elementary school might get three field trips a year. How about their parents? California Assemblyman Mike Gatto, D-Los Angeles, believes working parents should be guaranteed three days of paid leave for their children's school-related activities: field trips, concerts and teacher meetings that many would love to attend, but have to forego because of work.
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| | FEDERAL ADVOCACY AND POLICY |
The Associated Press
The Senate narrowly voted to confirm John B. King Jr. as the nation's education secretary. The vote was 49-40. King has served as acting secretary at the Education Department since Arne Duncan stepped down in December. As secretary, King will oversee the department as it puts in place a bipartisan education law passed by Congress and signed by President Barack Obama in December. The measure revamps the widely criticized No Child Left Behind Act and substantially limits the federal government's role in public schools.
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The New York Times
Alaska's schools are bleeding red ink. The University of Alaska has said it will reorganize its campuses and may have to cut more than 8 percent of the staff, but professors are already heading for the exits. The state's largest public school district, here in Anchorage, is cutting 49 teaching positions and increasing class sizes. And in tiny rural schools like Nightmute — which has 80 students in a village of about 300 people — the pain has almost reached the point of paralysis: Five of the school's six teachers are leaving at the end of the school year. The most troubling part, teachers, professors and administrators across the state said, is that with a roughly $3.5 billion state budget shortfall, things could get much worse — not least for morale.
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NPR
At Southwest Baltimore Charter School, preparing lunch takes a few extra steps. "We don't use the water from the building for cooking, not at all," say cafeteria worker LaShawn Thompson, shaking her head. Her colleague, Christine Fraction, points to a large water bottle sitting on the counter of a stainless steel sink. "We having greens or something like that, we having vegetables, we'll just turn it over into the pan and then put in on the stove," she says. Throughout the school, water fountains are turned off. In the storeroom, an entire wall is stocked to the ceiling with water bottles. The school goes through 80 a week on average.
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NAESP
The 2016 NAESP Vice President election has opened on March 16 and will close on March 29. Eligible members (active, institutional active and emeritus members) can vote for NAESP's vice president. You will need to log in to the NAESP website to access the ballot. If you have never logged in to www.naesp.org, take a moment to do it in advance of the election notification. The NAESP Board election is conducted electronically, although paper ballots are available. Click here for more information on candidates and how to vote.
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NAESP
Research has shown that the most impactful staff development to foster building the instructional capacity of educators is job embedded with frequent opportunities to revisit and adapt skills. In part two of this webinar series, the goal is to have principals share the steps and processes they have taken to ensure that teachers have optimal opportunities to hone their craft. This webinar will be held Monday, April 11, 4–5 p.m. ET.
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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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