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| | LATEST NEWS FOR PRINCIPALS |
MindShift
It was lunch time at Marysville School in Southeast Portland when the fire broke out. Teachers quickly herded their students out of the building to the sports field behind the school as the old colonial-style building burned. The fire that traumatized students and staff alike was in 2009, when Lana Penley was in her second year as principal. The 460 students and 50 staff members of the K-8 school relocated to a vacant school building in another part of Portland, displaced from their school site for three years as the district rebuilt the Marysville building.
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Education Week
Only 32 percent of U.S. public school students live in states that are using the federally funded PARCC or Smarter Balanced tests statewide to measure mastery of the Common Core. That's a big drop from only a year ago, when 46 percent of students did. Here's a look at the states using PARCC, Smarter Balanced, or some other test for the Common Core.
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Education DIVE
Personalized learning is gaining popularity in the U.S., and so is innovation in English Language Learning. The combination of those two trends bodes well for K-12 ELL student population. It's clear that a present need exists. California has a reported 1.4 million ELL students, and number of U.S. students who speak foreign languages at home now totals 4 million. The Institute of Education Statistics found that the District of Columbia, Alaska, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Texas have public school ELL populations of around 10 percent. In California, that percentage is 22.8 percent.
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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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District Administration Magazine
Black elementary school students are half as likely as their white peers to be assigned to gifted elementary programs in math and reading — even with comparably high test scores. But the racial gap in giftedness disappears when black students have a black teacher, according to a January study published in AERA Open, a journal of the American Educational Research Association.
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Edutopia (commentary)
Matt Weyers, a contributor for Edutopia, writes: "I like reading professional material. I would posit that most teachers do. Professional reading (OK, all reading, really) allows our thoughts to constantly shift, transform and travel to currently uncharted mental territory. If we are lucky, we encounter a watershed idea or concept that shatters our thoughts and understanding to such an extent that it requires a complete rebuilding of our philosophy."
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Taylor & Francis via Science Daily
Plans to extend the school day to increase achievement might not have the desired effect on all children, suggests the results of a study. The new article provides some evidence as to how differing approaches to risk, motivation, commitment and discipline between girls and boys can lead to different outcomes when both are given the same extra tuition.
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U.S. News & World Report
Latino students have made impressive academic gains over the past decade, but almost a quarter are still not proficient in reading – and in some states, they're more than three grades behind their peers. Those are just some of the findings in a new report from the Child Trends Hispanic Institute, which examined the progress Latino students made in reading from 2005 to 2015, using data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress tests. "Seeing that many Latino students struggle in reading is troubling, in part because having good reading skills is so fundamental to understanding what's being taught in school, and to success in many jobs," said Manica Ramos, a research scientist at Child Trends and lead author of the study.
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By: Dorothy L. Tengler
 The average adult human brain weighs approximately three pounds, is composed of about 65 percent water and contains roughly 86 billion neurons. Human memory is a complex, brainwide process that is essential to who we are. Experts say once you've learned to ride a bicycle or drive a car or swim, you never forget. But surprisingly, new research suggests that while learning, the brain is trying to forget. A pathway in the brain has been linked to forgetting — actively erasing memories.
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Education World
For parents concerned about their children spending a lot of after school time playing Minecraft, CNET has some words of advice for them: chill. "When they move beyond the basics [of the game], kids can let their imaginations run wild, creating worlds with transporters, flying chickens or rain that springs up from the ground," CNET says. "Along the way, Minecraft's young players learn things like computer coding, engineering, architecture, urban planning and math." Many kids are learning the basics of programming through the popular game. Despite major efforts as of late to beef up computer science programs in America's K-12 schools, it's common knowledge that course offerings are still lacking on a national level. Does this make Minecraft far more than just a game, and instead a national asset?
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Advertisement
Playworks.org
Creating a culture of safe, healthy play transforms children's social, emotional, and physical health. And that has a big impact on the classroom. Kids who get healthy play at recess come back to class ready to learn. In one study, teachers reclaimed 21 hours of class time each through a healthy play culture at recess. Healthy play means fewer conflicts spilling over into the classroom and smoother transitions back to class. But the impact for schools goes beyond productive class time.
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By: Brian Stack (commentary)
 Our world is changing at such a rapid rate that our schools need educators with specific skills and experiences. Gone are the days when schools could supplement an educator's "general education degree" with a one-size-fits-all professional development model. Today's educators need access to professional development that is highly personalized, competency-based and targeted to specific knowledge and skills. From this need, a new model known as microcredentials has emerged.
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THE Journal
According to the latest "State of the States" report from Education Superhighway, 77 percent of districts are meeting the FCC's minimum Internet goal of 100 Kbps per student. That's more than double the number of districts meeting the same goal in 2013. However, if you're in one of the 23 percent of school systems still not meeting even the minimum, the vision of delivering personalized digital learning opportunities to students may have the composition of a mirage — always on the horizon and never within your grasp.
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Read the Book! Book the Training!
Improve instruction, improve student performance.
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Education Week
For new teachers, an empty classroom holds a world of possibility. As they are quick to learn, those bare walls can demand major investments in time and money. But part of the problem, experts say, might be that new teachers get little guidance in how to outfit their classrooms. But experienced educators say new teachers don't need to be left to fend for themselves. It's no secret that teachers spend a great deal of personal money on classroom supplies — industry studies suggest educators spend an average of $400-500 each year on such materials.
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Medical News Today
Serving free breakfast in New York City's classrooms has boosted the number of students eating what some consider the most important meal of the day at school, according to research by New York University's Institute for Education and Social Policy and the Center for Policy Research at Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. The study, published in the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, finds that this increase in school breakfast participation did not raise the prevalence of obesity in New York City schools, as some critics may have feared. At the same time, breakfast in the classroom did not appear to improve students' attendance or academic achievement.
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NPR
On a quiet street in Detroit, light pours into the back windows of the Kirksey home. In the back of the house the walls are lined with textbooks, workbooks and multicultural children's books. It's a home — but it's also a classroom. Brandon, 8, is wearing pajamas and a paper crown from Burger King. He heads into the back room and pulls a large laminated world map off the bookshelf. "This is the whole entire map! Michigan," he says enthusiastically pointing to his home state. His two younger siblings, Zachary, 3, and Ariyah, 1, echo him. Their mother and teacher, Camille Kirksey, ushers them into the dining room. Sitting among bowls of fruit and stacks of books, the kids figure out the date and the weather.
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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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| | FEDERAL ADVOCACY AND POLICY |
NPR (commentary)
Eric Westervelt, a contributor for NPR, writes: "John B. King Jr was recently confirmed by the Senate as the new U.S. Secretary of Education for the remainder of President Barack Obama's term, succeeding Arne Duncan. With a slew of pressing issues from pre-K to college debt, I wanted to find out what King thinks he can get done in such a short window of time."
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Education Week
As he continues his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders keeps hammering away at concerns that resonate with many educators, including higher-education access and income inequality. But with a few exceptions, pre-K-12 issues have been left out of Sanders' speeches at rallies, town halls, and other high-profile political events. And his record on school issues in his combined 25 years in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives also hasn't been a big part of his campaign.
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ThinkProgress
A Minnesota lawmaker says he wants keep teachers safe — whether they want that help or not. Following a string of student attacks on teachers, Sen. Dave Brown thinks the best way to keep instructors safe is to kick out every student who assaults them. He introduced a bill that would require school boards to automatically expel students who assault teachers by threatening or inflicting bodily harm. The board would also have the power to decide if and when those students can return, and place them in different classrooms.
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Chalkbeat New York
Move over, teacher quality. A new study on New York City schools could make school climate the next frontier in the ongoing quest to boost student learning. A first-of-its-kind study found that significant gains in key measures of a school's climate, like safety and academic expectations, can be linked to the equivalent of an extra month and a half of math instruction and, in some cases, a 25 percent reduction in teacher turnover.
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NAESP
Principals from across the nation recently traveled to Washington, D.C., to help launch a comprehensive advocacy agenda that elevates the principal's voice in federal education policy. The launch occurred during NAESP's annual National Leaders Conference, which hosted nearly 200 principals and state association advocates who engaged in important discussions to influence congressional action on implementing the Every Student Achieves Act, the FY 2017 federal budget, student data privacy, and higher education policy. The campaign messages reflect the need for oversight of ESSA implementation, especially in regards to investing in the support and development of strong instructional leadership to improve student outcomes, as well as necessary shifts in accountability systems away from the overuse of standardized testing.
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NAESP
In addition to improving literacy scores, principals are always looking for inovative ideas to encourage a love of reading in their students. The latest edition of Rise & Shine, a survey sent out to NAESP's National Panel of New Principals, asked what strategies first- and second-year principals were using to get kids reading more. Many reported that book clubs, cross-level reading buddies, contests, and use of accelerated reading programs have helped build enthusiasm for reading at school. Here are six ideas from the panel to spark your students' interest in reading.
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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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