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| | LATEST NEWS FOR PRINCIPALS |
Education World
The Department of Education announced that it will be enacting one of the provisions of the Every Student Succeeds Act earlier than others; by October 2016, schools across the country must enforce revised policies to better support students who are homeless. The Every Student Succeeds Act, signed last December, is the new education legislation that has replaced the long-expired No Child Left Behind. Though passing ESSA was half the challenge through a rare bipartisan effort, the next half will be implementing the sweeping legislation across states.
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Connected Principals (commentary)
Shawn Blankenship, a contributor for Connected Principals blog, writes: "If you are a candidate interviewing for a teaching position, I want to take a genuine moment to explicitly share what you are up against. As a principal, I am looking for a candidate, who demonstrates a love for kids; who articulates a clear picture of what their classroom will look, sound and feel like; who reveals incredible content knowledge; who takes ownership in their own professional learning; and the most important obstacle you are up against is this internal question, 'Would I want my own child in this teacher’s classroom?'"
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Education World
April 8 marks the world's first annual Kid's Yoga Day, created by author Teresa Ann Power and endorsed by over 100 global ambassadors. If you aren't already using yoga during breaks in your classroom — should you be? There is a wealth of current research that suggests that yoga is a great tool for the classroom because of the positive effects it has on children who practice it; a recent The 74 article looked at schools who practiced yoga and saw both increased student achievement and reduced suspensions in the time following the activity.
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By: Steve Spillane
 A parent patiently guides his child who has fine motor challenges to learn how to tie her shoes independently. Suddenly, they hear the toot of the bus driver's horn. The parent sighs in frustration and chooses to "just" tie his daughter's shoes with the hope he will have another opportunity to empower her independence and enhance her self-confidence. He has had to "take the shortcut" and get it done as the priority has shifted given the circumstances.
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NPR
It's one of the most basic things in education: seeing the board. Research has shown, over and over again, that if you can't see, you're going to have an awfully hard time in school. And yet too often this simple issue gets overlooked. Just this year, research showed that children with a significant vision problem during the preschool years perform significantly worse on tests of early literacy. And that poor performance early on affects their reading scores when they reach the third grade, says Kira Baldonado, director of the National Center for Children's Vision and Eye Health. Her organization is out with a new report today that looks at children's vision screening across the country. We pulled the numbers and created a state-by-state breakdown — and a look at who those vision tests are reaching.
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THE Journal
Effective classroom technology initiatives should include instruction on digital citizenship, according to a new white paper from NetRef, a provider of Internet management tools. The paper, "Digital Natives: Citizens of a Changing World," addresses the critical importance of ensuring that students understand the consequences of using technology, particularly social media, as well as best practices for protecting themselves online. While education initiatives place increasing emphasis on digital fluency, students must also be taught to practice good digital citizenship.
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The Huffington Post
Learning to code is become increasingly prevalent in school curriculum's. From after-school clubs to dedicated class periods, coding and computer science curriculum are popping up in schools worldwide. One place surprising place where coding is also increasingly being used is in programs for students with learning disabilities. There are many benefits of coding for learning and development in LD students. Coding builds important life skills such as organization, higher order thinking, self-esteem, socialization and teamwork, among many others. These skills are intrinsically hard for many children with disabilities such as Attention Deficit Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and Autism which affects 1 in 68 school aged children, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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MindShift
When parents suffer depression, there can be a ripple effect on children. Kids may become anxious, even sad. There may be behavior problems. Health may suffer. Recently, a large Swedish study showed that grades may decline, too, when a parent is depressed. Using data from 1984 to 1994, researchers from Philadelphia's Dornsife School of Public Health, at Drexel University, measured school grades for more than 1.1 million children in Sweden and compared them with their parents' mental health status.
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The Atlantic
Many of America's biggest school districts have prioritized security officers over counselors. In Houston, that means there's only one counselor for every 1,175 students. School security officers outnumber counselors in four out of the 10 largest public school districts in the country — including three of the top five, according to data obtained by The 74. New York City, Chicago, Miami-Dade County, and Houston schools all employ more security staff than counselors. New York City, Chicago and Miami-Dade are all among the nation's five biggest school districts.
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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: Bambi Majumdar
 Which technology is best for K-12 education? This old debate is rearing its head up again. A recent market report shows that despite Google's recent success in the classroom, Microsoft products are outselling everyone else in this niche. By most accounts, Google's Chromebook product has been quietly and successfully leading the K-12 ed-tech market in the last two years. But this report suggests Chromebook's rising dominance may be in question.
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The Hechinger Report
Schools are on the front lines in coping with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. More school-age kids are getting diagnosed with it each year (more than one in 10, according to the most recent National Survey of Children's Health) and the classroom is where kids often have their biggest problems with impulse control and an inability to sit still and focus. Some kids take medicine to control these symptoms, but many do not. And so principals and teachers are tremendously interested in non-medical therapies they can use at school to help children. Fortunately, it's an exciting time in ADHD research, thanks to developments in neuroscience, and psychologists hope they will find new tools for schools.
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Education DIVE
In recent years, America's public education system has found itself in a period of transformation. An evolving economy demands a move away from the "industrial" model that has focused largely on preparing most students for factory work. What the future model, or "School 2.0," looks like remains a matter of debate. But as public schools continue moving in that direction, it may be wise for administrators and policymakers to expand their view beyond simply what other publics are doing. A number of private schools like Virginia's Alexandria Country Day School are already pushing boundaries with innovative approaches in the classroom, and they have plenty of lessons for the public sector.
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The University of Kansas
Online education is growing rapidly, reaching millions of students every day. However, a Center on Online Learning and Students with Disabilities at the University of Kansas study has found the majority of online educational products are not designed to meet the needs of students with disabilities and struggling learners. The report analyzes how six popular vendors of online learning products meet the principles of Universal Design for Learning, or UDL, the concept that education should be designed to meet the needs of all students. It also provides a tool that K-12 school districts across the country can use to evaluate online education programs they are using or considering for their students.
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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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Edutopia (commentary)
Maurice Elias, a contributor for Edutopia, writes: "Social and emotional learning and character education make a lot of common sense. We know that students have to be prepared for college, career and life success. We also know that families and communities are not reliably providing the kinds of experiences that all students need. So SEL and character education would seem to be essential aspects of educational practice and policy."
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| | FEDERAL ADVOCACY AND POLICY |
Education Week
In a far-ranging talk, U.S. Secretary of Education John B. King Jr. told an audience of state superintendents to move swiftly and methodically to build new school accountability systems under the recently passed Every Student Succeeds Act. "This is a tremendous opportunity for us to think differently about how we define educational excellence," he said at the annual legislative conference of the Council of Chief State School Officers.
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Education World
Students in Kansas' Wichita school district are being forced to adjust to earlier school start times this year for its youngest students after budget issues forced school leaders to act. Several schools in the Wichita school district already start at 7 a.m., but nine more schools might be in line to embrace 7 a.m. start times next year as well.
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Education Week
How much should state and district leaders rethink how they handle federal funds under the Every Student Succeeds Act? Quite a lot, according to those who eat, sleep, and breathe K-12 finance. During a presentation at the Council of Chief State School Officers' legislative conference here on Monday, Mississippi education department officials as well as two Title I policy experts encouraged state leaders to work with districts on more creative uses of Title I and other money to better support student learning, and to make sure broader groups of officials are thinking about and overseeing how schools use federal funds.
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NAESP
The National Association of Elementary School Principals welcomes Eric S. Cardwell, principal of Besser Elementary School in Alpena, Michigan, as the recently elected Vice President of NAESP's Board of Directors.
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NAESP
As instructional leaders, principals are responsible for getting the best from their teachers. Evaluations provide a unique opportunity to offer teachers feedback to teachers, ensuring they have the skills and competencies they need to lead students to success. Here are four tips and resources to help you implement teacher evaluations at your school.
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