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| | LATEST NEWS FOR PRINCIPALS |
The Associated Press via U.S. News & World Report
It's a challenge to teach children who aren't in class — and new government numbers show more than 6.5 million students were absent for at least three weeks of the school year. The problem was particularly acute in Washington, D.C., where nearly a third of students were absent 15 days or more in a single school year, according to an Associated Press analysis of Education Department data. Washington state and Alaska weren't that far behind, with absentee rates hovering around a quarter of students. Florida had the lowest rate of absences: 4.5 percent of students in the state were chronically missing school.
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Education World
In March of this year, Newark Public Schools made the decision to cut off water to more than 30 schools after detecting elevated levels of lead in the school's drinking water. Due to the recent issue in Flint, Michigan where elevated levels of lead in the city's drinking water lead to a crisis, the topic is a touchy issue and caused great alarm among Newark parents. District officials urged parents to remain calm and guaranteed the safety of children as the water was "still drinkable" but the words of reassurance provided little relief. Newark's plight highlights the long-standing issues of lead levels in school drinking water.
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The Atlantic
Children who read regularly for pleasure, who are avid and self-directed readers, are the holy grail for parents and educators. Reading for pleasure has considerable current and future benefits: Recreational readers tend to have higher academic achievement and greater economic success, and even display more civic-mindedness. But recreational reading is on the decline. According to a National Endowment for the Arts report based on longitudinal data from a series of large, national surveys, the rate at which teens voluntarily read for pleasure has declined by 50 percent over the last 20 years.
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eSchool News
A research study from the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University demonstrates a link between an adaptive learning program and improvement in mathematics achievement for students in grades 3-5. The study examined Dreambox Learning and the individual test scores of nearly 3,000 students in grades 3-5 during the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 school years in two districts, Howard County Public School System in Maryland and Rocketship Education in California. Results of the study determined that DreamBox usage was significantly associated with increased student achievement when controlling for students' baseline test scores.
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The Washington Post
Children living in poverty often are exposed to high levels of constant stress that can be debilitating, not only in terms of their physical health but also their ability to learn. So what are schools to do?
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By: Cait Harrison
 Classrooms have come a long way since the days of pencils, paper and textbooks. Now many school districts are trading those tools in for new ones — the latest tablets and laptops, to be exact. So what kind of impact is all this technology having on students, for better or for worse? Proponents of these one-to-one device initiatives, as they're known, say the technology aids learning and helps tailor lessons to each child. But the devices also bring some clear downsides.
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Deseret News
Raising an infant can be challenging, but raising an early adolescent may be even harder. According to a recent study from researchers at Arizona State University, mothers are the most stressed when their children start middle school. For the study, researchers Suniya Luthar and Lucia Cicolla studied 2,200 well-educated mothers and their children ranging from infants to adults. They examined multiple aspects of the mothers' happiness, parenting styles and perceptions of their children, according to Good Housekeeping.
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EdTech Magazine
The education field may not adopt new innovations as quickly as the business world, but the sector is catching up: A new report indicates that the education technology market could reach $55 billion by 2019. Published by global technology research and advisory company Technavio, Education Technology Market in North America 2015-2019 attributes the projected growth in large part to the rise of one-to-one computing initiatives.
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MindShift
Third grade teacher Anita Parameswaran is no stranger to students who have experienced trauma. She has taught kids who have experienced the effects of abuse, neglect and divorce. She had one student experience a huge setback when he learned his father was arrested and sent to jail. The student then became violent, throwing things, and hurting other students, according to Parameswaran.
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eSchool News
Worldwide tablet shipments are expected to decline for the second straight year in 2016, dropping 9.6 percent compared to 2015 volumes, according to a new International Data Corporation Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker forecast. The tablet market in totality has seen its peak and will face down years in 2016 and 2017, followed by a slight rebound in 2018 and beyond driven by detachable tablet growth. Right now the detachable category only accounts for 16 percent of the market and IDC expects it to reach 31 percent in 2020.
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By: Brian Stack (commentary)
 This is the time of year when Alice Cooper's song "School's Out for Summer" can be heard playing on public address systems in schools from coast to coast. I am reminded of the days of my youth, busting out the front doors of my elementary school filled with mixed emotions of what my life without an academic structure would look like for the next two months. When you really think about it, summer vacation seems like an odd structure in today's society.
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| | FEDERAL ADVOCACY AND POLICY |
Education Week
Earlier this year, the Obama administration proposed a new, $120 million grant program, "Stronger Together," aimed at helping increase socioeconomic diversity in schools. And recently, a Senate panel dealing with K-12 spending, opted not to fund it, to the surprise of pretty much no one, given the tight fiscal constraints this year. Does that mean that the administration has given up on the need to focus on this issue?
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The New York Times
There are supposed to be 27 children in Harold Boyd IV's second-grade classroom, but how many of them will be there on a given day is anyone's guess. Since school began in September, five new students have arrived and eight children have left. Two transferred out in November. One who started in January was gone in April. A boy showed up for a single day in March, and then never came back. Even now, in the twilight of the school year, new students are still arriving, one as recently as mid-May.
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Education Week
Michigan is the latest state to consider allowing students to replace required foreign language classes with computer coding courses. The state's House of Representatives voted earlier to approve a bill that would allow students to take three credits of computer science, arts, or career tech training instead of a foreign language in order to graduate. Proponents argued the bill, which has not yet passed the state's Senate, would give students more flexibility in choosing their courses.
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The Washington Post
Students who come from low-income households face many challenges that can hinder their learning — hunger, housing instability and less access to enriching extracurriculars — and the federal government and states have worked to bridge that gap by providing additional funding for disadvantaged students. But Virginia is providing far less funding for low-income students than other states, according to a report from the Commonwealth Institute, a liberal think tank based in Richmond. The report, "Weighing Support for Virginia's Students," calls on lawmakers to study the issue and to boost such funding.
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NAESP
Together with Crayola, NAESP offers a special opportunity to apply for a Champion Creatively Alive Children Grant. Your school could receive a $3,500 grant (a $2,500 check and $1,000 worth of Crayola products) to establish a creative leadership team and build the creative capacity of your professional learning community. The application form can be found here. The deadline to apply is Monday, June 20.
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NAESP
As the school year winds down and kids' minds wander to thoughts of summer vacation, it's tempting to let fun and relaxation trump substantive lesson plans. However, learning still can and should occur during the last few days of class. Providing real closure at the end of the year gives students space to reflect on what they've learned, and encourages them to start their next year proud of their accomplishments. Plus, there's no reason that last lessons can't be fun and engaging as well as focused and meaningful. Share these 10 end-of-year activities with your teachers to ensure students make the most of their final days in school.
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