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| | LATEST NEWS FOR PRINCIPALS |
NPR
Summer break for many students is a time to kick back, play outside, and hang out with friends. For a significant portion of public school students in the United States, however, the end of school also brings a familiar question — what's for lunch? During the school year, about 30.3 million children receive free or reduced-price lunches at their public schools. But in the summer, only 2.6 million of those students receive a free or reduced lunch. That's fewer than 10 percent. When school is out, free lunches are only offered at select locations through each school district, not at every school, so transportation is often the biggest barrier between kids and lunch.
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K-12 Tech Decisions
At ISTE 2016 in Denver, Samsung revealed the findings of a new study it has conducted into the interest in adopting virtual reality technology into the K-12 classroom. This nationwide survey of more than 1,000 U.S. K-12 teachers revealed that 86 percent feel it is a challenge to keep students engaged in curriculum, even with existing classroom technology. Meanwhile, 93 percent of teachers say their students would be excited to use virtual reality and 83 percent say that virtual reality might help improve learning outcomes — from better understanding of learning concepts (77 percent) to greater collaboration (71 percent) and motivation in the classroom (84 percent).
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Education World
In order to ensure that children in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. have access to quality early education, researchers from the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment at the University of California, Berkeley believe that it must first be ensured that the early educator workforce is being supported. As part of its State of the Early Childhood Workforce Initiative, a multi-year project dedicated to researching how to improve the quality of the early education workforce, CSCCE released The Early Childhood Workforce Index, where it found that early educators in all U.S. states need more support.
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Education Week
Studying music seems to have helped accelerate the cognitive development, and particularly the auditory- and speech and language-processing abilities, of a group of young children in Los Angeles. That's an early pair of findings from a five-year longitudinal study being conducted by researchers with the Brain and Creativity Institute at the University of Southern California, in partnership with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association and the Heart of Los Angeles, a community center.
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The Washington Post
School districts in the Washington area and across the country are adopting grading practices that make it more difficult for students to flunk classes, that give students opportunities to retake exams or turn in late work, and that discourage or prohibit teachers from giving out zeroes. The policies have stirred debates about the purpose of issuing academic grades and whether they should be used to punish, motivate or purely represent what students have learned in class. Some regard it as the latest in a line of ideas intended to keep students progressing through school and heading toward graduation, akin in some ways to practices like social promotion.
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MindShift
When Lily Shum was little, she dreaded speaking up in class. It wasn't because she didn't have anything interesting to say, or because she wasn't paying attention or didn't know the answer. She was just quiet. "Every single report card that I ever had says, 'Lily needs to talk more. She is too quiet,'" recalls Shum, now an assistant director at Trevor Day School in Manhattan. She doesn't want her students to feel the pressure to speak up that she felt.
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Edutopia (commentary)
To understand English language learners' need for equitable education, we must first look at the dramatic increase in the numbers of ELLs in U.S. public schools. Between 1997-1998 and 2008-2009, the number of ELLs in public schools increased by 51 percent. However, the general student population only grew by 7 percent (Center for American Progress). ELLs are the fastest-growing student population with approximately six million currently enrolled in public schools (TESOL International Association).
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ADDitude Magazine (commentary)
Karen Sunderhaft, a contributor for ADDitude Magazine, writes: "Each year my fourth-grade class includes children who have trouble staying focused, following directions, and observing rules. I could use individual interventions to help them improve behavior and school performance, but I prefer to blend these strategies into rules for the whole class. That way, I don't have to single out students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or learning disabilities, who may already feel different. Establishing clear expectations, incentives, and consequences for all students creates a community that fosters real learning."
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EdTech Magazine
The Pew Research Center reports that about 80 percent of U.S. households with school-age children have Internet access. That's great, except it also means that one in five still don't. As teachers assign homework that requires web access, students who lack an Internet connection at home will fall further behind. By bridging the digital divide, students can have the access they need to work. It's the right thing to do.
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Education World
Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, the leading national resource for individuals with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, announced its partnership with web-based tool provider Public Consulting Group to bring educators on-demand access to resources that will best support students with the learning disorder. PCG is the group behind Pepper, the online, interactive professional development platform that is already used by 4,000 school districts nationwide.
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MindShift
The International Society for Technology in Education conference brings together a huge cross section of educators who share a common belief that technology in the classroom can make learning more relevant, engaging and fun for kids. Among the 20,000 or so conference-goers are ed-tech evangelists, teachers new to technology, passionate makers and many others. Educators at the conference are looking for new ideas and tools to bring back to their districts and classrooms.
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PBS Newshour
As kindergarten and pre-K have become more academically rigorous, some worry that the very youngest students may be missing out on crucial development through abundant playtime. But other educators believe setting high expectations for achievement helps kids, especially low-income students, excel.
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| | FEDERAL ADVOCACY AND POLICY |
Education Week
U.S. Secretary of Education John B. King Jr. called on parents to take charge of improving diversity in their schools and classrooms — both among students and teachers — during a recent speech before the National Parent Teacher Association. The issue of student and teacher diversity has been a major issue for King since his appointment to take over the federal department in fall 2015. In this case, King was addressing parents who make decisions about where they send their children to school at a time when there are increasing choices, both among district and charter schools.
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The Washington Post
State and local spending on prisons and jails has grown three times as much over the past three decades as spending on public education for preschool through high school, according to a new analysis of federal data by the U.S. Education Department. The analysis comes amid growing bipartisan agreement about the need for criminal justice reform, and argues that taxpayers and public safety would be better served by redirecting investments from incarceration to public schools.
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The New York Times
For all its kaleidoscopic diversity, New York City has one of the most segregated school systems in the country, with divisions created and reinforced by decades of policy decisions. But over the past year, some areas of the system have begun experimenting with ways to desegregate, if not by the color of children's skin, at least by their families' wealth. A middle school in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, hopes to set aside seats for poor children in fall 2017. A small district on the Lower East Side of Manhattan is looking to shake up admissions so that poor and middle-class students will learn together. And a popular elementary school in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan has reserved more than 60 percent of its seats this coming school year for students from low-income families.
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EdTech Magazine
The village of Watkins Glen, N.Y., may be small but it is a tourism and digital powerhouse. Boasting a NASCAR racetrack and an impressive collection of wineries, festivals and natural attractions, the village has the kind of robust broadband connectivity necessary to accommodate the tens of thousands of tourists who come here each year — not to mention the digital education needs of the 1,150 students who attend the local Watkins Glen Elementary and Watkins Glen High schools.
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The Florida Times-Union
More Florida charter schools showed signs of financial stress this year than last, the latest Auditor General report on charter school financial trends shows. At least 92 charter schools, or 15 percent, showed deficits, meaning they spent more than they took in during fiscal 2015. That's up from 13 percent the year before. Deficits are generally considered a sign of an unstable financial condition because they describe no money left over after a year of operations, the report says. Four Duval charter schools and one in St. Johns County sustained fund deficits.
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Scholastic Administration Magazine (commentary)
Dr. John Albert, a contributor for Scholastic Administration Magazine, writes: "At California Elementary School in Orange, California, 95 percent of our students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, and as many as 90 percent are English language learners. When I became principal during the 2014–2015 school year, 40 percent of our students were reading far below a basic reading level. We knew we had to find an effective solution that would quickly address the academic gap and help students reach their full potential."
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NAESP
To keep NAESP's publications at the forefront of education issues and trends, the Association has established a group of editorial advisors. This group assists NAESP by suggesting themes and articles for Principal and other publications; writing articles and one book review per year; contributing to conference news; and providing honest feedback on publications and other NAESP services. Interested NAESP members are encouraged to submit on NAESP's website using the form provided.
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NAESP
Once again, principals from across the country came together for NAESP's eighth annual Community Service Day, held as a part of the 2016 Annual Conference in National Harbor, Maryland. Sponsored by NAESP and playground equipment manufacturer Landscape Structures, the annual Community Service Day offers NAESP conference attendees an opportunity to make a difference through service projects that improve local schools. This year, principals hopped on the bus to visit nearby Princeton Elementary School and help build a playground. You can check out some highlights of the day's events in the photos below, or visit this link to see all of them.
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The inclusive Global Motion™ rotating climber brings a whole realm of activity to the playground!
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