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| | LATEST NEWS FOR PRINCIPALS |
Education Week
Principals continue to rate nearly all teachers as "effective," despite states' efforts in recent years to make evaluations tougher, two new studies show. And there's good evidence that those scores are inflated: When principals are asked their opinions of teachers in confidence and with no stakes attached, they're much more likely to give harsh ratings, the researchers found. That's in part because principals want to maintain good relationships with their teachers, which can be tough to do when they have to confront them with bad reviews, the researchers say.
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EdSurge
As much as possible, the work of educators should be clear of interruptions. That is, teachers and professors should be able to spend most of their non-teaching time, energy and attention on writing lesson plans, assessing student work, conferring with students and collaborating with their colleagues. Instead, we often spend our time in committees, inboxes or calendar programs; starting at screens or tapping on phones; that is, anywhere but where we should be: knee deep in the process of challenging and supporting young people in order to quicken and ensure their transformation into engaged, curious, lively and future-minded citizens. School leaders who understand this — and who believe that it is their job to respect the time and talent of their colleagues — work relentlessly to discover, adapt, and apply the best available tools for organizing work in their schools.
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Education DIVE
It is important for a school or district to keep its themes, outlook and branding fresh in order to attract students and families, and it helps the school culture for students to have input into how the school is presented, according to a panel discussion between parents, students, teachers and administrators from New Jersey schools and districts at the 2017 National Principals Conference.
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Education DIVE
In the immediate aftermath of the 2016 election of Donald Trump, students across the nation became embroiled in an upswing of political activity — whether it came in the form of a heated debate among 9th graders before the start of class or a full-fledged university-wide protest that would make national headlines. For some in the education space, such activity reflected a sign of greater youth interest in the political process. But for many others, the nature of the election also highlighted a critical need for both educators and policymakers to turn a reflective eye toward the quality of civics curriculum at the K-12 level and beyond.
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Education World
Have you ever overlooked a child for gifted education services? Be honest — then again, maybe they slipped through the cracks because, as many teachers do, you operated from some partially or completely inaccurate preconceived notions when identifying gifted students. I’m writing about an old problem. It's nothing new. But, before you stop reading, understand that this problem will remain a large problem unless school administrators and teachers do something about it.
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Over 75% of transgender students feel unsafe at school, and staff do not know how to help them. Welcoming Schools, the nation’s premier professional development program for elementary schools, provides educators with best practices to support transgender students and prevent bias-based bullying.
Visit www.welcomingschools.org to learn more.
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MindShift
Healthy communication is vital to thriving workplace communities, and it's essential for effective collaborative classrooms as well. Knowing when and how to express yourself, recognizing nonverbal cues, and being able to discern what's important when someone speaks can be key factors in building interpersonal relationships. By practicing communication skills, students will get better at asking for help and expressing what they need, and over time they will develop the skills and confidence to tell you more clearly what they've learned in class.
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Education Week
Daniella Suárez, a contributor for Education Week, writes: "The nerves kicked in when Papá pulled into the parking lot. This school was enormous; would I be able to make any friends? I was ready with new clothes and supplies, but I wasn't prepared for what followed. On my first day of 5th grade as a new student at a Florida public elementary school, I was pulled out of class to go to an English-as-a-second-language class. At that point, I was fluent in both English and Spanish, had tested into gifted classes, and was scoring in the 99th percentile on state assessments."
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The Hechinger Report
To understand just how far Vista High School will go to keep kids interested in school, consider the case of 17-year-old Hernan Hernandez and his skateboard. Hernan, an avid skateboarder, was bored in gym class. So were his classmates. So, late this spring, Hernan approached Principal Anthony Barela with a potential solution: What about offering them a skateboarding course instead? "I'm pretty sure if you told them they could skate and get an A, they would do that," Hernan told Barela, a former football coach who is maniacal about keeping Vista High School students in school.
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THE Journal
When you make the switch to a blended learning model, you find yourself making instructional choices for students that empower them to utilize technology in a very independent and deliberate manner. Defined by the nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank Clayton Christensen Institute as any formal education program in which students learn at least in part through online learning with "student control over time, place, path and/or pace," blended learning needs to be a purposeful and thoughtful endeavor.
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eSchool News
Later this summer, science and STEM teachers will have the opportunity to engage students in a truly unique — and rare — learning opportunity as a total solar eclipse will span portions of the United States for the first time in 38 years. There are many ways that teachers across the country can incorporate various hands-on, technology-enabled lessons before and during the viewing experience to help students make the most of this phenomenon, known as the Great American Eclipse. The eclipse takes place on Aug. 21.
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District Administration Magazine
One of the worst "professional learning" experiences from my teaching days involved a clown nose. The entire teaching staff — 700 of us — were gathered in the town's civic auditorium to hear a speaker. Talk about "sit and get." At a pivotal moment, the speaker had us reach under our seats and pull out the envelopes that had been hidden there. In them were bulbous red rubber noses. We were all supposed to put these on—as a reminder that our work was graced with humor. Believe me, no one was laughing.
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By: Catherine Iste (commentary)
 Does transparency equate to trustworthy? How transparent do leaders need to be to create a transparent culture? The adjectives describing the type of leader we are have become critical. This three-part series reviews some common but different leadership descriptors and whether to embrace or ignore them. Part 1 examined whether leaders must be innovative. This article considers different perspectives of transparent leadership.
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Education DIVE
There are a multitude of social media platforms and apps that could be beneficial for principals, including many common apps that are not always utilized for professional use by principals, according to Bobby Dodd, principal of Gahanna Lincoln High School in Gahanna, OH. During a presentation at the 2017 National Principal's Conference, Dodd said principals could make their Facebook and Twitter profiles an extension of their professional work, additionally detailing an unconventional use for the voice app Voxer where his staff used the app as a type of walkie-talkie on testing days or during emergencies, negating the need for that expense.
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| | FEDERAL ADVOCACY AND POLICY |
U.S. News & World Report
House appropriators snubbed the Trump administration unveiling a spending plan for the Department of Education that includes virtually none of the school choice proposals outlined in the president's budget request. The working budget, which members of the appropriations committee will finalize tomorrow during a committee markup, would slash funding for the Department of Education by $2.4 billion — significantly less than the $9.2 billion the administration proposed.
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Education World
House Republicans are still planning to make big cuts to the education budget, their proposal just doesn't cut as deep as the one Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos had laid out in March. The proposal by GOP members cuts the budget of the Education Department by $2.4 billion, or 3.5 percent, a noticeable difference from the $9.2 billion in cuts that we've been reporting on in Trump's proposal. Perhaps even more noticeable than the numerical difference in the budget was the snub House GOP members gave to the school choice proposals the president had outlined in his budget request.
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Education Week
The nation's governors told Congress that they considered early childhood education policy to be on par with big-ticket issues that often grab more of the spotlight. In a letter to the chairmen and ranking members of the House and Senate education committees, the National Governors Association said that "education and care for our youngest learners is equally important to our nation as health care, tax reform and investments in infrastructure."
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The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Metro Atlanta school districts are looking to hire about 1,400 teachers before some begin welcoming students back in about three weeks. Even amid a national teacher shortage of about 60,000 this time last year, and ongoing concerns with fewer people going to college to become educators, hiring teams have concentrated on aggressive hiring and a widened net for recruiting. School districts have worked to make the jobs more attractive to people, boosting starting salaries and offering signing and retention bonuses, as well as incentive pay for teachers who take assignments at problem schools.
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Chicago Sun-Times
One in four African-American students in Chicago Public Schools attends a "failing" school, according to a new analysis that puts the number for Hispanic students at two in 25 and, for white students, two in 100. That's according to a report Monday from the education advocacy group New Schools for Chicago, which also says about one in every five schools overall isn't fulfilling the promise of a quality education.
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NAESP
Summer vacation is not only a break for students, it is also a time for educators to take a mental break and focus on areas of improvement to apply to the upcoming school year. Whether it's your first year or if you're a seasoned principal, summer professional development can help to grow your leadership skills.
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NAESP
The 2018 NAESP Annual Conference will be July 9-11 in Orlando, Florida. Make plans to attend the premier professional development conference for elementary and middle-level principals. During the course of three days, you will connect with your peers, learn best practices, and have access to today's education movers and shakers. Apply the knowledge and skills you learn in your school and in your career. Get ready to lead, learn and rethink with Pre-K-8 principals. Click here for more details.
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