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| | LATEST NEWS FOR PRINCIPALS |
District Administration Magazine
The fault line running along the Cascade Mountains from British Columbia to northern California is long overdue for an earthquake many scientists believe is all but inevitable. Engineering studies have shown that if a major quake does strike, it could take weeks to repair utilities, six months or more to restore water and years to rebuild some roads, says Richard L. Steinbrugge, executive facilities administrator at Oregon's Beaverton School District, which has 51 buildings. Oregon's school building code for earthquake resilience dictates that if a building is shaken by an earthquake, it shouldn't collapse and people should be able to evacuate—but repairing the structure may not be economically feasible, Steinbrugge says. "We thought that wasn’t good enough," he adds.
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By: Bambi Majumdar (commentary)
 A recent report by Child Trends shows a rather disturbing trend in K-12 education. Data indicates only 18 percent of African-American and 21 percent of Hispanic fourth-grade students can be deemed "proficient" in reading. Experts think the shortcomings in our education system have disproportionately impacted them, and as a result so many of our young people are failing to achieve their potential. While minority students are definitely affected, the numbers aren't encouraging for others either.
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District Administration Magazine
For a few weeks in early 2016, a computer program helped educators teach the finer points of writing to students in a Fort Worth ISD high school. Like so many schools nationwide, R.L. Paschal High School — under pressure from new state standards — has been working hard to improve writing instruction so students can express their ideas and share information fluently. And as in many schools, Paschal educators feel overwhelmed by the challenge. Technology can help administrators bridge the gap between the need for high-level writing instruction and the reality that many teachers don't feel prepared to teach the skill.
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Education DIVE
About 2,000 elementary and middle school students in Pittsburgh Public Schools are getting 90 minutes of reading and 90 minutes of math instruction every morning. But they don't call it school. They call it camp. And even though these students' afternoons are spent in enrichment activities like fencing, West African dance, and filmmaking, some still say their favorite parts of the district's Summer Dreamers Academy is the reading or the math classes in the morning. That's a point of pride for Christine Cray, director of student services reform.
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EdTech Magazine
The nature of the work students are doing will always trump the novel engagement, due to the presence of technology in the classroom.
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THE Journal
Teachers are less stressed about the Common Core or about teacher accountability requirements this year than they were last year. And roughly the same high number of educators who were using some kind of digital material in their work last year are continuing to do so in 2016. But use tends to be uneven when examined by years in the job.
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Connected Principal (commentary)
Richard Bruford, a contributor for Connected Principals blog, writes: "As leaders, we seek to exert a degree of control in our schools, so that there is a semblance of order and prevention of organizational chaos. In trying to keep a degree of order in schools, a significant amount of work is required on the part of leaders to set up systems and structures, so that a school can function efficiently and effectively. While certain systems and structures may appear particularly frustrating for some teachers, there are specific things that schools cannot do without and thus particular aspects of compliance and alignment are necessary."
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The Hechinger Report
Why don't American students really get math? Because their elementary school teachers don’t either, says Marc Tucker, president of the National Center on Education and the Economy, a policy institute that studies what America can learn from the world's best-performing education systems. Tucker describes a vicious cycle. "We are mainly recruiting teacher candidates from the bottom half of the kids who go to college," said Tucker.
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Edutopia (commentary)
Elena Aguilar, a contributor for Edutopia, writes: "For so many educators, summers are crammed with long lists of to-dos: books to read, school-related plans to create, and moments of fun, family, and perhaps self-care. Most of the time, I try to squeeze too much into those few weeks of break, and I often find myself emerging from summer feeling slightly disappointed that I didn't get more done. Here's my top goal for this summer, and one I encourage you to adopt: Sleep. Get it, learn about it, and commit to it."
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The Washington Post
How many times have you heard it said it is impossible to fire a teacher with tenure? Not only do politicians and policymakers say it, but, it turns out, so do people like Whoopi Goldberg. On her TV talk show "The View" in 2014, she said: "Parents are not going to stand for it anymore," she said. "And you teachers, in your union, you need to say, 'These bad teachers are making us look bad.'" Those who think tenured teachers can't be fired may be interested in new research by Eunice Han, who has a PhD in economics from Harvard University and who spent the past three years as a postdoctoral research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, Mass.
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| | FEDERAL ADVOCACY AND POLICY |
The Hill
The Obama administration finalized a rule requiring all snacks sold in schools to meet the same health standards that first lady Michelle Obama championed for in the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Smart Snacks in School rule, which applies to food sold a la cart in school stores and vending machines, require snacks be made with whole grains, or be low-fat dairy, a fruit, vegetable or lean protein.
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U.S. Department of Education
All students — regardless of race, national origin, religion, disability or sex — deserve access to a high-quality education, from preschool through college. Throughout the last seven-and-a-half years, the Obama administration and the Department of Education have worked to safeguard the rights and protections of our students by enforcing our nation's civil rights laws and implementing regulations that prohibit discrimination and providing additional support to educators to prevent such discrimination.
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DNAInfo
Public schools will no longer be allowed to suspend students in kindergarten through second grade under proposed updates to the Department of Education's discipline code announced. Suspensions would be replaced with more age-appropriate discipline, city officials said of the reforms, which comes with $15 million a year from the ThriveNYC initiative to provide at least 50 more schools with mental health services over the next three years. The de Blasio administration also said it would set clear protocols for the removal or addition of scanners in schools while also making certain NYPD school-based data publicly available for the first time, like handcuffing incidents.
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Education World
A damning email Illinois' now-governor Bruce Rauner sent in 2011 is likely to push an even bigger wedge between him and Chicago Public Schools' teachers. In an email conversation with wealthy education reformers, Rauner called CPS teachers virtually illiterate and the district's principals "managerially incompetent" when discussing the potential of implementing stronger teacher and principal evaluations.
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Houston Chronicle
Everything's bigger in Texas, and we're talking more than cowboy hats, cattle and the 268,820 square miles within our borders. Texas remains one of the most sought after destinations for businesses and families from all across the U.S. Data from the U.S. Census puts three Texas cities — Austin, Houston and San Antonio — in the top five fastest-growing cities in the U.S. And, Fort Worth and Dallas aren't far behind, ranking among the top 10.
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NPR
The school district of Freehold Borough, N.J., has a 32 percent poverty rate. It is fully surrounded by another school district, Freehold Township, which has a 5 percent poverty rate. Freehold Borough is what a new report calls an "island district" — and it's not alone. The report, from a nonprofit called EdBuild, maps 180 of these islands around the country: Districts that, by historical accident or for political reasons, lie completely inside other systems with a disparate poverty rate and often different funding levels. And that can correlate with very different outcomes for students — something educators in Freehold Borough have long struggled with.
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NAESP
Exercising your voice as a principal entails listening as much as you're leading, according to Russell Quaglia. Quaglia, researcher and author of "Principal Voice: Listen, Lead and Learn", presented an #NAESP16 keynote on his principal voice model. It's based on three key behaviors: listening, leading and learning. Listening, he said, builds a solid foundation, with leading and learning as consecutive tiers. To transition between listening and learning, principals must build trust and respect; to transition from learning and leading, principals share responsibility, he said.
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NAESP
Encouraging children to read at home is one of the most powerful ways that parents can support students' learning. Just 15 minutes of reading at home per day can make a difference in students' reading fluency. This month's Report to Parents, "The Rewards of Reading" offers families strategies to get kids reading more at home. Share this handout with parents, teachers, volunteers — anyone who can use this information. Available in both English and Spanish.
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The inclusive Global Motion™ rotating climber brings a whole realm of activity to the playground!
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7701 Las Colinas Ridge, Ste. 800, Irving, TX 75063
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