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| | LATEST NEWS FOR PRINCIPALS |
Learning First Alliance
Several Learning First Alliance member organizations have resources to help teachers and other educators deal with students' questions on the race-based violent protests in Charlottesville, Va., this past weekend. The American Federation of Teachers has assembled lessons and resources to help address the events in Charlottesville with students. The union is using its ShareMyLesson.com resources submitted by educators and partners from across the country, with a special section on #CharlottesvilleCurriculum.
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District Administration Magazine
More than a decade after response-to-intervention and positive behavior interventions and supports took root on school campuses across the country, multi-tier strategies have become the standard for identifying and assisting struggling students. Yet, the way educators use these and similar systems continues to evolve. Educators now understand far more about the neuroscience of learning and are more aware about the impact anxiety and stress have on students' ability to concentrate and retain information. Schools also have more advanced technology at their disposal to track behavior and academic performance.
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School Leaders Now (commentary)
Suzanne Tingley, a contributor for School Leaders Now, writes: "Q: I've just read Stephen J. Covey's Seven Habits of Successful People. Now I'm wondering — what do you think are principal best practices? A: I think there are probably WAY more than 7 habits, and every principal has his or her own list."
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The Hechinger Report
When they arrived, many of the soon-to-be kindergarteners in Miami Elementary School's summer preschool program could not spell their names or grip a pencil. They hadn't learned to line up silently or raise their hands. At lunch, a few tried slurping their applesauce through straws. Many working-class families in this manufacturing city across the Wabash River from Purdue University cannot afford to send their children to private pre-kindergarten, nor can they rely on government-funded programs — like Head Start and subsidized childcare — which serve a fraction of eligible children. The city resembles Indiana as a whole, where 60 percent of children miss out on preschool.
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By: Susan Winebrenner (commentary)
 Visualize yourself at a professional development presentation during which you painfully discover you already know much of the content. How do you feel about being required to stay for the entire presentation? Your gifted/advanced learners are dreading a similar experience waiting for them during the first days of a new school year. Much of school time during those days are spent "reviewing" information students were supposed to have mastered earlier in their education.
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The Atlantic
Monet Spencer remembers traveling to affluent suburban high schools when she was a member of the marching band at Brashear High School in this city's low-income, high-crime Beechview neighborhood. The suburban band members' uniforms were brand new, Spencer noticed — not passed down and worn-out like hers. So were their instruments, unlike the scratched and tarnished castoffs her school loaned her and her bandmates, including the secondhand flute she played.
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Education Week (commentary)
Stephen Sawchuk, a contributor for Education Week, writes: "With only five days until the total solar eclipse that will carve right through America's heartland, I've been poring through online resources looking for how to make curriculum for the Aug. 21 event the best it can be. Here are four themes that have emerged from a lot of Googling!"
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By: Sheilamary Koch (commentary)
 I can't count the times I've walked into my high school language class to hear students ask, "Can we watch a movie today?" I laugh and move on to the lesson planned, the same as when they ask, "Can we just sleep today?" To me, it's the same question. It's not that I think movies are a bad resource for language teaching. On the contrary, movies serve to model natural interactive dialogue for learners in a context representative of real-life.
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District Administration Magazine
Districts devote nearly 80 percent of their budgets to personnel costs—leaving little wiggle room for administrators tasked with maintaining fiscal responsibility and boosting the quality of education in a time of nearly stagnant funding. John Hutchison, chief financial and operations officer at Olathe Public Schools in Kansas, began budgetary planning for the 2017-2018 school year without knowing how much aid to expect from the state. Since 2015, funding has been frozen at 2014-2015 levels — and, as late as July 2017, state legislators were still debating the year's education budget.
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Education World
Budget cuts. We’ve been feeling the effects of them for a while, now, haven’t we? At first, we waited patiently, even optimistically. We watched supplies dwindle, books deteriorate, computers fall apart.... We took pay freezes, pay cuts, took a second or a third job, did our best to dodge layoffs.... As an educator, often, your first reaction to such an unsupportive academic environment is to double-down your efforts, if only out of pure spite against the system: You start running free after-school programs to keep the arts alive; you take pride in your ability to creatively manage a classroom with half the resources; you show the world the indomitable spirit of your students.... Unfortunately, these practices don’t tend to be sustainable.
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The Associated Press
Support for opening more charter schools has dropped significantly among Americans, but there's less opposition to expanding private school voucher programs, as the Trump administration continues its push for school choice, according to a survey. About 39 percent of respondents want to see more charters — schools that are funded by public money, but usually operated independently of school districts — according to a study by Education Next, a journal published by Harvard's Kennedy School and Stanford University. That's down from 51 percent last year.
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U.S. News & World Report
When students head back to school this fall, many will relish the fact that their alarm clocks won't be sounding so early. Schools in at least 19 states are planning to start the school day later this year, according to Start School Later, a nonprofit organization that advocates for later school start times. "Every year we see more and more schools delaying bell times to improve student sleep, health and learning," Terra Ziporyn Snider, the group's executive director, said in a statement. "Not all of them will be starting middle and high schools at 8:30 or later, as health professionals recommend, but they are moving to schedules that are healthier and safer for many more students."
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THE Journal
Much has been reported on the value of providing teachers with high-quality professional learning opportunities, with school across more than 35 states having adopted or adapted the Standards for Professional Learning. However, less has been heard from teachers about whether they actually enjoy those experiences discussed in the framework. To help jump start that discussion on teacher PD, the NEA (National Education Association) and professional learning companies Corwin and Learning Forward conducted a survey of more than 6,300 teachers nationwide.
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EdSource
Teachers in America are dropping out, leaving the profession at twice the rate of teachers in high-achieving school systems like those in Finland and Ontario, Canada. And they're departing in large part because their principals do not support them, according to a report. But if schools could convince half of those who leave to stay, the teacher shortage that puts thousands of under-qualified emergency replacements in classrooms each year "could be virtually eliminated," according to the report from the Learning Policy Institute, a Palo Alto research group.
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| | FEDERAL ADVOCACY AND POLICY |
Education Week
If you're looking for someone to polarize debates about education policy, look no further than President Donald Trump. That's according to an opinion survey published Tuesday by Education Next, a K-12 policy journal. People's views of charter schools, tax-credit scholarships, the Common Core State Standards, and teacher merit pay was sharply affected in several instances when they were told where Trump stands on them.
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Education Week
A proposed Texas bill that would have restricted restroom access for transgender people in many public buildings, including public schools, died after the state's house failed to take action on the measure during a special session. The bill, previously approved by the senate and championed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, would have restricted access to restrooms and locker rooms in buildings operated by local governments — including school districts — based on the sex listed on a person's birth certificate or state-issued ID. It also included proposed restrictions for local anti-discrimination ordinances.
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The Connecticut Post
After making what the state called "clarifications" in its plan to boost student achievement, the federal government has given the green light to its Every Student Succeeds Act plan, state officials said. Word came in a phone call to the department two hours after Commissioner of Education Dianna R. Wentzell held an annual back to school meeting with schools superintendents, said Laura Stefon, chief of staff for the department.
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NAESP
A message from NAESP President Brian K. Partin: "The NAESP Board of Directors has announced the resignation of Dr. Schwanda Jackson from her position as the At Large, Middle-level, Minority Director effective August 9, 2017. Schwanda was a terrific principal representative on the Board and a vocal advocate for ensuring a quality education for all children. Schwanda has accepted a position as Director of Instructional Services within her school district. She is very excited to take on this new leadership role. We wish her the very best and much success in her new position."
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NAESP
A new school year brings new opportunities to leverage the hope and excitement of providing students a well-rounded and complete education. To better support principals in this crucial time, NAESP has created a Back-to-School Toolkit to guide your interactions with students, staff and families at the start of the year. You will find information to share such as fact sheets, sample social media and blog posts, and resources on topics such as attendance, home visits and connected leadership. Click here to find these and more resources.
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