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| | LATEST NEWS FOR PRINCIPALS |
Edutopia (commentary)
Elena Aguilar, a contributor for Edutopia, writes: "Here's the most important question for a school leader to ask as a new year starts: 'How can I cultivate emotional resilience in teachers?' Resilience is the ability to bounce back after adversity, the ability to weather the storms in our lives. Like the meteorological events that will always roll across our terrains at predictable and unpredictable times, as long as we're living, we'll face expected and unexpected challenges. Change is the only thing we can count on, which means that we'll always need to cultivate resilience."
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Education Week
Across the country, school districts are trying new tactics to avoid starting this school year with an empty teacher's desk, with some going so far as to hire parents to staff empty classrooms. Many districts have reported trouble filling certain positions, particularly in traditional shortage areas like special education, math, science, and foreign-language instruction. That is, of course, a perennial issue: Most states have reported shortage areas for years, if not decades.
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School Leaders Now
With change comes resistance. If you want to start the school year by making over anything from IEP procedures to your whole science program — don't let blank stares or a lack of enthusiasm hold you back. But, know this going in: Change is scary. The set routines your staff know well on are like a favorite jacket — comfortable and easy... Take them away and it's like stepping outside naked. Don't let that deter you. It's been proven that rising to the occasion and achieving what you didn’t think possible starts to feel like second nature when you actually practice stepping out of your comfort zone.
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District Administration Magazine
Whether and how religion should be taught in public schools is one of those perennial hot buttons in America that seems to defy consensus. So when the National Council for the Social Studies this past June released new guidelines for teaching religion in schools, it raised questions. The council's goal, however, was not to simply "teach religion," but to increase religious literacy by having students study the social and political roles that various religions play in society.
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MindShift
A lot of parents are worried about helping their children get ahead in a world that feels increasingly competitive, demanding, and high-stakes. That anxiety can take many shapes including overparenting, over-scheduling, and constantly looking for that special opportunity that will give a child the competitive edge. But while parents are fretting about what they can do to help their kids academically and socially, it's easy to forget about the emotional health that is a foundation for success in life. Discussions of growth mindset and resiliency have become more common in recent years, but how can parents foster a healthy view of struggle in their kids?
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The Hechinger Report
Core academic subjects have long been the top priority for districts preparing students for life after high school. Now districts are elevating social and emotional learning, as well, drawing from a large body of research showing that skills like grit and self-regulation are critical to life success. If they're so valuable, the logic goes, schools should find concrete ways to teach them. And with teaching comes testing — not only to ensure students' learning can be measured, but so that educators can determine how well the new efforts are working.
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NPR
Children who start school at an older age do better than their younger classmates and have better odds of attending college and graduating from an elite institution. That's according to a new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research. Many parents already delay enrolling their children in school, believing they'll do better if they're a bit older. It's sort of "academic red-shirting," says one of the study's authors, David Figlio, an economist at Northwestern University, using a term that originated in college athletics and refers to recruits who are held out of games for a year.
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District Administration Magazine
Sensory rooms not only help students with special needs feel more comfortable and empowered in the classroom, they may also keep them in their neighborhood schools, according to K-12 administrators. The carefully designed rooms may include dim lights to help students who are sensitive to light, weighted blankets to give them comfort or a swing they can gently rock on to become calm or spin in a circle for stimulation. The Council for Exceptional Children says sensory rooms are getting popular in districts to help calm overstimulated or anxious students.
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KRQE
The outcome of a new study being conducted by a local researcher at UNM could eventually help teachers better instruct students who struggle with math — specifically, those students who learned English as a second language. It is no secret that when it comes to education, New Mexico is struggling to keep up, especially in STEM-related subjects. "New Mexico does't necessarily get high scores in the areas of mathematics and that sort of thing," said UNM research professor Lee Swanson, who added that New Mexico is not alone in that. Swanson says issues with math and problem-solving are more predominant in students who learned another language first.
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District Administration Magazine
Over a span of two years, Warren Township Schools in Warren, New Jersey, first hired a new superintendent and then replaced the principal at Warren Middle School. Both came from other districts. While Matt Mingle is the K-8 district's third superintendent in roughly seven years, George Villar succeeded a principal who retired after 23 years on the job. Not everyone welcomes change, especially when it involves leadership. No one likes to be kept in the dark about new district policies or how their role and responsibilities might change — or wonder whether they'll get along with the new boss.
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EdTech Magazine
Every student has his or her own story and brings a diverse set of perspectives to school each day. Our life experiences and worldview affect how we approach and solve problems. The more voices we hear and stories we tell, the more we can learn from each other and be innovative while creating or solving problems. To increase the speed and depth of innovation, we need to engage and provide opportunities for all students to learn in meaningful ways.
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Reuters
The number of children attending charter schools in the United States hit a record of about 6 percent of all students in public schools, according to a federal education report. Charter schools are publicly funded schools operated separately from local school districts. They are usually independently run but can also be managed by for-profit companies or nonprofit organizations running multiple schools.
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Education World
For students who don't have a bed to call their own, staying focused in class and completing homework assignments can be incredibly difficult. Homelessness is affecting a growing number of children, having doubled in the last decade to 1.3 million, according to the National Center for Homeless Education. This doesn't mean that all students who are homeless are living on the street or in homeless shelters. Many could have parents that were evicted from their homes and are bouncing in-between short stays with family and friends. Regardless, the instability can be incredibly jarring for students.
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CNN
Lynn Sorrells started teaching 26 years ago because she loved seeing the light-bulb moment when a kid grasped a new concept. She still does. But as principal of a high school in Dorchester County, Maryland, she is struggling to find an algebra and geometry teacher just weeks before her school year is set to begin. As students head back to school, Sorrells' district is one of hundreds across the country grappling with a growing teacher shortage — especially in key areas such as math and special ed.
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| | FEDERAL ADVOCACY AND POLICY |
Education Week
A prominent LGBT legal group has sued the U.S. Departments of Education and Justice for records related to the agencies' decision to withdraw federal guidance on the rights of transgender students in public schools. Lambda Legal filed its Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, seeking all records and correspondence related to the policy shift and its implementation. The federal agencies have not yet provided those documents after the organization made a formal open records request in March, the suit says.
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Education Week
For decades, district leaders have been clamoring for more say over how they spend their federal money. And when the Every Student Succeeds Act passed back in 2015, it looked like they had finally gotten their wish: a brand-new $1.6 billion block grant that could be used for computer science initiatives, suicide prevention, new band instruments, and almost anything else that could improve students' well-being or provide them with a well-rounded education.
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NPR
An Arizona law banning ethnic studies violated students' constitutional rights, a federal judge said. His ruling made clear that the state showed discriminatory intent when it essentially shut down a Mexican-American studies program at Tucson Unified School District. "Both enactment and enforcement were motivated by racial animus," federal Judge A. Wallace Tashima said in the ruling.
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Chalkbeat Colorado
When Aurora Public Schools went looking for ways to save money earlier this year, one casualty was a district-wide contract for a service that provides a translator on the phone when one is not available in person. The decision could have hurt Crawford Elementary School, where students speak about 35 languages and the service is used at least weekly — more at the start of the school year.
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NAESP
Research shows investing in quality professional development is critical to student success. The webinar will by hosted by the Learning Policy Institute, and is co-sponsored by NAESP, the American Federation of Teachers, The School Superintendents Association and the National Association of Secondary School Principals. Join us on Monday, Aug. 28, 11– 12 p.m. PDT.
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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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