This message was sent to ##Email##
|
|
|
|
|
| | LATEST NEWS FOR PRINCIPALS |
District Administration Magazine
Educators in a school district that conducts well-designed formative assessments should be able to accurately predict how students will perform on midterms, finals and high-stakes exams. A growing number of experts and administrators insist that if a district excels at formative assessment, its students shouldn't have to sit through so many high-stakes tests.
READ MORE
School Leaders Now (commentary)
Suzanne Tingley, a contributor for School Leaders Now, writes: "Q: I've been a principal for 5 years and I've learned a lot along they way. But one thing I know I have a hard time with is taking criticism personally. After a particularly contentious meeting, either with a parent or a staff member, it's hard to believe that some of their criticism wasn't meant personally. How do I get better at keeping my own feelings out if it. A: I can't even guess how many times in my administrative career, after a particularly tough interaction with a parent or a staff member, someone in my office would say to me, 'Hey, don't take it personally.'"
READ MORE
Edutopia (commentary)
Articles, books and journals have been written about how to support our new teachers — guidance on lesson planning, suggestions for classroom management techniques and support in professional decision-making are just a few of the many components our novice teachers need as they begin their academic journey. For an instructional coach, it may seem daunting to coach the new teacher. Where does one begin to assist him or her in creating the best learning experience possible for students, parents and colleagues?
READ MORE
|
Promoted by
|
|
|
|
 |
THE Journal
In education reform a lot of attention has been paid to learning standards and accountability systems and far less to the curriculum used in teaching. Yet it's the curriculum that may turn out to make the bigger impact. That's the proposition offered in a new report from Chiefs for Change, which has called for "curriculum reform." Chiefs for Change is a nonprofit network of state and district education "chiefs" who want to learn from each other as they develop policies and practices for improving education in their domains.
READ MORE
eSchool News
According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, 80 percent of students with learning disabilities have dyslexia. In order to create a learning environment that feels safe, comfortable and empowering for students, schools need to adhere to basic guiding principles. In "Creating a Dyslexia-Friendly School," Terrie Noland, national director, Educator Engagement for Learning Ally, presented on early intervention for dyslexic students, using the right AT (assistive technology) tools and accommodations for each learner, and creating environments in which students can thrive.
READ MORE
 |
|
Your students don’t all learn in the same way, so why deliver instruction in the same way? Exact Path is focused on understanding where your students are academically and then taking that data a step further. Adaptive tools offer targeted instruction that is aligned to your goals and paced to your students’ needs.
Click here to learn more.
|
|
MindShift
As teachers, we sometimes forget that little, everyday actions in the classroom have a huge impact on our students' lives. Just a small offering of appreciation can transform relationships and boost student self-worth. Simple tokens of gratitude, such as students voicing their appreciation for a fired teacher, can shift the climate of entire schools and strengthen the bonds among teachers, kids, and the community. But it's not just about recognition — it's also about supporting and inspiring others. Studies have shown that when someone gets appreciated, they feel more socially valued, and this can lead to prosocial behavior.
READ MORE
The Hechinger Report
Students from underserved populations do not have the same opportunities for a strong education as their more-affluent peers. This is the harsh reality that data from Stanford’s sweeping 2009-2013 study bears out. As policymakers and educators struggle with how to shift this phenomenon, social-emotional learning has emerged as a solution to the challenge of achieving educational equity; they certainly comprise part of the solution to this multifaceted challenge.
READ MORE
|
|
Edutopia
Tips for showing students how to give each other writing feedback, which benefits both the receiver and the giver.
READ MORE
Istation
[FREE E-Book] From progress monitoring to implementation, learn how blended learning supports differentiation for ALL students. This intervention e-book from Istation shows how formative assessments, data-driven instruction, and computer-adaptive lessons transform schools. Get the e-book.
THE Journal
Once again this school year, schools will be ramping up robotics programs and opening more makerspaces, according to the latest report from the New Media Consortium and the Consortium for School Networking. The organizations have released the annual "NMC/CoSN Horizon Report K–12 Education Edition" report to address new and emerging learning technologies used in schools around the world. Based on perspectives from more than 60 education researchers and experts, the 2017 report charts the five-year impact of these technologies worldwide, identifying six important developments for educational technology, six key trends in K–12 and six significant challenges.
READ MORE
EdSource
Recently, my children joined the nation's 50 million students in the annual back-to-school ritual: feeling those butterflies of excitement at seeing school friends after summer vacation, choosing a new backpack, restocking the pencil case. The annual back-to-school ritual for parents also includes the posting on the wall, or the letter, telling them who will be their child's teacher(s) for the year. Some parents celebrate that their child got the "good" teacher. Others groan that they pulled the short straw.
READ MORE
|
Promoted by
|
|
|
|
 |
eSchool News
More than half of educators in a recent survey (65 percent) said they feel confident about their ability to effectively use ed-tech resources in the classroom — a 7 percent increase from 2016. Nearly all surveyed educators (98 percent) said they use some form of digital content, but they also agreed that roadblocks do prevent them from using technology to its full classroom potential. Among the largest barriers to effective education technology integration are lack of time to plan for implementation of digital resources into instruction (46 percent), a shortage of devices in the classroom (40 percent), and lack of access to technology-focused professional development (48 percent).
READ MORE
|
|
The Conversation
Hurricane Harvey's historic floods have killed at least 30 people. An estimated 32,000 more have been evacuated into shelters, and approximately 210,000 have registered with the Federal Emergency Management Agency for assistance. Disasters, whether natural (like hurricanes and floods) or man-made (like wars), can cause tremendous upheaval in people's lives. Imagine what being evacuated from your home — even temporarily — would feel like. What about having your home and all of your possessions destroyed? For adults, these are traumatic and deeply distressing experiences. For kids, they may be even more distressing. Losing a home for a kid may mean losing the only home he or she has ever had.
READ MORE
eSchool News
For educators across the country, it's time to get back at it. Summer is over, and if we are not yet back in school teaching, we are sorting through class rosters, getting our first week planned, and tying up the hundreds of loose ends that need to be addressed before we welcome our students back to school. However, for many of educators, the end of summer signals not a return to work, but rather a continuation of our efforts to support the success of all students. While school was out over the summer, we attended workshops, participated in conferences, and stayed connected to our fellow educators through our involvement in various professional learning communities.
READ MORE
EdTech Magazine
In the past two years, school districts have spent $41 million on adaptive learning tech — an amount that has tripled since 2013. According to the report from Noodle Markets, about 9 percent of that spending was on professional development for teachers, reports EdWeek Market Brief. Adaptive learning, defined by Arkansas State University's education department, is "a series of highly complex algorithms that draw on an enormous data set to process a series of decision trees that — outwardly, at least — present a finely tuned instructional methodology that more readily matches the student's ability to process and retain instructional material."
READ MORE
|
Missed last week's issue? See which articles your colleagues read most.
|
|
Don't be left behind. Click here to see what else you missed.
|
| | FEDERAL ADVOCACY AND POLICY |
Education Week
Lawmakers overseeing education spending dealt a big blow to the Trump administration's K-12 budget asks in a spending bill approved by a bipartisan vote. The legislation would leave intact the main federal programs aimed at teacher training and after-school funding. And it would seek to bar the U.S. Department of Education from moving forward with two school choice initiatives it pitched in its request for fiscal year 2018, which begins Oct. 1.
READ MORE
THE Journal
The Senate Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Appropriations Subcommittee has unanimously approved a funding bill for fiscal year 2018 that includes $68.3 billion in discretionary funding for the United States Department of Education, a $29 million increase over the previous year's budget. The bill increases funding for Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grants — a provision of the Every Student Succeeds Act calling for $1.6 billion in funding and known as Title IV — by $50 million to $450 million. The SSAE is a "flexible formula block grant to help support activities to provide students with a well-rounded education, including STEM education; ensure safe and supportive learning environments; and use technology to improve instruction," according to information released by the subcommittee.
READ MORE
Education Week
When the new federal education law passed in 2015 with language allowing states to set aside money for programs that target principals, teacher-leaders, principal-supervisors and leadership development, many in the education-leadership community were ecstatic. It was the first time that federal law had been so explicit about school leadership — coming after mounting research in the last two decades on how high-quality leaders affect students' academic growth.
READ MORE
The Washington Post
Three massive school systems in Florida announced they plan to close Thursday and Friday to allow people to prepare for Hurricane Irma. School officials in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties said they would cancel classes as the storm barreled towards the United States. The three school districts together educate more than 820,000 students. School officials made the decision to close as their counterparts in Texas continue to assess damage from Hurricane Harvey, which caused the worst natural disaster in the state's recorded history. The Houston Independent School District, with 218,000 students, announced it would open Sept. 11, two weeks behind schedule.
READ MORE
NPR
Principals and administrators reported to work Monday for the first time this school year. Officials say nearly a quarter of the buildings suffered major damage. Students are expected back Sept. 11.
READ MORE
Kansas News Service via The Ottawa Herald
Tens of millions of dollars in extra state funding that legislators approved this spring amid pressure from an ongoing school finance lawsuit could go toward raising teacher pay. In recent weeks, news reports point to school boards throughout the state adjusting pay this year. However, there's no statewide data yet on how much teacher compensation will grow compared to last school year. That means it's unclear whether the average change will keep pace with inflation or even exceed it.
READ MORE
NAESP
When the news is filled with racialized rhetoric or violence, teachers need to be prepared to discuss these topics with their students — especially when those students are people of color, economically disadvantaged, immigrants or undocumented.
READ MORE
NAESP
The research is clear: Strong training and continuous professional learning improves principals' leadership skills, one of the most important elements of student learning. Effective principals not only manage their buildings, they are team leaders who guide their staff to deliver effective instruction in their classrooms.
READ MORE
|
|
|
|
7701 Las Colinas Ridge, Ste. 800, Irving, TX 75063
|
