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| | LATEST NEWS FOR PRINCIPALS |
The Atlantic
The precocious teen who's too cool for school — earning high marks despite skipping class — is a pop-culture standard, the idealized version of an effortless youth for whom success comes easy. Too bad it's largely a work of fiction that belies a much harsher reality: Missing just two days a month of school for any reason exposes kids to a cascade of academic setbacks, from lower reading and math scores in the third grade to higher risks of dropping out of high school, research suggests.
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Education Week (commentary)
Peter DeWitt, a contributor for Education Week, writes: "What's the silver bullet that will solve all of our problems? What are the new shiny toys we should chase after in our districts? Is there a box we can buy and open that will give us all we need. We know the answer is no to all of those questions but we go after them any way. Why? It's the easy thing to do. But, what we forget is that we tell students that learning can be hard work, and then we look for the easy answers as adults."
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eSchool News
U.S. education can migrate to a system that supports teaching, drives learning and gives all students a strong foundation, according to a new report from the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future.
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The Atlantic
We asked prominent voices in education — from policy makers and teachers to activists and parents — to look beyond laws, politics and funding and imagine a utopian system of learning. They went back to the drawing board — and the chalkboard — to build an educational Garden of Eden. We're publishing their answers to one question each day this week. Responses have been lightly edited for clarity and length. Today's assignment: The Space. Describe the perfect classroom.
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The Associated Press
Fifth-grader Bella Bartlomi sits at a table full of circuits and small robots, trying to connect the right circuits to make a small wheel spin. Instructors are standing by in the room, called a "makerspace," but let the students at the suburban Kansas City elementary school figure out things by themselves. Eventually, she finds the right combination, showing off the spinning wheel with a big smile. "It makes me feel smart," she said. "I made it work. I tried to figure out how to make this move and I did it, by myself." The "maker movement" that's reached K-12 schools across the United States during the last two or three years encourages collaborative, creative, student-driven education and many educators have enthusiastically embraced the move away from the traditional classroom, in which teachers are "the sage on the stage" dispensing information.
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Edutopia
A child growing up today has unprecedented access to books, from audiobooks played through apps to the seemingly old but always relevant printed book. In this world of easy access to text, there is still something missing: books that represent all children. A student of color must scour the children's aisles to find a book that even in the most remote sense reflects him or her. It's seemingly innocuous how a multitude of sample math problems reference Tom or Sally. The innocent white faces gazing up from textbooks unknowingly remind students that as the U.S. becomes more diverse, our materials and resources still fail to do so.
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eSchool News
Twenty-odd years ago, the extent of an elementary schooler's digital skills was making it through the Oregon Trail on their classroom computer without dying of dysentery. Today, the digital skills K-12 students need to succeed both in school and after graduation have become much more complex. As classroom technology has shifted from typing classes and simple learning games (remember Math Blaster?) to tablets and online class blogs, the range of essential student skills goes far beyond those halcyon days of simple reading, writing and arithmetic.
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By: Debra Josephson Abrams (commentary)
 February: African American History Month. March: Women's History Month. May: Asian Pacific Heritage Month. November: American Indian Heritage Month. These are among a number of months during which U.S. schools host activities to enlighten students about the significance of those being commemorated. American teachers are aware of these commemorative months and plan lessons accordingly. Equally as necessary and noble is October's National Bullying Prevention Month.
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Brooking Institute
School lunch is one of the most stable features of a child's school day — and principals have more influence over this longstanding tradition than you might think. Each school day, students file into the cafeteria for lunch. Yet, the quality of this experience, along with the benefits it provides to students, varies from one school to the next, in no small part due to decisions and policies made by the school's principal.
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Education Week (commentary)
Student engagement, project-based learning, interdisciplinary teaching and learning, inclusion, STEM, blended learning, online learning, writing across the curriculum, authentic learning and assessment, team teaching ... all these goals and movements within education can become catchwords or overused phrases. Before the fall momentum takes over, there are opportunities to enter a deeper conversations about what we have chosen as priorities and why. Those conversations span the organization.
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District Administration Magazine
In less than a generation, schools have entered a complex new world of security concerns. They have gone from a focus on fire drills to "hardening" against intruders to deter the rising threat of shootings and copycat violence across the nation. With 74 school shootings since the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, money is being thrown at the problem. An estimated $4.9 billion will be spent on security systems by 2017. Yet our schools cannot become prisons despite the threat of violence, and the money can be easily wasted if used ineffectively.
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The Washington Post
During their long, languid summers, lots of children forget the lessons they learned in school. But the hot empty months pose an especially big academic hurdle for poor children, whose families might not have time or money for camps or enrichment activities. Now new research suggests that school districts can stave off the so-called summer slide by offering free, voluntary programs that mix reading and math instruction with sailing, arts and crafts and other summer staples. The research also shows, perhaps unsurprisingly, that students have to attend the programs regularly to reap the benefits.
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The Associated Press
Paper? Pencils? Laptops? Robots? Teachers are increasingly relying on crowdfunding efforts to stock their classrooms with both the mundane and sometimes big-ticket items. Contributions to education campaigns have climbed on GoFundMe and DonorsChoose, collectively, from just more than $31.2 million in 2010 to nearly $140 million in 2015, the do-it-yourself fundraising sites report. Both sites are on pace to eclipse that in 2016. GoFundMe has collected $58 million in just the last 12 months, and DonorsChoose saw more than 50,000 campaigns live on the site for the first time this back-to-school season.
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| | FEDERAL ADVOCACY AND POLICY |
NPR
It's back to school time around the country, so we thought it was a good time to check in with our country's top education official, Secretary of Education John B. King, Jr. There's also news to report. Earlier this week, his agency proposed new rules that would govern how school districts distribute federal money meant to support the education of low-income kids. The rules are intended to ensure that these federal funds, known as Title I, can only be used in addition to state and local money and not instead of those funds. It turns out that some districts spend far more of their state and local funds on their more affluent schools. The new rules, if they last, could change that, forcing districts to share resources more evenly. It's controversial.
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By: Bambi Majumdar (commentary)
 U.S. Secretary of Education John B. King Jr. recently urged parents to help encourage and bring about more diversity in the teaching workforce in order to keep up with the growing student diversity in K-12 schools. King received a lot of flak after his speech despite the student-teacher ratios that support his stance. A new report found major gaps in the teaching workforce pipeline and a severe lack of diversity among teachers at K-12 public schools across the country.
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The Associated Press via ABC News
Schools in New York state will be required to test their drinking water for lead contamination under a new measure signed into law by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. School districts will report the results to parents as well as local and state officials. Buildings found to have high levels of lead will have to develop and implement plans to fix the problem. "These rigorous new protections for New York's children include the toughest lead contamination testing standards in the nation, and provide clear guidance to schools on when and how they should test their water," said Cuomo, a Democrat.
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Chicago Tribune
A list of familiar pressures confront Chicago Public Schools as more than 300,000 students return to classrooms. For the second September in a row, there's no accord on a teachers' contract, and the Chicago Teachers Union is pushing the possibility of a strike as early as next month. School budgets are typically tight, and officials again are counting on money from Springfield to prevent another round of cuts. The prospect of an October strike is only one of the challenges faced by Mayor Rahm Emanuel's school district.
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NAESP
Accomplished principals will share the latest research and analysis on evidence-based strategies to support the role of principals according to ESSA evidence tiers, discuss how ESSA provides states and districts with ample opportunities to provide on-going professional support for principals, and share key strategies for sustaining high quality professional learning communities for principals and other school leaders. This webinar takes place Tuesday, Sept. 13, 4-5 p.m. ET.
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NAESP
Writing for Principal is a great way to help other principals while giving you fresh insights into your own professional development. NAESP is currently seeking articles for the January/February issue on diverse learners. This issue will take a broad look at diversity, as well as address the needs of English-language learners, including strategies for effective instruction and assessment. Articles can also address equity, closing the achievement gap, cultural competencies, diversity and demographic changes, and parent engagement. Copy is due Sept. 10. For details on how to submit, visit www.naesp.org/writing.
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