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| | LATEST NEWS FOR PRINCIPALS |
U.S. News & World Report
Parents of public school students support the use of standardized tests, but think they're overused and not necessarily helping their children improve. That finding — one of many from a new survey of parent attitudes released Monday by the nonprofit communications organization Education Post — lies at the heart of the nation's ongoing testing saga, which has been marked by thousands of students opting out of state assessments and a growing number of states struggling with how to administer and use new tests designed to align with more rigorous standards.
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The Pew Charitable Trusts
Even with 16 years of teaching experience and two master's degrees, Nathalia Moreno had a hard time finding a new job in the financially stressed schools where she lived in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Her prospects brightened when she began considering working in schools on the mainland, where bilingual teachers are in high demand. She got an offer from Florida, but took a job teaching physical education in Las Vegas where recruiters were more persistent.
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Edutopia
What is financial literacy? There are many definitions floating about, and most are based upon a knowledge and understanding of personal finance and financial institutions. The public is faced with nearly two decades of struggling global economies, unemployment, and the collapse of numerous financial institutions. Very few families have not experienced the fear of uncertain personal finances and felt concern about being financially stable and secure in their future.
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The Hechinger Report
Teachers are increasingly turning to video games to enhance their students' learning, but in the age of the Common Core, not all games are created equally. With the rollout of the Common Core — a set of academic guidelines in math and reading adopted by 44 states and the District of Columbia — educational game makers have been racing to align their products with the new standards. And with nearly three in four elementary and middle school teachers reporting they use games in their classrooms, the potential profits are huge. A recent report projected educational gaming to grow into a multibillion-dollar industry by 2018. Yet some experts say school districts should be wary of gaming companies slapping Common Core labels on their products.
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The Washington Post
The third-graders at Capitol Heights Elementary School are showing what they have learned about ancient Chinese dynasties, but there is no conventional quiz. They are gathered in small groups writing song lyrics — testing ideas, rhyming words, adding details, singing to each other. Some perform for the class. "The wall of China is a wall that protects us from bad guys," one girl sings, as teacher Tifany Champouillon listens for the lesson's main ideas.
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Science Weekly Magazine
Science Weekly Magazine
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Education Week (commentary)
Helping children find a book that is right for them is a tricky proposition. John, for example, was excited about his book, and this excitement might have motivated him to read it whether it was "too hard" for him or not. Mrs. Mills, on the other hand, was concerned about the book's difficulty level, because she wanted John to be a successful independent reader. But while she may have had the best intentions, this teacher doused some of the fire and excitement John had about reading, and perhaps books in general.
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ADDitude Magazine
Many students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder have math learning disabilities, due to the multiple processes and brain functions needed to solve math problems. Some math difficulties are specifically related to ADHD — inattention, organization, working memory, self-monitoring. Others result directly from learning disabilities — sequential learning, perceptual-motor and language weaknesses. Teachers can use the following accommodations to support struggling students.
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Scholastic Administration Magazine
On any given week, the lesson plans at P.S. 144 in Queens, New York, might include the fox trot, tango, swing, or waltz, among others dances. For more than 15 years, the fifth graders at the school have taken part in an in-school arts residency program called Dancing Classrooms. "It's become a fifth-grade tradition," says P.S. 144 art specialist and arts coordinator Lois Olshan. "It's just part of our culture." The school offers three ballroom dancing sessions during the year — in fall, winter, and spring. Every fifth grader takes part in a session, with two lessons per week for 10 weeks during the school day.
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District Administration Magazine
The need to teach technology and "current century" skills (formally known as 21st century skills) is well documented. Establishing these proficiencies in our students is not just critical to the next generation of job-seekers, but to the economic health of the nation overall. However, as any school administrator who has tried in the past can attest, digital devices — and training teachers to use such tools — require significant investments. Given the academic importance, the effort demands skillful leadership.
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EdTech Magazine
When the president of the United States points to your school district as exemplary, you must be doing something right. In November 2014, the technology program at Coachella Valley Unified School District in Southern California received just that honor. Despite its location in a high-poverty area — 100 percent of students there qualify for free or reduced-price lunches — Coachella Valley has provided its nearly 19,000 students with tablets.
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eSchool News
In the last few years iPads and Chromebooks have both seen astronomical growth in education, becoming two of the most popular devices for classrooms and one-to-one programs. In light of that it's only natural that power users and fans will compare and contrast their merits, given that so many schools have limited funds for devices. That's basically the setup for this spirited debate by Jennifer Gibson, CEO of PD Learning Network and an iPad connoisseur, and Rich Dixon, vice president of professional learning and a devoted Chromebook user.
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Education Week
A report by a researcher for the Institute for Family Studies, a think tank dedicated to "strengthening marriage and family life," used national education data to look at the school behavior of adopted children and found positive behavior to be lacking. Report author Nicholas Zill, a retired psychologist and researcher, wrote that he analyzed the behavior data found in the National Center for Education Statistics longitudinal study of 19,000 children begun in 1998. Of the 19,000 children, 160 had been adopted, which Zill wrote was enough for "some reasonably robust estimates of its effects, at least in the early grades."
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MindShift
When Harvard professor Jal Mehta and his team began researching the factors necessary to support high quality teaching, they started by identifying schools that focused on more than the reading and literacy test scores. The researchers knew there was far more to good teaching and real learning than what shows up on tests and they wanted to find schools focused on a more complex set of skills. They wanted to find out what good teaching looks like, how teachers learn to do it and what supports they need to spread those ideas. After spending time at 30 schools talking with administrators, teachers and education leaders, Mehta's team came up with three big areas of improvement described in a white paper called "From Quicksand to Solid Ground: Building a Foundation to Support Quality Teaching."
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American Psychological Association via Science Daily
Low-income students who change schools frequently are at risk for lower math scores and have a harder time managing their behavior and attention in the classroom than similar students who stay in the same school, according to research published by the American Psychological Association. Children who experienced fewer school transitions over a five-year period, demonstrated greater cognitive skills and higher math achievement in early elementary school, relative to their counterparts who changed schools frequently. This research, which involved children enrolled in the Chicago public school system, held true even after taking into account children's cognitive and math skills during Head Start preschool programs. It was published in the APA journal Developmental Psychology.
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NPR
Sheree Woods is sitting in her car in the parking lot of a mini-mall in a Los Angeles suburb, with the air conditioning blasting. She's here for a huge sale. Woods is a high school art teacher at Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies, a big magnet school in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Every year, like countless other teachers around the country, she digs deep into her own pocket for school supplies. "I would say between $300 and $400 is a pretty average year for me," she says. "Sometimes it's a lot worse, but don't tell my husband!"
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Education World
When students are seated they are a more relaxed, sometimes too relaxed. One California school has adopted standing desks as a way to promote focus, productivity and to prevent stiffness as well. While it may seem more of a punishment to some, students are actually taking a liking to their new desks. "Companies across the country are ditching traditional workspaces and 'raising' employees' desks with standing desks," according to CBS News.
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| | FEDERAL ADVOCACY AND POLICY |
Education Week
No matter what happens with the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, it's almost a sure thing that states and districts are about to get way more running room when it comes to fixing their lowest-performing schools. Both pieces of ESEA reauthorization legislation pending in the House and Senate would put states and districts, as opposed to the feds, in the driver's seat when it comes to turnarounds. And even if the rewrite doesn't make it over the finish line in the coming months, federal regulations have already moved towards more state control and are likely to go even further in that direction under a new administration. After all, strong federal control over turnarounds — through the Obama administration's $5 billion, highly prescriptive School Improvement Grant program — has yielded decidedly mixed results.
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The Atlantic
Pennsylvania public schools are now at Defcon 1 — borrowing millions of dollars to keep the lights on, starting to ask teachers to work without pay, and even voting to shut the schoolhouse doors and send the kids home — all because an unprecedented state budget crisis has left them within weeks of insolvency. Funds are running out so fast in Erie, the state's fourth-largest city, that the schools could shut down by Nov. 1.
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The Washington Post
Arkansas has become the second state to redefine what it means to be proficient on new Common Core tests, inflating the performance of its students. Like Ohio before it, Arkansas has decided that students are proficient if they score at level 3 or above on the exams known as the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC. PARCC divides students into five levels, from 1 to 5. According to PARCC, students are on track to graduate with the skills they need after high school only if they score at level 4 or above.
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NAESP
NAESP's Best Practices for Better Schools Conference™ is the one event where you will find the most thought-provoking leaders in Pre-K-8 education. Principals, Assistant Principals, Aspiring Principals, Superintendents, Teacher Leaders, and other key-decision makers will benefit from making valuable connections, learning best practices, and sharing ideas with colleagues from across the country. Keynote Speakers, Dr. Russ Quaglia and Pedro Noguera, will inspire you to overcome challenges and motivate you to reach new levels of success. The Super Early Bird conference rate for NAESP members ($379) is good until Nov. 1. Want to present at NAESP's Best Practices for Better Schools Conference™ or know someone who does? Submit a proposal by Nov. 2.
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NAESP
A Twitter chat is set to kick off the yearlong Principal magazine series, Connect & Innovate, National Principals Month and Connected Educators Month. Principal magazine editor-in-chief Kaylen Tucker will join connected principals Brad Gustafson and Ben Gilpin to discuss their new Principal magazine article: "Leadership for Tomorrow: How to Cultivate a Mindset of Innovation." The discussion will address issues like how to remain relevant and meeting the challenges of tomorrow. It will be held on Oct. 21 at 7 p.m. CT/8 p.m. ET. Use hashtags #CE15 and #NAESP.
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