Aggressive parent fundraising to support athletic teams, buy school equipment and pay for field trips further widens disparities between affluent and economically challenged schools and districts, according to recent research. The number of nonprofit parent-run organizations that raise funds for school programs rose from 3,475 in 1995 to 11,453 in 2010, according to "The Rise […]
Winfred Roberson Jr. was unanimously voted new superintendent of economically and culturally diverse Glendale USD in California, where he will oversee 33 schools and more than 25,000 students. Roberson had been superintendent of Davis Joint USD for the past six years, a district where 69 percent of the students who took the English portion of […]
First-time Superintendent Bilal Tawwab started work at Flint Community Schools in September, prepared to take on the district's budget deficit of $10.5 million and a number of poor-performing schools. The city's infamous water crisis erupted during his first month at the helm of the district of 7,000 students. Tawwab, formerly assistant superintendent at Detroit Public […]
Leadership is never more critical than when creating and sustaining a data-centric learning culture, as Lane Mills advises in a white paper on how districts can access and integrate data to make informed, proactive decisions. A smart "what-why-how" framework can illuminate the mission of a new culture: What is a data-driven culture? Why is there […]
The push toward digital learning in Meriden Public Schools in Connecticut started about six years ago with a simple premise: Learning doesn't stop when school ends. Superintendent Mark D. Benigni understood that advancing off-campus education would require a strong and engaging digital reading program. Soon he knew he had a winner with myON, which provides […]
Other recommended books focus on rewiring the brain for critical thinking, how principals can hone leadership skills and how to teach energy concepts across all science disciplines. The Superintendent and the CFO: Building an Effective Team Rowman & Littlefied Recognizing that sound fiscal policy and communication is essential for superintendents who seek to set sustainable […]
The internet delivers assessments, videos and instructional content to schools, so why not phone service, too? Adding voice to the bandwidth communications stream makes sense to an increasing number of district leaders who are swapping traditional landlines for Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). VoIP runs on broadband and Wi-Fi connections so people can make calls […]
As more states legalize medical marijuana, administrators grapple with whether to permit the substance on campus for students with certain health ailments. Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia legalized medical marijuana in the past two decades. In June, Maine became the first state to require all school districts to create a policy on use […]
A Tale of Two School Principals: And the Superintendent Who Wanted to Lead Them is not your conventional leadership book. Told in a narrative form, the book is a journey of discovery as the characters learn to get to the deeper meaning and intent of a new district policy. A Tale of Two School Principals: […]
Libby Schaaf, mayor of Oakland, established in January the Oakland Promise, a project with more than 100 community partners working to triple the number of the city's low-income, public school students who go on to graduate college. Over the next decade, 55,000 college savings accounts (totaling $14 million) will be opened for children born into […]
