Los Angeles USD and the New York City Department of Education both received electronic bomb threats on December 15, 2015. LAUSD called off school. New York students remained in class. Which district made the right call? The lack of a clear answer to the question speaks to exactly why district administrators find threat assessment and […]
Serving Students Who Are Homeless: A Resource Guide for Schools, Districts, and Educational Leaders Teachers College Press This book from Ronald E. Hallett and Linda Skrla guides teachers in supporting homeless and highly mobile students. It covers how best to implement ESSA revisions to the McKinney-Vento Act, which funds educational programs and other services for […]
High school students in the tiny Magazine School District in Arkansas receive three hours of sex education a year in grades 9 through 12—an approach that Superintendent Brett Bunch acknowledges is inadequate.
Efforts to implement new high school graduation exams in Ohio and New Jersey are faltering, as some educators grow more concerned about the number of students struggling to meet the strict requirements. In Ohio, more than one-third of juniors have yet to earn the scores they need from the seven exams they must pass to […]
K12 education lags behind U.S. business and industry when it comes to using data to improve outcomes, says a 2016 report by the Center for Data Innovation. Despite the wealth of information available—and the existence of technology to crunch those numbers—”most administrators still make decisions, often inaccurately, based on assumptions and intuition, rather than use […]
While the controversial practice of corporal punishment declines, it remains legal in 19 states. In those states, boys, black students and children with disabilities are more likely to receive physical punishment than other students, according to recent report by the Society for Research in Child Development. The 2016 report found that black children in Alabama […]
In the wake of a divisive presidential election, hundreds of students from about a dozen high schools in Oakland, California, cut class last November to voice their discontent with President-elect Donald Trump. Rather than demand students return to school, faculty at Oakland USD supported the peaceful demonstration, where students could express their feelings, says David […]
School district leaders in the southern United States looking to tackle equity challenges have some help on the way. Administrators who want to make changes, such as creating healthy eating initiatives or discipline reform, can apply for a fellowship designed to give them more effective resources to help eliminate racial and economic disparities across their […]
As Donald Trump settles into office, a pachyderm-size question now looms for educators: What will U.S. education policy look like under his Republican-led administration? On the campaign trail, Trump discussed eliminating the Common Core, scaling back the influence of the U.S. Department of Education, and supporting school choice with vouchers and an increase in charter […]
A new accountability and data collection system that the U.S. Department of Education proposed for teacher preparation programs last fall already faces challenges. Regulations proposed under the Obama administration to improve transparency around teacher preparation require states to provide a lot of data—including placement and retention rates, feedback from graduates and employers, student learning outcomes, […]
