Educators generally agree that we are testing too much. On the heels of No Child Left Behind, we've had 15 years of often misguided national and state accountability policies that have only just been rolled back. Driven by a robust parental "opt out" movement, Congress' latest action puts more authority back with the states. But […]
Integration and simplification top wish lists when it comes to website management tools. Administrators want tools to connect easily and effectively with parents and students as the variety of programs, platforms and devices grows. Many systems handle a range of functions, from overdue library books and bus routes to lunch balances and student assignments. Administrators […]
When the Office of Special Education Programs revised its accountability operation in 2014 to shift the balance from a system focused on compliance to one that emphasizes results, we wondered how it would impact us at the local level. Would this Results Driven Accountability framework be just another set of requirements to implement, or would […]
The 3,000 students in rural Maine's Regional School Unit 19 begin compiling electronic portfolios of their schoolwork in pre-K, when the district issues every child a Google account. In the elementary years, teachers snap and upload digital photos of handwritten work. In the upper grades, students accustomed to electronically documenting their school lives habitually upload […]
Improving relations with Cuba have renewed interest in educational travel for some U.S. schools this year, with teachers eager to show students a country on the cusp of historic changes. While the U.S. government banned tourism to Cuba in 1963 at the height of the Cold War, educational travel remained legal. The United States and […]
Administrators, teachers and other school personnel have been ordering supplies from Amazon.com for years, but the e-tailing colossus has now jumped formally into the education procurement market. And some in the procurement business see benefits. "If they are bringing a new level of service and pricing and breadth of products, then the providers in that […]
When it comes to racism in our public schools, many people pretend it doesn't exist, says Pamela Lewis. In her new book, Teaching While Black, Lewis says a misplaced focus on test scores hides the true causes of underperforming inner-city schools: poverty and race. When it comes to racism in our public schools, many people […]
As of April, 31 states have introduced 94 different student data privacy bills, according to the nonprofit Data Quality Campaign. The governors of New Hampshire, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia approved the first student data privacy laws of 2016, with each law focusing on data governance, transparency and leadership: New Hampshire's HB 301 establishes a […]
Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo plans to bring computer science courses to every school in the state by the end of 2017. To ease concerns over a lack of teachers trained to teach the subject, the state has formed the Computer Science for Rhode Island (CS4RI) initiative to supply the needed PD. That professional development […]
In Baldwin Community Schools, students had been returning from summer break having lost more than six weeks of learning—two weeks more than is typical. The district is located in the lowest-income county in rural Michigan, where 94 percent of students qualify for free or reduced lunch. Superintendent Stiles Simmons resolved the learning loss issue in […]
