TOP NEWS Arkansas Democrat-Gazette The number of beginning teachers in Arkansas' public schools in the 2017-18 school year totaled 3,372, which was a 10-year high and an increase of 448 over just the previous year. Read more>> Sponsored Sponsored by One Call Now The Hayward Food Services Department tried out the One Call Now notification system to send parents phone calls and emails in English and Spanish. The automated system simplified the process of sending out about 1,100 notifications every two weeks. Read more>> The 74 The House Appropriations subcommittee with jurisdiction over the Education Department approved a bill last week that would slightly increase federal funding. The proposed bill would allocate $71 billion to the department for fiscal 2019, an increase of $43 million. Read more>> ABC News A Kansas law that stripped public school teachers of guaranteed tenure doesn't violate the state or federal constitution because legislators had the power to modify or end the policy, the state Supreme Court declared last week. Read more>> Chicago Tribune Nearly 45,000 employees in Chicago Public Schools will undergo fresh background checks this summer prior to the coming academic term. The school district announced the move as part of a large-scale effort to obtain updated information about workers’ backgrounds after questions arose following a recent investigation. Read more>> KHON2 The Hawaii Department of Education has agreed to pay $8.5 million to 495 students after a class-action lawsuit claimed it violated federal law by barring special needs students over the age of 20 to enroll in public school. Read more>> NBC 4 Washington The Fairfax County school board voted 10 to 1 to change the district's dress code to gender-neutral language and adopt a more inclusive sex education curriculum that will go into effect for the 2018-19 school year. The change will replace "biological sex" with "sex assigned at birth." Read more>> From DA Magazine Tim Goral Lori Peek, the director of the Natural Hazards Center and professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Colorado Boulder, recently helped write FEMA guidelines for protecting schools against natural hazards. Read more>> OPINION USA Today Environmental factors such as health and education played a role in both the rise in IQ scores during the 20th century, as well as a long-term decline dating back to the mid-'70s, a study from Norwegian researchers suggests. Read more>> NPR Despite the renewed interest in showing children how to eat well, family and consumer sciences classes, once known as "home economics," have been dwindling. In 2012 there were only 3.5 million students enrolled in FCS secondary programs, a decrease of 38 percent over a decade. Read more>> Washington Post Since 2002, the AP World History course has covered thousands of years of human activity around the planet, starting 10,000 years back. But now the College Board, which owns the Advanced Placement program, wants to cut out most of that history and start the course at the year 1450. Read more>> INDUSTRY NEWS Sourcewell National Joint Powers Alliance (NJPA) has announced the launch of its new brand name, Sourcewell. Founded as an Educational Cooperative Service Unit in 1978, the organization's core focus on education and schools has continued as it has expanded to serve other government entities and nonprofits in Minnesota and across the country. Read more>> Overcoming Racism/Kickboard To help districts achieve equity and create environments that are safe and conducive to learning for all students, Kickboard has partnered with Overcoming Racism to develop Advancing Racial Equity in Education. The program is comprised of an equity audit, professional development and ongoing support. Read more>> Scientific Learning Corp. To target the root causes of reading difficulties and close achievement gaps, Scientific Learning Corp.'s Fast ForWord program has been recently implemented by several Wisconsin districts and CESAs, including CESA 3, Green Bay Area PSD, Turtle Lake School District and Wautoma Area School District. Read more>> ✭ Visit the District Administration's PR Portal ✭ |