Mich. governor reverses decision on School Reform Office move

The state’s 650 charter schools could see as much as an extra $96.3 million coming their way in 2017-18, thanks to a controversial provision in a sweeping education bill Gov. Rick Scott signed into law that forces school districts to hand over some of their local tax dollars. Read more>>

Attorneys for the four school districts that are suing the state over school funding formally asked the Kansas Supreme Court to reject the new finance system lawmakers enacted this year. They said the roughly $293 million in new money it would phase in over two years is neither adequate nor equitable. Read more>>

State lawmakers have done little to ensure that children in poor, rural communities get as good an education as their wealthier counterparts, according to school districts that sued South Carolina the state nearly a quarter-century ago. Read more>>

Gov. Matt Bevin signed a bill into law, giving local school boards the option to create Bible literacy classes as a part of a school's social studies curriculum. Any courses under the new law would be electives, not requirements. Read more>>

Louisiana's public school classrooms will be required to teach cursive writing to students starting with the new school year. That mandate, approved by lawmakers in 2016 but delayed a year so schools could prepare, is among more than two dozen new laws that take effect with the start of July. Read more>>

Indiana schools will start getting grades for more than just academic performance. Once the state gets its climate and culture survey in hand, it could either replace the attendance indicator or be added as an additional accountability measure. Read more>>

One of the worst “professional learning” experiences from my teaching days involved a clown nose. Read more>>

Gov. Rick Snyder reversed his 2-year-old decision to move the School Reform Office under an agency he directly controls, signing an executive order to return it to the Department of Education. The office is tasked with monitoring the state’s lowest academically performing schools. Read more>>

Washington legislators passed historic, needed changes to the state’s K12 school funding system. In broad strokes, these are welcome achievements. But many details—including impacts on individual school districts—are still unclear. Did legislators do enough? Read more>>

Countless schools strive to make character a feature of education. Whether through classes on social-emotional learning, mindfulness exercises or reminders about the virtues of gratitude, students are exposed to messages that deplore cheating and bullying and celebrate kindness and consideration. Yet 51 percent of high school kids owned up to cheating on exams. Read more>>

By diverting per-pupil spending from districts, charter schools impose a cost on traditional public schools. That price is worth it when students receive a clearly superior education. But the state has never set real standards for what constitutes excellence. Charter schools must offer an obviously better choice in order to stay open, whether it be superior instruction or more curriculum options. Read more>>

Frontier, a new inquiry-based learning solution by eSpark Learning, has been selected to be included in Google for Education's new Media literacy apps on Chromebooks program. Used in grades 3-8, Frontier strengthens students' reading, writing, and critical thinking skills. Scrible Edu, a research platform for school and work, is also included in the program. Read more>>

n2y, a producer of special education software, is rolling out a new online professional development program with certification and a learning management system that encompasses introductory training, advanced courses and lifelong learning. Read more>>

Fully integrated with Destiny Discover and the Follett Destiny product line, the new Collections by Destiny educational tool will allow customers to create new, collaborative ways for librarians, teachers and curriculum staff to share free or purchased resources across the district, schools or between users. Read more>>

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