In The News

Petitions to put a countywide school technology millage on the ballot in September soon will begin circulating throughout Muskegon County (Mich.). Eleven school districts have petitioned the county to seek the 1-mill property tax increase to pay for technology improvements.

The Janesville (Wis.) School District is looking to boost its digital technology to improve student achievement, but providing a device to every student is not in the cards, at least not yet. The technology improvement plan includes upgrades of existing classroom computers and purchases of more smart boards, with a goal of one smart board in every classroom within two years.

At the state SkillsUSA competition, which involved more than 1,100 students, 14 York County School of Technology students took either a first- or second-place win, according to a news release. Four students qualified for the national competition in June.

A House bill that would revamp high school graduation standards and testing requirements was sent to the full Senate on Tuesday. The Senate Education Committee approved the measure after making several revisions that mirrored earlier Senate legislation on testing and graduation standards.

In the ninth annual Digital School Districts Survey from the Center for Digital Education and the National School Boards Association, three school districts received top honors for technology integration.

The technology and education department at St. Michael-Albertville High School (St. Michael, Minn.) received the Program Excellence Award at the 2013 International Technology and Engineering Educators Association (ITEEA) conference, recently held in Ohio.

Don't have enough credit hours to teach a subject in high school? Apply to a Kansas tech school and teach the college course. Yes, some Kansas tech schools have advertised for instructors of general education courses and the minimum requirement is a bachelor’s degree with 24 credit hours of coursework in the subject taught.

The Board of Education is considering three separate policies geared toward improving the use and security of technology in Howard County (Md.) schools: Ensuring the proper security of all technology within the school system, defining the acceptable use of technology with the school system, and determining the proper use of social media among students and teachers.

A charter school to train high-schoolers for technical and engineering jobs could occupy the first floor of a planned 43-unit affordable apartment project the Northwest Side Community Development Corp. is proposing on West Capitol Drive in Milwaukee.

Search YouTube for "York County School Division Young Adult Literature Reviews" and you'll find 56 short videos of Grafton High School students talking about books they recommend to their peers. These tech savvy reviews—a reinvention of the classic book report—are just one example of how the York County School Division's bring your own technology initiative is changing the way students are learning.