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 […]

From Newark to Los Angeles, districts building affordable homes for teachers hope to better retain and recruit staff as local housing costs rise and salaries remain stagnant. Many new housing developments are in California: The city of San Francisco announced plans in October to build 100 units for the city’s educators. It may also offer […]

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 […]

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 […]

In seeking to save money while also boosting teacher recruitment and retention, the Pierce City R-VI School District in Missouri switched to a four-day school week this school year. The time is made up by extending the school day 30 minutes. It increased learning time by 20 hours. “We want to create a culture where […]

Fears of lead-tainted water in U.S. schools surged this year at the same time a report found the nation spends $46 billion less on annual school construction and maintenance than is necessary to ensure safe and healthy facilities. The federal government contributes about 10 percent to districts’ annual operating budgets, but almost nothing to school […]

From 2013 to 2015, reading scores dipped from 288 to 287, out of 500 total. Math scores also went down a point, from 153 to 152, out of 300. The lowest-performing students showed the biggest drop. Results from the 2015 Nation’s Report Card are in: Grade 12 student performance in math and reading dropped in […]