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States Gear Up to Overhaul K-12 Funding in 2020

The political landscape for updating school finance systems won’t be any easier in the 2020 legislative season, despite a surging economy, state flexibility under ESSA, and single-party control in many states.




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Mining for Gifted Students in Untapped Places

An internationally known gifted-education center is scouting—and helping to develop—gifted students in after-school programs and pullout classes in one of Maryland’s most challenged school districts.




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Rapid Deployment of Remote Learning: Lessons From 4 Districts

Chief technology officers are facing an unprecedented test of digital preparedness due to the coronavirus pandemic, struggling with shortfalls of available learning devices and huge Wi-Fi access challenges.




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Here's Why a Maryland School Finance Overhaul Could Prove Groundbreaking

Maryland's legislature has proposed a unique way to fund schools and also wants to hold school districts more accountable for how they spend their money as part of a new funding formula.




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Educational Opportunities and Performance in Maryland

This Quality Counts 2020 Highlights Report captures all the data you need to assess your state's performance on key educational outcomes.




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School Closures May Go Into the Fall If Coronavirus Resurges, State Chiefs Warn

Schools may have to continue closures in the fall if the coronavirus resurges, state schools chiefs in Maryland and Washington said. The warnings came the same week thata key federal official predicted schools would be able to reopen for the 2020-21 school year.




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Teachers Without Internet Work in Parking Lots, Empty School Buildings During COVID-19

While most teachers have online access at home, internet service for many educators in rural areas is spotty, expensive, or nonexistent.




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Maryland extends school closings through May 15 due to virus




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New York Plans to Seek ESSA Waivers on Testing

New York, which has had a politically contentious history assessing its students, will seek three waivers from how the Every Student Succeeds Act requires states to test students.




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New York Proposes Increased Flexibility to Teacher Certification Process

To give districts more flexibility in the face of teacher shortages, New York's education department is proposing to modify its regulations on teacher certifications.




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New York Set to Revise Common-Core Reading and Math Standards

New York state is considering adopting a new set of K-12 reading and math standards that differ somewhat from the Common Core State Standards, which have had rocky reception in the state since they went into place in 2010.




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Sharing Services Offers Cost Savings and Better Service, Claims N.Y. Survey

New York superintendents who shared services reported more cost savings and improved service quality than improved student achievement, according to a new research brief.




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Yonkers, N.Y., District Commits to More Inclusion of Students with Disabilities

The U.S. Department of Education's office for civil rights said that some students were placed in self-contained special education settings without an individualized justification for doing so.




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Elementary Principal Touts Benefits of Extended School Day

Students at Bellevue Elementary in Syracuse, N.Y., spend an extra 70 minutes at school each day, and their principal says the extended school day has improved their academic performance.




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New York Leap-Frogs ESSA With Its Own Financial Transparency Rule

New York will require some districts next year to have their school-by-school spending amounts approved by the state, an effort to assure that state funds are being distributed as intended.




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Schools Are Required to Teach Mental-Health Lessons This Fall in Two States. And That's a First.

Students returning to schools in Virginia and New York this fall will be required to participate in mental-health education as part of their health and physical education courses.




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School Accessibility Gets $150 Million Boost in N.Y.C. Budget

The money, which will be allocated over three years, is expected to make major and minor improvements to schools throughout the city.




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New York Takes Final Step to Separate State Test Scores From Teacher Evaluations

The New York state legislature passed a bill that would make the use of state test scores in these evaluations optional, leaving the decision up to districts and making it subject to collective bargaining.




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New York Schools Staying Closed Through Spring, Cuomo Says

New York’s schools and colleges will remain shut through the end of the academic year because of the coronavirus pandemic, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Friday.




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Prominent Literacy Expert Denies Dyslexia Exists; Says to 'Shoot' Whoever Wrote Law on It

A group of teachers and literacy advocates are pushing back after Richard Allington, one of the country's most prominent experts on early literacy, made inflammatory claims about dyslexia at a Tennessee literacy conference this week.




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Memphis Superintendent Dorsey Hopson Leaving to Join Healthcare Company

Hopson became the interim superintendent in Shelby County, Tenn., in 2013 after the Memphis City School system merged with Shelby County schools. That merger then led six suburban communities to break away from the merged school system to form their own school districts.




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A Look at Teacher Improvement in Tennessee

A state department leader outlines what Tennessee is learning about teacher improvement and where the state still needs to learn more.




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What Teachers Tell Us About the Connections Between Standards, Curriculum, and Professional Learning

A statewide survey of educators in Tennessee provides critical insights into connections that exist between standards, curriculum, professional development, and ultimately student success.




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How Teachers' Insights Inform State Policy in Tennessee

Teachers in Tennessee have an important voice in shaping state initiatives and policies.




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Tennessee School District Prohibits Crowdfunding for Class Supplies

A school district in Tennessee says it no longer wants teachers to use crowdfunding websites to get extra school supplies.




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Secessions Exacerbate Segregation, Study Finds

Court-ordered school desegregation has been more successful in the South than in any other region of the country, but researchers have noted a new threat: the growing number of communities that are seceding from larger school districts to form their own.




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A Once Homeless Teen Earned $3 Million in Scholarship Offers. Here's What Made His Story Possible

Tupac Mosley overcame homelessness to graduate as valedictorian, writes Jonathan E. Collins, but there’s an overlooked part of his inspirational story: policy.




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Educational Opportunities and Performance in Tennessee

This Quality Counts 2019 Highlights Report captures all the data you need to assess your state's performance on key educational outcomes.




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Reading Instruction: A Flurry of New State Laws

Many states have recently enacted laws or rules designed to ensure that teachers are well versed in evidence-based reading instruction. Here are some highlights.




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Tennessee Seeks New Teacher, Principal Requirements in 'Science of Reading'

The Tennessee department of education is proposing unsually comprehensive legislation that will require all current and new K-3 teachers, and those who train them, to know evidence-based reading instruction.




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Educational Opportunities and Performance in Tennessee

This Quality Counts 2020 Highlights Report captures all the data you need to assess your state's performance on key educational outcomes.




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Court Bars Tennessee From Starting School Voucher Program

A court said legislators violated the state's constitution when they passed a law that targeted specific areas to be included in the program without local consent.




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Lee encouraging voucher applications despite court order




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In reversal, Lee says state no longer implementing vouchers




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Judge blocks Tennessee from implementing voucher program




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Colorado to Downsize PARCC Testing

Colorado will no longer administer the full PARCC exam to students.




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Colorado Ballot Measure Tests Voter Appetite for More K-12 Funding

Teachers and other education advocates hope that tax-wary voters will be willing to approve an amendment that would pour more than $1.6 billion more into schools each year.




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Dual-Language Learning: How Schools Can Empower Students and Parents

In this fifth installment on the growth in dual-language learning, the executive director of the BUENO Center for Multicultural Education at the University of Colorado, Boulder., says districts should focus on the what students and their families need, not what educators want.




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Colorado Teachers Are the Latest to Rally for Better Pay, More School Funding

Teachers in Colorado forced at least one school district to close as they rallied at the capitol to call for more education funding.




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Colorado Lawmakers Pass Pension Reform Bill in Late-Night Deal

The final version of the bill reduces the cost-of-living raises and increases employee contributions to their retirement, among other changes.




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Colorado Earns a B on Chance-for-Success Index, Ranks 11th in Nation

This Quality Counts 2019 Highlights Report captures all the data you need to assess your state's performance on key educational outcomes.




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'I've Had a Lot of Survivor's Guilt': Columbine High's Former Principal on Healing His Community

Frank DeAngelis, who was the principal of Columbine High School from 1996-2014, talks about the steps he took to heal students and staff in the wake of the school shooting.




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Colorado Shooting Underscores Challenges of Keeping Students Safe (Video)

The STEM School shooting underscores the huge challenges educators face in keeping students safe, even as fatal and injurious gunfire inside K-12 schools remains statistically rare.




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Superintendent: Immigrant Students Need a Safe Harbor in School

In the wake of anti-immigrant violence, we must help make sure that all students feel welcomed, writes Susana Cordova.




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Educational Opportunities and Performance in Colorado

This Quality Counts 2019 Highlights Report captures all the data you need to assess your state's performance on key educational outcomes.




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Reading Instruction: A Flurry of New State Laws

Many states have recently enacted laws or rules designed to ensure that teachers are well versed in evidence-based reading instruction. Here are some highlights.




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Settlement Reached in Colorado Case Over Students' Constitutional Rights

Students engaged in a protest against a culture they saw as punitive; their principal suspended them. What did a court say?




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Educational Opportunities and Performance in Colorado

This Quality Counts 2020 Highlights Report captures all the data you need to assess your state's performance on key educational outcomes.




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San Francisco schools adopt new grading policy amid pandemic




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Teachers Without Internet Work in Parking Lots, Empty School Buildings During COVID-19

While most teachers have online access at home, internet service for many educators in rural areas is spotty, expensive, or nonexistent.