California facing school attendance crisis

A just released a report from the state Department of Justice finds California continues to face a school attendance crisis. The report found that 210,000 K5 students missed 10 percent of the school year. Low income African Americans were disproportionately absent. Read more>>

Passaic County Technical Institute, with more than 3,300 students taking classes in over 200 classrooms, is building a new STEM academy for another 1,200 students. The $30 million addition will make the high school one of the largest in the country, with 4,500 students on a multi-building, 55-acre campus. Read more>>

Many California school districts offer their staff little or no guidance on when police should be called to control student behavior, according to a new study that comes as districts face increased pressure to redefine law enforcement’s role in public schools. Read more>>

Emily Rogan

Foreign language instruction is moving toward a proficiency-based approach. Today’s students need to develop interpretive, presentational and interpersonal skills, moving beyond conjugating verbs and memorizing vocabulary. Read more>>

Michigan lawmakers and state education officials are pushing back on a federal proposal to change to how millions of dollars for low-income students is distributed, saying the switch would unrealistically require school districts to equally fund all their schools. Read more>>

A federal judge has recommended against an injunction that would bar a transgender student from using the girls’ locker room at a high school in Illinois while a lawsuit proceeds. The judge's finding was only a recommendation; a final ruling on the injunction is expected in the coming weeks. Read more>>

Burlington School Board members and teachers union negotiators reached a tentative agreement and averted a teachers strike after a marathon negotiation session. For more than a year, the teachers union and the School Board have been negotiating a one-year contract. Read more>>

Financial necessity has forced many school districts into shorter school weeks. Years of insufficient state school funding were followed last year by three budget failures. As a result, nearly a third of the state’s school systems have been forced to go to a four-day week. Read more>>

For far too many years, the mention of Detroit’s education woes has led to collective head-shaking. Detroit needs an identifiable, home-grown education leader and change agent. Significant civic attention must be devoted to changing how Detroit citizens view education. The school system should also consider the personalized learning model to increase test scores and graduation rates. Read more>>

Parents and teachers are worried. They believe that today's kids are growing up in an unkind world and that learning to be kind is even more important than getting good grades. But, when it comes to defining "kind," parents and teachers don't always agree. Read more>>

AASA, The School Superintendents Association and CrisisGo, Inc. have teamed up to offer all AASA members a mobile emergency communications technology application that can make schools safer. School districts can now offer employees, teachers and parents the CrisisGo mobile app with a panic button feature and emergency notification. Read more>>

With no batteries and no wiring, the wiSTAR 0-10V Dimming LED relay module can be placed anywhere, enabling self-powered wireless controlling for lighting. The new daylight sensor utilizes a solar cell to harvest energy from indoor light. Also available is the Navigan commissioning software, which enables linking multiple sensors, switches and relay modules. Read more>>

The next generation of FrontRow's EZROOM classroom AV systems will now feature a dramatic boost in audio quality, a programmable smart button for the teacher microphone that can be used for alerting, improved microphone coverage, new voice command control options and digital feedback suppression. Read more>>

The town’s electricity bill will soon drop when a solar farm behind Sunderland Elementary School goes online.The solar project is expected to provide the school with more than 70 percent of its electricity delivered directly from the array to the school without feeding through the grid. The town will purchase the energy for the school at a 7.5-percent discount. Read more>>

Uncoupling state timber sales revenue from public school construction funding doesn’t make sense. The state’s founders felt so strongly about adequately funding public education, they established the Common School Trust, encompassing more than 1.8 million acres to continue to offset school construction costs with money from log sales and shoreline and agriculture leases. Read more>>

Residents of New York's Harrison CSD easily approved a proposed $46.5 million construction bond issue by more than a four-to-one margin. All six of Harrison's school buildings have projects, including health and safety issues. Read more>>