Education department continues to prod states to rethink testing

The new federal education law also includes additional testing provisions aimed at prodding states and districts to limit the number of exams they administer on top of the federal annual requirements, especially those that are duplicative or of low quality. Read more>>

New York City's public school classes are bigger than ever—with younger students bearing the brunt of the overcrowding, a new analysis of city Education Department data shows. Class sizes in all grades also exceeded limits established by the city under 2007 state law. Read more>>

Texas and 12 other states asked a federal judge to block the White House administration’s directive on transgender students before the school year begins in late August. Read more>>

Ray Bendici

Technology is a vital part of students’ lives: 92 percent of teens say they go online daily and 24 percent say they are logged in "almost constantly." One challenge for schools has been overcoming the perception that social media monitoring jeopardizes student privacy. Read more>>

A Maryland panel reviewing how to reduce school testing practices has released its final report.​ One suggestion is for local school systems to create district committees on assessments to review all local mandated assessments and propose testing reductions to their school boards. Read more>>

At least 92 charter schools, or 15 percent, showed deficits, the latest Auditor General report on charter school financial trends shows. That’s up from 13 percent the year before. Florida operates 642 charter schools, serving 250,000 students. Only 623 charter schools submitted audits; most of the 20 others without audits closed. Read more>>

During the school year, 30.3 million children receive free or reduced-price lunches at their public schools. But in the summer, only 2.6 million of those students receive a free or reduced lunch. When school is out, free lunches are only offered at select locations through each school district. Read more>>

As the nation’s schools devise plans for responding effectively to critical incidents on campus, the spotlight is now on how school districts are managing crises, emergencies, disasters, terrorism threats and active shooters. In many cases, these districts are looking to the schools that have “been there” for examples of what to do when incidents occur. Read more>>

Poetry deserves a much more active role for students from kindergarten through twelfth grade. How can a student even be interested in something that they’ve not been properly exposed to? Reading and analyzing poetry is an excellent way to build vocabulary, improve reading comprehension and expose the reader to diverse and complex sentence structures. Read more>>

All eyes have been on Detroit Public Schools and its glaring debt problems. But a broader solution is needed for other ailing public schools around Michigan. That solution should include a clearer framework for how to handle districts that have lost so many students it no longer makes sense for them to exist. Read more>>

Formerly BuzzMob, the newly released Appletree gives elementary school educators a toolbox of features to help them establish a consistent line of communication with parents, including classwide updates, direct messaging, progress reports and a fully integrated calendar. It is now available on iOS, Android, and web. Read more>>

A new Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) elementary school received LEED Gold certification while a revitalized MCPS high school are among the school district’s 12 buildings queued up for LEED certification in the coming months. Both schools are being constructed with a LiveRoof brand green roof system to filter stormwater runoff and extend the useful life of the roofing system. Read more>>

The new version of Moodlerooms 3.0 includes streamlined course editing and tagging, new dynamic and interactive question types, a one-step plugin function, and the recent Mahara 15.10 ePortfolio and social networks management capabilities. Read more>>

Peter Gretz, currently the assistant superintendent of business operations for the Goochland County school district, has been named superintendent of Middlesex County Public Schools. Gretz has worked in Goochland since 2008. Read more>>

Two months after withdrawing his candidacy for the top job in another district, Santa Fe Public Schools Superintendent Joel Boyd is resigning after four years in office to become senior vice president for an educational software company. Read more>>

Christina Goennier has been selected as the new Bonita USD superintendent for La Verne and San Dimas' public schools. She comes from Beaumont USD, where she most recently served as assistant superintendent of instruction. Read more>>