| Top News Graduation rate changes could hurt Indiana school grades Indiana Star New federal rules will change the way Indiana calculates graduation rates for the state's high schools, resulting in thousands of diplomas will no longer count toward federal graduation rate reports. Read more>> Top News Chicago teacher's union files whistleblower suit over fired special education teacher WTTW The Chicago Teachers Union is suing the Chicago Board of Education over what it believes was “retaliation” against a former Saucedo Academy teacher they say was fired after blowing the whistle on violations of special education student protections. Read more>> Top News Texas students losing ground on STAAR tests The Dallas Morning News The preliminary spring results for the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness show a significant dip in passing rates in the reading, science and social studies tests. Math was the only area to see a slight increase, according to the preliminary results from spring. Read more>> Top News Mississippi Department of Education announces lottery for education scholarship accounts WJTV 12 The Mississippi Department of Education announced its plans for a lottery to award 58 special needs scholarships to parents of students with disabilities who want to remove their child from a public school to seek educational services elsewhere. Read more>> Top News Malala Yousafzai, girls’ education advocate, finishes high school The New York Times Malala Yousafzai, the 19-year-old Pakistani woman who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014, attended her last day of secondary school in Birmingham, England, and now plans on traveling to the Middle East, Africa and Latin America to meet with young girls regarding education. Read more>> Top News New report reveals small dip in college-bound Minnesota high school students Star Tribune Minnesota’s rate of students graduating from high school reached its highest point ever in 2016, but there’s been a slight decrease in the number who go on to college, according to the Minnesota Office of Higher Education, which found that the number of students who enrolled in college in the fall immediately after graduation slipped from 72 percent in 2013 to just below 70 percent in 2016. Read more>> From DA Magazine School secessions raise resegregation fears Jessica Ablamsky A federal judge ruled last spring that the predominantly white city of Gardendale, Alabama, may secede from its more diverse county school district—even though the judge saw racial motivations behind the city’s efforts. Read more>> Opinion & Analysis Why the long arc of school-choice research may bend toward vouchers The Atlantic New research from Louisiana shows that, for students who received a voucher at the middle or end of elementary school, there were no statistically significant effects on their math or reading test scores by the third year in the program. That’s a boon for voucher advocates who have argued against judging a program by its initial impacts. Read more>> Opinion & Analysis Kids struggling with addiction need school, too, but there are few options NPR Research shows that students in recovery schools, designed to meet both academic and therapeutic needs, have better sobriety levels—and usually better grades, than students with addiction who remain in regular class settings. Read more>> Opinion & Analysis Six ways prioritizing social and emotional learning can increase graduation rates for students of color, lower suspensions The Hechinger Report Great things happen for students, schools and communities when students know they will be challenged and supported. Today, U.S. schools are moving in this direction to address the social and emotional dimensions of learning as part of their academic mission. Read more>> Industry News New life and thinking skills games debut SimplyFun While Feats of Cheese focuses on fine motor skills and physics for kids ages 7 and up, the Tempting Treats educational board game is designed to help kids ages 5 and up build predicting and problem-solving skills. Read more>> Industry News School districts in Wisconsin gain better access to web filtering service Securly Securly announced a statewide partnership with WiscNet, a membership organization that provides research and education services to public and private school districts, among others, throughout Wisconsin. Read more>> Industry News High performance radio telescope debuts for schools and institutions Prima Luce Lab The SPIDER 300A is a professional compact radio telescope designed to let schools, universities, scientific museums and other institutes perform real radio astronomy. It gives the same performances of a professional radio telescope but it is compact both in size and cost. Read more>> View more news at District Administration's PR Portal | 