Legislation expected to create Texas school finance commission

It's been almost a year since Texas' Supreme Court ruled school financing as constitutional. In the upcoming special legislative session, two legislators will author legislation to create a school finance commission. The issue is one of the 20 items Gov. Abbott announced will be added to the special sessions agenda. Read more>>

While school bullying has been widely condemned for harming students’ emotional health, a new study calculates the financial cost to school districts. The study counts the direct losses caused by bullying-related student absences at $276 million annually in California. Read more>>

This upcoming school year, every middle and high school in the Akron Public Schools system will be equipped with naloxone during school hours. The school resource officers who are placed at each school will have access to the heroin antidote. Read more>>

Fairfax County supervisors agreed to ask the Circuit Court to order a $315 million school-bond referendum in November. Proceeds from the 2017 referendum would finance $125.5 million for elementary-school renovations and $29.7 million in new construction. Read more>>

Members of a city commission agreed and voted to give LAUSD board of education members a 174 percent raise that will take effect in 60 days. Board members who have no other outside employment will see their pay increase to $125,000 a year from $45,637. Read more>>

State education officials announced the class of 2016 graduation rate for all students statewide is 87 percent. That rate is higher than the 85 percent rate announced in April, but lower than the 89 percent rate from 2015, now found to be artificially inflated. State officials are also now differentiating between Alabama graduates and federal graduates. Read more>>

Whirling fidget spinners invaded classrooms across the country this past spring, but with many schools banning them as a distraction, their future as a potential remedy for students with attention difficulties is in doubt. Read more>>

Georgia's current plan focuses so strongly on achievement and so little on student support that it appears akin to plans to build a wall without a foundation. Citizens should be aware of the potential that local school systems have to offer mental health services paid through federal funding. That potential cannot be realized with the Georgia Department of Education’s current plan for implementing ESSA. Read more>>

When it comes to students using their phones during the school day, an Illinois district's survey found that 74 percent of teachers think the current policy isn't strong enough, while 61 percent of parents say they would insist on their kid having a phone on them even if the district banned them. Let's say we let actual students decide what they would do if they were in charge. Read more>>

The current approach is having anti-bullying rules, telling staff to supervise and students to report, and investigating and punishing the “bully.” But schools are not making rules for sites or apps. Staff are not present in youth digital communities. Young people often do not report because they fear their access will be taken away. So principals face significant challenges in investigating. Read more>>

With the Essential Physics blended learning program already in 19 high schools, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools will add in wireless sensors, SPARKvue data collection and analysis software, and teacher guides from PASCO Scientific. The hands-on science solutions will be integrated in all 87 middle and high schools this fall. Read more>>

To support Georgia educators as the Georgia Standards of Excellence and Milestones Assessment enter their third year, Mentoring Minds unveiled Total Motivation Math and ELA for Georgia, a supplemental curriculum that integrates print and online content for math and English Language Arts (ELA) for grade levels 1-6. Read more>>

The Renaissance Star Early Literacy assessment solution has been approved as the Florida Department of Education’s Kindergarten Readiness Screener. Beginning this fall, the state is providing Star Early Literacy to public schools as a screening tool to interpret assessment data and prioritize student learning needs. Read more>>

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