| Top News Michigan Senate approves charter school millage shift The Detroit News Charter and virtual schools would get a cut of new or renewed regional education millage property tax revenue under a proposal approved by the state Senate. But the application to existing millages is not clearly spelled out in the bill. Read more>> Top News After-school jobs could count toward high school graduation in Indiana The Indianapolis Star A state panel is proposing Indiana students get some kind of hands-on, real-world experience before they graduate high school, like a service-learning project, internship or even after-school job. Read more>> Top News New high school testing benchmarks prompt concern and confusion Chicago Tribune Illinois is using scores on a single college entrance exam to judge whether students and high schools are meeting the state’s standards for math, reading and writing. But controversy is already brewing because the state’s minimum score to meet standards is higher than the SAT’s college readiness scores. Read more>> Top News Hackers are targeting schools, government warns CNN Money The U.S. Department of Education is now warning teachers, parents and K12 education staff of a cyberthreat targeting school districts across the country. So far, at least three states have been targeted by the extortion attempt from hackers. Read more>> Top News Arizona schools cite variety of reasons in letter grade appeals Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting About two-thirds of the 73 schools appealing their letter grades say either that the Arizona Department of Education used incorrect data to calculate their grade or that the formula the state's board of education used to grade schools is flawed. Read more>> Top News Mississippi elementary school renamed Mississippi News Now The change from Davis Magnet IB Elementary School to Barack Obama IB Elementary School will officially happen at the beginning of the 2018-19 school year. Read more>> From DA Magazine K12 is moving to ease food insecurity Tim Goral The New York City Department of Education announced in September that all public school students will now receive free lunch. Read more>> Opinion & Analysis Why parents make flawed choices about their kids' schooling The Atlantic A new study shows that families act on insufficient information when it comes to figuring out where to enroll their children. Parents opt for schools with the most impressive graduates rather than figuring out which ones actually teach best. Read more>> Opinion & Analysis Require schools to teach freedom, not censorship The Wilson Times If high schools want to teach the fundamentals of journalism, press freedom must be part and parcel of the lesson plan. Public schools, after all, are arms of the government, and government officials shouldn’t be in the business of deciding what can and cannot be published. Read more>> Opinion & Analysis Tennessee belt bill may resolve school bus driver shortages The Tennessean Driving a school bus is a great responsibility that is filled with stress and distraction. It is the only vehicle on the road today for which a lap-shoulder belt is not federally mandated. The argument against the belts wears thin when one considers that there are about 20,000 injuries on buses across the country every year. Read more>> Industry News Reading literacy platform added to suite of K12 programs Fuel Education Fuel Education has expanded its suite of digital learning solutions for schools and districts with the addition of Big Universe, a literacy solutions provider of more than 11,000 leveled e-books for K12 students. The platform also offers embedded assessments, a student recommendation engine and analytics. Read more>> Industry News Application helps students and parents stay informed on school bus information Tyler Technologies, Inc. The Traversa Ride 360 web and mobile application allows parents and students to access their own secure data for school bus stop location, route and pick-up time information through a specific Traversa Ride 360 web portal or by using the Traversa Ride 360 native mobile app for Android or iOS. Read more>> Industry News Helping schools combat chronic absenteeism West Corporation West’s SchoolMessenger solutions launched its Chronic Absenteeism Intervention Program, which combines the SchoolMessenger Communicate notification service and the SafeArrival student attendance management tool with a set of professional services. Read more>> View more news at District Administration's PR Portal Construction Watch Maryland school system officials 'beg' for state funding WBAL Local school leaders made their way to Annapolis as a part of what has been tagged as the "beg-a-thon." The yearly pitch for school construction funding was moved from January to October, which is well ahead of when the state starts to make big budget decisions. Read more>> Construction Watch California must fulfill voter mandate to fund school construction The Mercury News For school districts to meet basic facility and modern classroom infrastructure needs, they partner with the state to fund major rehabilitation and new build projects. But today there is more than a $2 billion backlog of school construction project applications that have been submitted to the state and are awaiting action. Read more>> Construction Watch Lawmakers, experts debate school construction in North Carolina Bladen Journal The rural-urban skirmish over state tax dollars dominated the debate into whether reform is needed in distribution of state lottery money and sales taxes, the role state and local bonds should play, and other funding mechanisms to build and repair school facilities. Read more>> | 