TOP NEWS St. Louis Post-Dispatch K12 public school students in Missouri could take online courses for free, with their school district or charter school picking up the tab, under legislation that passed the Missouri House and Senate. The main intent of the plan is to expand course access for high school students in small, rural or cash-strapped schools. Read more>> Sponsored Sponsored by Discovery Education STEM Connect Two educators are leading the charge in the United States to help girls envision the wide-open future that STEM careers can provide. They are both innovators who find themselves, literally, at the table with students, mentors and educators. Read more>> The Daily Sentinel Gov. John Hickenlooper plans to sign several measures this week approved by the Colorado Legislature during this year's session, including bills to boost funding for school construction and a measure reauthorizing the Colorado Energy Office. Read more>> The Columbus Dispatch Columbus City Schools officials are pursuing plans to spend $125 million on school-building repairs, hammering away at the goal of improving 65 schools. But now the district is working on a plan that could result in many of those schools closing in summer 2019. Read more>> The Sacramento Bee California’s schools are hiring teachers again. But California’s colleges aren’t producing enough new teachers to meet the demand. The state saw the largest net loss of teachers to Texas. About 6,000 more teachers left California for Texas than came here from the Lone Star State from 2003 through 2016. Read more>> WABE Being a teacher can be especially difficult if a high percentage of students are “mobile” or “transient.” That kind of student churn tends to be more common in poor areas. Research shows high student mobility can disrupt learning. It can also make it tough to understand how well a school is doing. Read more>> The Texas Tribune These days, more students and teachers report being happy at a Spring ISD school, and the number of suspensions has dropped. The principal attributes the improvement to a simple schedule change: a carve-out of 35 minutes twice a week for teachers and students to circle up and talk about their feelings. Read more>> From DA Magazine Tim Goral The Department of Education has begun accepting applications for $2.3 million in grants that will teach Native American languages to a new generation of children. Read more>> OPINION The Hechinger Report Kids arrive at school with large achievement gaps between rich and poor, and that achievement gap grows over the summer. Now two new studies show that the summer learning gap between the lower and middle classes may be narrowing while the rich surge ahead of everyone. Read more>> Star Tribune No longer just places to house their school’s teams, up-to-date athletic facilities are being seen as revenue generators, available to local youth organizations, club sports teams and just about any organization willing to pay the rental fees. High schools are becoming de facto community centers and hubs for athletics at all levels. Read more>> Education Dive Schools are working to provide students with more technical skills, including competencies in medical the field. Yet it may be more accurate to call CPR a life skill. No wonder, then, that states are considering the skill a necessity. Read more>> District Administration Survey District Administration Skills students learn in the classroom can be applied to community service projects, and vice versa. Lessons learned in the field can boost classroom achievement. If your district takes this approach, we want to talk to you for an upcoming feature article. http://damag.me/queries Read more>> INDUSTRY NEWS Discovery Education Discovery Education has aligned its Spotlight on Strategies content to McREL International's six-phase model for learning. Available in all Discovery Education Techbooks and Streaming services, the series offers instructional videos and supporting materials developed for teachers, by teachers. Read more>> Charmed Labs Charmed Labs' new Pixy2 version can learn to detect objects that you teach it. Additionally, it has new algorithms that detect and track lines for use, intersections and directional signs. Pixy2 supports a variety of microcontrollers, including the Arduino, Raspberry Pi and BeagleBone Black platforms. Read more>> SchoolCity/lead4ward SchoolCity and lead4ward's common partner districts will have the Texas-specific analytics and reporting all in one place, including IQ Data Report, Quintile Report, Progress/Growth & Performance Matrix, TEKS Scaffold Report, and a combination report. Read more>> ✭ Visit the District Administration's PR Portal ✭ | 