Current News

The Wallace Foundation has issued an expanded version of its report, "The School Principal as Leader: Guiding Schools to Better Teaching and Learning," which details the key practices of effective school leaders - and why such leadership is important to teachers.

In a recent report from the Council of the Great City Schools, about 87 percent of 36 urban school districts said they would have the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) fully implemented by the 2014-15 school year.

Redesigning the high school English curriculum under the Common Core Standards Initiative has begun, and the College Board is pushing for the inclusion of more nonfiction narratives on student reading lists to help prepare them for university-level coursework.

According to a recent report from My College Options and STEMconnector, nearly 25 percent of high school students are interested in pursuing STEM majors and careers, though the gender gap has widened with fewer females showing STEM interest.

Michigan Superintendent of Public Instruction Mike Flanagan says to attract more mathematicians and scientists into the teaching profession, teacher salaries should be increased to $100,000 or more.

The public review and comment period for the second draft of the Next Generation Science Standards, developed with the help of 26 states, ended on Jan. 29. Kansas Education Commissioner Diane DeBacker says, "We're pleased to have another opportunity for a broader audience to view the work being done [on the standards.]

The Hawaii Department of Education and the Hawaii Government Employees Association, which represents public school principals in the state, recently reached an agreement on evaluations to rate principals on student outcomes and leadership.

Florida education officials recently discussed the implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) at a panel hosted by St. Petersburg College. The discussion touched on how the CCSS will enable better comparisons among states, though states will implement the new standards differently, and the ways in which the CCSS will incorporate technology into the classroom.

At the recent "Doing What Matters for Alabama's Children" conference, State Superintendent Thomas Bice rolled out "Plan 2020," which involves new ways of educating students and supporting educators and school systems.

Thirty-four states and the District of Columbia now have waivers from certain provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) approved by the U.S. Department of Education. These waivers provide states the flexibility needed to establish rigorous, high-quality accountability systems that support schools and districts, and provide students with the interventions they need to improve. States are now months into implementation of waivers and, having made significant progress, are considering how these important reform efforts will be continued. States are calling on Congress to reauthorize ESEA to include the innovations from their waivers and provide stability to move forward with systemic reform.