Star Ledger--N.J. voters will decide on $500M for school projects after Murphy slashes plan in half
New Jersey voters will be asked this fall if they want to approve the state borrowing $500 million to pay for a series of public school projects after Gov. Phil Murphy forced the price tag to be sliced in half Monday.
Brent Johnson| Updated 12:42 AM; Posted Aug 27, 4:30 PM
Star Ledger--Murphy's AG takes on Trump over school discipline
Top law enforcement officials in 10 states, including New Jersey, are calling on President Donald Trump's administration to uphold federal guidelines that limit severe punishments for schoolchildren.
S.P. Sullivan| Updated Aug 27, 2:57 PM; Posted Aug 27, 2:28 PM
The Atlantic--The Developing Norms for Reopening Schools After Shootings
In an age where such tragedies are increasingly common, a shared blueprint is emerging.
When students from Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe, Texas—where eight students and two teachers were killed in a mass shooting on May 18—went back to school last week, their school looked different from the last time they saw it. Metal detectors and a security vestibule made of bulletproof glass greeted them at the front doors, and every classroom now also contained a “panic button” to trigger an alarm system. Students also passed more police officers in the hallways than before.
Ashley Fetters| Aug 27, 2018
Education Week--Are Classroom Reading Groups the Best Way to Teach Reading? Maybe Not.
Educators and researchers are looking to update one of the oldest, most popular—and at times one of the most controversial—methods of targeting instruction: the elementary reading circle.
Grouping students of similar reading skills—think "bluebirds" or "redbirds," for example—has become ubiquitous in American classrooms as a way to target instruction to students' learning needs, spreading from 68 percent of classrooms in 1992 to more than 90 percent by 2015. But evidence suggests that the practice may be less beneficial than teachers think:
https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2018/08/29/are-classroom-reading-groups-the-best-way.html
Sarah D. Sparks| August 26, 2018