NPR--Feeling Blue? Oregon Students Allowed To Take 'Mental Health Days'
Oregon's suicide rate has outpaced the national average for the past three decades. In an effort to combat stigma around mental illness, four local teen activists took matters into their own hands and championed a proposed state law.
Oregon schools will now excuse student absences for mental or behavioral health reasons, as with regular sick days. In other words, if a student is feeling down, they can stay home from school without getting docked for missing classes.
Dani Matias| July 22, 20196:28 PM ET
Education Week--Here's What Superintendents Should Include, and Avoid, in the Dreaded Back-to-School Letter
In the annals of documents that need to be crafted carefully, you can list the superintendent's back-to-school letter to parents alongside things like résumés, break-up texts, and condo association bylaws.
The dreaded back-to-school letter has to strike a fine balance between being pleasingly warm and being hokey; between giving parents information they need to know, and overwhelming them.
Stephen Sawchuk on July 19, 2019 4:29 PM
Edutopia--The Benefits of Teaching Ethical Dilemmas
Teaching ethics can not only help students become better decision-makers, but it can also help develop crucial academic and social and emotional competencies.
Ethical decision-making is a crucial part of comprehensive education, but few schools teach ethics, writes Linda Flanagan, advisory board member for the The Ethics Institute at Kent Place School, in a recent KQED Mindshift piece. Introducing ethical dilemmas in the classroom can open up opportunities not only for debate and critical thinking, but also for personal growth, empathy for other viewpoints, and self-reflection.
Effective ethics instruction is about more than distributing a list of moral guidelines; it requires teaching students how to navigate their own moral decision-making.
https://www.edutopia.org/article/benefits-teaching-ethical-dilemmas
Laura Lee| July 18, 2019
Education Dive--NPC '19: Principals share what keeps them in the profession
Some 35% of principals stay at their school for less than two years. Research from Learning Policy Institute and NASSP details why and offers strategies to improve those numbers.
BOSTON — As the need to recruit and retain high-quality teachers has gained the spotlight amid shortages nationwide, so too has the need to reduce turnover among principals.
According to research from the Learning Policy Institute (LPI), produced in collaboration with the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP), 35% of principals stay at their school for less than two years. Just 11% stay for a decade or more.
Additionally, nearly one in five principals leaves each year.
https://www.educationdive.com/news/npc-19-principals-share-what-keeps-them-in-the-profession/559143/
Roger Riddell @EdDiveRoger| July 22, 2019
The Hechinger Report--OPINION: When it comes to college and career support, the counselor shortage is only part of the problem
'Quality college and career advising not only unlocks student potential, but also that of state and national economies'
“What’s the FAFSA deadline?!”
“I want to become a welder!”
These questions and exclamations are just a tiny slice of the experience of an educator whose responsibility — often one of many — is to shepherd students to success after high school graduation.
Laura Chrisco Brenna| July 23, 2019