Star Ledger--How can schools prevent shootings? Inside the impossible security dilemma as new year begins
On a Saturday morning in the middle of July, about a dozen New Jersey teachers gathered at Fort Dix for an unusual free training program.
Adam Clark | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com| Updated Aug 31, 2019; Posted Aug 31, 2019
Education Week--Teachers Nationwide Now Have Access to Open-Source Science Curriculum
When Susan McClarty’s district made the switch to open educational resources, the 6th and 7th grade science teacher at Centennial Middle School in Broken Arrow, Okla., initially struggled to find quality materials aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards. “We were kind of wading through water, trying to create something out of nothing,” she said.
But last school year, her school participated in a field test for a new, open-source middle grades science curriculum: OpenSciEd.
Sarah Schwartz| August 28, 2019
Politics K-12 (Education Week) State Spending on School Buildings Down Sharply Since Great Recession
States' spending to build, upgrade, and equip school buildings has fallen over the last decade, exacerbating budget challenges many schools already face, an analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities finds.
Thirty-eight states cut school capital spending as a share of their overall economy between 2008 and 2017, according to the latest data available from the U.S. Census Bureau.
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2019/08/state-school-facilities-spending.html
Evie Blad on August 30, 2019 12:44 PM
Chalkbeat--6 of the 10 leading Democratic candidates say they will boost teacher diversity. Here’s how.
Teacher diversity wasn’t an explicit part of either Hillary Clinton’s or Bernie Sanders’ platforms in the lead-up to the 2016 election.
But as 2020 approaches, six of the 10 leading Democratic candidates for president, including Sanders, have laid out concrete steps they’d take to diversify the teaching force, which is about 80% white — a serious mismatch with the nation’s public school students, about half of whom are students of color.
Kalyn Belsha - August 29, 2019 - Updated August 30, 2019
Edutopia--The Power of Short Writing Assignments
Brief writing prompts and responses help students in any discipline.
A panicked student confronts a blank laptop screen late at night. A frazzled teacher sits in front of a pile of yet-to-be-graded essays the following evening. Long writing assignments can cause fear and anxiety for students and teachers.
Some educators avoid assigning writing, believing that they don’t have the time to either incorporate such a project or grade it. Thankfully, writing assignments need not be long in order to be effective. If you don’t wish to assign a potentially time-consuming project, try these short assignments to help students become better writers and thinkers.
https://www.edutopia.org/article/power-short-writing-assignments
Benjamin Barbour| August 29, 2019