Clark County schools to track academic, operational performance
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Superintendent’s Center
Superintendent’s Center Articles
Chicago Public Schools to roll out high school-college hybrid
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Districts share progress toward 21st-century learning
Incorporating technology to enhance student learning and creating teams of stakeholders to drive innovation in all school endeavors are two of a handful of best practices that educators…
HISD reform effort nets math gains, but reading falls flat
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Charges considered in New York teen’s ‘bullycide’
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What schools can do about bullying and cyber bullying
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Improving public education isn’t a mystery
We know how children learn. It is not a mystery. If children and schools are failing, it is not because we lack the knowledge to provide them with…
New teacher evaluation framework promises to serve students, and educators, fairly
Improved labor-management relations are in the best interest of every school district. Along those lines, the AFT and AASA have collaborated in the development of a framework to…
Incident response plans help district address student safety
Following the shootings at Columbine High School in 1999 and the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the East Coast, U.S. Homeland Security determined that schools and hospitals…
School superintendent gives up $800K in pay
Some people give back to their community. Then there's Fresno County, Calif., School Superintendent Larry Powell, who's really giving back. As in $800,000—what would have been his compensation…
The wrong—and right way—to manage a school district
I believe the current conventional wisdom about school district leadership is flawed, says George Wood, principal of Federal Hocking High School in Stewart, Ohio, who this year is…
States face challenges when it comes to school reform
With a renewed focus on student achievement and school reform, many state education agencies (SEAs) find themselves under pressure to change operations and show positive results, and a…
Ten common myths about teaching
It seems everyone has an opinion about teachers and their profession these days … and most of them aren’t teachers.
What makes an effective school principal?
Recent research shows that good principals in K-12 schools can create dramatic improvement, particularly in the lowest performing schools—but the consistency, fairness, and value of current principal evaluation…
Schools need relief from onerous regulation
Our schools are overwhelmed by regulatory mandates that have been heaped upon them by NCLB, writes AASA Executive Director Dan Domenech. In spite of the harsh economic reality…
Five things students say they want from education
With so many education stakeholders debating the needs of today's schools, student voices aren’t always heard when it comes to what they want from their education.
Why school stakeholders should worry about the ‘funding cliff’
More than 80 percent of schools anticipate budget cuts in the upcoming school year, and administrators are scrambling to maintain school operations in the face of diminishing funds,…
How to cut special-ed spending without sacrificing quality
As school districts grow accustomed to doing more with less, special-education programs are dealing with their own unique set of challenges—and one expert has proposed several solutions to…
New federal program promotes ‘green’ school policies
As the "green" movement sweeps across the nation, prompting citizens to buy organic produce and reduce their energy consumption, schools are following suit with lesson plans that teach…
How social media can help, and not hinder, during a crisis
It’s important for school leaders to understand basic crisis management principles—and how social media might play a role in the event of a crisis, for better or worse.…
Clearing up some misunderstandings of the superintendency
Overworked, underpaid, stressed out, and under attack—but highly dedicated to the mission and still loving their jobs: That’s the American superintendent.
‘Bring your own device’ catching on in schools
Mobile devices are now found in the hands of most children, and school leaders are using that fact to their advantage by incorporating devices that students already own…
Spring Station Middle School owes its success to ‘trying different things’
The first institution to be highlighted in our brand-new “eSchool of the Month” series is Tennessee's Spring Station Middle School, which “seeks to be a leader in student…
New bill focuses on U.S. graduation rates
New legislation introduced in Congress proposes to reduce the U.S. high school dropout rate in an effort to reach a national graduation rate of 90 percent. The bill…
Viewpoint: Scarce resources, insufficient talent threaten to sink public education
Our disadvantaged students are about to encounter the “perfect storm”: a lack of resources needed to ensure they are not left behind and an insufficient number of talented…
Viewpoint: School leaders need more help, and not red tape, to transform education
Our public system of education seems to be under constant attack from the media and self-appointed “reformers.” Regardless of the opinion those outside of education might hold, it…
ED to unions, districts: Can’t we all just get along?
Despite frequent reports of labor-management strife in the nation’s schools, there are many school systems in which teachers and district leaders are working together to improve public education—and…
How to raise student achievement through better labor-management collaboration
Laura Rico, union president for California’s ABC Unified School District, said the idea of collaboration between labor and management was “very risky—even political suicide.” But the partnership has…
Expert: Federal school reform plan is wrong
The president is wrong. Arne Duncan is wrong. The media are wrong. Many state administrators are wrong: This was the message on the current state of school reform…
AASA focuses on teamwork, collaboration
Nothing makes people come together in good spirits like unexpected warm weather in a terribly cold season, and the American Association of School Administrators (AASA) took advantage of…
Meet our 2011 Tech-Savvy Superintendent Award winners
Partnerships with local businesses to provide free Wi-Fi for students … a virtualization project that reportedly has saved $1.5 million in energy costs … an instructional content repository…
Roughly half of U.S. superintendents to retire soon
Today’s school superintendents are more likely than they were 10 years ago to be women, and to be older—and nearly half are planning to retire in the next…
Teen software whiz shows challenges facing schools
Ninth-grader Alex Britton, and the friends he has made throughout North America with the help of Skype, offer insight into the challenges schools face in educating members of…
Forum explores how to spur school innovation
Innovation was a key theme of President Obama’s State of the Union address on Jan. 25, and it also was the theme of a recent forum in Washington,…
Amid economic uncertainty, ed-tech leaders do more with less
Though education budgets might be frozen or face further reductions in school districts from coast to coast, some educational technology leaders have found innovative ways to update their…
Ed tech vs. larger class sizes: Worth the trade-off?
Thrusting his state into the center of the debate over education reform, Idaho public schools chief Tom Luna called for more educational technology in the classroom and a…
Report shows high school graduates enter college unprepared
High school students should be exposed to college-level courses early on, and they should learn in technology-rich classrooms that redesign the learning process to emphasize problem-solving, critical thinking,…