TOP NEWS WITF A contentious proposal to let students use state funds to pay for private school is getting another chance to make it onto the Senate floor. It failed to pass the Senate Education Committee in a tie vote in October, and is being reconsidered in the same committee. However, one lawmaker who voted against the original bill may be moving off the panel. Read more>> From DA Magazine Tim Goral What if we taught kids how to think, not what to think? That question is the focus of Re:Thinking, a new documentary that inspires educators, politicians and the public to reimagine schools Read more>> Los Angeles Times The district's school board will consider a proposal that could make it easier to track the progress of a Los Angeles school or of the school district as a whole. The information would be available online from a single portal. Read more>> Chalkbeat Detroit The Coalition for the Future of Detroit Schoolchildren issued a list of recommendations for ways to improve Detroit schools. Among them are things like a centralized attendance system that would track children’s absences, regardless of whether they attend a district or a charter school. Read more>> The Lens The number of pre-kindergarten seats in New Orleans has dropped substantially by 34 percent since Hurricane Katrina, and researchers think it’s connected to the shift to independent charter schools. Read more>> The Salt Lake Tribune Elections for the Utah Board of Education are in legal limbo again after a judge ruled that a planned shift to partisan campaigns next year violates the state’s constitution. Read more>> Crestview News Bulletin The Okaloosa County School Board has called for an investigation of its own investigations. The motion to have an outside entity audit investigations of employee misbehavior conducted since 2014 passed unanimously. Read more>> From DA Magazine Ariana Fine A look back at the year’s top stories sheds some light on the way forward. Read more>> OPINION Education Dive Among myriad efforts to “turn around” low-performing schools, addressing students’ living arrangements has not been a prominent strategy. Researchers and social policy experts, however, have long recognized that housing and education are intertwined and that high student mobility negatively affects student and school performance. Read more>> The New York Times It’s common to hear people say that the quality of students’ education shouldn’t depend on their ZIP code. But the Republican House and Senate tax bills would make ZIP codes matter more than ever. They would create an incentive to hoard opportunity by raising funds that remain close to home. Read more>> Penn Live The challenges of recruiting and retaining strong teachers are not surprising. Yet adjusting certificate grade bands will do little, if anything, to address these fundamental challenges to the long-term health of the teaching profession. Pennsylvania would be wise to avoid enacting a quick fix. Read more>> From DA Magazine DA's TechXcellence DA’s TechXcellence national recognition program is shining the spotlight on creative professional development and reading and writing instruction programs that incorporate technology to boost results. Read more>> INDUSTRY NEWS Joe Foss Institute A $1 million grant from Daniels Fund will be utilized by Joe Foss Institute to build new civics curriculum and lesson plans for teachers and students to prepare for new civics education requirements across the country. Read more>> NWEA The 2017 State Teachers of the Year share the moments that have mattered to them and their students in the second season of the “Leading from the Classroom” podcast series. New episodes of the 45-part series, produced by NWEA, will be released twice a week through the end of January. Read more>> BeeLine Reader/Reading is Fundamental BeeLine Reader, a tool that improves online reading ability by using eye-guiding color gradients in text, has been adopted by Reading Is Fundamental to help readers increase fluency and comprehension through digital reading technology on its new Literacy Central platform. Read more>> ✭ Visit the District Administration's PR Portal ✭ National Conference on Education Join Kathy Hurley and Ann McMullan for their interactive, collaborative workshop, "Leadership Lessons for Our Times: A Primer for Superintendents & School Leaders," at the upcoming AASA Conference on February 14 in Nashville, TN. Complimentary copies of Real Women, Real Leaders by Kathy Hurley and Priscilla Shumway as well as Life Lessons in Leadership by Ann McMullan and Michael Barrett will given to all workshop participants. Register now>> Sponsored | 