Nevada delays school performance ratings

New star ratings for Nevada schools will be delayed until December. After sending out preliminary data and assigning preliminary ratings, the Nevada Department of Education is fine-tuning the Nevada School Performance Framework. Read more>>

This week was supposed to be the start of a new school year for the nearly 200,000 Houston ISD students. Superintendent Richard Carranza is trying to figure out when school can start—and where, in cases where high waters flooded out schools and homes. Even as he recognizes this school year will be very different, he says the focus will be on teaching kids, wherever Harvey has scattered them. Read more>>

The Illinois governor signed into law a new state school funding formula, putting in place the final and perhaps most politically crucial component of a new budget that ensures classroom doors across Illinois remain open. The victory, however, came at a steep political cost: Gov. Rauner got almost none of what he had hoped to get out of a school funding deal. Read more>>

Three years into using the Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress for Michigan’s public school students, officials with the state’s Department of Education are searching this fall for a new assessment. Read more>>

Less than 20 girls across the state are playing football in Tennessee, according to TSSAA participation reports. That number is up slightly from 15 in 2016 and 14 in 2015. Read more>>

A number of districts across the state are implementing procedures that coincide with a new law that aims to combat cyberbullying among students. The law allows punishment for anyone engaging in bullying that encourages a minor to attempt or commit suicide, and designates principals to report cases of cyberbullying to law enforcement. Read more>>

The National Council for the Social Studies this past June released new guidelines for teaching religion in schools. Read more>>

Just over four in 10 public school superintendents in the U.S. are engaged with their jobs, according to Gallup's recent survey of more than 2,300 public school superintendents. Superintendents' engagement is considerably higher than engagement among U.S. workers overall (33 percent) and is similar to the engagement of workplace leaders in the U.S. (45 percent). Read more>>

Of course, any addiction to alcohol or drugs, especially opioids, tops principals' watch lists, but other gateways to substance abuse, including marijuana, also are causes for concern. Now we can add e-cigarettes to that group. That potentially addictive pursuit seems on the radar of middle- and high-school principals. Read more>>

Super Health, Super You, a partnership between Novo Nordisk and Discovery Education, is a three-year educational program designed to help elementary school teachers incorporate healthy lifestyle education into their curricula both inside and outside the classroom. Read more>>

The Michigan Department of Education has approved Renaissance Star Early Literacy and Renaissance Star Reading to support K3 early literacy initiatives for both initial and extensive assessments lists in Michigan. Read more>>

Campus Suite Academy has launched the School Website Accessibility Education Center, which contains a collection of resources for school administrators to understand, implement and manage web accessibility and ADA compliance for their web and digital communications. Read more>>

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Indiana's state superintendent says it might be time to lower the age students are required to attend school. Superintendent Jennifer McCormick said she wants to lower that to age 6 from the current required age of seven years old. Read more>>

Josh Swanson officially became the Minnesota school district’s new superintendent. He was hired in Eden Prairie in 2012 as the executive director of technology and later became assistant superintendent in 2014. Swanson replaces previous Superintendent Curt Tryggestad, who became the executive director for the Perpich Center for Arts Education. Read more>>

The Valhalla Union Free School District has selected Karen Geelan as its incoming superintendent. She will take over from current Superintendent Brenda Myers, who is retiring. Geelan is currently the superintendent of the Allegany-Limestone Central School District. Read more>>