Superintendent can't withhold funds from schools with Native American mascots

The Victoria school district was one of many districts affected by a data breach through the Texas Association of School Boards. The association learned recently that personal information of employees became inadvertently visible to the public on the internet. Read more>>

North Carolina families and teachers will find out in the next two months which low-performing elementary schools could be turned over to charter school operators in 2018. The Innovative School District has come under fire from critics who have questioned turning public schools over to education management organizations and charter management organizations. Read more>>

Poor performance threatens the state-issued authority to operate for three big online schools that collectively enroll 18,000 students. They were among low-performing state-authorized charter schools that were called in for performance reviews by the State Charter Schools Commission. Read more>>

Charter schools that admit only boys or only girls will be allowed to open in New Jersey under revised rules for charter schools. The state will approve single-gender charter schools if they serve educationally disadvantaged or traditionally underserved students, according to rules passed by the state Board of Education. Read more>>

State Superintendent Brian Whiston does not have the authority to withhold state aid from school districts with Native American mascots or logos, according to Michigan's attorney general. Whiston had requested the opinion, and said that—if he had authority to do so—he would consider fining districts that refuse to abandon mascots that are "generally recognized" as offensive. Read more>>

In an effort to transform an elementary school struggling with misbehavior, meager test scores and absenteeism, the Baltimore district teamed it and two other troubled schools with one of the system's best schools. The teachers share lessons, visit each others' classrooms, mentor and collaborate with their counterparts across the city. Read more>>

If educators in Chicago’s Noble Network of Charter Schools get their way, they will soon compose the largest unionized charter school network in the nation. Read more>>

Most Wisconsin high schools don’t teach students how to drive cars anymore because of limited time and money. Yet some lawmakers think schools have the resources to start teaching teenagers how to handle guns. That shouldn't be a priority, given strict limits on how much districts can spend, and given the need for more advanced learning. Read more>>

Yes, Gov. Scott Walker proposed a $200 per pupil increase for the 2017-2018 school year, with an additional $204 for the following school year. Nevertheless, even if the proposed levels of funding are approved, Borsuk acknowledges and we agree that “$200 is only a big deal compared to the last six years.” Read more>>

New York City has made an enormous bet on transforming its highest-need schools into community hubs, pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into more than 130 of them over the last three years. But it’s not entirely clear what types of improvements should follow from the heavy investments in things like extra medical care, social workers and guidance counselors. Read more>>

Fender Musical Instruments Corporation launched a video-based learning platform for desktop and iPhone. Fender Play is designed to change the way beginning players learn how to play guitar through hundreds of instructor-guided video lessons utilizing a song-driven, personalized learning path. Read more>>

Altavoz Entertainment, Inc., has signed Music With Mar. to its LibraryDistributionDeal.com, making 20 titles of the kids learning series digitally available to the public through the nation's library system. Read more>>

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The Oklahoma school district named Cindy Swearingen as the new superintendent of schools. Most recently superintendent of Beggs school district, she retired two years ago after 29 years in education. Read more>>

Jeff Hill began his position as Morton School District's superintendent, replacing Superintendent Lindsey Hall. Hall resigned to become superintendent in the Mahomet-Seymour School District. Hill was superintendent of Illinois State University’s Laboratory Schools. Read more>>

The Albany City School District has named Kaweeda Adams, a 28-year educator and school administrator in the Clark County School District, as its next superintendent. She is currently a school associate superintendent for one of 16 performance zones in the Nevada district, overseeing 24 schools and more than 28,000 students. Read more>>