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High Court Backs Oklahoma Tribe's Reservation Status, With Potential School Implications

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a large swath of land in Oklahoma is still an American Indian reservation, a decision that may have ramifications for education.




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Supreme Court Declines Indian Gaming Case Said to Affect School Revenues

Writing in dissent, Justice Clarence Thomas said a lower court had disrupted state property tax revenue for schools and other government services.




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Briefly Stated: Stories You May Have Missed

A collection of stories from the previous week that you may have missed.




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Oklahoma schools may offer in-school quarantine of students




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Betsy DeVos Approves Vermont and Maine ESSA Plans

The latest approvals mean 12 of the 17 state plans submitted so far for Every Student Succeeds Act implementation have been given the federal go-ahead.




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Maine Teachers Are Trading in Their iPads for Laptops

Teachers felt that iPads "provide no educational function in the classroom" and are often used to play games in class.




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Maine Teachers Trade IPads for Laptops

Middle and high schools in Maine are returning their iPads and switching back to laptops after a survey found that 88.5 percent of teachers and 74 percent of students in one district preferred laptops for schoolwork and instruction, reports the Lewiston-Auburn Sun Journal.




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Gov. Seeks Consolidation Of Superintendents in Maine

Gov. Paul LePage believes Maine has a glut of school superintendents, and he intends to pressure districts into consolidating administrations with the two-year budget he will propose in early 2017.




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Where They Are: The Nation's Small But Growing Population of Black English-Learners

In five northern U.S. states, black students comprise more than a fifth of ELL enrollment.




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Justice Dept. Backs Religious School Choice in Case on Maine Tuition Program

The Trump administration backs three families seeking to require the state of Maine to pay tuition for their children to attend religious high schools.




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Educational Opportunities and Performance in Maine

This Quality Counts 2019 Highlights Report captures all the data you need to assess your state's performance on key educational outcomes.




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Schools Lean on Staff Who Speak Students' Language to Keep English-Learners Connected

The rocky shift to remote learning has exacerbated inequities for the nation's 5 million English-learners. An army of multilingual liaisons work round the clock to plug widening gaps.




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Educational Opportunities and Performance in Maine

This Quality Counts 2020 Highlights Report captures all the data you need to assess your state's performance on key educational outcomes.




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Supreme Court Won't Hear Challenge to Union Exclusive Representation

The justices declined to take up a major challenge to exclusive-bargaining arrangements for teachers' unions and other public employee labor organizations.




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How One School Avoided a COVID-19 Outbreak and Shutdown

Strict protocols and limited community spread helped a Maine high school stay open for in person instruction when its first coronavirus case turned up.




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Federal Appeals Court Upholds Maine Bar on Tuition Aid to Religious Schools

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit turns away claims of religious discrimination by families seeking to use Maine's "tuitioning" program.




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New investigator picked for Bangor High School racism probe




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Stop Scapegoating Gifted Students for Inequality

Eliminating gifted programs all together is the wrong solution to fixing racial and economic imbalances, argues James R. Delisle.




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Yonkers, N.Y., District Commits to More Inclusion of Students with Disabilities

The U.S. Department of Education's office for civil rights said that some students were placed in self-contained special education settings without an individualized justification for doing so.




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Elementary Principal Touts Benefits of Extended School Day

Students at Bellevue Elementary in Syracuse, N.Y., spend an extra 70 minutes at school each day, and their principal says the extended school day has improved their academic performance.




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N.Y. Private Schools Didn't Have to Report Abuse to Police. A New Law Changes That.

Private schools in New York soon will be required to report suspected sexual abuse of students in their schools to law enforcement, bringing the independent schools under the same rules as public schools.




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Educational Opportunities and Performance in New York

This Quality Counts 2020 Highlights Report captures all the data you need to assess your state's performance on key educational outcomes.




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Schools Are Required to Teach Mental-Health Lessons This Fall in Two States. And That's a First.

Students returning to schools in Virginia and New York this fall will be required to participate in mental-health education as part of their health and physical education courses.




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New York Denied ESSA Waiver to Test Students With Disabilities Off Grade Level

The state will be required to test all students using grade level tests, except for those with significant cognitive disabilities.




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School Accessibility Gets $150 Million Boost in N.Y.C. Budget

The money, which will be allocated over three years, is expected to make major and minor improvements to schools throughout the city.




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New York Takes Final Step to Separate State Test Scores From Teacher Evaluations

The New York state legislature passed a bill that would make the use of state test scores in these evaluations optional, leaving the decision up to districts and making it subject to collective bargaining.




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A Teacher's Diary of a Week of School Closure

It's hard to keep the coronavirus crisis in perspective, especially when that perspective keeps shifting, writes New York City teacher Colin Lieu.




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'Bright Star' Principal, 36, Dies From Coronavirus

Dez-Ann Romain, a Brooklyn principal, is believed to be the first full-time, front-line educator to die from COVID-19.




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One Teacher's Life in a Coronavirus Epicenter

The days are a technology overload, mixed with the joy of seeing her students' faces and worry about her own family's health and safety, New York City teacher Ariel Sacks writes.




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New York City Schools Will Stay Closed for Academic Year, Mayor Says

Gov. Andrew Cuomo pushed back on the Mayor Bill de Blasio's announcement, however, saying "no decision" had been made about reopening schools in New York City or elsewhere in the state.




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School Closures for Coronavirus Could Extend to the End of School Year, Some Say

More than half of all states have ordered schools closed for multiple weeks to help slow the pandemic.




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Briefly Stated: Stories You May Have Missed

A collection of articles you may have missed from the previous week.




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State targets emerging virus clusters in western, central NY




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NYC schools stay open, deputies break up illegal fight club




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NYC virus rate stays below school-closing threshold, for now




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NYC to reopen schools, even as virus spread intensifies




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Mayor: No in-person learning for upper grades until new year




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Civics-Test Bills Hit State Legislatures Again in 2016

A bill in Nebraska would require high school students to take a civics examination before graduating.




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Heavy Response to Nebraska Restraint Bill Illuminates Teachers' Frustrations

A Nebraska senator introduced a bill that would give teachers legal cover to physically restraint disruptive students, prompting a strong positive response from members of the state teachers' union.




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Nebraska School Cook Who Served Kangaroo Meat to Students Is Fired

A school cook in Nebraska was canned after he mixed kangaroo meat into chili made for students.




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Why Is Fidelity Always Seen as the New Four-Letter Word?

Fidelity is often seen as a bad word in school, but it doesn't have to be that way. In this guest blog by George Toman, the concept of fidelity is explained and defended.




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Betsy DeVos Greenlights ESSA Plans for Nebraska and North Carolina

U.S. Ed Secretary DeVos has approved plans for 46 states, plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Still waiting: California, Florida, Oklahoma, and Utah.




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New Public Data Tool Lets You See What Curricula Schools in Nebraska Are Using

Nebraska's education department released an interactive instructional materials map last week, showing what curricula districts have adopted for English-language arts, math, and K-8 science.




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Educational Opportunities and Performance in Nebraska

This Quality Counts 2019 Highlights Report captures all the data you need to assess your state's performance on key educational outcomes.




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Elegy for the Educators

This poem pays tribute to the more than 400 teachers, principals, bus drivers, custodians, and other staff members we have lost to the pandemic so far.




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Paraprofessional With 'Gentle Spirit' Dies at 27 From COVID-19

A former high school athletic standout and homecoming king, Pedro Garcia III “could connect with anybody,” no matter the language, said a teaching colleague in Cozad, Neb.




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This Pandemic Is No Time to Backtrack on Special Education

It's worth remembering how far we've come on educating students with disabilities, writes Nebraska's education commissioner Matthew L. Blomstedt.




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Educational Opportunities and Performance in Nebraska

This Quality Counts 2020 Highlights Report captures all the data you need to assess your state's performance on key educational outcomes.




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Home Schooling Is Way Up With COVID-19. Will It Last?

The shift could have lasting effects on both public schools and the home-schooling movement.




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Anchorage School District in Alaska projects a $15.2M loss