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'It's Our Time': Maryland Teachers March for School Funding

Thousands of teachers marched in Annapolis on Monday evening, pushing for higher pay and more resources for their students.




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Audit: Maryland Dept. Did Not Properly Store Data for 1.4 Million Students

The Maryland State Department of Education "inappropriately stored" personal information of 1.4 million students and more than 230,000 teachers, leaving them vulnerable to potential bad actors, according to an audit published earlier this month.




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Educational Opportunities and Performance in Maryland

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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Maryland Ranks Fourth on Quality Counts Annual Report Card

The state, which earned a B, saw its educational strength buoyed by strong performance in areas that measure socioeconomic factors that can affect the educational environment.




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Briefly Stated: Stories You May Have Missed

A collection of short news stories from this week.




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States Gear Up to Overhaul K-12 Funding in 2020

The political landscape for updating school finance systems won’t be any easier in the 2020 legislative season, despite a surging economy, state flexibility under ESSA, and single-party control in many states.




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Mining for Gifted Students in Untapped Places

An internationally known gifted-education center is scouting—and helping to develop—gifted students in after-school programs and pullout classes in one of Maryland’s most challenged school districts.




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Rapid Deployment of Remote Learning: Lessons From 4 Districts

Chief technology officers are facing an unprecedented test of digital preparedness due to the coronavirus pandemic, struggling with shortfalls of available learning devices and huge Wi-Fi access challenges.




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Here's Why a Maryland School Finance Overhaul Could Prove Groundbreaking

Maryland's legislature has proposed a unique way to fund schools and also wants to hold school districts more accountable for how they spend their money as part of a new funding formula.




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Educational Opportunities and Performance in Maryland

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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School Closures May Go Into the Fall If Coronavirus Resurges, State Chiefs Warn

Schools may have to continue closures in the fall if the coronavirus resurges, state schools chiefs in Maryland and Washington said. The warnings came the same week thata key federal official predicted schools would be able to reopen for the 2020-21 school year.




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Teachers Without Internet Work in Parking Lots, Empty School Buildings During COVID-19

While most teachers have online access at home, internet service for many educators in rural areas is spotty, expensive, or nonexistent.




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Maryland extends school closings through May 15 due to virus




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Maryland educators, students aim to adapt to closures




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Who's Afraid of Math? Turns Out, Lots of Students

A program in Howard County, Md., is built on the insight that children can have strong emotions around academics, and those emotions can sabotage learning.




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Hogan vetoes major education bill, cites virus budget impact




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New York Poised to Revamp Certification Exams

A task force is recommending that the state lowers the score required on the controversial national edTPA exam.




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New York Plans to Seek ESSA Waivers on Testing

New York, which has had a politically contentious history assessing its students, will seek three waivers from how the Every Student Succeeds Act requires states to test students.




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New York Pre-K Tops Out At Over 68,500 Children

The city's prekindergarten program is approaching universal access, which was a campaign promise of Mayor Bill de Blasio, who convinced the state legislature to provide $300 million to help launch it.




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New York Proposes Increased Flexibility to Teacher Certification Process

To give districts more flexibility in the face of teacher shortages, New York's education department is proposing to modify its regulations on teacher certifications.




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'Open Algorithms' Bill Would Jolt New York City Schools, Public Agencies

The proposed legislation would require the 1.1-million student district to publish the source code behind algorithms used to assign students to high schools, evaluate teachers, and more.




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Buffalo and Rochester Work Together to Recruit Teachers of Color

The two Upstate New York districts are venturing beyond the largely white region to tap a more diverse pool of educators.




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New York Set to Revise Common-Core Reading and Math Standards

New York state is considering adopting a new set of K-12 reading and math standards that differ somewhat from the Common Core State Standards, which have had rocky reception in the state since they went into place in 2010.




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Sharing Services Offers Cost Savings and Better Service, Claims N.Y. Survey

New York superintendents who shared services reported more cost savings and improved service quality than improved student achievement, according to a new research brief.




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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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DeVos: State Bans on Public Money to Religious Schools Should Go To 'Ash Heap of History'

U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos railed against state constitutional prohibitions on public funds going to religious institutions in a speech to the Alfred E. Smith Foundation in New York City.




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New York Leap-Frogs ESSA With Its Own Financial Transparency Rule

New York will require some districts next year to have their school-by-school spending amounts approved by the state, an effort to assure that state funds are being distributed as intended.




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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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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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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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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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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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New York Schools Staying Closed Through Spring, Cuomo Says

New York’s schools and colleges will remain shut through the end of the academic year because of the coronavirus pandemic, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Friday.




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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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Prominent Literacy Expert Denies Dyslexia Exists; Says to 'Shoot' Whoever Wrote Law on It

A group of teachers and literacy advocates are pushing back after Richard Allington, one of the country's most prominent experts on early literacy, made inflammatory claims about dyslexia at a Tennessee literacy conference this week.




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Memphis Superintendent Dorsey Hopson Leaving to Join Healthcare Company

Hopson became the interim superintendent in Shelby County, Tenn., in 2013 after the Memphis City School system merged with Shelby County schools. That merger then led six suburban communities to break away from the merged school system to form their own school districts.




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A Look at Teacher Improvement in Tennessee

A state department leader outlines what Tennessee is learning about teacher improvement and where the state still needs to learn more.




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What Teachers Tell Us About the Connections Between Standards, Curriculum, and Professional Learning

A statewide survey of educators in Tennessee provides critical insights into connections that exist between standards, curriculum, professional development, and ultimately student success.




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How Teachers' Insights Inform State Policy in Tennessee

Teachers in Tennessee have an important voice in shaping state initiatives and policies.




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Tennessee Teachers Have Warmed to Evaluation System, But Not State Tests

Tennessee improved its teacher evaluation and training systems by integrating data and teacher voice, according to a new report. But value-added measures that evaluate teachers based on student test scores remain controversial.




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Tennessee School District Prohibits Crowdfunding for Class Supplies

A school district in Tennessee says it no longer wants teachers to use crowdfunding websites to get extra school supplies.




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Secessions Exacerbate Segregation, Study Finds

Court-ordered school desegregation has been more successful in the South than in any other region of the country, but researchers have noted a new threat: the growing number of communities that are seceding from larger school districts to form their own.




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A Once Homeless Teen Earned $3 Million in Scholarship Offers. Here's What Made His Story Possible

Tupac Mosley overcame homelessness to graduate as valedictorian, writes Jonathan E. Collins, but there’s an overlooked part of his inspirational story: policy.




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Educational Opportunities and Performance in Tennessee

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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Reading Instruction: A Flurry of New State Laws

Many states have recently enacted laws or rules designed to ensure that teachers are well versed in evidence-based reading instruction. Here are some highlights.




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Tennessee Seeks New Teacher, Principal Requirements in 'Science of Reading'

The Tennessee department of education is proposing unsually comprehensive legislation that will require all current and new K-3 teachers, and those who train them, to know evidence-based reading instruction.




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Educational Opportunities and Performance in Tennessee

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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Tennessee voucher program challenge heads to court Wednesday