A new mandate under the Every Student Succeeds Act requires a top-to-bottom look at how such districts deploy their money, staff, and the time used to support improvement.

A collection of news stories from this week.

A SUNDAY shift on The Herald’s Politics Watch tends to begin the same way, with an early trip to buy the papers. Usually it is just myself, a couple of other larks, and the woman who keeps an eye on the self-checkout area. All quiet on the supermarket front.

STRANGE things you never thought would come to pass. Queueing to enter a supermarket. Being thrilled by the sight of the bin lorry arriving. Making your own surgical mask. These days. But the oddest thing of all? Being glad to see politicians.

Crave pragmatic, honest, clear-eyed conversation about the realities of ed tech? Here's a reading list from Education Week, as presented at ISTE 2019.

Fewer than one-third of America's teachers say ed-tech innovations have changed their beliefs about what school should look like, according to a new Education Week survey.

Education Week asked senior executives from some of the biggest and fastest-growing companies in the United States that question. You might be surprised by what they had to say.

Keira Knightley plays a feminist activist who disrupts the Miss World contest in 1970 in the new film Misbehaviour.

RADIOACTIVE (12A)

IT’S all too easy to lose track of many of the quirky, moving, interesting films that have been shot in Scotland over the years. Some of the sparkling gems on these pages attracted decent reviews upon release before fading from view; others slipped under most people’s radar. The 10 films here are funny, or dark, or insightful. All have something to say; all are worth tracking down, and watching, whether it’s for the first time, or the first time since they were released.

What's the story?

The proposed budget from the Trump administration eliminates the Title II grant program, which pays for professional development and class-size reduction efforts.

A majority of states have at least one policy that limits the number of students that may be in a general education classroom, according to the Education Commission of the States. Among states that have changed their class-size policies since 2008, all have opted to relax those constraints.

Framed prints of Steven Camley's cartoons are available by calling 0141 302 6210.”

This week, our resident cartoonist turned his pen on the Coronavirus outbreak, bullying claims surrounding the home secretary and Scotland making in to the world list of top beaches.

Laughable list

In a recent high-profile case, Harvard College rescinded its offer to a school-shooting survivor after racist comments he’d written online surfaced. But how common is it for colleges to take back offers? And do students have any recourse?

Amid public concerns about school safety fueled by high-profile school shootings, new federal data show reports of student fights, bullying, and other forms of victimization have continued a decades-long decline.

Disney's CEO said most of the subscribers to Disney+ came from the US. But going forward, the company expects new subscribers to come from foreign markets as the streaming service expands to more European countries and India this March.

“I AM an Asian Tiger Mum, for whom education is the only way to success for my children, and excellence in music, sport and ballet is a prerequisite to living any sort of life at all.”

Military bases are providing more support and resources for the growing number of military families who are choosing to home school their children.

Rather than adhering to a specific curriculum, families who "unschool" believe learning happens naturally and should be driven by a student's interests. Education Week spent a "school" day with the Matica family to see this decades-old approach to home schooling in action.

The pandemic has boosted appreciation for public schools; the next step is greater funding, argues education historian and activist Diane Ravitch.

School board members in Tucson, Ariz., acted after learning that a controversial economics textbook that hadn't been properly vetted.

VE DAY in 1945 was obviously an occasion for major celebration in Britain and throughout Europe. But there is reasonable debate as to what we should make of it now.

RIGHT now, Tori Amos says, the big thing is to resist despondency. “That is an illness,” she tells me near the end of our conversation. “That is cancerous. And it can spread through your whole being and you don’t even realise. You’re in a mental war and you don’t know how to get out of it, and you do have to have words with yourself.”

What’s it called?

For the first time, the World Health Organization has officially designated "gaming disorder" among its list of mental-health addictive behaviors.

The mental health of school counselors, nurses, school leaders, and teachers are at risk, and they may only need 10 minutes to help alleviate their stress.

THE primary and ultimate responsibility for the parlous state of the high street lies with its customers, or former customers, since we are increasingly giving our custom to online retailers instead.

Issues with Microsoft's Windows 10 April 2018 Update are a warning of what's to come.

It's resulted in a creepy Orwellian environment where Google, Facebook, Amazon, and others have replaced Big Brother.

I'm amazed at how reliant this younger generation is on their smartphones. I think it's weird, but you can use that generation's screen addiction to your benefit.

A five-part series on mistakes made by school administrators is wrapped-up today with commentaries from Dr. Lynell Powell, Stuart Ablon, Alisha Pollastri, Diane Mora and many comments from readers

Democrat Gavin Newsom, who takes office Jan. 7, plans to expand full-day kindergarten and child-care offerings in the state, according to media reports.

Education needs to stop going around in circles, writes Stanford’s Thomas S. Dee.

Indiana's state Senate has approved a measure that would create access for middle-income families for private-school vouchers. As it stands, it's one of the most ambitious voucher proposals ever offered in the states.

Watch students in 8th grade teacher Susie Morehead's class deepen their understanding of math principles by working through problems with their peers.

Community groups and sports not connected to school can help students stay more connected academically during a critical transition period, according to a study of low-income students in New York City.

The film is the first from the James Patterson book series about a middle school student dealing with school rules that don't always make sense.

It's part of the foundation's $425 million research and development push, announced last fall.

A forthcoming study finds that beginning middle schoolers benefit from two 15-minute writing exercises to boost their sense of social and academic belonging.

Teachers unleash a flood of creative responses to one of the Most Persistent Teaching Questions of All Time: How do you get ever-chatty middle schoolers to quiet down and pay attention?

The contemporary art space Cample Line has been set up amongst the fields and agricultural vistas of Dumfriesshire for three years now. Occupying what was once a set of three single-storey mill workers cottages, before it was knocked through and given a second storey in the Victorian period, it will open for the 2020 season later this month with a somewhat aptly themed exhibition – “Acts for placing woollen and linen” - by the American conceptual artist Helen Mirra, whose strong socio-envi

Lorraine Wilson

IN pre-lockdown days I had a much-ridiculed addiction. Using Snapchat Maps online, I would click all over the map to see the ‘stories’ of random people I didn’t know in all corners of the world.

MY after work walk on Wednesday was a zig zag, following the sun as she headed west.

CAN I tell you how I feel? I feel, sometimes, like everyone in my life has suddenly been reduced to flat, distant images on a computer screen, like we’re in Star Trek. And I don’t like it.

GLUMNESS settles on a large part of the nation whenever the subject of comedy comes up now. The lockdown has led to a more frenetic search for entertainment, and the current state of humour hasn’t wanted for critics. This week, Royle Family star Ricky Tomlinson, 80, said it was dire, and listed several comedians, adding: “They should be done under the Trade Description Act.”