Drones Take Their Place in the K–12 Classroom – By Wylie Wong, EdTech Magazine

Many children look at drones as cool toys. But from an educational perspective, teachers Ray Sevits and David Steele see an emerging technology that could steer their students toward a potential career.

Last summer, the two educators from Colorado Springs School District 11 took a two-week drone-flying course, became drone pilots certified by the Federal Aviation Administration and now teach classes focused on the technology.

Sevits’s North Middle School students master the art of flying drones as they learn the conceptual physics of how the aircraft work, their different parts and how to fix them when they crash or break. Steele teaches the same concepts at Coronado High School, but in much greater detail as students design and build their own drones and prepare to earn FAA certification as drone pilots.

“It’s easy to attract students and hook them with the coolness of flying drones. The burden is on us to show them the career connection — that a drone is a tool and that many industries use it,” says Duane Roberson, CSSD11’s director of career and technical education and concurrent enrollment.

Seeking better results, Colorado lawmakers want to tell schools how to teach reading – By Erica Meltzer, Chalkbeat

Concerned about the high number of Colorado students who don’t read at grade level, some lawmakers want to dictate how schools teach reading. A bipartisan bill introduced Monday in the Colorado Senate would also require that teachers get new certifications in reading instruction and move state dollars earmarked for struggling readers to programs that help schools improve their teaching methods.

The proposal is unusual in its level of legislative involvement in the details of classroom teaching. It lays out the components of effective reading instruction and would require schools to focus on those elements: phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary development, reading fluency, and reading comprehension. Schools would have to develop reading education plans and report back to the state on how they are teaching reading.

“We have to do something,” said state Sen. Bob Rankin, a Carbondale Republican and a sponsor of the legislation. “Sixty percent of our kids cannot read, at third grade, at grade level, and it makes a difference in the rest of their schooling and then their whole life. It’s a national problem. … But we know that there’s a science and there’s methodology and there’s evidence-based programs that work.”

Senate Bill 199 represents a major update to the READ Act, 2012 legislation that aims to get students reading proficiently by the end of third grade. Schools must test students in reading from kindergarten through third grade, identify students with “significant reading deficiencies,” and develop individualized plans to help those students.

Is it finally time to get rid of the SAT and ACT college admissions tests?  By Valerie Strauss, The Washington Post

Is it finally time for colleges and universities to stop requiring applicants to take the SAT and ACT college admissions exams?

The question, long asked by testing critics, is being revived with new urgency amid the explosive college admissions bribery scandal rocking the world of higher education. As part of an investigation they called Operation Varsity Blues, federal prosecutors last week charged some 50 people, including famous Hollywood actresses and wealthy financiers. The alleged schemes included hiring impostors to take SAT and ACT exams, or rigging the test by asking for additional time to take it even when that wasn’t necessary.

As high-profile as Varsity Blues is, it is just the latest issue facing the College Board, which owns the SAT, and ACT Inc. — including repeated cheating scandals and fundamental questions about the value of the scores. Now, the testing giants find themselves again defending the integrity of their exams.

Colleges admissions tests have for decades played an important — and sometimes decisive — role at colleges and universities as they choose who to admit and who to reject. Millions of students take one of the two exams each year, earning millions of dollars for the nonprofit organizations that own them. Schools like to use the scores as a concrete data point to compare thousands or even tens of thousands of applicants.

Gov. DeWine’s “wraparound” services funding could be boost to Cleveland, other school districts – By Patrick O’Donnell, The Plain Dealer

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Gov. Mike DeWine’s proposal to pay for social services for students in schools could be a major boost to Cleveland as it looks to expand those supports across the entire district.

It’s a plan that – if passed by the legislature – would give the Cleveland school district $8.9 million next school year and $10.7 million the year after for so-called “wraparound” supports for kids, such as after-school programs or mental and physical health services

With Cleveland already offering such help in more than 20 schools, it’s one of Ohio’s leaders in that area, along with Cincinnati. Now that Cleveland has partnered with the Say Yes to Education college scholarship and student supports program, that cash would be a big help expanding services to all schools in the district.

“I would absolutely want to coordinate these new budget resources with the Say Yes To Education service roll out,” said district CEO Eric Gordon.

Other districts with disadvantaged students would also receive large infusions of cash to help students with personal challenges interfering with learning. Statewide, 122 districts would receive the $250 maximum per student next year, based on poverty levels in the district.