[Weekly EdNews Round Up] Comics Put the BOOM! POW! Into Curriculum

No one knows better than educators about the importance of staying up-to-date. In Edmentum’s Weekly News Round Up, you’ll find the latest and most interesting education news, all in one place.

Remember when your mom told you comic books would rot your brain? Turns out using the colorful pages of comics can support reading skills by helping students decipher visual cues, as well as words on a page. Read all about this and more in this week’s EdNews Round Up!

Graphic Novels Zap Literacy — and Fun — into Curriculum
Education Drive
As superheroes leap and bound across movie screens, the colorful pages these comic creations live in are making their way to less splashy spaces: classrooms. Comics and graphic novels are tools that can support reading skills and even embed lessons more clearly into students' minds.

When Administrators Keep Teaching
edutopia
Teaching keeps school leaders connected to students and other teachers and lets them feel the effects of their own decisions. Find out how this model, where school administrators spend time in the classroom teaching, is benefitting some schools.

In Teachers We (Should) Trust
neaToday
An innovation expert visits schools in all 50 states and discovers that given trust, community support, and resources, our teaching force can be unstoppable.

Ed-Tech Leadership Is a Tough Task for Principals
EdWeek
School leaders face pressures about what digital learning approaches to take and what tech products to buy—from the central office, education companies, teachers, parents, and students.

How Young is Too Young to Start Introducing Students to Future Careers?
The Hechinger Report
Career exploration in the form of internships, externships and apprenticeships is getting more attention around the country, but usually it’s a concern of high schools. Some educators see a need to start sooner, so they turn to their middle schools. One school is starting the conversation with kindergartners.

Why Students Cheat—and What to Do About It
edutopia
Most students realize that cheating is wrong, but in a survey of 70,000 high school students across the U.S. between 2002 and 2015, 95 percent admitted to cheating in some capacity. Turns out the reasons students cheat aren't always so simple, but the strategies to reduce cheating are.

Where School Employees Can't Afford Housing, Some Districts Try to Help
EdWeek
Housing costs are a concern not just for rookie teachers and other lower-salaried employees but also for principals and other district leaders. In some of the nation's hottest real estate markets, school districts are trying new tactics to help employees cover the spiraling costs of renting or buying a home.

What 'A Nation At Risk' Got Wrong, And Right, About U.S. Schools
NPR
Very few government reports have had the staying power of "A Nation At Risk," which appeared in April 1983 and stoked widespread concerns about the quality of American schools. The report's narrative of failing schools — students being out-competed internationally and declining educational standards — persists, and has become an entrenched part of the debate over education in the U.S.