[Weekly EdNews Round Up] What Happens When Schools Starts Later

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. 

Here’s What Happens When Schools Start Later
neaToday
Starting school later allows adolescents to get more sleep, thus improving student’s physical and mental health, attendance, and academic performance, according to new research published by Science Advances.

The Ed. Dept.'s Been Pared Back. Here's What That Means for States
EdWeek
The main federal office overseeing K-12 education lost nearly 14 percent of its staff between the end of the Obama administration and the midpoint of the Trump administration. States are weighing the impact.

Bill Gates Says The Textbook Is Dying. Is He Right?
Forbes
Bill Gates says textbooks "are becoming obsolete," but textbooks remain the preferred tool for the vast majority of classrooms in this country. Let's not write their obituaries just yet.

States Considering Nearly 250 School Safety Bills Already in 2019
U.S. News
The measures range from bills that would codify emergency preparation and notification procedures to those that would govern the presence of guns in schools.

When Schools Tell Kids They Can’t Use the Bathroom
The Atlantic
By imposing harsh restrictions on when students can use the restroom, educators are teaching kids to ignore their bladder.

Science Curriculum Reviews Are Out, and Results Aren't Great
EdWeek
The first independent review to weigh whether new science curriculum series are truly aligned to a set of national standards was issued this morning—and mostly, the materials fell well short of expectations.

Education policy is often a topic of conversation in state and federal legislatures. Stay in-the-know with this week’s top stories regarding education reform.

DeVos Makes $5 Billion School Choice Pitch
U.S. News
The proposed tax credit to help parents send their children to the school of their choice has even some conservatives bristling.

Florida Senate leaders align with governor on schools package
Sun Sentinel
Top Senate Republicans unveiled details of a package that would bring significant changes to the education system, most notably through an expansion of school choice and by expanding a program to arm teachers.

Is Your School District Ready for the Next Recession?
EdWeek
Marguerite Roza, a Georgetown school finance professor, provides five tips on how districts could prepare for the next recession, which many economists predict is right around the corner.

Online trial run of TNReady test dampened by flooding and flu across Tennessee
Chalkbeat
First, an overloaded computer platform derailed Tennessee’s online testing program. Then students struggled to complete their year-end exams because of software bugs and even a fiber optic cable severed by a dump truck. Now as the state tries to get testing right in the fourth year of the TNReady assessment era, it faces several new challenges: flooding and the flu.

Few states recognize the arts as part of their ESSA accountability plans
Education Dive
Illinois, Connecticut and Kentucky, however, are examples of how states are using the law's broader definition of student success to emphasize the arts.

Arkansas legislator proposes cutting lunch funding from schools that struggle to improve reading skills
WHNT
One Arkansas lawmaker wants to get more students reading by putting money on the line—specifically, their lunch money.

The College-Affordability Crisis Is Uniting the 2020 Democratic Candidates
The Atlantic
All together, the field seems to have converged on a consensus: A free-college proposal—or an answer about why they don’t have one—is something of a prerequisite for Democratic candidates hoping to challenge Donald Trump in the 2020 election.