Video: Susan Cole on the impact of trauma on student learning (2:33)
Harvard educator Susan Cole discusses the serious issue of student trauma and the primary characteristics of what she calls “trauma-sensitive schools” in a 2½-minute video produced at the AASA national conference in San Diego, where she was a presenter on Feb. 13. Cole is the project director for the trauma and learning policy initiative, a joint collaboration between the Harvard Law School and the Massachusetts Advocates for Children. For more information, visit aasa.org.
Panel Focuses on Strategies to Stem Failure Among Middle School Students
Audience members laughed when Laurie Barron, superintendent of Evergreen School District 50 in Kalispell, Mont. joked about the struggles of keeping up with outdated technology before she made the claim that many educators are “almost as outdated as the Chromebooks used in classrooms.” From that point on during the AASA conference session “Prevent Failure” on […]
Experts: Keep Students in Focus When Addressing Safety, Mental Health Issues
Schools are increasingly invested in not just their student’s academic scores, but their overall mental health. New resources, strategies, and organizations are emerging to assist these schools in their mission to better the lives of the community around them. Studies by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention put the issue in perspective. In some […]
Amid a Rise in Cyberattacks, Panel Tells Districts to Prioritize Cyber Security
Superintendent Donna Wright recalls last year when one of her financial team members at Wilson County Schools in Tennessee opened an e-mail. It looked like yet another request for payment to a construction firm building schools in the booming school district. But then the staff member noticed the signature. “It looked very authentic,” said Wright […]
School Leaders Urged to Brand the Distinctive Story Behind Their Districts
Negative news. Diversity, equity and inclusion. Bond measures. Budget constraints. Chances are good most school system leaders have had to deal with at least one of these issues already during this school year. The story was the same for a group of administrators from the 2018 cohort of AASA’s Urban Superintendent Academy. Renae Bryant, Valencia […]
Superintendent Panel Plugs Expansion of Valued Coding Skills in the Curriculum for Students of All Ages
Skip the expected conference introductions and go head-on with a BootUpPD video. In the “Computer Science for All” session on Thursday, that was exactly the case. While the audience watched the video on the BootUpPD website, four presenters — Russ Adams, superintendent of MOC Floyd Valley Community School District in Orange County, Iowa; Ember Conley, […]
Strategies Shared by Duo for Reducing Absenteeism in Schools
Three superintendents are called up to the front of the AASA conference session. Hedy Chang, the executive director of Attendance Works, informs them that they have become 5 year olds, then tells a story of how certain setbacks, including poor resources and lack of consistent transportation, leads the trio to chronic absences, costing them months […]
Superintendents Point to Social Media’s Merit for Engaging Their School Communities
Don’t let the lengthy session title fool you. The case for a school district’s presence on social media can be summed up in a tweet: engage.
Developing Equity as an Authentic Journey of Love, the Focus of a Pre-Conference Workshop
In Ithaca, N.Y., City School District, where Luvelle Brown has been superintendent for eight years, he has set his sights on improving culturally responsive practices and mindsets. He uses the phrase building a “culture of love” because culture is critical to teaching and learning. As an African American, he recalled during an AASA pre-conference workshop […]
Video: Luvelle Brown on the Power of Reflection in the Superintendency (3:21)
Luvelle Brown, superintendent of Ithaca City School District in Ithaca, N.Y., discusses the power of reflection, the central theme of his book Culture of Love, plus his thoughts on social and emotional learning and some of the biggest challenges he has as a superintendent in this three-minute video. Brown led a pre-conference workshop at the AASA 2020 National Conference on Education.