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	<title>School Board News</title>
	<link>http://schoolboardnews.nsba.org</link>
	<description>School Board News Today, an online publication of NSBA, provides timely and relevant stories and analysis from NSBA and other news outlets to school board members, administrators, and all others interested in K-12 education.</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Fri, 10 Feb 2012 19:23:31 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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		<title>NSBA: NCLB waivers are not enough</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The National School Boards Association (NSBA) was encouraged on Thursday by President Barack Obama’s announcement to waive problematic and burdensome regulatory requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) from ten states. However, NSBA cautions that this is not enough and is calling for Congress to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary School Education Act [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://schoolboardnews.nsba.org/2012/02/nsba-nclb-waivers-are-not-enough/</link>
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		<title>New resource on high school success</title>
		<description><![CDATA[What does effective high school look like? What do our graduates need to know to succeed in college and the workplace? Are they ready for the challenges ahead? Answers to these and many more questions can be found at the High School Toolkit, just launched this week by National School Boards Association&#8217;s  Center for Public Education. [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://schoolboardnews.nsba.org/2012/02/new-resource-on-high-school-success/</link>
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		<title>NSBA advocates for ESEA revamp</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The National School Boards Association (NSBA), along with four other state and local government organization, are urging Congress to reform the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) and enact legislation that would reframe the federal-state-local partnership before the next school year begins. In a letter sent to the chairmen and ranking members of the House [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://schoolboardnews.nsba.org/2012/02/nsba-advocates-for-esea-revamp/</link>
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		<title>Members of Congress address FRN audience</title>
		<description><![CDATA[In preparation for their big day on Capitol Hill, board members attending the final general session of the 39th Annual Federal Relations Network heard from three members of Congress who reflect the diversity of political persuasions across the country.]]></description>
		<link>http://schoolboardnews.nsba.org/2012/02/members-of-congress-address-frn-audience/</link>
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		<title>Compensating talented staff</title>
		<description><![CDATA[School board members attending the Federal Relations Network (FRN) Conference had a number of opportunities to learn about the various congressional and cabinet-level efforts to improve teacher efficacy through innovative recruiting, retention, and compensation models.

Led by NSBA’s Director of Federal Programs Lucy Gettman, one of Monday’s final sessions recapped the proposed and draft versions of these federal efforts and, more importantly, drew audience members into a strategic discussion on the issue.

]]></description>
		<link>http://schoolboardnews.nsba.org/2012/02/compensating-talented-staff/</link>
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		<title>Congress members say changes to ESEA are coming</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Two former school board members and current U.S. Representatives promised Federal Relations Network (FRN) Conference participants that changes are on the way for the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). Reps. Judy Biggert, R-Ill., and Glenn Thompson, R-Pa., vowed to support local control and local school boards in speeches at a luncheon session on Monday.
]]></description>
		<link>http://schoolboardnews.nsba.org/2012/02/congress-members-say-changes-to-esea-are-coming/</link>
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		<title>NCLB regulatory relief is on the way</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Last year, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan predicted that as many as 82 percent of schools could be labeled failing under the flawed accountability measures of the No Child Left Behind Act. The number didn’t materialize—it turned out to be just over 50 percent—but that threat and the realization that Congress could not complete a reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) t in time for the 2011-12 school year provoked the U.S. Department of Education to offer regulatory relief for states for portions of NCLB.

]]></description>
		<link>http://schoolboardnews.nsba.org/2012/02/nclb-regulatory-relief-is-on-the-way/</link>
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		<title>Dealing with federal mandates</title>
		<description><![CDATA[It took awhile for Reginald M. Felton, NSBA’s assistant executive director for Congressional Relations, to get the audience to tell him what they really felt about federal turnaround models for low-performing schools – things like replacing the principal and half the staff, or closing the school entirely.

]]></description>
		<link>http://schoolboardnews.nsba.org/2012/02/dealing-with-federal-mandates/</link>
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		<title>Common Core &#8216;flying under the radar&#8217;</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Roberta Stanley, NSBA’s director of federal affairs, has had a long career in public education, and she knows many key players at the state and federal levels. So when she says something is “flying under the radar” -- as she did Monday at the Federal Relations Network (FRN) Conference when referring to the Common Core State Standards Initiative – she knows what she’s talking about.

]]></description>
		<link>http://schoolboardnews.nsba.org/2012/02/common-core-flying-under-the-radar/</link>
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		<title>Avoiding bad charter school policies</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Charter school laws vary from state to state—with some more flawed than others—but NSBA can help school boards by asking Congress to avoid legislation that encourages states to adopt more bad policies. So NSBA is arguing against legislation that might encourage states to lift their caps on charter schools or expand the entities that can authorize new charter schools, said NSBA legislative analyst Katherine Shek, who spoke Monday on a panel about charter schools at NSBA’s Federal Relations Network (FRN) Conference.

]]></description>
		<link>http://schoolboardnews.nsba.org/2012/02/avoiding-bad-charter-school-policies/</link>
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		<title>Boards face federal and state bullying rules</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The national media has been highlighting incidents of bullying and harassment in schools, and for good reason – statistics show that many children are being bullied, electronically or otherwise. Federal and state policy and lawmakers are trying to stop bullying of children through policies and legislation, which was the topic of a National Issues session of the Federal Relations Network (FRN) Conference on Monday. NSBA's General Counsel Francisco M. Negrón Jr. and Jay Worona, general counsel of the New York State School Boards Association, outlined to audience how those state and federal actions could affect school boards and districts.

]]></description>
		<link>http://schoolboardnews.nsba.org/2012/02/boards-face-federal-and-state-bullying-rules-and-laws/</link>
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		<title>What makes teachers highly qualified?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Research has consistently shown that an effective teacher has the greatest single impact on student achievement inside a school. But how to determine what an effective teacher is and even what impact an effective principal has on his or her faculty has been less clear. The good news is these questions are being increasingly addressed in federal and local policy and practice, and was the focus of a Monday morning session at the Federal Relations Network (FRN) Conference.

]]></description>
		<link>http://schoolboardnews.nsba.org/2012/02/what-makes-teachers-highly-qualified/</link>
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		<title>Support but don&#8217;t mandate preschool</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The federal government must support school boards in their efforts to provide high-quality pre-kindergarten programs—but must avoid mandates that restrict the flexibility of local officials to meet the specific needs of their communities]]></description>
		<link>http://schoolboardnews.nsba.org/2012/02/support-but-dont-mandate-preschool/</link>
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		<title>States faced with &#8216;interesting times&#8217;</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Listening to five state association leaders talk Sunday about the challenges they face might have reminded you of that purported Chinese curse: “May you live in interesting times.” Because public schools in California, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Georgia are all living through “interesting” times. Not particularly fun times, to be sure, but definitely interesting.]]></description>
		<link>http://schoolboardnews.nsba.org/2012/02/states-faced-with-interesting-times/</link>
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		<title>Photos on Facebook, Flickr</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Check out photos from the second day of NSBA&#8217;s Leadership Conference, along with the opening sessions of our Federal Relations Network on Facebook and Flickr.]]></description>
		<link>http://schoolboardnews.nsba.org/2012/02/photos-on-facebook-flickr/</link>
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		<title>Preparing students for a &#8216;future we can&#8217;t describe&#8217;</title>
		<description><![CDATA[David Warlick was riding a train from North Carolina to Washington, D.C., when a rustic stone pyramid in the landscape caught his eye. He snapped a picture with his phone’s camera, then posted it on Twitter and asked if anyone knew what it was. Within five minutes, a woman responded that it was a memorial to a Civil War general. What makes this story so remarkable was that the woman who sent the information was in New Zealand, Warlick added.
]]></description>
		<link>http://schoolboardnews.nsba.org/2012/02/preparing-students-for-future-we-cant-describe/</link>
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		<title>Election-year paralysis reigns in Washington</title>
		<description><![CDATA[When political scholar Norman Ornstein took to the podium Sunday, he spent a surprising amount of time impersonating a stand-up comedian—sharing political joke after political joke with his audience.Then he explained why: Everyone should have a good laugh, because now that he was turning serious, “it’s all downhill from this point on.”

]]></description>
		<link>http://schoolboardnews.nsba.org/2012/02/election-year-paralysis-reigns-in-washington/</link>
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		<title>Passing ESEA is critical, NSBA says</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Under the banner of “ESEA Now: Our Schoolchildren, Our Economy, and Our Future,” NSBA leaders outlined the past year’s legislative successes and upcoming issues at the opening session of the Federal Relations Network (FRN) Conference on Sunday.

]]></description>
		<link>http://schoolboardnews.nsba.org/2012/02/passing-esea-is-critical-nsba-says/</link>
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		<title>NSBA remembers leading school health advocate</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The National School Boards Association (NSBA) is mourning the passing of Brenda Z. Greene, a leading national expert who oversaw NSBA's school heath policies and programs for almost a quarter century until her retirement last summer.

]]></description>
		<link>http://schoolboardnews.nsba.org/2012/02/nsba-remembers-leading-school-health-advocate/</link>
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		<title>Education technology: Game changer</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Only four out of 10 ninth-graders today graduate from high school ready for college or the workplace—and it’s going to take a more thoughtful, strategic use of technology to change that equation. That was the message of Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education, who spoke Sunday at NSBA’s Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C.

]]></description>
		<link>http://schoolboardnews.nsba.org/2012/02/education-technology-game-changer/</link>
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