Features
Clearing the Snooze Hurdles
BY MERRI ROSENBERG
What strategies did three school districts employ to surmount the usual
obstacles to create later school start times? By so doing, these districts
are addressing what pediatric researchers have long reported about teenagers’
sleep patterns.
Kyla Wahlstrom: Solutions for ‘sleep phase shift’
When practical makes time shifts possible
The
Extra Time Payoff
BY DAVID A. FARBMAN
How schools that use a longer day are raising instructional efficiency
through a faculty’s joint planning and student sharing. The author is a
senior staff researcher at the National Center on Time & Learning.
Additional resources
Trimesters Shape a New Face to Learning
BY MARK T. WESTERBURG
A superintendent in Michigan shares an inside look at a novel form of course
scheduling in a school district. Over 15 years of use, he’s found it to be a
reliable vehicle for school improvement.
The
Four-Day School Week
BY DEBORAH M. HENTON
The dire fiscal straits of a Minnesota district forced it into cutting a day
off the instructional week, as told by the superintendent who has since moved
back to a five-day schedule. She describes the initial misgivings and
frustration behind a decision that was “the right thing for kids.”
Are there savings in a four-day week?
Talking points for a four-day plan
Additional resources
Flexible
Learning Days
BY JAY M. HAUGEN
A school district in the upper Midwest doesn’t fret over diminished class
time caused by wintry weather — not when it can mobilize its technology and
its staff to keep the academics on course.
Frontline
STARTING
POINT
Capturing can-do stories of school
districts that delayed the start of the day.
STATE
OF THE SUPERINTENDENCY
Salary
Cap Restrictions
The frequency of employment contracts subject to a state- or district-imposed
salary limit.
BEST OF THE BLOGS
Short excerpts from the most
interesting blogs maintained by AASA members.
ETHICAL EDUCATOR
Scenery or Safety?
Our panel hacks away at a dilemma involving historic trees on a school site
or roadway peace of mind.
LEGAL
BRIEF
BY PERRY A. ZIRKEL
Prayer at Your Board Meeting?
BOARD-SAVVY
SUPERINTENDENT
A Board Member’s ‘Kitchen Cabinet’
BY RICHARD E. MAYER
How to react when you realize you’ve become the target of a campaign
orchestrated by a scheming school board member?
MY
VIEW
Our
Fear of Losing Control of Distance Learning
BY KEELY COUFAL
An assistant principal witnesses irrational worrying by educators over the
blending of online instruction.
MY
VIEW
Gettysburg’s Lesson on Situational
Leadership
BY ROBERT E. MILLWARD
What Robert E. Lee’s preference for discretionary orders can tell us about
decision-making strategy in education.
Reading & Resources
RESOURCE
BANK
Practical Intelligence
Doctoral research involving superintendents in thriving and failing school
districts.
WHY
I WROTE THIS BOOK
AASA member Merle Horowitz, superintendent, Marple Newtown School District,
Newtown Square, Pa., on co-authoring (with Dorothy M. Bollinger) Cyberbullying
in Social Media within Educational Institutions (Rowman &
Littlefield, 2014)
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