Hillary Clinton recently launched “Too Small to Fail,” a new initiative focusing on helping the development of children from ages 0-5. The Huffington Post reports that “Clinton will partner with Next Generation, a nonpartisan group that promotes scientific research about early childhood development.” The new project includes improving early childhood education, researching children’s brain development and determining the role nutrition [...]

Survival. We talk a lot about not just survival, but thriving and meeting the needs of our children and adults in Newtown. We have since the early 1990s, long before I began working there. Newtown uses the work of Dr. William Glasser and Choice Theory, which emphasizes the four psychological needs of every human being: love/belonging, power/competence, freedom/choice and fun. Newtown has [...]

Across the nation, districts are announcing hundreds of school closures advocates say will result in “better education.” In March, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Chicago Public Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett announced the closure of more than 50 public schools with the goal of investing in quality education. “Every student in every neighborhood deserves a high-quality education that prepares them to [...]

A little over one year ago, when AFSA proudly became a partner of the BULLY Project and first adopted a resolution aimed to end bullying in schools, The BULLY Project established a goal of screening the film Bully coupled with educational programs for one million kids. Creator of the movie, Lee Hirsch announced at an event on Wednesday, June 5 [...]

President Obama’s Fiscal Year 2014 budget proposes an increase of $3.1 billion for the Department of Education. The president’s request includes a major new investment in early learning, with $75 billion in mandatory funds for Preschool for All, and increases to Early Head Start, Head Start and IDEA grants for infants and families.

The Time for Innovative Matters in Education (TIME) Collaborative, supported by the Ford Foundation and National Center on Time and Learning (NCTL), wants to close the student achievement gap by extending school by 300 hours a year and is offering competitive grants to achieve its goal. Competitive grants will be provided for schools to increase time for learning core subjects [...]

Each year AFSA provides the opportunity for members’ students to apply for a competitive scholarship, which provides $2,500 toward college tuition for five recipients. The winners are selected by the General Executive Board based on the demonstration of a strong work ethic, a commitment to their education and dedication to their communities.

The Boston Association of School Administrators and Supervisors (AFSA Local 6) and the School Department came to an agreement on Monday May 20th to compensate BASAS members who were financially harmed as a result of the school department’s 2010 reorganization of Special Education services. The settlement, which calls for BPS to pay over $ 260,00o in damages to BASAS members, was [...]

In President Obama’s 2013 State of the Union address, Obama pledged to provide high-quality preschool for every child, increase effective early learning opportunities for young children, and extend and expand evidence-based, voluntary home visiting. Numerous studies show that children who have access to early learning programs are less likely to commit violent crimes and become teen parents, while being more [...]

As a principal in an economically troubled city, I learned to expect the unexpected each day when arriving at school: hearing the children buzzing about a horrific incident that occurred over the weekend; checking the faculty list to see the high number of teachers absent and the lack of class coverage their absences created; seeing an irate parent entering the front office; learning the buses would be late; or discovering one of your students had run away from home.