U.S. copyright law includes five exclusive rights, but educators can use copyrighted works under the fair use practice.

With headlines about tough copyright rulings fresh in their minds, educators across the nation might hesitate when it comes to using copyrighted material in their lessons or sharing copyrighted works with students.

But according to the American Library Association (ALA), educators should not worry about using such material to boost student knowledge if it falls under the scope of fair use.

The original and intended purpose of copyright law is to promote learning and the dissemination of knowledge, said Carrie Russell, director of the library association’s Program on Public Access to Information. “The copyright law was just as important to them as the post office,” she said, adding that the founding fathers wanted to ensure that the new democracy was well-functioning and that people had access to valuable information.

U.S. copyright law includes five exclusive rights: reproduction, distribution, derivative works, public performance, and public display. Creators of copyrighted works have a limited monopoly on those works, meaning they are the only ones able to profit from or sell their works, for a particular period of time under certain conditions. Currently, the “time limit” on copyright is defined as a lifetime plus 70 years.

One important part of copyright law is idea versus expression, Russell said. A person can’t obtain protection of an idea unless that idea is expressed in an original way.

(Next page: How to determine fair use)

“The action briefs [give] school leaders a deeper understanding of the [Common Core State Standards] and spell out the leaders’ critical role in implementation. Based on feedback from school leaders who expressed a need for more guidance, the action briefs outline strategies and techniques that can be used … by school leaders to prepare their schools, teachers, and students for the standards and upcoming new assessments,” said Achieve’s director of content and instructional supports, Doug Sovde.

Achieve developed the guidance in partnership with College Summit, the National Association of Secondary School Principals, and the National Association of Elementary School Principals, with support from the MetLife Foundation.

All are available at no charge in the “Publications”  section at www.achieve.org.

The most reliable systems for measuring teacher effectiveness include a balanced mix of evaluation methods, researchers said—including student test scores, lesson observation, and student surveys.

After three years of research on measuring teacher effectiveness, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced Jan. 8 that it takes multiple measures to most accurately evaluate teachers.

The Seattle foundation concluded in its final report on its Measures of Effective Teaching research that test scores or principal evaluations are not enough on their own. The findings mirror what teachers unions have been saying.

Through incentives grants (such as Race to the Top) and waivers to No Child Left Behind rules, the federal government has been pushing states to update their teacher evaluation systems because it felt existing systems were inadequate.

At the same time, the Gates Foundation was studying these issues, saying it wanted to add to the discussion. Most states and big city districts have adopted some elements of the recommendations.

(Next page: What the research says)

“Today’s court ruling affirms [the district's] position that we did make reasonable accommodation to the student,” the district said.

The parents of 15-year-old Andrea Hernandez had requested a preliminary injunction that would have prevented the school district from transferring their daughter from her San Antonio high school while the lawsuit on whether she should be forced to wear the ID tracking badge went through federal court.

Last fall, the Northside Independent School District began experimenting with a “locator” chip in student ID badges on two campuses, allowing administrators to track the whereabouts of 4,200 students with GPS-like precision.

Administrators say the chips make students safer and will help boost attendance records that are used to calculate badly needed state funding. They say the technology could bring in an additional $1.7 million in funding.

(Next page: What the ruling said)

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Finding common ground is a difficult, yet essential, task of teacher, principal, and district leadership.

As the 2012 presidential election and the fiscal cliff battle indicates, political division is the new normal. Created to serve as common schools for the common good, public schools are often caught in the crosshairs of opposing factions.

Finding an increasingly elusive common ground is a difficult, yet essential, task of teacher, principal, and district leadership, however.

That’s why the notion of peer, student, and public engagement is gaining such currency, whether through professional learning communities, 21^st century learning strategies, voice polls, online surveys, or potluck suppers built around hot topics like safety, new curriculum initiatives, or looming budget cuts.

Technology tools and services are helping school leaders engage key audiences in new and important ways, from starting conversations with constituents via social media to participatory budget processes that seek to get more community voices to the decision-making table.

While free and inexpensive applications are plentiful online, pulling all these disparate tools together can be time-consuming. Plus, freebies and cheap applications don’t always work well on a district-wide basis, and they can threaten network security.

(Next page: How a web-based service called MindMixer can help)

Educators need a practical system that organizes school data in a way that is easily understood.

Educators and administrators are collecting an enormous amount of data about the progress of their students and schools. Now that this information has been collected, how can it be used to improve education?

What administrators and teachers need is a practical system that organizes school and student data in a way that is easily understood and readily available during the school day, according to a collaboration by the American Association of School Administrators (AASA), the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN), and Gartner Inc.

School districts are looking to purchase student information systems and learning management systems to help them with this task.

Watch CoSN CEO Keith Krueger’s interview with Comcast Newsmakers (aired on CNN):

(Next page: A closer look at the collaborative’s goals—and nine templates it has created to help educators leverage school data)

Sunnyside’s GradLink is the latest online education program to reach out to high school dropouts in an effort to boost graduation rates.

Arizona’s Sunnyside Unified School District has become the latest K-12 school system to turn to online instruction to help high school dropouts earn their diplomas.

Tucson, Ariz., mayor Jonathan Rothschild is teaming up with the Sunnyside Unified School District to recruit high school dropouts into an online education program to get their degrees.

Rothschild and Sunnyside Superintendent Manuel L. Isquierdo, a 2010 winner of the Tech-Savvy Superintendent Awards from eSchool Media, on Jan. 3 announced GradLink, an online education program that aims to enroll 100 recent Tucson-area dropouts into online classes.

GradLink meets a goal of the Mayor’s Education Task Force, which is to improve high school graduation rates, said Rothschild at a news conference at his office.

“A high school diploma is a necessity in today’s job market,” Rothschild said. “Without one, it’s hard to get hired at a job that can support a family. The bottom line is that the way out of poverty is through education.”

(Next page: How the program works—and how it will be launched without any startup costs)

A number of considerations are necessary for success with online learning.

Progress monitoring tools and proper training in online teaching are critical factors in supporting and sustaining successful online education programs, according to a survey of school leaders.

The survey, released by K12 Inc. and conducted by MDR’s EdNET Insight, included responses from superintendents, assistant superintendents, curriculum directors, principals, and special-education directors who are experienced in implementing online education programs. The 220-plus respondents identified and ranked a number of key success factors.

Four factors were ranked by at least 80 percent of respondents as “extremely important” to the success of full-time online education programs, individual online courses, and credit recovery programs.

(Next page: The four factors in particular that contribute to successful online education programs)

New innovations developed by ed-tech company School Improvement Network make it possible to elevate student assessment scores by as much as 20 percent in a single year.

New research helps to unveil the science of the school turnaround, revealing that improving schools dramatically isn’t about working miracles—it’s about having the right tools and the right focus.

Administrators today carry higher expectations on their shoulders than any generation before. With so much at stake, many school leaders question how they can possibly accomplish what’s being asked—to not only raise student achievement, but in some cases to double, triple, or quadruple student success rates.

However, research conducted by Dr. Steven Shaha of the Center for Public Policy and Administration shows that new innovations developed by ed-tech company School Improvement Network make it possible to elevate student assessment scores by as much as 20 percent in a single year. The numbers tell a story of dramatic, lasting improvement in student achievement being made every day, all over the country.

Dr. Shaha’s research is compiled in a study called “Predictors of Success,” where student outcomes in 734 schools in 211 districts across 39 states were analyzed year over year to measure the impact of School Improvement Network’s educator effectiveness system on student learning and educator effectiveness.

The results show that whenever educators used the tools effectively in the educator effectiveness system, student test scores increased many times over, year after year.

(Next page: What the research says)