Check out Sunday’s highlights at ASCD 2015 Houston.

By Danielle Nadler Leesburg Today S chool employee advocate groups will not be allowed to intervene in a Lansdowne parent’s case to force the state to disclose student testing data, a Richmond City Circuit Court judge has ruled.The Virginia Education Association and the Loudoun Education Association argue that the release of Student Growth Percentiles that measure student improvement across grade levels could unfairly target specific teachers.But Judge Melvin R. Hughes Jr. ruled Monday that the organizations lack standing to join the case, state education officials said. He also turned down requests from the Virginia School Boards Association and the Virginia Association of School Superintendents to intervene. Read the rest of the story at Leesburg Today

ASCD 2015 is in full swing here in Houston. Catch up on the highlights and prep for Sunday!

Sweet Briar College, an all-girls school in Virginia, recently announced its closure, sparking debates about single-sex education.

The 70th ASCD Annual Conference and Exhibit Show kicked off in Houston! Check out the video to get your conference experience off and running.

Ron Bethke, from eCampus News, discusses what the re-launched Study.com aims to accomplish for education and community colleges.

Governor Bentley signed a bill supporting charter schools in Alabama, but superintendents still do not know what the bill means for their school systems.

The U.S. Department of Education wants to hire 200 more investigators to expand its civil rights division by 30 percent.

ByDave McCombs – Bloomberg

By Ross Brenneman

By ELAINE KURTENBACH, Associated Press

By Batten Institute University of Virginia Darden School of Business T he current model of education in the United States is stifling the creative soul of our children. While this is troubling for a variety of reasons, it also has significant economic consequences for the future of our country. America has long been unique because of its remarkable ingenuity, innovative capacity and entrepreneurial spirit. Yet over the last few decades, we have witnessed both a steady decline in the number of startups, as well as an increasing number of studies that suggest America’s education model fails to promote the kind of creativity, risk-taking, and problem solving skills necessary for entrepreneurship, and for a world and labor market that is in the midst of profound transformation. These are very worrisome trends.  Read the Rest of the Article on Forbes Site..

CANDICE NORWOOD

ATLANTA — After more than five years of controversy and five months of testimony, a prosecutor used seven words on Monday to recap the accusations against the dozen Atlanta educators seated in a courtroom here.“They cheated,” the prosecutor, John E. Floyd, told the jurors in Fulton County Superior Court. “They lied. And they stole.”Mr. Floyd’s scornful summary came near the start of what will be days of closing arguments centered on whether significant increases in standardized test scores in Atlanta’s public schools came about because of endemic cheating and what prosecutors say was criminal misconduct that included racketeering. The trial, set up by a March 2013 indictment, as well as a state-commissioned report and a series of articles published by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, could lead to decades in prison for the defendants.Read the rest of this story at The New York Times 

By Matt Precey-Stress levels among teachers in England’s classrooms are soaring, a BBC investigation has found.Unions are blaming workload for large numbers of staff taking time off work or leaving the profession.Insurance industry data suggests stress is the biggest cause of staff absence save for maternity.The Department for Education insists it is working “to tackle the issue of unnecessary workload which we know can lead to stress”.The BBC has also seen a survey of 3,500 members of the Nasuwt teaching union which shows more than two-thirds of respondents considered quitting the profession in the past year. Read the rest of the story at BBC News