ASCD 2015 has wrapped in Houston. Check out highlights and prepare for next year in Atlanta, Georgia!

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is highlighting private-sector efforts to encourage more students from underrepresented groups to pursue education in science, technology, engineering and math.At the White House Science Fair on Monday, Obama will announce more than $240 million in pledges to boost the study of those fields, known as STEM. This year’s fair is focused on diversity.Obama will say the new commitments have brought total financial and material support for these programs to $1 billion. Read the rest of the story at U-T San Diego

ASCD wraps in Houston. Check out Monday’s action!

Baruti Kafele, better known as Principal Kafele, communicates his experiences in educational leadership with great conviction. An award winning leader Principal Kafele has impacted all sectors and stakeholders in education through his public speaking, books and consulting. His latest book “The Principal 50” focuses on the critical questions needed to drive excellence in school leadership.

Josh Starr, former Superintendent of Montgomery County Schools, Maryland, discusses life in educational leadership. Starr opens up in his first interview since resigning his post. He talks about the community of superintendents and the demands of the position. Starr also recaps his tenure in office and the environment his successor will be inheriting.

By Jimmy Vielkind ALBANY—Voters offered a mixed appraisal of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s various budget proposals, but a new poll finds a majority believe he should separate his proposed changes to the state’s ethics and education plans from the $141.6 billion spending plan currently under negotiation with lawmakers.The Siena Research Institute found 56 percent of the 800 voters surveyed wanted to see the education plans dropped, and 54 percent wanted to see ethics addressed as a separate bill.Cuomo, a Democrat, has said he won’t approve a budget that isn’t linked to a five-point ethics plan that includes forcing lawmakers to disclose their law and business clients. He’s also yoked a proposed $1.1 billion increase in school aid to changes to teacher evaluation and tenure laws, an increase in the amount of charter schools in the state, the extension of tuition assistance to undocumented immigrants—known as the Dream Act—and a tax credit on donations to private and parochial school scholarship funds as well as public schools.Read the rest of the story at CapitalPhoto Credit: Comme Sisyphe by Honoré Daumier (displayed in the Brooklyn Museum) Photo of lithograph on newsprint courtesy of Wikipedia