Limited scholarships available for National Board
Educators interesting in pursuing National Board Certification may apply for one-time scholarships. Administrators: Please share this with teachers you think may be interested.

Benchmark assessment pilot to begin in 2012-13
A small number of districts will participate in a state-run pilot related to online benchmark assessment during the 2012-13 school year.

Project will make Common Core resources easily accessible
The South Dakota Department of Education has teamed up with counterparts in Michigan to work on a “curriculum curation” project. The end result will be an open-source portal where the states’ teachers can access quality digital resources aligned with Common Core standards.

South Dakota gets high marks for special education, early intervention services
South Dakota is one of only 23 states or U.S. territories to meet the requirements and purposes of IDEA under both Parts B and C, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

Rule change will delay implementation of new standards for teaching
The South Dakota Board of Education has approved an administrative rule change that would delay a requirement that school districts evaluate teachers based on the standards for teaching approved by the board a year ago.

School library self-assessment tool gets BOE approval
The South Dakota Board of Education formally endorsed a self-assessment tool based on the South Dakota School Library Guidelines last month.