Afternoon Announcements: New Web Tool Shows Suspension Rates By District

The number of suspensions issued in Fairfax County high schools last year decreased by 18 percent from the prior year, according to school records. In the 2011-2012 academic year, the schools reported 3,425 total out-of-school suspensions, which includes short-term suspensions lasting four or five days and those that exceed 10 or more days. In the 2012-2013 school year, principals issued a total of 2,794 suspensions. The Washington Post

Suspension rates for elementary and high school students in every district in the state, and in much of the nation, are now easier to find using a new web tool announced Tuesday by the Center for Civil Rights Remedies, a part of the Civil Rights Project at UCLA. EdSource

The number of students arrested in school in Connecticut has declined in recent years, but many of those arrests were avoidable, according to a report from Connecticut Voices for Children, an advocacy group. Education Week

After debating nearly two hours and voting down a proposed compromise, the Los Angeles Unified board on Tuesday approved a plan for spending $113 million to implement the Common Core State Standards — the same budget that triggered the resignation of the district’s instructional chief when it was rejected last week. Los Angeles Daily News

In new guidance issued Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Education offered states the chance to suspend their current tests this spring, as long as they administer field tests being designed by the two common-assessment consortia in math and English/language arts. States that use that option will not have to report the results of the field tests, according to the federal guidance on statewide testing. Politics K-12