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What should a school district procurement officer ask when he or she sits down with a sales representative from a vendor of digital education products? Who else should be at the table? How do districts and providers become partners in instruction, rather than adversaries in negotiation? These are increasingly critical questions as public school districts in the U.S. are under more pressure than ever to buy digital services and products. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses learning management systems (LMSs) in grade schools, noting competition among vendors of LMSs. Topics include advances in educational technologies, data sharing efforts, integration of various software applications, and the marketing of LMSs. LMS firms noted include Blackboard Inc., D2L (previously Desire2Learn), and Instructure Inc.

The article reports on efforts by U.S. school districts to promote interoperability standards between digital education tools and resources. Accounts are given describing moves by several counties to refuse business with vendors without such features to better unify and streamline educational technology use. Additional topics addressed include the extent to which publishers and vendors are working to meet this demand and the features of several prototype software platforms.

Reports on the effort to encourage more bidders to become suppliers of the Chicago, Illinois public school system. Companies with near monopoly positions; Preferred Meal System Inc.; Blue Cross-Blue Shield of Illinois; Investigation of busing expenses; Circumvention of bidding requirements. INSET: For school vendor, it's just another day..

The article covers the search by the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for Colleges and Careers (PARCC) and the SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) for vendors to write questions for the Common Core assessments. According to the article, PARCC will award a contract in April 2012 with the hope of implementing the test by 2014-2015. SBAC estimated that its contract would run until November 2013. U.S. states will then be given the choice of either the PARCC or SBAC assessments.

While society worries about hackers stealing financial data, third-party vendors to the education establishment are amassing a myriad of personal data about teachers, students, and their families. The author says it is imperative that this data be handled with sufficient safeguards from those who would exploit the information for business or political gains. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article examines the risk that fraudulent shell companies pose to U.S. school districts. It notes that such shell companies do not engage in legitimate business practices, have little or no assets, and are typically used to hide bribery payments, launder money, and conceal corporate income. Information is provided on scams used against school districts in locations including New York City, the Toms River Regional School District in New Jersey, and the Cuyahoga Heights School District in Ohio. Suggestions on preventing fraud from shell companies are included, such as evaluating administrators' vendor approval guidelines, inquiring with district attorneys, and requiring full disclosure of previous business dealings.

Reveals the losses of school vendors from delays in school opening due to emergency asbestos inspections. Atlantic Express' loss in revenue; Fear over further delays; Claim of city officials that losses will be temporary; Vendor contracts entered to by the New York City School Construction Authority; Inconveniences to food distributors.

Reports the information technology adoption in educational innovation in the U.S. Application of Inspiration computer software on school projects and programming for students; Usage of school vendors on graphical user interbases for sources of information; Implication of the slow economy on the updating of software applications among high schools.

Focuses on the popularity of online employee recognition programs in the U.S. Factors that prompted Southern Co. to move its program online; Benefits from online programs; Costs and maintenance fees associated with such programs.

Focuses on integrated library systems for school libraries in the United States. Benefits of developments in computer industries to libraries; Provision of standards for sharing data between several systems within the school districts; Use of application service providers for systems maintenance.

The article focuses on the concept of bilingual libraries in the U.S. In doing so, it cumulates the advice from various papers dealing with bilingual libraries to suggest what to do and where to go for beginning or maintaining a bilingual library. The author notes that one has to look at the latest figures on immigration to recognize the impact of bilingualism on education. Accordingly, the article is intended for librarians who have been told by their principals or schools boards that the school libraries will be bilingual and that texts in other languages will need to be available for the students.

Reports on why federal authorities investigated members of the Detroit school board and district employees. Federal investigators' request concerning purchase receipts; Why school official hired a private detective.

Presents updates on food and other commodities. Contract that the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has secured for cheese purchases; Proposed mission station of the USDA Food and Nutrition Service; Partnership formed in South Carolina to deliver locally grown produce to school districts.