AM News: Some States Move To Curb Perceived Test Proliferation

States Look to Curb Standardized Testing WSJ: In recent months, officials in Missouri have cut back on allocated testing time while New York capped it. Connecticut agreed to let districts delay, for a year, linking teacher evaluations to state test scores. Tennessee officials rescinded a plan to deny teacher licenses based, in part, on their students' growth on state tests. Meanwhile, 179 bills related to K-12 testing—a number of them seeking to curb it—have been introduced in statehouses nationwide this legislative session, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, which hadn't tracked such bills so comprehensively until this year.

Revamped Teacher-Dismissal Bill Introduced In Calif. TeacherBeat: California lawmakers have, for a third time, introduced a measure to streamline teacher dismissal for malfeasance.

D.C. mulling Common Core test switch Washington Post: The District is slated to begin administering new tests next year that aim to gauge students’ performance on the Common Core State Standards, new national academic guidelines that are designed to promote critical thinking instead of rote memorization.

Snow days are adding up at Washington area schools this winter Washington Post: With a series of storms and cold snaps during the winter of 2013-2014, snow days at the region’s schools have been piling up. The snowstorm that began early Monday morning has led the region’s school systems to cancel school again, and school closures are approaching -- or in some cases passing -- the closures during the 2009-2010 winter, when the area was hit with “Snowmageddon.”

Teaching students how to combat traumas of poverty on the yoga mat PBS NewsHour: At Cesar Chavez Academy in East Palo Alto, Calif., 7th graders are learning yoga as a way to cope with the stress of life in a community rife with homelessness, shootings and gang war trauma. By teaching these children to pay close attention to their breathing and movements, Stanford University researchers are hoping they will focus better in school and beyond. Jeffrey Brown reports.

More news throughout the day at @alexanderrusso.