May 16, 2017

May 16th, 2017

Category: News

Delaware News

The News Journal
Budget cuts to education funding must be “equalized”
Opinion by Richard Forsten, president of the Appoquinimink School Board
These are difficult financial times for our state. There is a projected $395 million budget deficit, and the folks in Dover are looking at a combination of tax increases and spending cuts to close that gap, including proposed funding cuts (approximately $37 million) to Delaware’s school districts. Now, as a school board president, I would just as soon there be no cuts to education.

State Police holds art contest for kids
State Police are inviting Delaware students to capture their work via works of art this week in a contest for kids in kindergarten through sixth grade. In recognition of Police Week, held May 14-20, troopers are asking students to submit artwork capturing the theme “Police Protecting our Community.” The contest is open to any child who lives or attends school in Delaware.

Delaware 105.9
Group wants to boost chances of success for students with learning disabilities
A child with a learning disability often struggles academically, to the point that he or she is at risk of dropping out. Educating them is also a challenge, according to the National Center for Learning Disabilities, which has released its Delaware findings. In The First State, 10-percent of students with learning disabilities are dropping out, which is below the national average of 18-percent.

Cape Gazette
Fourth-grader Danielle Carr performs Chopin for Polish ambassador
Worcester Prep fourth-grader Danielle Carr of Lewes placed second in the 9-10-year-old division of the Steinway & Sons Washington Piano Competition in March. This was a highly competitive competition with more than 200 skilled pianists vying for a top position. The top 12 winners were invited by Steinway and the Polish Embassy to perform a special concert March 24.

Newsworks
Study finds being bullied in grade school may affect health and well-being as kids get older
A study led by the University of Delaware has found new evidence that being bullied in school may have lasting health consequences. Using observational data collected from a sample of children who were studied over several years, researchers reported that kids who were bullied more frequently when they were younger were more likely to use certain drugs by the time they were in high school.

Sussex County Post
IRSD teachers, secretaries agree to less money to help save jobs
Less may mean more in efforts to save jobs. Teachers and secretaries in the Indian River School District have pledged personal monetary sacrifice to help the district address a budget shortfall and state funding cuts looming in the fiscal year 2018 forecast. Contract renegotiations finalized recently produced a new contract proposal approved by majority union membership.

National News

Omaha World-Herald
Bill that would hold back students with poor reading skills spurs sharp disagreement in Legislature
State lawmakers agree on one thing: teaching kids to read is important. But a measure intended to put more pressure on schools to improve reading proficiency among young schoolchildren was met with sharp disagreement in the Nebraska Legislature on Thursday. Under Legislative Bill 651, a student’s advancement from one grade to the next would be based, at least in part, upon that student’s ability to read.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Missouri poised to fully fund its school formula, but only after reducing its cost
For the first time in the history of Missouri’s current school funding formula, the state will be able to say it is fulfilling its financial obligation to public schools. Tens of millions of new money has gone to the effort — dating back more than a decade — to ensure that children at even the poorest districts have access to adequate funding. But reaching that goal also required a kind of legislative short cut — a change approved last year that drastically reduced the price of the plan.

Education Week
Can teacher residencies help with shortages?
There are two ways to prevent a teacher shortage in American schools: Widen the pipeline into the profession, or plug the leaky bucket of young teachers leaving the field. At the American Educational Research Association meeting here last month, academic researchers debated ways to use comprehensive teacher residencies to both recruit and retain teachers.

NPR
Lessons on race and vouchers from Milwaukee
The Trump administration has made school choice, vouchers in particular, a cornerstone of its education agenda. This has generated lots of interest in how school voucher programs across the country work and whom they benefit. The oldest school voucher program was created in Milwaukee in 1990 with a singular focus on African-American students living in poverty.

The New York Times
500 students in a one-room school: Fallout of New Jersey’s funding woes
At an elementary school in Freehold, over 500 students share a vast, open space where bookshelves, whiteboards, storage cubbies, and other pieces of furniture are the only boundaries between classrooms. There are no walls because the building was originally designed in the 1970s to be a smaller Montessori school, Rocco Tomazic, the superintendent of the Freehold Borough School District, explained during a recent tour.




Author:
Rodel Foundation of Delaware

info@rodelfoundationde.org

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