October 3, 2014

Local News

The News Journal
What are school tests teaching us?
An editorial
The arguments about conspiracies and feelings do not matter if it can be clearly shown that the testing will give parents and schools a reliable measure of a student’s progress. As the testing season approaches, the state and the schools would be advised to clearly demonstrate to parents and any doubters the advantages of the test.

Achieving school change
A letter to the editor by Leah Davis, Wilmington
Recently I read about the business community’s support for the governor’s initiative to improve city schools. People are now discussing these schools. This is a good thing. That said, people in glass houses should not throw stones. We need a balanced dialogue about priority schools.

A better road map for troubled schools
A letter to the editor by Carolyn Cassling, Newark
Monday’s Delaware Voice opinion by no fewer than six corporate leaders is exactly what is wrong with the whole reform plan for schools. These authors are businessmen, not educators. Where do businessmen get off telling professionals in education how to run schools? Would they tell their surgeon how to remove an appendix?

WDDE
State unveils website to assist special needs educators
Lt. Gov. Matt Denn unveiled a new website Thursday aimed at giving educators tools for teaching children with special needs. The Front of the Class site features professional development videos created by educators with classroom experience teaching special needs students.

Sussex Countian
Primeros Pasos hopes to move to new facility next year
Primeros Pasos hopes to finally move to its new home on Savannah Road in Georgetown by next fall. Primeros Pasos is a bilingual early education center that serves 20 students between the ages of 2 and 5, with all but one coming from low-income, working families. As of this week, Primeros Pasos has raised more than $900,000 thanks to a generous $20,000 gift from a donor who wished to remain anonymous. Once Primeros Pasos hits the $1 million mark, the Longwood Foundation of Wilmington has agreed to donate a $250,000 grant. After that, the program only needs to raise $77,000 more to reach their capital campaign goal.

Dover Post
Caesar Rodney students getting real life experience in engineering work
Caesar Rodney High School students in Tim Elmer’s engineering classes at may not have those answers yet, but a new partnership between the school and the Camden-Wyoming Sewer and Water Authority (CWSWA) is designed to help them figure it all out. In June, the CWSWA began a partnership with the Delaware Association of Professional Engineers (DAPE) on a two-year program called “A Laboratory for Learning,” that will give engineering students a chance to watch the authority’s real-life water system expansion project unfold and experience how their classroom studies can be put to practical use.

Middletown Transcript
Appoquinimink district schools to launch Spanish immersion program next year
Kindergarteners enrolled at the Townsend Early Childhood Center will have the opportunity to learn two languages at the same time thanks to a new Spanish immersion “choice” program that will kick off next year. The new Spanish immersion program will begin at the kindergarten level and will feature two educators – one for each language.

National News

Boston Globe
Mass. education leaders set sights on boosting college graduation rates
A group of leading education officials and organizations in Massachusetts will unveil a new push Wednesday to improve local college graduation rates. The College Success Campaign boasts nearly three dozen collaborators — a mix of executives, administrators, and teachers from public, private, and charter K-12 schools, colleges, businesses, nonprofits, and community organizations from across the state — and is seeking to recruit others.

Chronicle of Higher Education
Meet the first winners of the Education Dept.’s ‘First in the World’ grants
The U.S. Department of Education announced the winners of its new First in the World grant program, giving a total of $75-million to 24 colleges and universities that have pledged to improve college access and student learning while reducing the overall cost of a degree.

New Jersey Advanced Media
Education groups, including NJEA, propose new teacher preparedness measures
Pushing against measures of teacher effectiveness they say rely too heavily on test scores, a coalition of education groups outlined an approach they said would better develop New Jersey teachers’ skills.

WPIX
Carmen Farina announces schools won’t be judged by letter grades
Saying schools are not restaurants, New York City School Chancellor Carmen Farina said it’s common sense to do away with A-to-F grading, adding that schools have unique qualities that cannot be captured in a letter grade.

Education Week
States mixed on waiver leeway for teacher evaluations
More than a third of states with No Child Left Behind Act waivers say they want to take the U.S. Department of Education up on its recent offer to put off incorporating student test scores into teacher evaluations until the end of this school year, according to an Education Week survey of state education departments.

Steps weighed on method for flagging bias in special education
Federal officials face sharply polarized opinions among advocates and educators as they consider creating a bright line for states to use in deciding whether minorities are being overidentified for special education services.