October 16, 2015

Delaware News

The News Journal
Troubled charter school placed on formal review
The Delaware MET, a new charter school in Wilmington that is struggling with school safety, discipline and finances, was placed on formal review by state officials Thursday. That means the Department of Education will put the school under a microscope, and it means state officials could later choose to shut it down.

Education and taxes can’t reduce inequality
Very often, proposals to even out income inequality advise one of two things: Expand people’s access to education and/or raise the top tax rates. Yet even a big increase in the share of people with a college degree would have only a minimal effect on earnings inequality, research has shown. And now it turns out that a substantial increase in the top marginal tax rate wouldn’t do any better.

Delaware SAT scores up a few points
Scores rose by a few points in reading and math on the SAT college entrance exam in Delaware, but the share of students scoring 1550 remained the same. Only 21 percent of students hit that target, which is the bar for college readiness set by the organization that administers the test.

WDEL
Delaware’s acting education secretary says no harsh sanctions for opting out
Delaware’s new acting education secretary made his first public remarks before the combined New Castle County school boards Thursday morning. No hard-hitting policy was expected in Dr. Steve Godowsky’s remarks since he’s not officially education secretary yet. But the former New Castle Vo-Tech superintendent did mention the opt-out movement, saying important recommendations on participation rates are due next month to the U.S. Department of Education and the state Board of Education. “It’s not a final decision, but it looks like from all levels of the department…that harsh sanctions will not carry the day,” he said. “There will be minimum sanctions that are required.”

WHYY
Delaware to investigate just-opened charter
Less than two months after opening, a Wilmington charter school is under state investigation.
The State Board of Education placed the Delaware Met under formal review Thursday during its monthly meeting. The unusual move stems from concerns about the fledgling charter’s organizational capacity, it school climate, and its fiscal solvency.

Cape Gazette
Cape High issues iPads to every student
Armed with iPads and the Schoology technology, every student and staff member at Cape Henlopen High School can fully utilize the benefits of today’s current technology. Superintendent Robert Fulton says, “We are excited to be able to provide high school students the opportunity to have technology at their fingertips. They can interact with staff and peers throughout the day and after school. This will enable us as a district to better prepare our kids for college and beyond.”

Middletown Transcript
Appoquinimink schools filled to capacity as student count swells by 500
Fourteen of the 16 schools in the Appoquinimink School District are at or nearing full capacity as district-wide enrollment jumped 5.1 percent this year after a 1.4 percent increase in 2014.

National News

Associated Press
Federal effort to combat chronic absenteeism at schools
The Obama administration is appealing to schools to help cut chronic absenteeism by providing mentors and other support for students who miss too much classroom time — instead of suspending or expelling them.

Education Week
Chiefs share insights from school-turnaround efforts in New Mexico, Utah
Has any state cracked the code when it comes to turning around schools that have been foundering for decades? And how do you even know if a school is actually, well, really and truly fixed for good? There are early lessons out there as states try to figure out the answers to those questions, a pair of state chiefs said at a panel Wednesday on the role of the state in fixing low-performing schools, sponsored by WestEd’s National Center on School Turnaround.

Special education directors brace for fresh guidance
State and district officials who oversee policy on students with disabilities should be bracing for a slew of new guidance letters from the U.S. Department of Education in the next year to 18 months, said two school lawyers speaking to a gathering of state special education directors last week.

New teacher requirements jeopardize dual-credit classes
A new rule that threatens to hobble or shutter dual-enrollment programs in 19 states has sparked widespread objections from educators who fear it could undermine students’ chances of going to college.

EdSource
Free online content helps teachers meet Common Core demands
The Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education, a 12-year-old nonprofit, is a leading champion of the “Open Educational Resources” movement – a growing campaign, strongly rooted in California, to make educational materials available online and free of cost. The movement has gained increasing clout in U.S. classrooms as teachers and school districts seek up-to-date materials to meet new demands stemming from the Common Core State Standards. In one sign of its growing importance, the U.S. Department of Education last month hired its first in-house adviser to help school districts use such resources more effectively.