May 12, 2016

Delaware

Middletown Transcript
Gov. Markell celebrates Spanish immersion success in Appoquinimink District
Dual-language programs may not be a new idea, but they are a fast-growing trend in Delaware. Championed by Gov. Jack Markell, a growing number of school districts have added these programs to prepare students for success in the global job market. Among the first to offer the program was the Appoquinimink School District. In the fall of 2015, the district launched its first Spanish immersion class with 118 kindergarten students in four classrooms.

Newsworks
Wilmington redistricting plan hits snag in Delaware legislature
Delaware’s House Education Committee has delayed action on a bill to redraw school district lines in Wilmington. The committee tabled a joint resolution endorsing the Wilmington Education Improvement Commission’s (WEIC) redistricting plan. The bill’s primary sponsor, Rep. Charles Potter Jr., D-Wilmington, made the unusual maneuver of announcing he would table the bill as soon as he introduced it. Perhaps as a result, no legislators questioned Potter about the bill–a customary practice in such hearings–and only a couple even commented publicly on the resolution.

The News Journal
Students can create change and impact their education
Opinion by Sarah Gentry Meinecke, student and president of student council at Brandywine High School
What impact can a single student have on the educational climate in the Brandywine School District? Very little. However, a group of motivated and passionate students can create positive change and impact the direction of their education. After the failure of the first Brandywine School District referendum in March, dozens of student leaders in the district proudly launched a grassroots campaign. This campaign is organized entirely by students to raise awareness of the importance of the upcoming referendum.

Scholarship program highlights broken system
Editorial
The Trumpian reaction to a program that awards college scholarships to the children of undocumented workers would likely be something about a wall and “those people.” We’d prefer to think of a program like TheDream.US as a sensible vehicle to bring higher education to more of our population. People who put in the time to study and earn good grades deserve an opportunity to advance their education and their prospects. But that’s not the case, which leads to so much angst when programs like TheDream.US are discussed.

On education, all talk, no action
Editorial
On Wednesday, the Wilmington Education Improvement Commission took its plan to redistrict city schools and overhaul the state’s education funding system to a hearing in the General Assembly. But anyone who knows anything about the history of Delaware’s educational system knew what the results were going to be before the hearing even took place. Nothing is going to change because, in the eyes of the powers that be, nothing has to change.

Legislators table Wilmington school redistricting bill
A bill to redistrict Wilmington schools was tabled Wednesday, making it clear the Wilmington Education Improvement Commission’s supporters in Legislative Hall have a lot of work to do to convince lawmakers to approve their vision for Delaware schools. The commission’s members and legislative allies must clear up misconceptions and fears about what exactly the bill would change while also striking a financial balance between a plan that is both affordable and broad enough to earn support from more than just the Wilmington delegation.

National

Education Week
Could Bernie Sanders step into an education leadership role in Congress?
If you take a look at the Democratic delegate count, it’s clear that it’s pretty unlikely that Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., will end up being the party’s presidential nominee. But that doesn’t mean that Sanders won’t have the chance to make his mark on education policy. In fact, there’s an outside, slim, but still interesting-to-think-about chance that he could end up becoming the top Democrat on the Senate education committee, or even the panel’s chairman come January. Why?

EdSurge
Stop trying to define personalized learning
WE NEED TO DEFINE PERSONALIZED LEARNING! No. No we don’t. While personalized learning (PL) may be a “thing,” it is not a thing. There are so many approaches… but overly ambitious definitions can nudge people to treat school design like ordering food off a menu. As of today, PL is a set of loosely-related (sometimes completely unrelated) hypotheses. Educators, families and funders are testing to see if we can do better than the traditional classroom model of putting 20-30 similarly-aged students in a room with one adult for about an hour.

Governing
What more funding can and can’t do
Blog post by Charles Chieppo, research fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Ash Center
Schools and public pension systems don’t have much in common. But as Detroit’s public schools teeter on the edge of bankruptcy, it’s clear that at least one rule applies to both: Problems that aren’t addressed in a timely manner grow exponentially worse. Illinois is the poster child on the pension side. Even though it was clear not long after World War II that the state’s pension system wasn’t sustainable, it was not until 2013 that elected officials passed a reform plan.

Newsday
Albany justice vacates teacher’s rating based on test scores
A state Supreme Court Justice has ruled in favor of a Great Neck teacher who sued the state over its teacher evaluation model after she received an “ineffective” on the rating tied to students’ test performance — one year after being rated “effective” for similar scores. The decision issued Tuesday by Justice Roger McDonough vacated and set aside what is known as the growth score and ineffective rating that elementary school teacher Sheri Lederman, received in the 2013-14 school year.

The Hechinger Report
“Education costs money,” says state superintendent in Mississippi
It’s the end of the school year, and the Mississippi Department of Education is expecting budget cuts to everything but the state’s education funding formula MAEP, even though Gov. Phil Bryant hasn’t signed the appropriations bill into law, yet. Regardless, Dr. Carey Wright, state superintendent of education, says the Mississippi Department of Education is busy; it’s state assessment time. She hasn’t even had time to listen to “Lemonade,” yet, although she says she’s a big Beyoncé fan. Mississippi education keeps Wright occupied.