May 18, 2016

Delaware

Newsworks
In Delaware, Brandywine voters approve tax hike
Voters in Delaware’s third-largest district approved a tax hike Tuesday, sparing the district a potential budget cut. Residents of the Brandywine School District–which covers parts of Wilmington and its suburbs–voted 9,612 to 5,780 in favor of the increase. The approved referendum will raise property taxes by 28 cents per $100 of assessed value.

Rodel Bog
Dollars and sense: Keeping pace in a changing world
As members of the Rodel Teacher Council, we have spent the past year researching personalized learning. In a truly personalized setting, students are at the center of their learning: Their work is meaningful, tailored to their needs and interests, and accessible anytime and anywhere. Our research continued and we began to see how elements of the current system would need to change in order to allow for a truly student-centered environment.

The News Journal
Brandywine referendum passes in landslide
The Brandywine School District referendum passed by a wide margin on Tuesday night. Over 9,500 residents voted for the referendum with 5,780 voting against it, according to unofficial results from the New Castle County Department of Elections. Total voter turnout dwarfed the roughly 7,600 who cast ballots in the March referendum, which failed to pass by a slim margin.

WDEL
Christina to overhaul school discipline with new strategy
When a child acts out in class–like throwing a chair–experts say it’s usually symptomatic of something else going on in that child’s life. When basic needs like food, clothing, and shelter aren’t being met at home, the learning component can never take place in school. “Kids don’t eat, kids come to school viewing the violence of our world,” said Christina School District Superintendent Dr. Bob Andrzejewski.

National

Education Week
Making space: Placing students and families in the conversation
Blog post by Christina Torres, middle and high school English and Drama teacher at the University Laboratory School in Honolulu, Hawaii
“We can discuss this all day…” the teacher in a focus group I was running trailed off, “but the real question is: what do our students want?” We all paused and looked at her. It was one of those moments where someone lifts the veil of your own ignorance. We’d been discussing the state DOE’s strategic plan for nearly fifteen minutes, and she was the first to remind us who is at the true center of our conversation.

Milwaukee – Wisconsin Journal Sentinel
Wisconsin Supreme Court upholds education superintendent’s independence
A divided Wisconsin Supreme Court dealt Gov. Scott Walker a loss on Wednesday, upholding a ruling that keeps the state education secretary independent from control of the governor’s administration. The 4-3 decision preserves the powers of the state superintendent of public instruction. The Supreme Court voted to uphold two lower court rulings that made the same determination.

The Atlantic
Why a Mississippi city is just now being forced to desegregate its schools
May 17 marks the 62nd anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision, which outlawed deliberately placing black and white students in separate schools. The ruling was designed so that school districts could come up with plans for desegregating their own educational facilities, but six decades later, school segregation remains a problem.

The Hechinger Report
Are paraprofessionals the answer to the nation’s shortage of bilingual teachers?
Opinion by Kaylan Connally and Kim Dancy, policy analysts in the Education Policy Program at New America
Nearly one in four students speaks a language other than English at home — but only about one in eight teachers. Bilingual paraprofessionals help narrow the linguistic gulf between students and teachers by assisting with direct translation. They could help close this gap even further by becoming lead teachers themselves. One in five paraprofessionals speaks a non-English language at home — double the share for teachers.

The New York Times
Why there’s an uproar over trying to increase funding for poor schools
On April 4, a terse letter signed by the heads of the major education lobbying organizations in Washington — teachers unions, school boards, superintendents, principals and governors — landed on the desk of John King Jr., the secretary of education. It had been less than three weeks since the Senate had confirmed Mr. King, a former high school teacher and education commissioner in New York.