May 20, 2016

Delaware

Cape Gazette
Community, school board hear redistricting plan
The second community meeting to present Cape Henlopen School District’s proposed elementary redistricting outlined six options for assigning students to the district’s five schools while balancing socioeconomic percentages. One legislator, two future school board members and three residents attended the May 16 presentation to hear options, numbered A-F, each with different percentages of low-socioeconomic students and varying total numbers of students.

Newark Post
Christina hires UD firm to facilitate superintendent search
The University of Delaware’s Institute of Public Administration will facilitate the Christina School District’s superintendent search after the board approved a resolution to negotiate a contract with the firm on Tuesday night. The resolution does not officially hire IPA, but merely authorizes the district’s chief financial officer to negotiate a contract with the firm within a dollar amount the board decided upon during its executive session.

Rodel Blog
No fair deal with Delaware’s antique funding system
Blog post by Jordan Dutton, English language arts teacher at W.T. Chipman Middle School
In 1949 President Truman presented his famous “Fair Deal” speech, presenting the idea that that every American should get a “fair deal” from their government. Following that speech, Congress nearly doubled the national minimum wage and created 800,000 new houses for the poor. Also in 1949, the State of Delaware created its educational unit count funding system.

Celebrating Superstars
Last week, The Partnership, Inc. (an affiliate of the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce), celebrated another sterling entry in its long-running Superstars in Education awards program. Superstars is a statewide awards program that seeks to promote and share programs and best practices in education that show measurable results and raise student achievement.

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 Dover Post
Capital outreach spawns Super Senator Day
Rider Pride Day is facing competition next year. On Oct. 8, Capital School District is rolling out its own community outreach day.  Super Senator Day at the high school is the district’s plan to impact the community, similar to Caesar Rodney’s Rider Pride Day or I Love Lake Forest Day. Assistant Superintendent Sylvia Henderson said it is an opportunity for the district to display what it has to offer to the community.

The Milford Beacon
Caesar Rodney’s geography guru headed to nationals
Allen Frear Elementary School didn’t have a geography bee until Eric Smith arrived. According to Principal Julie Lavender, who was a teacher at the time, the bee was created to cater to Eric Smith’s interest.  “We knew that he had such a strong interest in geography, so we thought ‘let’s try it,’” she said.  Smith proceeded to take first place each year he was at Frear.

NEWSMAKER: Gina Baumgartner
Gina Baumgartner’s North Dover Elementary School students could someday find work as voice-over actors. They’d first have to thank Baumgartner, who wasn’t impressed with the traditional route of a classroom teacher. She said she prefers the interactive lifestyle of a librarian, a position she’s held for the past 17 years. Her idea of a good education goes beyond reading books to students.

National

The Atlantic
The challenge of educational inequality
Two years into a demanding new era for the American education system, its defining 21st century challenge is coming into sharper focus. That new era began in September 2014, when for the first time, kids of color constituted a majority of America’s K-12 public school students nationwide. That tilt will only deepen: The National Center for Education Statistics projects that by 2025, whites will shrink to 46 percent of public school students.

NPR
Paying students may raise test scores, but the lesson is not over
Let’s pretend I asked you to run a mile as fast as you can. Now let’s pretend I asked you to run a mile as fast as you can, and if you broke nine minutes, you’d get $90. Which mile do you think would be faster? A new study suggests that students taking a test behave like you or me: They do better with a little incentive. Dollars and cents, that is. Jeff Livingston, the lead author of the study, is a professor of economics at Bentley University in Waltham, Mass.

The Hechinger Report
Why one school district tried something new — even though people were happy with the status quo
Education reform is often framed as an issue for schools that are failing to meet expectations. Schools where students struggle – because they tend to have fewer resources and bigger challenges – are most often the target for new school models. But some school districts that arguably have no reason to change are shaking things up, too.

The Gazette
Education commissioner resigns, citing family commitments
Colorado Education Commissioner Richard Crandall has submitted his resignation after only four months on the job. Crandall, a former Arizona lawmaker who also led the Wyoming Department of Education, said Thursday he decided to leave the post because his large family lives out of the state, and because of “the demands of the position and the time required to fully serve a state as diverse and expansive as Colorado.”

The Daily Courier
Governor declares Prop. 123 passes
Ahead by nearly 16,800 votes and with an ever-widening lead, it now appears Proposition 123 has been approved. Figures as of late Thursday show 520,425 votes in support of the measure to boost school funding, with 503,659 against. The largest share of votes remaining to be tallied is in Maricopa County with 15,400 early ballots and about 1,270 provisional ballots where the registration needs to be verified.