May 27, 2016

Delaware

Delaware State News
Minor steps taken on budget by Joint Finance Committee
The Joint Finance Committee continued meeting Thursday for the second day of budget markup, and lawmakers spent the majority of the day focused on the Education Department. Thursday, Sen. Karen Peterson, D-Stanton, raised several questions about education funding, asking why teachers are paid more for earning additional degrees.

Delmarva Now
Shields’ Nauman named as National Distinguished Principal
The students at Shields Elementary School in Lewes know how to keep a secret. For nearly half an hour, students sat quietly, for the most part, in the gym at Sussex Consortium in Lewes and waited for their principal Jennifer Nauman to enter the gym. She had no idea that she was about to be named the National Distinguished Principal for the state of Delaware.

The News Journal
Meet 3 of Delaware’s high school graduates
Middletown High student Marissa Murray battled back from a horrific 2015 car wreck to graduate Tuesday. Seaford’s Jessica Harris nursed her mother through Lou Gehrig’s disease and her father through a fatal cancer before ending up homeless, but will graduate June 3. And ice skater Emmanuel Savary, who hopes to make the 2018 Olympics, will graduate June 7 as a Glasgow High honors student. They are three of the thousands of Delaware high school students graduating this spring. These are their stories.

UDaily
Outstanding student teachers: Future secondary school educators receive honors for their work
Ten student teachers in the University of Delaware’s secondary teacher education program were honored for having inspired and engaged their students with the theories, content and big ideas of their disciplines. The students received 2016 Outstanding Student Teacher Certificates from UD’s Center for Secondary Teacher Education.

Playful design: Education, engineering students collaborate to create children’s toys
The sounds of giggles, bouncing balls, choo choo trains and musical chimes could be heard echoing in the halls of the University of Delaware’s Laboratory Preschool. These joyful sounds of play were the result of toys designed by an interdisciplinary team of students in UD’s Department of Human Development and Family Studies (HDFS) and the Department of Mechanical Engineering (MEEG).

National

Associated Press
Administration lays out draft rule for school accountability
Proposed federal guidelines would allow states to decide how to use a mix of test scores, academic growth and other measures like chronic absenteeism to identify failing schools and children who are struggling the most.

White House arts program teams up with Kennedy Center
An Obama administration project to expand arts education in elementary and middle schools has found new, long-term backing. The President’s Committee on the Arts and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts says it will be partnering to keep the Turnaround Arts initiative funded and expanding next year.

EdSource
U.S. Dept. of Education releases draft regulations for new federal law
The U.S. Department of Education today released its much-awaited draft regulations to implement the Every Student Succeeds Act, or ESSA as it is referred to by insiders, which was signed into law by President Barack Obama in December.

Education Week
Advisers to Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders debate education policy
Democratic presidential candidates HiIlary Clinton and Bernie Sanders both back more federal investment in pre-K and K-12 programs, and a focus by states on closing achievement gaps between white students and students of color, senior policy advisers to the two said during an education-focused debate Thursday.

Education Department releases ESSA accountability rules
The U.S. Department of Education has released a draft version of accountability regulations for the Every Student Succeeds Act that would require “comprehensive, summative” ratings for schools, but would not dictate or encourage states to set any particular weight, or a range of weights, for individual accountability measures. The proposed regulations, released Thursday, would also clarify that states can choose their own indicators of school quality or student success that move beyond traditional accountability measures based on test scores and graduation rates.

Transgender students and bathrooms: What should schools do?
The Obama administration’s guidance to schools on the rights of transgender students has provoked protests, lawsuits, and uncertainty among educators.

U.S. News & World Report
When performance pay doesn’t pay off
In 2005, Denver stepped into the national spotlight by adopting a performance pay system negotiated with the teachers’ union, financed by a $25 million-a-year boost in property taxes. The subsequent decade of experience reveals a surprising lesson: No one in Denver thinks performance pay has made much difference in student outcomes, but most agree that charter schools – which aren’t eligible for the taxpayer-funded performance pay – have made a big difference.