June 21, 2016

Delaware

Cape Gazette
Shields students experience Girls on the Run curriculum
Girls on the Run of Shields Elementary School recently concluded its first season as a program. A total of 13 fifth-grade girls trained twice a week for 10 weeks while being inspired to be joyful, healthy and confident. The girls completed a fun, experience-based curriculum that creatively integrates running.

Delaware Public Media
Sharing of lesson plans, curriculum materials across school districts key to BRINC’s success
The BRINC Consortium – which started in 2012 with four First State school districts collaborating through an innovative learning grant – is expanding again.   The Capital and Polytech districts will join this fall – bringing the total number of districts involved to nine. Started in 2012 through a state Department of Education grant, the group is working to transform the way high school teachers teach and students learn by focusing on effective use of new technology.

The Dover Post
Legislature wants computer science on the curriculum
Rep. Debra Heffernan is taking legislative steps to make sure students are computer literate. The District 6 representative introduced House Bill 355 March 3. The bill requires high schools to offer a computer science course by the 2020-2021 academic year, and requires the Delaware State Board of Education to establish a computer science course that satisfies a math or science credit.

The News Journal
Editorial: Delaware school district structure waylays reform
Advocates of the Wilmington Education Improvement Committee’s plan to revamp schools in the city and eventually throughout the state have withstood months of questioning and concerns from members of the General Assembly. Now comes the news that a bill to accelerate a vote on the WEIC plan may emerge from a House committee next week and face a vote from the full House.

Teacher evaluations could see less focus on test scores
Delaware would all but eliminate the role of test scores in teacher evaluations if a bill in the General Assembly passes. The practice has been part of an ongoing debate about measuring student achievement. The state requires that annual appraisals of educators include how well student scores grew on the state standardized test if they teach a subject included on that exam.

WBOC
Capital and Polytech School Districts Join BRINC Consortium
The Capital and Polytech school districts will be joining the BRINC Consortium of Delaware, an educational coalition designed to improve the student experience. BRINC stands for the first four districts that created the consortium. Brandywine, Indian River, New Castle County Vo-tech, and Colonial were the first to create the group.

WDEL
Suicide prevention updated at Brandywine schools
Brandywine School District is beefing up its suicide prevention program this fall. All school staff will be required to take a 90-minute webinar to improve their knowledge on suicide prevention and reporting. “We’ve seen an uptick nationally in terms of the number of youth suicides,” said Assistant District Superintendent Dorrell Gree.

National

Chalkbeat
Denver school board approves $628 million bond and mill package, new charter schools
Denver voters will be asked in November to raise an additional $628 million in taxes to pay for school construction and the expansion of educational programs after the Denver school board Thursday voted unanimously in favor of a bond and mill levy override. The board also approved two new charter schools and voted to place three other charter schools in buildings owned by the school district.

Education Week
Harvard business school examines K-12 blended learning
In the leafy suburbs of Philadelphia, the affluent Downingtown, Pa., school system has high test scores, plenty of digital resources, and features one of the best high schools in the country. Even so, Superintendent Lawrence J. Mussoline decided to shake things up. The 13,000-student district already offered students online courses from a vendor, but Mussoline wanted a blended-learning program taught entirely by Downingtown teachers with Downingtown-created courses.

Newsworks
Here’s what education advocates should expect from the soda tax money in Year One
Education advocates in Philadelphia have reason for good cheer this week. Actually, they have 27.5 million reasons. That’s the amount of money earmarked for the city’s Office of Community Schools and Universal Pre-K in the fiscal year 2017 budget. As you’ve likely heard by now, that injection of cash comes via the sugary beverages tax approved Thursday by City Council. So what should Philadelphians expect in the coming fiscal year from their tax dollars?

NPR
More testing, less play: Study finds higher expectations for kindergartners
This summer, millions of excited four- five-, and six- year olds will be getting ready for their first real year of school to start. But some of them may be in for a wakeup call when that first bell rings. If you have young kids in school, or talk with teachers of young children, you’ve likely heard the refrain — that something’s changed in the early grades.

The Hechinger Report
In spite of rising tuition, one country manages to shepherd poor kids into college
Covering much of one wall of Paul Richards’ office at the Calderstones School is an impressive collection of thank-you notes. Many are from students Richards, in his role overseeing the equivalent of the American junior and senior grades of high school, has successfully prodded into college. This is not as easy of a job as the pastoral campus in these comparatively affluent surroundings suggests, teeming as it is with earnest-looking youngsters in neat school uniforms.