July 5, 2016

Delaware News

Delaware Public Media
Summer Learning Collaborative tackles summer learning achievement gap
Summer is a critical time for kids, with the achievement gap widening for many low-income kids. Barthelemy Atsin is a teacher from New York. He came to Wilmington to teach the basic principles of animation to low-income middle school kids for a week in June.

The News Journal
Elementary school drum line marches to Disney
Drum beats filled a first-floor classroom at Elbert-Palmer Elementary School and drifted down the Wilmington street on a recent Friday afternoon. Although school was out of session, the 12 members of the drum line were practicing for their performance in Walt Disney World Resort this August.

Editorial: As usual, lawmakers get an F on school reform
Before you bemoan the passing of the Hotel DuPont as we once knew it, take solace in the fact that our General Assembly isn’t changing its ways anytime soon. Delaware’s legislators ended their session as they always do – like a third-grader who didn’t start on his baking soda volcano project until the night before it was due. The GA spent 11 hours on Thursday night and into the wee hours of Friday morning wrapping up its work.

The Rodel Foundation
Education is front and center at Legislative Hall
Blog post by Melissa Hopkins, director of external affairs at the Rodel Foundation
One look at our Legislative Monitor says it all: Education was front and center this year in the Delaware General Assembly. It was also a tough financial year, one plagued by continued revenue shortfalls. In this space Wednesday, we recapped the proposed budget cuts put forth by the Joint Finance Committee and the implications on Delaware teachers and students. It wasn’t a pretty picture.

WDEL
Minority middle schoolers in Dover take part in 1st of its kind tech camp at Delaware State University
Most middle schoolers play video games, and a new, three-week summer camp at Delaware State University wants to give Dover students a broader learning experience by connecting the games they love to potential careers.

National News

Chalkbeat
At some Indianapolis magnet schools, racial divides are by design
One of the best, most sought-after public schools in Indiana is nestled in a failing urban school district. This school, Center for Inquiry School 84, stands above the tumultuous reputation of Indianapolis Public Schools. But, even though it’s a magnet school, not all IPS students have an equal shot at this bright spot in urban education.

Education Week
Education equality 50 years after the Coleman Report
On this weekend in 1966, researcher James S. Coleman and his colleagues released: “Equality of Educational Opportunity.” The 737-page report to Congress was dense with charts, tables, and head-poundingly complex analysis of the disparities between white and black students in public schools, and the effects of that inequity on academic achievement.

As NEA convention begins, a look at the budget
It’s the calm before the storm. Tomorrow, about 7,000 delegates from the across the National Education Association’s state-level affiliates will be filling all of these chairs as the union’s representative assembly begins.

The Hechinger Report
When it comes to student achievement, facilities matter
Yazoo County School District of Mississippi Superintendent Becky Fischer said the lights in the high school in her district were so old, they could not even find bulbs for them when they went out. Electric equipment, decades old, fell repeatedly, meaning constant maintenance and repair for the district’s schools in a county where 36.2 percent of citizens live in poverty, 2010-2014 U.S. Census data show.

The Washington Post
D.C. public school program wants students to see the world for free
The $2 million DCPS program is the first fully funded study-abroad program of its scale in a public school district. This summer, it will send District students on 19 group trips to 13 countries in Central America, South America, Europe, Africa and Asia. Money for the program was raised through the D.C. Public Education Fund, which solicits private funding to help pay for initiatives that are priorities for the city’s public schools.