November 3, 2016
Delaware News
Delaware 105.9
DSU now offers students a place to turn for food assistance
University students in need of emergency food assistance now have a place to turn in Dover. For the first time ever a Delaware college will offer a fully stocked and operational food pantry for students in need to something to eat. The pantry will act as a one-stop shop for a variety of nutritious food products and hygiene items. The new hunger relief effort is made possible by a joint effort from the Harry K Foundation and the Food Bank of Delaware.
Delaware Public Media
DSU creates new law school pipeline
Delaware State University students hoping to become lawyers have an easier path starting next school year. DSU students who maintain a 3.0 grade average and score about a 150 on the LSAT get automatic admission to Widener University Delaware Law School. That’s thanks to a new agreement signed by top officials from both schools Wednesday, which also comes with a renewable $10,000 scholarship.
Delaware State News
Campaign notebook: Delaware candidates win endorsements
Both the state troopers’ and teachers’ unions have made their endorsements for the 2016 election. The Delaware State Education Association is supporting Democrats in the four statewide races and mostly, although not exclusively, Democrats in legislative races. The group has endorsed 28 Democrats and eight Republicans seeking General Assembly seats. Not every race has an endorsed candidate.
Inside Sources
New analysis shows high education standards are working
Despite the hubbub from teachers unions and general skepticism on social media, the efforts by many states to implement higher standards for student proficiency appear to be working, according to a new report released Tuesday. Delaware Democratic Gov. Jack Markell joined a conference call with reporters on Tuesday to explain how his state, which had been losing business and jobs to other states because of low education standards, had worked to implement high standards and give students better opportunities.
Newark Post
Playground geared toward children with autism opens in Glasgow Park
What started as a father’s phone call two years ago, ended last week with his daughter’s smile as she watched New Castle County leaders open H!GH 5 Park – Delaware’s first inclusive park tailored to the needs of autistic children. The playground, which lies within Glasgow Park behind the main pavilion, is the brainchild of Glasgow parents Elizabeth and Rob Scheinberg, who noticed the county lacked a place where children on the autism spectrum, like their daughter Delia, could play.
Sussex County Post
Indian River School District: Ads contained ‘inaccuracies’ and ‘misleading’ information
Editor’s note: The following rebuttal from Indian River School District Superintendent Dr. Susan Bunting, IRSD board of education president Charles Bireley and IRSD board of education vice president Rodney Layfield is in response to advertisements that ran in the Oct. 26 and Nov. 2 editions of the Sussex County Post.
The Middletown Transcript
Delaware launches open resource initiative
The Delaware Department of Education announced the launch of a new statewide #GoOpen initiative, joining a cohort of states recognized by the U.S. Department of Education for its commitment to support school districts and educators transitioning to the use of high-quality, openly licensed educational resources in their schools.
WMDT
Showell Elementary School project moves forward
County Commissioner President Madison J. Bunting said “I am very pleased that the hard work and dedication of the County Commissioners, Board of Education (BOE) members and our staff have brought us to this point, where we have now approved the proposed Showell Elementary School (SES) Replacement project with a conceptual design that will meet the needs of the students at an affordable cost to Worcester County.”
National News
CT Post
State approves controversial teacher-prep program
A controversial alternative route to certification that promises to put more minority teachers into classrooms won approval from the state Board of Education. The program, called Relay Graduate School of Education, was challenged by a number of teachers and officials from established teacher-preparation programs in the state who said it would hurt more than it helps if it puts unprepared teachers in front of students of color.
NJ Spotlight
Wide achievement gap persists despite new PARCC exams
For all the changes that the state’s new PARCC testing has wrought for New Jersey’s public schools, one constant has prevailed: a wide and deep achievement gap. The Christie administration yesterday released the school-by-school test scores from the second year of the new online testing last spring, and like the statewide scores released this summer, they should be mostly good news for schools.
The American Prospect
Fining teachers for switching schools
Last month, the Massachusetts Teachers Association reported on the story of Matthew Kowalski, a high school history and economics teacher who received a $6,087 bill over the summer from his former employer—a suburban charter school in Malden, Massachusetts. Kowalski had worked at the Mystic Valley Regional Charter School for seven years, but with three young children and another one on the way, he said he wanted to find a teaching job that would offer something more stable than at-will employment.
The Hechinger Report
The reason so many black teachers leave the job early
What will it take to get more black teachers to stay in the classroom? School administrators will have to explicitly address the racial biases and stereotyping that stifle black educators’ professional growth, argue researchers Ashley Griffin and Hilary Tackie in a new report from The Education Trust, a national nonprofit advocacy organization. As the nation’s classrooms become increasingly diverse, with non-white children now making up the majority of public school students, schools have made inroads in recruiting more teachers of color.
The Tennessean
MTSU partners with KIPP schools on student supports
Middle Tennessee State University on Tuesday kicked off a partnership with charter school systems in Nashville and Memphis that officials said will pull more underrepresented students onto campus and provide them with special supports. The partnership will connect students throughout the K-12 KIPP Charter Schools system with MTSU programs from a young age.