April 10, 2017
Delaware News
Brandywine Buzz
Social emotional learning
Commentary by Paul Herdman, president and ceo of the Rodel Foundation of Delaware
Back in the 1980s, when I was a teacher in one of New York City’s largest high schools, George Washington High School, I got a sense of what my students needed to grow up to be healthy adults, and it extended beyond traditional academics. They were freshman in high school, 14-year-old kids, who in many cases grew up alongside poverty, hunger, violence, and addiction. I wrote about my experiences in more depth here, but I realized early on, that for me to connect with them on their academics, they needed to be seen, to be understood as individuals, and to be challenged.
Brown Alumni Magazine
The education of Jack Markell
One steamy morning in August last year, teachers gathered with principals, education officials, and a handful of politicians at Appoquinimink High School in bucolic Middletown, Delaware. Among them was the state’s governor, Jack Markell ’82, who had arrived eager to learn. Facing him were the first participants in Delaware’s pilot Teacher Leader program, one of many education-related initiatives Markell launched during his eight years in office, which ended this past January due to term limits.
The News Journal
PNC donates to NCCo Head Start
PNC Bank Market Executive Bruce Colbourn visited New Castle County Head Start, Inc.’s Absalom Jones and Marshallton centers April 4 to announce several donations. Colbourn presented a new iPad for each center, gift cards totaling $4,000 and book donations for all classrooms. Following the presentation, Colbourn read a story and played with Head Start students. PNC Bank’s donation was part of a $504,000 flash funding program sponsoring 840 projects in public and charter pre-K classrooms in 22 states and Washington, D.C, through the donorschoose.org platform.
Delaware Public Media
Parenting conference focuses on needs of young moms
A parenting conference Friday morning in Wilmington focused on needs specific to young moms under the age of 22. Wilmington mom and resident Jackeline Martinez spoke; she was 21 when she had her first child. “You know – everyone thinks, you’re 21, you’ve got it all together, you’re a grown up now, you’re supposed to know everything,” Martinez said. “No – having a baby, you could be 40, you could be 17, you could be any age and you’re never prepared for it.”
UDaily
April 26: Education career fair
If you are looking for a job in education, Project Search is the place for you. On Wednesday, April 26, more than 290 recruiters representing 106 school districts from around the country will be at the Bob Carpenter Center for the University of Delaware’s 39th annual education job fair. Project Search is one of the largest education job fairs on the East Coast. Many of the recruiters come from the Mid-Atlantic region, however this year there are also representatives from employers in Massachusetts, Connecticut, North Carolina, and Texas.
Cape Gazette
Mumford, Harrington to head Love Creek Elementary
Two long-time Cape educators will take the helm when the district’s fifth elementary opens in the fall. Patricia Mumford, who has served as principal of both Rehoboth and H.O. Brittingham elementaries, was hired as principal for Love Creek Elementary, the new K-5 school on Route 24. Joining Mumford will be Wendy Harrington, a teacher who has worked as math specialist for HOB. “I have high expectations, but there is nothing I ask of the staff that I would not do myself,” Mumford said.
Coastal Point
Applications being accepted for IRSD budget oversight committee
As promised, Indian River School District is seeking in-depth public input on district finances. The IRSD is now accepting applications for the new Citizens Budget Oversight Committee. Volunteers will be specially trained to understand, review, and contribute to regular discussions on IRSD budgets. The goal is transparency, to ensure that public stakeholders can provide input on district finances.
IRSD approves energy audit for all schools
With a goal of conserving energy, the Indian River School District will invest in an energy audit with Trane USA Inc. through the Delaware Sustainable Energy Utility. The audit will include every district school and cost a minimum of $71,500. “I think it’s a very prudent use of taxpayer money,” said Joseph Booth, IRSD supervisor of buildings and grounds. “This is a project that we had been working on to take advantage of what the State’s doing, to reduce our energy cost at Indian River School District.”
Sussex County Post
IRSD Teacher of the Year announcement will cap ceremony honoring teachers
Indian River School District’s 2017-18 Teacher of the Year will be announced Wednesday, April 26 at a special ceremony honoring winners from the district’s 16 schools. The ceremony will held be in the John M. Clayton Elementary auditorium. It will begin at 7 p.m. Three finalists for the overall 2017-18 award are: Nicole Morey, Georgetown Elementary School; Lisa Richardson, Millsboro Middle School; and Jill Young, Lord Baltimore Elementary School.
National News
USA Today
Rahm Emanuel gears up for a modern-day Brown v. Board
Opinion by Charles Lane, post editorial writer specializing in economic and fiscal policy and a contributor to the PostPartisan blog
Say what you will about Rahm Emanuel, Chicago’s Democratic mayor, but he has been in the thick of just about every major policy and political battle in recent history. Few politicians bring more savvy to whatever the fight may be. Emanuel’s latest provocative move is to recast the Chicago public schools’ pension-funding woes as a modern-day lawsuit equivalent to Brown v. Board of Education. Though the problems behind the case were made in Illinois, its implications are national.
Education Week
Here’s how some states’ ESSA plans address testing opt-outs
Nine states and the District of Columbia had turned in their state plans for the Every Student Succeeds Act as of Monday evening, according to an Education Week survey of states. One tricky issue states have to address in those plans is how to deal with schools where less than 95 percent of all students take required state exams. Under ESSA, states are allowed to have laws on the books affirming parents’ right to opt their children out of these tests.
The CT Mirror
CT scraps using state test scores to compute teacher ratings
State test scores will no longer be used in teacher performance evaluations – though, after five years of contentious debate and unremitting delays, the requirement to do so was never actually implemented in the first place. The state Board of Education voted late Wednesday afternoon to adopt new usage standards for state mastery test data, explicitly prohibiting the use of those test scores in evaluating teacher performance.
The Bismarck Tribune
New ND math, English standards approved
New math and English classroom standards have been approved by state Superintendent Kirsten Baesler, the Department of Public Instruction announced Friday. The standards will be in effect for the 2017-18 school year, and replace those based on the Common Core that had been in effect since 2011, Baesler said in a news release. The standards provide guideposts for what students should know, and be able to do, during each grade.
The Washington Post
DeVos praises this voucher-like program. Here’s what it means for school reform.
Florida has channeled billions of taxpayer dollars into scholarships for poor children to attend private schools over the past 15 years, using tax credits to build a laboratory for school choice that the Trump administration holds up as a model for the nation. The voucherlike program, the largest of its kind in the country, helps pay tuition for nearly 100,000 students from low-income families. But there is scant evidence that these students fare better academically than their peers in public schools.