May 8, 2017

Delaware News

The 74
Analysis: Former Delaware Gov. Jack Markell on taking one easy step toward better tests
Opinion by Jack Markell, former Governor of Delaware
As a father and as someone deeply committed to improving our education system, I recognize that our assessment system is far from perfect, but annual assessments are a critical tool for holding states accountable for meeting the needs of all students in their education system. Instead of being against all assessments, we should be for fewer, fairer, and better assessments that add value for our students and our education system. Now, thanks to the Every Student Succeeds Act, all states have the opportunity to use federal funding to conduct their own assessment audits.

Cape Gazette
Cape High’s Evick honored by bio-tech industry
On April 26, Evick and four other public school teachers were honored by Delaware Bio as educators of the year. The ninth-grade biology and anatomy and physiology teacher likes to engage her students and hands on activity is great motivator, she says. Evick said she was nominated by the Delaware Department of Education for her work helping develop Next Generation Science Standards for Delaware students.

Walmart donates $50,000 for Delaware Tech career services training
Delaware Technical Community College has received a $50,000 grant from Walmart to fund career services at its Stanton, Dover, and Georgetown campuses. The grant supports three career services employees, who assist graduates of entry-level training programs with the resources they need to secure a job, such as resume writing, interviewing skills and contacts with employers.

Coastal Point
IRSD celebrates Teachers of the Year
Hundreds of teachers have made the Indian River School District a leader in education. On April 26, the IRSD honored the best of the best, their Teachers of the Year for 2017-2018. In a surprise announcement, Millsboro Middle School reading teacher Lisa Richardson received top honors as IRSD Teacher of the Year.

Richardson wins IRSD Teacher of the Year award
Richardson is the 2017-2018 Teacher of the Year for the Indian River School District. Her win was announced at a dinner on Wednesday, April 29. She helps students with reading skills in three areas: Tier 2, in which students “need some help” meeting reading requirements; Tier 3, in which students “need intensive help”; and English Language Learners, which includes students whose first language was not English.

The News Journal
Delaware school board elections approach
School board elections are just around the corner for Delaware, with school districts throughout the state holding votes for one or more seats Tuesday, May 9. Candidates, if elected, will serve five-year terms. They will make important financial, curricular and other decisions for their individual districts, in many cases setting the tone for education in Delaware.

Delaware students become chemists
On April 28, the Dow Chemical Company hosted the Delaware State You Be the Chemist Challenge for middle school students in Newark. Students participated in multiple rounds of Q&A, followed by an awards ceremony.

Math league students honored
The Delaware Secondary School Mathematics League has officially completed its fortieth season. The purpose of the Delaware Secondary School Mathematics League is to cultivate interest in mathematics through team competition. This year there were 361 teams registered with 2,031 students participating across the state. There were 201 teams at the middle school level competing in eleven regions and 160 teams at the high school level competing in eight regions.

Students compete in social impact hackathon
Students from four local high schools came together May 2 to brainstorm ways to build greater trust between law enforcement and their local communities. The 65 teens — from William Penn High School, A.I. DuPont High School, Dickinson High School and Howard High School of Technology — were taking part in a program called Random Hacks of Kindness, a social impact hackathon done in partnership with Communities in Schools of Delaware and Capital One. The event itself was held at the Capital One building in Wilmington.

Newsworks
Halting the spread of fake news amid ‘flurry of undecipherable stuff’
Conrad teacher Leigh Weldin said she found it difficult to have classroom discussions about political races or issues during the 2016 presidential election. Students couldn’t agree on facts or shared falsehoods as truth. So she developed a lesson in which students evaluate whether headlines or stories are real and shows them ways to differentiate.

Technocal.ly Delaware
This 16-year-old girl drives robots, nbd
Sixteen-year-old Dea Harjianto didn’t expect to become a builder and driver of robots for one of Middletown’s two high school FIRST robotics teams, but after some friends from STEM classes encouraged her to attend a meeting of the Palindrome Robotics team, a 4H team made up primarily of Middletown High School students, she was hooked. “I fell in love with the whole atmosphere of the team and the idea of creating a robot from scratch,” she says.

National News

Education Week
Bill to revamp career and technical education law introduced in House
The prospects for the bill, called the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act, could be strong, given the success the 2016 version enjoyed last year, and how lawmakers and advocacy groups are pushing hard to make CTE a priority in Washington.

Inside Higher Ed
Bipartisan bill to reauthorize Perkins Act
A bipartisan bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives would reauthorize the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act, which provides federal support to career education programs.

Fordham Institute
Education changes in Trump’s first 100 days
Those who follow federal education policy or work on education at the state level are well aware of a few big changes wrought by the Trump team (with some help from Congress) in its first hundred days, including wiping out the late Obama ESSA accountability regs and easing off on bathroom access rules. But another quintet of recent ed-related developments in Washington begs for attention by anyone wondering what may actually be changing (or hoping or fearing that change will occur) in our schools and for our children in the Trump era.

Hechinger Report
What happens when you give a district the freedom to innovate?
When the Corinth School District in north Mississippi was given the distinction of “District of Innovation” by the state last year, officials realized it was their chance to roll out unique initiatives they believed would truly impact student achievement. As Districts of Innovation, Corinth and two other districts in Mississippi can request exemptions from state regulations and more easily try out new systems and programs. Corinth’s educators zeroed in on a few areas they thought would make a difference: a new curriculum and assessment system, a modified calendar and additional diploma options.

NPR
Health care bill hits special ed; Trump Touts D.C. vouchers despite poor test scores
The Affordable Care Act repeal that passed the House this week would cut Medicaid by 25 percent, and also cap funding for children specifically. The New York Times reports that public school districts receive $4 billion of Medicaid reimbursements annually, or about 1 percent of the pie. Most of that money goes to professionals such as speech, physical and behavior therapists who help special education students. Under the bill, states would no longer be required to recognize schools as eligible Medicaid providers or pay them for those services, which schools will still be required by law to provide.