July 20, 2017

Delaware News

Department of Education
Survey gives educators voice on workplace strengths, needs
School leadership is the working condition that most affects a teacher’s willingness to stay working in their school, according to the more than 4,000 Delaware educators who responded to the 2017 TELL (Teaching, Empowering, Leading and Learning) Delaware survey. The majority of Delaware educators feel their schools’ curricula is aligned to state standards, use assessment data to inform their instruction, have time to collaborate with peers and have school leaders who facilitate using data to improve student learning and encourage trying new things to improve instruction.

Newark Post
Thurgood Marshall Elementary wins nationwide Scary Pump Room contest
New moms Stacey DiIenno and Sarah Sozio-Kennard, teachers at Thurgood Marshall Elementary, used to pump their breast milk in the school’s computer server room because they had nowhere else to go, but now, after winning a nationwide contest, they have a dedicated space designed specifically for their needs. “It’s relaxing and there’s privacy,” Sozio-Kennard said.

Newsworks
Gov. Carney orders new anti-bias guidelines to protect Del. students
Gov. Carney has ordered the creation of new state guidelines to prohibit discrimination against students based on characteristics such as gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation and gender identity or expression. The governor wants Delaware’s 19 school districts and charter schools to use the “model policy” developed by the Department of Education to inform their own policies “to suit the needs of their students,” Carney’s office said in a news release.

Office of the Governor
Governor Carney signs legislation to boost library technology, scholarship opportunities
Governor John Carney on Wednesday signed into law House Bill 94 and House Bill 34, legislation that will allow Delaware libraries to further their efforts to coordinate technology resources statewide and offer more educational opportunities to library and archives professionals.

The News Journal
Lack of responses raises questions about Delaware teacher survey
Though little data was collected from some of Delaware’s lowest-performing schools, officials say a 2017 survey of local teaching conditions still has valuable takeaways. Less than half of the state’s educators participated in the survey, results show. At some schools, like Bayard Middle School in Wilmington, only a few teachers responded.

Carney wants model anti-discrimination policy for public schools
Facing pressure from transgender students and advocates, Gov. John Carney has instructed state education leaders to draft a model anti-discrimination policy for Delaware public and charter schools. In a memo sent Monday to Secretary of Education Susan Bunting, Carney directed the department to develop, through regulation, clear guidance to public and charter schools to “prohibit unlawful discrimination in educational programs and activities for students, on the basis of any legally protected characteristic,” including race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression.

National News

Education Reform Now
Doubling down: The black-white graduation gap in the Midwest
The Midwest is home to some of the nation’s finest public institutions of higher education. However, for many black children growing up in these states, degrees from these respected institutions are shockingly out of reach relative to their white peers. Indeed, the graduation gaps between black and white students at both the high school and university level in many Midwestern states are among some of the worst in the nation. Take Wisconsin, for example.

Education Week
What should special education teachers know and be able to do?
A newly-minted special education teacher should be able to: “collaborate with professionals to increase student success,” “use multiple sources of information” to understand a student’s strengths and needs, and “systematically design instruction toward specific learning goals.” These skills are among 22 “high-leverage practices” for special education teachers that were developed by the Council for Exceptional Children and the federally-supported Collaboration for Effective Educator Development, Accountability and Reform, also known as CEEDAR.

Governing
Why a California district is recruiting teachers from the Philippines
Officials at the Sacramento City Unified School District took an international field trip to the Philippines this year — to hire teachers. The district says it has no choice but to look abroad to fill vacancies, as schools around California and the nation face a shortage of employable teachers. Sacramento City Unified is the only district in the greater Sacramento region hiring from the Philippines through a program that began last year.

The Des Moines Register
Ruling could expand special education services to more Iowa students
A legal judgment could force Iowa schools to change how they determine which students qualify for special education, potentially allowing thousands of more children to qualify for services, advocates say. Administrative Law Judge Christie J. Scase issued a ruling that requires the Iowa Department of Education to reimburse an Urbandale family for private tutoring costs incurred after their child was denied access to special education programming at school.

The Hechinger Report
Schools collect more data, but how is it used?
State leaders are collecting reams of data on students, but they must do more to put that information into the hands of parents and teachers, according to a new report. Making that information available to school communities consists of more than merely publishing complicated, archaic spreadsheets online, according to the Data Quality Campaign, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization that advocates for better data use.