October 3, 2017

Delaware News

Delaware State News
Drawing on art to help Delaware children
The boys drawing pictures with markers and paint at round tables inside Solid Rock Community Outreach Center weren’t just creating artwork. They were using art to express their feelings, part of a mental health approach called art therapy. A’Zion Curtis, a sixth grader from Dover, picked up a thin brush and began to carefully paint a blue circle. Ultimately, his circle became part of an elaborate picture that portrayed a potential conflict between he and a peer.

The News Journal
“Zero tolerance” not right for Delaware schools
Editorial
Delaware went too far in cracking down on students in the name of safety, imposing overly harsh punishments on children who brought items that could be considered weapons to school. Last Friday, Gov. John Carney signed legislation to ease that zero tolerance attitude, giving administrators common sense leeway to make a distinction between a kid’s oversight and evil intent.

Schools need more local control: Delaware Voices
Ronald Russo, a senior fellow at the Caesar Rodney Institute
Sunday’s education article by Delaware Supreme Court Chief Justice Leo E. Strine, Jr. ended with the admonition that it’s time to do something big. The chief justice was involved at the start of Delaware’s education reform effort in 1995. I share his frustration at its failure and I suggest that what we need has to be not only big but bold.

Wilmington student gets full ride in less than 20 minutes
It took less than 20 minutes. Joseph Lindsay, a senior at Mt. Pleasant High School, has known for a while that he wanted to go to Lincoln University, the country’s first Historically Black College and University, once he graduates. But he never expected just how little time it would take to apply and be accepted. “Ten to fifteen, twenty minutes,” he said.

WDEL
3 Delaware schools get federal recognition for achievements in the classrooms
Just over a month into the new school year, three elementary schools in The First State are celebrating honors bestowed upon them by the US Department of Education and Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. Students, teachers, and staff at Olive B. Loss Elementary School in Bear, East Millsboro Elementary School, and Seaford Central Elementary School were recently recognized as 2017 Blue Ribbon Schools. Up to 420 schools nationally are nominated for the honor each year.

National News

Chalkbeat
Memphis district robo call tells parents to opt out of data sharing: “We do not want to lose any students to charter schools”
With less than a month before Memphis parents must decide whether to share their children’s information with charter schools, the Shelby County Schools district is ramping up its efforts to get them to say no. Shelby County Schools used robocalls to tell parents to opt out of having their children’s information shared with charter schools, a district spokeswoman confirmed Friday.

This beloved Detroit music teacher vowed to stay at his Detroit school — but the cost was just too high
When the school year began at Detroit’s Central High School last month, a beloved teacher was missing. Quincy Stewart, who was featured in a June Chalkbeat story about his innovative use of music to teach students about African-American history, had been determined to stay at Central. “I do this is because I’m a black man and these are black children,” he told Chalkbeat last spring.

Maine Biz
Coalition unveils four strategies to tackle Maine’s workforce challenges
The newly formed Maine Workforce & Education Coalition is on a mission to ensure that 60% of the state’s workforce achieves a post-secondary degree or professional credential by 2025, compared to 42% today. It unveiled an initiative Thursday called MaineSpark following a year of discussions about how to best address and resolve Maine’s workforce challenges.

NPR
If your teacher looks like you, you may do better in school
Think back to grade school for a moment and envision that one teacher who could captivate you more than any other. Did that teacher look a bit like you? One recent study says: probably. There’s mounting evidence that when black students have black teachers, those students are more likely to graduate high school. That new study takes this idea even further, providing insight into the way students actually think and feel about the teachers who look like them and those who don’t.

The Washington Post
By age 3, inequality is clear: Rich kids attend school. Poor kids stay with a grandparent
Limos and nannies drop off 3- and 4-year-olds every weekday morning at New York City’s most exclusive preschools. Tuition is more than $30,000 a year. The schools boast that young kids learn French, Chinese, violin, yoga, and robotics — all before kindergarten. Just a few subway stops away in the Bronx, home to one of America’s poorest congressional districts, there’s a very different morning drop-off routine going on.