July 25, 2014
Local News
Delaware Department of Education
State recruits educators for lesson-study inspired 2015 Delaware Dream Team
A press release
The Delaware Department of Education is expanding its successful task-based Common Core professional development partnership with LearnZillion, a digital curriculum and professional learning provider, to recruit up to 50 talented educators from across the state to join the 2015 Delaware Dream Team.
The News Journal
Class notes: Smarter Balanced seeks teachers to set score rules
The Smarter Balanced Assessment, the new test that Delaware students will start taking next year, is seeking educators to help set “achievement levels.” Teachers on the Online Panel for Achievement Level Setting will review test questions and recommend a score for one grade level and subject that they believe students should meet in order to qualify as meeting grade-level standards.
Students breathe arts in ‘pre-college’ camp
Delaware College of Art and Design’s Pre-College program is designed to immerse students in what college life will be like, while also giving them the practice and skills they’ll need to craft a competitive portfolio.
Reading lists are good for students
An editorial
The Cape Henlopen School board may have wiggled out of a tight spot the other night by abolishing the district’s summer reading list. It was a move that mixed grownup prudence and plain old cultural politics.
A better way than excessive school suspensions
An op-ed by Marie-Anne Aghazadian, Executive Director, Parent Information Center of Delaware
According to data reported to the U.S. Department of Education, nearly 23 percent of Delaware students suspended or expelled during the 2011-12 school year (the latest report) were students with disabilities. Of those 76 percent were males and 68 percent were students of color.
My son has been suspended five times. He’s 3.
A op-ed by Tunette Powell, Co-Founder of The Truth Heals
We can no longer put a Band-Aid on our nation’s preschool-to-prison pipeline, which pushes children out of the education system and criminalizes relatively minor offenses. I believe most educators want to help all children. But many aren’t aware of the biases and prejudices that they, like all of us, harbor, and our current system offers very little diversity training to preschool staff.
Let’s bring the Imagination Library program to Delaware
An op-ed by Dr. Floyd E. McDowell, Sr., Facilitator for Imagination Library program in Delaware
I am serving as a facilitator to form a supportive Delaware Imagination Library Coalition to bring it to our preschool children. The strategy for bringing this program to our state is first to inform individual and organization leaders about the program and then have them endorse it and join the supportive coalition. There is no financial obligation for joining this coalition.
Teachers’ union sacrifice standards to evade accountability
An op-ed by Hanna Skandera, Head of the New Mexico Public Education Department, and Kevin Huffman, Tennessee Commissioner of Education
Union leaders’ enthusiasm for reforms often wanes as we move from the planning (and spending) phase into measuring student progress. Astonishingly, the unions seem to think that they can ask for more taxpayer money while simultaneously weakening measurement and accountability. This is the very course of action that has led the United States to its middling level of performance on international benchmarks.
National News
The Oregonian
Oregon education officials want to bend on Common Core for rating teachers, but not schools or districts
The Oregon Department of Education is siding with part of a Portland School Board request to delay the use of test results under the new Common Core standards for developing statewide ratings for educators.
Hechinger Report
Feds back English learner lawsuit against state
The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California has found an ally in the U.S. Department of Justice for its lawsuit charging that the state abdicated its obligation to ensure all students classified as English learners get extra instructional services to become fluent in English.
Inside Higher Ed
House overhauls tax breaks
The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday approved an overhaul of higher education tax breaks and passed legislation changing how federal student loan counseling works.
Education Week
For one Conn. school, extended school day a failed experiment
The extended-day experiment at Brennan-Rogers School in New Haven, Conn., had exhausted students and teachers without making progress towards closing the achievement gap.
Baby steps: preschool enrollment trends by state
Most states have made incremental progress in enrolling more 3- and 4-year-olds in preschool education programs, but wide racial and socioeconomic gaps remain, according to the latest Kids Count analysis.
Principal survey offers snapshot of mobility, retention among school leader
Among the nation’s school principals nearly 8 in 10 remained in their post during 2012-13 school year, according to new federal survey data, though rural principals and those working in secondary schools were likely to leave than others.