September 22, 2014

Local News

The News Journal
Outrage bubbling over school plan
Outrage is bubbling among teachers, parents and school administrators in the schools – Bancroft Elementary, Stubbs Elementary and Bayard Middle in the Christina School District and Warner, Shortlidge and Highlands elementary schools in Red Clay School District. They contend this is a state takeover, not a school turnaround.

‘Turnaround’ compromise is needed
An editorial
The growing dispute between the Delaware Department of Education and two of the state’s school districts underscores the biggest problem with our current education system: No one knows who is in charge. This dispute goes to the heart of why the American education system has been stuck on mediocre or worse for so many years. Missing in this calculus, of course, are the children.

Breakfast in class keeps young stomachs happy
The state is pushing to increase the number of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch who also receive breakfast. In the last school year, a little more than half of those students got a morning meal. One of the biggest roadblocks is time: There is a small window between when the bus arrives in the morning and when students have to make it to class. Kids are sometimes too rushed to stop to get food.

What makes school discipline such a hard nut to crack?
An editorial by Rhonda B. Graham
The staff and administration of Delaware’s 19 public school districts and the growing number of independent private and charter schools provide suitable data and direction on disciplining troublemakers, who interfere with the learning environment. Essential to meeting the goal are collaborative relationships, effective evaluation processes, technical assistance and resources that “ensure schools are designed to provide a safe, healthy, and supportive environment that fosters learning.”

Current disciplinary practices fail students’ needs
An op-ed by Jea Street, New Castle County Councilman
As I near the completion of 40 years as a student advocate, I find it necessary to reflect negatively upon the disciplinary practices and policies that I view as unfair, overzealous and more often than not, laced with a pervasive mean spirit that has done irreparable harm to children. Those children are now parents and grandparents confronted with the challenge of how to discipline their children and grandchildren with a school system that has never been helpful.

National News

Education Week
Child-care, research bills make congressional short list
As the curtain begins to close on the 113th Congress, lawmakers showcased a brief burst of bipartisanship to push forward on two education measures that had been languishing in the legislative pipeline, one that underwrites child care for low-income families and another that directs federal education research.

Common Core a litmus test in Arizona education chief’s race
The Common Core State Standards might be one of education’s most divisive issues, but in Arizona, the standards are having a unifying effect in the race for state superintendent, at least among some influential backers of the initiative.

Haslam keeps door open to pre-K; Ramsay skeptical
While Gov. Bill Haslam is keeping the door open to an expansion of the public pre-kindergarten program in Tennessee, any such move would remain a tough sell among some fellow Republicans in the Legislature.

State far from uniform in commitment to kindergarten
Despite kindergarten’s pivotal role in preparing children for reading and other academics, state laws on what districts must provide still vary widely, resulting in a patchwork of mandatory and voluntary half-day and full-day offerings. Those disparities can leave children less than prepared for the demands of 1st grade, some educators say.

Insights from a unionized charter school network
Green Dot Public Schools has had a unionized staff since its inception 15 years ago. But nationally only 7 percent of charter schools were unionized in 2012, down from 12 percent in 2009, according to a 2014 annual survey by the Center for Education Reform, a Washington-based research and advocacy group.

Education Source
Fate of high school exit exam undecided
While the state’s standardized testing program is being revamped during the transition to the new Common Core State Standards, the fate of the high school exit exam – the one test students must pass – remains murky.