November 13, 2014

Local News

The News Journal
Big bonuses draw few teachers
Despite the lure of an extra $20,000, the state’s controversial bonus program for teachers attracted only nine highly-rated educators to low-scoring schools in its third year, though many more who already work at such schools took smaller bonuses to stay there. The state has seen more success with the retention bonuses, which give highly-rated teachers who already serve in the schools between $2,500 and $10,000 a year if they stay there. Reading and math teachers automatically get the $10,000 maximum. This year, 197 teachers took those bonuses.

WDDE
DSU sets enrollment record again in 2014
Delaware State University has set another school enrollment record. DSU has 4,644 enrolled for the 2014 fall semester. That’s 139 more than the previous record established last fall – and marks the first time ever Del State has surpassed 4,600 students. It’s the fifth straight year DSU has set a new high for enrollment.

Sussex Countian
Discussion gets heated about new Indian River health curriculum
Nearly 100 people crammed the Indian River School District’s board meeting last week to comment on a proposal that seeks to exclude material pertaining to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning and asexual (LGBTQA) issues from the district’s the new health curriculum. School board member Shaun Fink, a preacher at Cornerstone Bible Church in Long Neck, introduced the proposal this fall after the district purchased a health text series last spring for middle and high school students.

National News

NPR
Communities struggle to reach homeless students living in the shadows
More than 1.1 million public school students in the United States do not have permanent homes. It is a problem in both rural communities and large cities — children and youth who have become the hidden homeless.

The New York Times
U.S. to focus on equity in assigning of teachers
The Obama administration is directing states to show how they will ensure that all students have equal access to high-quality teachers, with a sharp focus on schools with a high proportion of the poor and racial minorities. In a letter to state superintendents released Monday, Deborah S. Delisle, an assistant secretary at the Department of Education, said states must develop plans by next June that make sure that public schools comply with existing federal law requiring that “poor and minority children are not taught at higher rates than other children by inexperienced, unqualified, or out-of-field teachers.”

States listen as parents give rampant testing an F
Florida embraced the school accountability movement early and enthusiastically, but that was hard to remember at a parent meeting in a high school auditorium here not long ago. Parents railed at a system that they said was overrun by new tests coming from all levels — district, state and federal.

EdSource
Reworking remedial education
Boosting graduation rates of community college students who need remedial coursework has been a long-standing challenge, but a team of community college professors are gaining followers to their efforts.

Education Week
Ed-tech vendors often in dark on district needs, study shows
Educational technology companies trying to do business with schools often have only a vague sense of district officials’ specific buying needs, according to a new study that delves into vendors’ and K-12 leaders’ frustrations with the procurement process.