August 26, 2015
Delaware News
The News Journal
More Delaware students taking ACT test
In an effort to gain an advantage when applying to colleges, 1 in 5 Delaware students who graduated this spring took the ACT entrance exam even though the state offers the SAT for free.
Newsworks
Delaware school redistricting concerns addressed in Monday public meeting
New Castle County teachers, parents and residents voiced their concerns about school redistricting during the first public meeting held by the newly formed Wilmington Education Improvement Commission on Monday.
Delaware Public Media
WEIC members face concerns over how to fund redistricting
Monday night, members of WEIC, or the Wilmington Education Improvement Commission, held a town hall to hear concerns from residents of the Red Clay Educational School District.
WMDT
Teachers spread thin in Sussex Co.
The last two weeks before the school year starts are always the busiest for the English Language Learning (ELL) department in the Indian River School District officials say. In actuality, this team of year is the busiest for all ELL programs across the nation according to ELL officials. That’s because a majority of students register in new school districts right before the school year starts. However in the Indian River School District, their above average ELL population spreads ELL teachers thin.
National News
The Tennessean
Haslam sees Tennessee Promise come true
Tennessee Promise has received widespread support because it is seen as a way to remove a critical financial barrier for students who would have no other way to pay for their degrees. Haslam invested his energy and resources in the pioneering program’s success, adding to his staff and crisscrossing the state on a promotional tour. His efforts won praise from Tennessee lawmakers, national advocates for higher education and even President Barack Obama.
Chalkbeat Tennessee
New TNReady test will be harder to ‘game,’ say education officials
Test-taking strategies, such as “when in doubt, guess C,” soon will be obsolete in Tennessee, at least when it comes to the state’s end-of-year standardized assessments. TNReady, the new math and English assessment for grades 3-11, is designed to go deeper than the bubble sheet tests of the past, and be “harder to game,” officials say, meaning that students won’t as easily get points for guessing.
The Hechinger Report
Small study shows high school music classes improve language skills
Neuroscience research showing that high school interventions for low-income students can be effective. A tiny study of 40 high school students in Chicago perked up some ears recently. It found that a small amount of musical instrument instruction — only two to three hours of band class a week — improved how the teenage brain processed sound.
California EdSource
Report: Educators seek more clarity on implementing Common Core
“Leveraging the Common Core to Support College and Career Readiness in California,” a report released Tuesday by the Sacramento-based research and policy analysis group EdInsights, found that most educators surveyed support Common Core concepts. Still, the lack of clear guidance about how to implement the Common Core.
Common Core yet to emerge as major issue in presidential campaign
So far, at least, the Common Core has not become a major issue in the early stages of the 2016 presidential campaign.
The New York Times
How high schoolers spent their summer: Online, taking more courses
Massive open online courses, or MOOCs, were originally intended as college-level work that would be accessible to anyone with an Internet connection. But among the millions of people who have signed up for these classes, there are now an untold number of teenagers looking for courses their high schools do not offer and often, as a bonus, to nab one more exploit that might impress the college of their dreams.