April 22, 2016
Delaware
Department of Education
21 schools win professional learning grants
Delaware awarded 21 schools in seven school districts nearly $400,000 in competitive professional learning grants Thursday as the state moves toward professional learning tailored to individual school needs. Governor Jack Markell announced the awards today during a visit with Secretary of Education Steve Godowsky to Caesar Rodney School District’s W. Reily Brown Elementary School in Dover. Five schools in the district won a combined $50,000.
Rodel Blog
Get involved with Delaware Pathways, help Delaware students
Blog post by Jenna Bucsak, program officer at the Rodel Foundation of Delaware
As a student, the transition between high school and college or a career can be a tricky one to nail. And the right path is rarely the same for every student. It’s part of the reason why Delaware Pathways exists—to help provide students with options and knowledge for life after high school. The collaborative effort works to better connect K-12 public education, higher education, and state and regional employment needs.
Delaware Public Media
Brandywine School District releases more details about proposed $8 million in cuts
Brandywine School District Superintendent Mark Holodick presented his administration’s recommendations for $8 million in cuts should the district’s second try at its referendum this year fail next month. Holodick stresses that $8 million is a significant figure, the most amount of cuts he says the district has ever faced. When he had to implement $5 million in state funding cuts during the recession in 2009, he says his philosophy was to avoid cutting entire programs – since it’s difficult to bring them back.
National
Alabama Local News
Lawmakers approve teacher raise, largest education budget since recession
The Alabama Legislature today overwhelmingly passed the state’s largest education budget and largest pay raise for school employees since the Great Recession. The budget calls for spending $6.3 billion from the Education Trust Fund on K-12 schools, community colleges, four-year universities and other programs, 5.6 percent more than this year. Lawmakers voted to give teachers and most other education employees a 4 percent cost of living raise. Educators have had one cost of living raise since 2007, a 2 percent hike three years ago.
EdSource
Khan Academy, College Board create an SAT practice program, but impact unclear
Ten students, most of them 11th-graders striving to become the first in their families to attend college, gathered recently for an after-school program at the Boys and Girls Club in San Pedro. The attraction: a new online practice program from the Khan Academy for upcoming SAT exams, a tool that could boost their scores and enhance their chances of gaining college admission. Not only is Khan’s new program free to users, it was created in partnership with the College Board, the organization that owns and runs the SAT.
Education Week
Educators running for Oklahoma office swell candidate ranks
Growing frustration about Oklahoma’s looming budget crisis and cuts to public schools prompted dozens of political newcomers to run for office and swelled the number of candidates to an all-time high for a presidential election year. At the close of a three-day filing period on Friday, 417 candidates filed for office, many of them teachers or former teachers who decided to challenge Republican incumbents they perceived as not sufficiently supportive funding for public schools.
Governing
‘Fragmented’ school districts: A complicated and controversial issue
Cook County, Ill., has nearly 150 elementary and high school districts. Students in the Pittsburgh metro area are assigned to 105 different local districts. More than 500 districts are scattered across Oklahoma, with fewer than 1,300 students enrolled in each. Numbers such as these have long drawn the ire of policymakers, and in an era of budget cutbacks, “fragmented” school districts serve as prime targets for consolidation. At the beginning of this year, lawmakers in Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, Pennsylvania and Oklahoma all introduced legislation aimed at merging school districts or combining their administrative duties.
The Huffington Post
Education Secretary John King says this is an urgent moment for school desegregation
The issue of school segregation has gotten relatively little federal attention the past few decades, despite a series of court decisions dismantling the promise of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling and schools that in some cases have regressed into separate and unequal environments. Education Secretary John King Jr. on Tuesday reiterated his intention to change that. Since becoming the acting U.S. secretary of education in January — the acting title was removed in March — King has positioned himself as an advocate for racial and socioeconomic school desegregation.