April 7, 2016

Delaware

Department of Education
Mobile app provides information to families, students on the go
Press Release
Delaware public school students and their families now can download a free mobile app that gives them access to vital student information on their phones or tablets. After logging in, parents or guardians and students can choose from easy-to-view icons to access activities, notifications, classwork, report cards, calendar, attendance information, and more.  Additionally, the mobile app allows easy access to information regarding a student’s daily schedule.

Newark Post
Keene Elementary dedicates library to former principal
For 13 years of its 15-year existence, William B. Keene Elementary School was Beatrice Speir’s school. As the school’s founding principal, she was there when the school opened its doors to students for the first time back in 2001. Speir chose the school’s mascot, the koala, and pictures of koalas along with posters reminding kids to be “koality” students still adorn the school’s halls.

Christina begins superintendent search process
As the Christina School District Board of Education discussed the best way to start its superintendent search, it continued to come back to one primary question: Which comes first, the community input or the committee? Board members presented two different plans for how the search process should unfold at a Board of Education workshop on Tuesday night meant to serve as the kickoff to its superintendent search process.

The News Journal
Brandywine School District faces civil rights suit
A Brandywine High School student is claiming constitutional violations by the district in a federal lawsuit. The claims stem from an incident that happened at the beginning of last year, when Joseph Wahl, then 16, was mistaken for another student who was suspected of being involved with drugs. The mix-up led to Joseph being suspended from school for five days after the vice principal searched his backpack and found two credit-card knives.

Owe back taxes? School districts could get your cash
Behind on property taxes? Delaware can now divert your refund for funding public schools. Gov. Jack Markell last month signed a bill allowing the state to intercept income tax refunds for property owners who are either late on taxes or haven’t fully been funding school districts. The legislation, which the General Assembly passed nearly unanimously, seeks to close a gap of $32.6 million in back taxes owned to 19 Delaware school districts each year.

National

Education Week
State school boards feel new urgency to flex muscles
State boards of education are seeking to reassert their influence in the advent of the Every Student Succeeds Act, as much of the decision making around standards, assessments, and accountability devolves back from federal to state control. Yet those boards—many of them a blend of retired educators and business leaders who take office by appointment or election, depending on the state—often find themselves squeezed between local boards, state education departments, and legislatures over who’s calling the policy shots.

Poughkeepsie Journal
Education head: More changes coming for Common Core
The state Education Department commissioner is assuring parents and teachers that major changes are coming to the controversial Common Core standards, aligned state tests and evaluations. But some think it’s too late to fix the Core. Some think it was never fixable in the first place. And the changes made to this year’s state English Language Arts tests have not slowed the rate of “opt-outs” in local districts, which generally stayed steady from 2015.

The Atlantic
When kids lead their parent-teacher conferences
Pushing up the cuffs of his plaid shirt and adjusting his glasses, the ninth-grader Colton Gaudette looks across the small classroom conference table. “Welcome to my student-led conference,” he says. “Thank you for inviting me,” answers his mother, Terry Gaudette, sitting next to Colton’s adviser and biology teacher. This meeting, which happens twice a year, has replaced the old format of parent-teacher conferences at Pittsfield Middle High School.

The Hechinger Report
Will controversial new tests for teachers make the profession even more overwhelmingly white?
Most of the 50-plus teacher hopefuls who crowded into a small atrium at Clarkson University on a Saturday morning in January to hear a panel discussion about the teaching job market and new licensure requirements shared two traits: They were female. And white. About a third were people of color or males. There was one lone African-American man. They are the picture of – and the problem with – America’s teacher pipeline.

The Tennessean
Nashville schools to wait on education funding lawsuit
Metro school board members were left champing at the bit Tuesday after the board’s attorney told the group it should wait until the end of the month before making a decision on suing the state for education funding. From conversations at the Metro Nashville Public Schools Board governance committee, the majority of the members seem ready to file litigation.