April 7, 2017
Delaware News
Delaware Business Times
Advocates for education build bridges between ideas and policy
If there was a theme that reverberated in the 150 interviews Atnre Alleyne conducted last year about Delaware’s education system, it was the perception that only the insiders have their thumb “heavy on the scales of decisions.” “So I wanted to know, how do we make sure that parent or small business owner that cares about education … how do we amplify their voices?” said Alleyne.
The News Journal
Appo students ‘wrap’ cars to support safe teen driving
Driving past Appoquinimink High School this spring you might just see one of six eye-catching, red and blue cars and SUVs emblazoned with the AAA logo and AHS Jaguar. A bright yellow warning sign, splayed across the hood, reads “Safe teen driving — it’s in your control.” Around the sides: “Stay focused. Stay alert. Stay off your phone. Stay alive. For the next three months, student ambassadors (and one teacher) will drive the cars to school, dances, games, jobs, shopping, the gym – anywhere a typical teen can be found – while spreading awareness about the need for teen safe driving.
Delaware.gov
Delaware fourth graders ‘Make a Splash’ and learn about protecting water resources
More than 770 fourth-grade students from seven elementary schools participated in Wednesday’s Make a Splash festival, a DNREC-sponsored event that educates students on the diversity of estuary life and the importance of Delaware’s water resources. The festival was held at the St. Jones Reserve, a component of the Delaware National Estuarine Research Reserve, and the Division of Historical & Cultural Affairs’ John Dickinson Plantation near Dover – wonderful locations for the students to explore past and present water resource issues.
Sussex County Post
IRSD Teacher of the Year announcement will cap ceremony honoring teachers
And the winner is …! Indian River School District’s 2017-18 Teacher of the Year will be announced Wednesday, April 26 at a special ceremony honoring winners from the district’s 16 schools. The ceremony will held be in the John M. Clayton Elementary auditorium. It will begin at 7 p.m. Three finalists for the overall 2017-18 award are: Nicole Morey, Georgetown Elementary School; Lisa Richardson, Millsboro Middle School; and Jill Young, Lord Baltimore Elementary School.
Newsworks
Christina district gets $6.5M for doomed school project that cost taxpayers $22M
Del Monte Fresh Produce Co. will pay $6.5 million to Christina School District for a former Glasgow office building that taxpayers spent $22 million to buy and renovate for a middle school that never opened. Florida-based Del Monte, which plans to close the deal May 20, will use the 195,000-square-foot steel-and-glass structure at Pencader Industrial Park as a distribution center. It was originally built as an office and warehouse for the solar energy company AstroPower, which went bankrupt in 2004.
National News
US News & World Report
School Choice Isn’t ‘Either-Or’
Opinion by Nat Malkus, research fellow in education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute
Last week, Betsy DeVos gave her lengthiest address yet as U.S. secretary of education at the release of the Brookings Institution’s annual Education Choice and Innovation Index. The Index catalogues the growth of school choice – including charter schools, homeschooling, private school choice programs and public school open enrollment programs – in the nation’s 100 largest school districts. According to Brookings’ Grover Whitehurst, this growth means that “the traditional public school district model is being disrupted.”
The Herchinger Report
Idaho gives education money directly to teenagers to manage themselves
Cassandra Madrigal is a high school senior and a top student, with a grade-point average of 3.94. She’s enrolled in two Advanced Placement classes this year and has two under her belt from last year. She’s also already enrolled in a college-level statistics course offered at her high school. Such academic extras have long been de rigueur for wealthy and middle-class students trying to gain an edge in college admissions. But Madrigal, who is 17, will be among the first in her family to attend a four-year college when she enrolls at Idaho State University next fall.
National Review
Arizona Considers the Nation’s First Universal School-Choice Program
Arizona could soon become the first state in the nation to institute a universal school-choice program. And because the state already has a successful, but more limited, program in place—a funding system that has been expanded several times over the last few years—there is a solid foundation on which to build the effort. The bill to expand the program could land on Arizona governor Doug Ducey’s desk as early as this week. It has already passed the education committees in both chambers of the state legislature and, since there is just a month left in the session, a full vote on the bill is expected sometime in April.
Forbes
Timing Is Everything: Seizing The Opportunity For Personalized Learning
Guest post by Doug Mesecar, a fellow at the Lexington Institute
It’s a good time to be a state or local education policymaker. Federal school mandates are being ratcheted back and the driving force in Washington is to ensure policy setting is firmly local. This shift comes at a critical time, with the productivity of the educational system increasingly questionable. It is hard to point to measurable improvements over the last 25 years, during which the nation has spent over $12 trillion on K-12 education at the federal, state and local levels. Over the last three years, it has been nearly $2 trillion.