August 12, 2016

Delaware News

Cape Gazette
Local educator Gail Mack writes children’s book for a cause
Written by Gail Mack and illustrated by Olivia Taylor, the children’s book “Take Me!” is now available for purchase for $6 at Print Coast 2 Coast on Savannah Road in Lewes. All proceeds from the book benefit the Ronald McDonald House of Delaware and the Nemours Alfred I. DuPont Hospital to provide gas cards to Sussex County families.

Delaware Public Media
Gov. Markell signs child sexual abuse legislation
Gov. Jack Markell signed a bill into law Wednesday designed to educate children, parents and teachers about sexual abuse. The new law requires the state to develop curriculum for all of Delaware’s public schools to educate school employees, parents and child in pre-K through grade 6 about personal body safety and child sexual abuse.

Newsworks
Delaware teachers get paid to take on more
Nineteen Delaware teachers were chosen to take part in a statewide pilot program designed to reward teachers taking on extra responsibilities. Launching this school year, the program is part of Gov. Jack Markell’s teacher compensation reform initiative.

The News Journal
Maple Lane Elementary students return to school
Maple Lane Elementary students return to school. In an effort to prevent summer learning loss, the school starts back up two weeks before most other schools in Delaware.

Did you know any of these ‘teacher leaders’?
State leaders announced 19 “teacher leaders,” who they hope will show how to advance educators’ careers while keeping them in the classroom. The teachers, who come from the Capital and Appoquinimink school districts and several charter schools, will get extra pay for taking on some extra responsibilities within their schools.

National News

Education Week
N.J. program fast-tracks new physics teachers
With a growing number of students showing interest in the subject, physics is having a moment—and yet many public high schools still don’t even offer the course, often because they lack teachers to lead it. A New Jersey program, created by a former state teacher of the year in partnership with the local teachers’ union, is working to curb the teacher shortage by training educators of other subjects—including language arts and English-as-a-second-language—to teach physics.

Newsworks
Report offers Pennsylvania public schools a path to international best practices
In Pennsylvania, attempts to change education policies or practices are often long, drawn-out slogs. So what would it take to revolutionize the entire system to compete with top performers in the world? A new report from the National Council of State Legislatures, a bipartisan think tank, suggests a clear path forward — urging lawmakers to fast-track international best practices in order to improve the United States’ mediocre standings on the world’s education stage.

The Washington Post
Gates Foundation to ‘stay the course’ as it seeks to help shape state education policies
Melinda Gates said she and her husband, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, learned an important lesson from the fierce pushback against the Common Core State Standards in recent years. Not that they made the wrong bet when they poured hundreds of millions of dollars into supporting the education standards, but that such a massive initiative will not be successful unless teachers and parents believe in it.

Voice of San Diego
What Common Core means for English-learners
Education officials have pitched Common Core State Standards as more rigorous than the old ones. English-learners already struggled under the old standards, so there’s reason to worry the new standards will be out of reach. The new standards mean English-learners will be forced to talk more in class. That poses a new opportunity, and a new challenge.

WFAA
Explosive school growth brings teachers to Frisco
Kristen Davis’ life is starting to come full circle. After going to school in Frisco, she is now hired to be a teacher in one of the country’s fastest-growing school districts. “It’s more than I could dream,” she said. Now she has a classroom with her name on it at Fowler Middle School which is located in Plano, but is in Frisco ISD. She is one of 600 new teachers to Frisco ISD.