August 13, 2014
Local News
Delaware State News
Coalition meets to share Delaware education Vision
The Vision Coalition is working on a new plan — one that will guide the next 10 years of education in Delaware. About 35 community members gathered at the Dover Public Library to discuss how to lead students to success.
The News Journal
US funds to pay for AP exam aid
Delaware was awarded nearly $98,000 in federal grant money Tuesday to help the state’s underserved students pay for Advanced Placement exams important for college admission. The $97,841 from the U.S. Department of Education and other sources would leave students with only a nominal fee to pay.
WDEL
EdWatch: Breaking down Common Core
Hundreds of teachers get valuable training in Common Core before heading back into the classroom. Kyle Travis says Common Core has been a blessing in a disguise. He teaches at Positive Outcomes Charter in Camden. “Now, with Common Core, we’ll be able to tell which are academic troubles versus which are material that hasn’t been introduced yet to these kids,” said Travis.
Del. ranks 7th for laziest kids
According to the State Indicator Report on Physical Activity for 2014 compiled by the CDC and reported on TheStreet.com, certain states have a higher rate of children who don’t participate in any physical activity on a daily basis. Delaware made the list at No. 7; with nearly 20 percent reporting no physical activity.
National News
Education Week
Teacher pay raised a mixed deal in North Carolina
North Carolina teachers are finally getting a raise, but not necessarily under the terms they wanted. Under a budget deal signed into law Aug. 7 by Gov. Pat McCrory, a Republican, the raises will average 7 percent. But they are concurrent with a radical revamping of the state salary schedule and the specter of new differentiated-pay plans.
K-12 dealmaking: Education mergers, acquisitions rising in 2014, reports show
The number of mergers and acquisitions in the education industry climbed during the first half of the year, as did the multi-billion dollar value of those transactions, according to a new report. The biggest deal during that period was the acquisition of SkillSoft, an Irish company that provides cloud-based technology services to governments, businesses, and schools, by Charterhouse Capital Partners, for $2.3 billion, according to Berkery Noyes, the independent investment bank that published the report.
Under fire, College Board to ‘clarify’ new U.S. history framework
Stung by criticism that its new Advanced Placement U.S. history framework presents a slanted view of events, the College Board has taken the unusual step of releasing a practice exam in the subject. It also announced that it will “clarify” aspects of the framework that have prompted criticism from conservative activists.
A healthy child is a better student
A commentary by Irwin Redlener, Professor of Pediatrics at Columbia University
It is unacceptable to me that we allow millions of children across America to struggle with health conditions that undermine their potential to succeed in school. If education is their ticket to a better future and the key to breaking the cycle of generational poverty, then we need to ensure that these children are healthy and ready to learn. No matter how substantial our social investments in curricula, class-size reduction, teacher training, and other strategies for the transformation of K-12 education, we are not going to be able to close the achievement gap until we deal with the factor of health in the equation of school success.
Los Angeles Times
McKenna wins key L.A. school board seat, according to unofficial results
Veteran school administrator George McKenna won his bid for a key seat on the Los Angeles Board of Education besting political newcomer Alex Johnson, according to unofficial results released Tuesday night. With all precincts reporting, McKenna claimed just over 53% of the vote in the special runoff election that coincided with the first day of school in Los Angeles.
Washington Post
A’s for everyone
An op-ed by Catherine Rampell, Opinion Writer
In 2004, Princeton imposed nonbinding targets for the percentage of A’s that should be awarded in each department, because “students deserve clear signals from their teachers about the difference between their ordinarily good work and their very best work.” However, the school recently rolled back this policy. To fully understand why Princeton caved, though, you have to appreciate why high grades have been awarded willy-nilly at schools across the country in the first place.