August 15, 2016
Delaware News
Delaware Business Times
Gov. Markell announces initiative to expand Pathways to Prosperity program
Gov. Jack Markell visited Agilent Technologies this week to sign Executive Order 61, which creates a permanent steering committee to coordinate the continued expansion of Pathways to Prosperity, a statewide workforce development program that’s helping to ensure that Delaware high school students graduate prepared for their next steps, whether in college, other education and training programs, or the workplace.
Department of Education
First teacher leaders announced
Press Release
Nineteen teachers have been selected to serve as teacher leaders in a pilot program launching this school year. The program is among the first of its kind in the nation to take place at the state level.
The News Journal
School shortens summer break to stop learning loss
While most Delaware parents still have time to buy bookbags and pencils, the kids at Maple Lane Elementary School in Claymont are already back in class. Students in grades 1 through 5 started school on Thursday. By the time all other students in the Brandywine School District attend classes on Aug. 30, Maple Lane students will have already had 13 class days.
The kids who win the summer
Opinion by Atnre Alleyne, education advocacy fellow at 50CAN and Tatiana Poladko, co-founder and executive director at TeenSHARP
There will be winners and losers this summer. And not just during the summer Olympics. As sure as ice cream trucks will bring joy and refreshment to neighborhoods this summer, this seemingly-innocuous season brings learning loss and a wider academic gap for a certain set of students.
National News
Chalkbeat
Undocumented teens struggle to balance high school with working the night shift
Commercial mixers whirled a thick dough that would soon be braided into challah rolls and baked to a golden brown. In the midst of this noise and heat, Luis, a 17-year-old high school student, whose name has been changed to protect his identity, began his shift. It was a weeknight, 3 a.m., and the Salvadoran teen was supposed to be in class in just five hours.
Education Week
Politics of play time: moms push for recess policies
They call themselves the recess moms, and they won’t stop until every elementary student in Florida has the right to play in school. Across the state, a loose coalition of moms-turned political activists has come together to demand daily recess for their kids. They’re taking the fight to local school boards and state lawmakers — even running for office themselves.
The Hechinger Report
Can testing save arts education?
This spring, with a six-district pilot, New Hampshire joined a small but growing list of at least a half-dozen states experimenting with large-scale arts testing. Educators prefer to call the new exams assessments, because they’re so different in form and format from traditional standardized tests.
The rural school district Obama fought to save
In 2007, when U.S. Senator Barack Obama was running for president, he visited the public schools here in flat, sandy Dillon County, part of South Carolina’s so-called “Corridor of Shame,” a poor region that stretches from north to south along Interstate 95. Obama toured the old J.V. Martin Middle School, part of which dated to 1896 and was still in use.
NPR
Helping college-bound Native Americans beat the odds
Native American students make up only 1.1 percent of the nation’s high school population. And in college, the number is even smaller. More than any other ethnic or racial group, they’re the least likely to have access to college prep or advanced placement courses.