August 16, 2016
Delaware News
Delaware Business Times
K-12 enrollments slow, but charters are booming
Overall Delaware K-12 school enrollment is rising very slowly, yet substantial changes are happening. Over the past ten years (2003-2013, the latest data available from the U.S. Department of Education), K-12 enrollments in Delaware have risen just 3 percent. That enrollment currently stands at 155,000 students.
The Dover Post
Recycling efforts take hold in Capital schools
Erika Synoski is adamant about protecting the environment. Her sense of urgency when it comes to environmental issues enabled the Central Middle School Student to dominate at the newly created Recycled Art Contest in Capital School District.
The News Journal
Christina School District adjusts after setbacks
The Christina School District, which has been troubled in recent years with budget woes and leadership challenges, is working towards getting back on track. Since it passed a hard-fought referendum in the spring, the district has begun looking for a new, permanent superintendent, hired back most of the teachers and staff that had been cut in the wake of last year’s failed referendums and, last week, named a long-time administrator to the second-highest position in the district.
Rodel Blog
Delaware Pathways steering students in the right direction
Guest blog post by Dr. Amy Loyd, senior director of the Pathways to Prosperity Network at Jobs for the Future
Last Thursday, Governor Jack Markell signed an executive order to establish the Delaware Pathways Steering Committee, which will change the answers to these three questions for young Delawareans. This committee, composed of 14 cross-sector state and local leaders, will provide sustainable leadership and support to improve the connections between school and work in Delaware, so that students can better navigate their college and career opportunities and shape their own futures.
National News
The Atlantic
One school, 10 languages
Discussing campus rules might seem like simple, standard procedures for the first week of school, but Slater is teaching at a new Indianapolis Public Schools program for students who have recently arrived in the United States, and most of his students are still struggling to learn English.
The Hechinger Report
What do preschool teachers need to do a better job?
There are, New York City public school principal Kristina Beecher discovered, an awful lot of types of play blocks. There are wooden blocks, cardboard blocks, magnetic blocks, clear plastic blocks, number blocks, letter blocks, and fish-shaped blocks, to name a few. And all of them are advertised as the best possible blocks for outfitting a preschool classroom.
The Los Angeles Times
Why classes are starting earlier and earlier
Once upon a time, we took it for granted that August was summer vacation and that schools opened their doors after Labor Day. But the first day of school has been creeping earlier into the last month of the season. The Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation’s second-largest district, will start its new year Tuesday. Several districts across the county already have opened their doors.
NPR
Racing the middle school brain
Welcome to Kinetic Race Club at Arbutus Middle School. Guarraia is a science teacher at the suburban Maryland school, about a 20-minute drive from Baltimore. He and two dozen students are on an eight-month mission to design and build a human-powered kinetic sculpture that they’re going to race on a 15-mile obstacle course around Baltimore Harbor.
The Washington Post
In Utah, schools can now hire teachers with no training whatsoever
Utah has a severe teacher shortage, so it decided to do something about it. Under a new rule, schools can now hire people to teach who have no training in the profession. None whatsoever. This is just the newest piece of evidence that the supposed national initiative started by the 2001 No Child Left Behind law to ensure “highly qualified” teachers in every classroom is at best unsuccessful and at worst a sham.