August 21, 2015

Delaware News

The News Journal
Editorial
The challenge to help our students
“This is crunch time,” Elizabeth Lockman said. And she is right. Ms. Lockman is a Wilmington parent and the vice chair of the newly established Wilmington Education Improvement Commission.

Delaware Public Media
Smarter Balanced scores due in September
Teachers, parents, and, of course, students themselves will get their first look at results from Delaware’s first year using the Smarter Balanced Assessment early next month.

State test scores fall in science and social studies
Data for the Delaware Comprehensive Assessment System (DCAS) show that out of the 5th, 8th and 10th graders tested, no group reached 50 percent proficiency in science.

State Police reminds parents and children exercise caution around school buses
Almost 110,000 children ride one of the First State’s more than 1,600 school buses each day – and Delaware State Police is offering guidelines to parents for safe bus riding. It includes being familiar with each child’s bus driver and supervising their children as they walk to their bus stops.

WDEL
Christina School Board decides to pick acting superintendent next month
Most Christina School Board members showed a sense of urgency in finding an acting superintendent to temporarily replace current Superintendent Dr. Freeman Williams.

Newsworks
First year, first generation: Consider the placement test
Here at NewsWorks/WHYY we’re midway through a series called “First Year, First Generation.” The project follows five, first-generation college students from high school graduation to the last day of their freshmen years. Only one of the five students spent any time preparing for a placement test. And three of the students scored poorly enough on a placement test that they would have to at least consider taking remedial math.

Summer camp rising: Wilmington group seeks to elevate community center summer programs
The Summer Collaborative is many things – meeting ground, capacity builder, resource generator, idea lab. But it’s chief mission is singular: to elevate the community center summer camp, and in the process give low-income children a worthwhile summer experience.

Achieve
Are we overtesting our students? – A special edition of Perspective
Newsletter
Across the country, parents and educators are expressing their concerns about the volume of student testing throughout the school year. What can schools and districts do? This special edition of Perspective highlights how schools or districts can take stock of the amount of testing they require, as Illinois, Idaho, and Delaware have already done.

National News

Seattle Times
Smarter Balanced exams provide better indicator of student achievement
Opinion by Tom White, a 24-year veteran teacher
As scores from the new Smarter Balanced exams roll out, many parents may be confused about how to read them. This is to be expected, but just as I take pride in teaching my students, I understand that I also have a responsibility to their parents. And because of this, I want to help parents understand this new process.

Politico
Union bashing, Common Core trashing: Takeaways from the GOP education forum
Teachers unions were a punching bag and Common Core standards not quite the bogeyman you’d expect as six 2016 Republican presidential contenders subjected themselves to back-to-back questioning on education policy Wednesday at a daylong forum in New Hampshire.

The Plan Dealer
State names a superintendent, accountant and lawyer to “advise” charter school evaluations
The Ohio Department of Education today named three people — a superintendent, an accountant and a lawyer — as an “impartial panel” to “advise” creation of new charter school oversight evaluations. The department is creating a new system to evaluate the agencies, known as “sponsors” or “authorizers,” that oversee charter schools, after having to throw out evaluations it completed this year.

Tampa Bay Times
Bonus program has some Florida teachers telling the state: Keep your money
The Florida Legislature set aside $44 million this year to reward highly rated teachers who also had top SAT or ACT scores. Brand new teachers can qualify with their scores alone. The Best and Brightest Scholarship has come under heavy criticism, including from some of the lawmakers who approved it this summer as a late addition to the state budget.

The New York Times
Federal intervention in schools? It happens less than critics think
The single biggest point of contention in NCLB reauthorization negotiations is, oddly enough, between House and Senate provisions that aren’t very different from one another. Both are devised to prevent the federal government from doing something it has hardly ever done: force state and local governments to overhaul low-performing schools.