October 23, 2012
Local News
Town Square Delaware
iEducate Delaware: Margaret O’Dwyer
Profile on iEducate Delaware honoree
National News
Education Week
Coalition advances definition of career readiness
In the hope of guiding education policy, more than two dozen business and education groups have come together as the Career Readiness Partner Council to try to forge a shared definition of what it means to be ready for good jobs. Their statement attempts to fuse various ways of conceptualizing career readiness, from acquiring skills specific to a given sector or entry-level job to mastering broader workplace skills.
Common Core drives interest in open education resources
Spurred by the adoption of Common Core standards by nearly every state, the movement for open education resources—or OERs—is seeing a surge in interest as districts re-evaluate and realign their curricula. OERs which are free to use, remix, and adapt, also engage teachers more fully in curricula, allowing them to more easily differentiate instructional materials for students, advocates say.
Jackson Clarion-Ledger
Parents could seek charters at 35 schools
The Mississippi education department indicated that 35 schools are eligible for the first time to be converted to charter schools. A majority of parents must sign a petition seeking conversion. A 2010 state law allows the state board to grant up to 12 charters, with a limit of three per congressional district. Eligible schools have been labeled with an “F” on the school rating scale for three straight years.
Boston Globe
Texas schools head to trial over school finance
Texas lawmakers cut $5.4 billion from public schools last year, and now districts are headed to court to argue that the resulting system is so inefficient and unfair that it violates the state constitution. The plaintiffs point out that the cuts have come as the state requires students to pass more difficult standardized tests and amid a boom in the number of low-income students that are costly to educate.
Related Topics: Common Core, Higher Education, iEducate Delaware, Low-income