October 31, 2012
Local News
DDOE
28 top educators earn $10,000 incentives to continue driving student achievement in state’s highest-need schools
The Delaware Department of Education has named 28 educators who each have earned formal recognition and a $10,000 “retention incentive” as part of the first cohort of the state’s Talent Retention initiative. The initiative, part of the state’s top-ranked federal Race to the Top grant, recognizes some of Delaware’s highest-performing educators in some of the state’s highest-need schools. The financial award of $10,000 under year 1 of this initiative is a “retention incentive,” which recognizes the need for the educators’ contributions to continue in their schools and provides an incentive for at least two additional years (inclusive of the 2012-2013 school year).
Town Square Delaware
iEducate Delaware: Sarah Preston
Profile of iEducate Delaware honoree Sarah Preston, is an Autism Support Teacher at the Bush Early Education Center in the Brandywine School District
National News
Education Week
Report: More evidence that early learning can reduce crime
A Fight Crime: Invest in Kids report provides more evidence that providing kids with high-quality early learning makes them less likely to later end up in the criminal justice system. The report notes that “total state and federal corrections spending to house, feed, and provide 24-hour supervision of criminals, at $57 billion in 2010, is more than double total state and federal early-care and education spending, at $26 billion.
Matching funds fail to materialize for some i3 grantees
Two years after the Department of Education awarded $650 million in Investing in Innovation grants and set off a mad dash for grantees to raise more than $100 million in matching private funds, some of the i3 winners are still facing financial uncertainty stemming from initial fundraising struggles.
National board puts focus on lifting profile
At a time of competing pressures around teacher evaluation and development, the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards is retooling itself in an attempt to increase its influence in the field. The process may ultimately result in significant changes to the group’s flagship certification program, including tie-ins to the Common Core State Standards and integration of student-achievement measures
La. unveils list of potential ‘course choice’ providers
Louisiana has taken another step toward creating a new marketplace for publicly funded courses that students may choose from, as the state education department announced the applicants that have made it past the initial hurdle in a multistage evaluation process. Louisiana’s Course Choice program will allow students to shop around for courses to be paid for with public dollars.
Report: Low-income, high-ability students need more support
The United States must move past its focus on minimum achievement standards for all and put more energy behind identifying and developing the talent of students who are capable of more, especially students from low-income backgrounds and students learning English, according to a new directive from the National Association for Gifted Children.
Huffington Post
Highly effective principals raise student achievement
A new study found that the effect of highly effective principals on student achievement is equivalent to two to seven months of additional learning each school year, while ineffective principals negatively impact achievement by a comparable amount. In addition, the relationship between higher teacher turnover and lower average “value added” in a given grade is stronger as principal quality increases.
Related Topics: Achievement Gap, Common Core, DDOE, DPAS II, Education Technology, Grants, high-need, Low-income, next generation learning, professional development, Teacher Compensation, Teacher Effectiveness, Teacher Evaluation