November 13, 2012
Local News
Town Square Delaware
iEducate Delaware: Lori Roe
A profile on iEducate Delaware honoree Lori Roe, an instructional technology specialist for Cape Henlopen
The News Journal
Early immersion adds up for language dexterity
The Delaware Department of Education recruited eight educators from around the world to help launch a state-led immersion language program. Kindergartners at J. Ralph McIlvaine Early Childhood Center in the Caesar Rodney School District are learning Chinese. Two other school districts in the state – Indian River and Red Clay Consolidated – launched Spanish-language versions this school year at the elementary level. In four years, Gov. Jack Markell’s World Language Expansion program plans to reach one in 10 public students in Delaware. The program is voluntary, and so far interest has been high.
Expanding horizons aim of Asia program
The Delaware-based arm of the Delaware, Lahore, Delhi, Partnership for Peace is sponsoring the series titled “South Asia: India & Pakistan” to give students information on political and cultural aspects of both countries. Juniors and seniors from seven high schools – Cab Calloway School of the Arts, Charter School of Wilmington, St. Elizabeth, Padua Academy, Ursuline Academy, Wilmington Friends School, and Sanford School – are participating. Julie Rumschlag, dean of Cab Calloway, said the school agreed to host the series because it enriches cultural understanding and broadens student interest in global affairs.
DFM News
Threat of “fiscal cliff” calls concerned citizens to action
Some Delawareans are calling for fairer taxes to avoid the so-called “fiscal cliff.” A group of teachers, veterans, seniors, and other concerned citizens gathered at the Newark Senior Center on Monday morning to weigh on how they’d like to see Congress handle the fiscal cliff negotiations. Frederika Jenner, President of the Delaware State Education Association, is specifically concerned with how the cuts may affect schools. Jenner added that the fiscal cliff cuts could potentially cut up to 800,000 jobs nationwide in the education field. Jenner believes that increasing revenue through a fairer tax structure is a better solution than cuts.
National News
Education Week
Educare preschools aim to close academic gaps
The growing Educare Learning Network of 17 schools hopes to become a national model for comprehensive early-childhood education. Its goal is to ensure that the children start school ready to learn, on par with peers from more-advantaged families. It’s a model that’s achieving results, according to a study by the FPG Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina.
ELL-focused projects are big winners in i3 competition
The Department of Education announced 20 awards in the latest round of its Investing in Innovation competition, and proposals that pledge to improve outcomes for English-language learners are well-represented in the winners’ circle. Winners—some districts; others, nonprofit organizations—will share $150 million to help underwrite their various projects and must secure private matching funds.
Final college-readiness definition guides test consortium
The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC, has approved a set of descriptors for the tests it’s designing for the Common Core State Standards. They lay out how many levels of achievement there will be on the test, specify what level a student has to reach to be considered college ready, and describe the level of expertise students must show to merit that title.
Anchorage Daily News
Student achievement could be part of teacher evaluations
A new rule proposed by the Alaska Department of Education would add student achievement—in the form of test scores or other data—to the criteria on which teachers are evaluated each year. The regulation, which is up for public comment, would require districts to make what the department terms “student learning data” worth 20% in a teacher’s evaluation.
Inside Higher Ed
Pearson’s open book
Pearson recently unveiled Project Blue Sky, a search engine to help college instructors locate materials from free, open education resources (OER) repositories. The service will allow faculty to search for e-book chapters, videos, and online exercise software. It will return aggregated results from Harvard Open Courses and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Open Courseware, among others.
Related Topics: Achievement Gap, Common Core, DDOE, Education Technology, global competitiveness, Governor Markell, Grants, iEducate Delaware, next generation learning, Online Learning, Teacher Evaluation