December 17, 2012

Local News

The News Journal
Teacher rewards expand
More public school educators will be eligible to receive a bonus of up to $10,000 next year because of changes to a state Department of Education program. The Delaware Talent Cooperative rewards top-performing educators who work in schools that have challenges, such as low test scores or a high number of at-risk children. Changes to the program include opening it to educators beyond those who teach math and reading. There’s also a new effort called the Talent Attraction Program, which will make select teachers in outside schools eligible for a bonus if they transfer to a high-needs school.

DDOE
Delaware Talent Cooperative expands
The Delaware Department of Education today announced 49 schools that are eligible to participate in the Delaware Talent Cooperative, an initiative designed to attract and retain highly-effective educators serving Delaware’s highest-need schools. The Cooperative features two programs:  the Talent Retention Program, which provides financial awards and leadership opportunities to highly-effective educators who continue to work in participating schools, and the newly launched Talent Attraction Program, which seeks to attract select, top-performing educators to the state’s highest-need schools.

National News

Education Week
Students who struggle early rarely catch up, study says 
Even at high-performing, wealthy high schools, students who have fallen far behind academically in 4th and 8th grade have less than a 1 in 3 chance of being ready for college or a career by the end of high school, according to a new study by ACT Inc.

Teacher-pension systems flagged as cause for alarm 
Forty states have made dozens of changes to their teacher-pension systems in the past four years, but those changes largely fail to deal with longer-term structural problems—and actually come at teachers’ expense, contends a report issued by the National Council on Teacher Quality.

New student-poverty measures proposed for national tests
The new measure, being developed by the National Assessment Governing Board and the National Center for Education Statistics, is intended to look beyond a traditional measure of family income to a child’s family, community, and school supports for learning. It will start with the “big three”: the family’s income, parents’ level of educational attainment, and whether and where they are employed. This year’s administration of NAEP has also tried out new background questions, including how long the child has lived in the United States, how many family members live with the child, and how many adults in the home have a job.

Washington Post
McDonnell proposes raises, greater accountability for teachers in 2013 
Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell outlined proposals that would give teachers a pay raise and includes bigger incentives, improved professional support, and a streamlined process for administrators to cut teachers loose who aren’t doing well. The probationary period would be lengthened from three years to five before teachers are put on the “continuing contract” that makes it more difficult to dismiss them.

Related Topics: Achievement Gap, Teacher Compensation, Teacher Effectiveness, Teacher Evaluation, Teacher Preparation