December 6, 2013
Local News
Delaware 105.9 News Talk
Sussex Tech hopes to build new school in Georgetown
Officials from Sussex Tech met with the state’s Preliminary Land Use Service last week in Dover to review potential sites for construction of a new high school in Georgetown. Sussex Tech District Superintendent AJ Lathbury says the District has identified the need to expand current career technical education offerings to meet the demand within the county and state for students to graduate career and college ready.
National News
Boston Globe
Initiative aims to boost U.S. college graduate ranks
Twenty communities have been chosen as the first partners in a national initiative aimed at raising the ranks of college graduates. Lumina Foundation announced as much as $200,000 to the recipients over three years, along with technical and planning help, and input from a network of “thought leaders.” The private foundation’s overall goal is to raise the percentage of Americans with college degrees from 38% to 60% by 2025.
Education Week
State legislatures approve new plans to strengthen early learning
This calendar year saw more than three dozen laws enacted in 25 states that in some way support early learning, according to a list of enacted legislation compiled by ECS. Among the new initiatives are the creation of statewide prekindergarten programs in Hawaii and Mississippi, a new mandate that early elementary teachers in Ohio must pass a test in principles of scientifically-based reading instruction, and the expansion of home visiting programs in Arkansas.
Two states approved for ESEA teacher evaluation extension waiver
Nevada and Mississippi will get extra time to implement the teacher-evaluation portion of their NCLB waivers, the Department of Education announced. These are the first two states approved for the so-called “waiver waiver,” which allowed states to get an additional year to fully implement systems that gauge teacher performance using student outcomes.
North Jersey Record
N.J. approves alternatives to GED test
To curb price increases for adults seeking high school diplomas in New Jersey, the state board of education approved three new test options for getting the credential. Next month, applicants will be able to take exams created by Educational Testing Services or McGraw-Hill, via computer or pen-and-pencil. Another test, Pearson VUE, will give computer-based testing. In the past, the GED test was the only option.
Stateline
Delaware leads the U.S. in student debt levels for 2012 graduates
Seven in 10 students who graduated with bachelor’s degrees in 2012 had student loan debt, with an average debt of $29,400, according to a new report from The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS). Both figures increased since 2008, the last year comparable numbers were available, when 68 percent of graduates had an average debt of $23,450.
Philadelphia Inquirer
Thousands sign up for free online courses, but few complete
The University of Pennsylvania is at the forefront of a movement to experiment with free open online courses, but the undertaking, as its own researchers are finding out, has yielded mixed results. While Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have attracted millions of viewers and been heralded as a potential way to address skyrocketing tuition, very few of their viewers – 4 percent on average – actually complete the courses, according to the latest study by researchers in Penn’s Graduate School of Education.