July 15, 2013

Local News

The News Journal
State should follow its better judgment
An editorial
If the state’s data is accurate, Moyer Academy’s consistent pattern of low performance on standardized tests – a reliable predictor of future academic hurdles – requires the State Board of Education to follow its better judgment and close this long-struggling charter school for at-risk and low-income students in sixth through 12th grades.

Students’ hacking skills tested at camp
Gavy Aggarwal and Rohith Venkataraman, students at the Charter School of Wilmington, attended the United States Cyber Challenge fitting in seamlessly as 12 teams, composed of college students from around the state, coded and hacked their way to the top in a “capture the flag”-type challenge. Teams were tasked with finding hidden bits of information through many different servers to earn points, with the winning team amassing more than 15,000 points after the four-hour competition.

Delaware Department of Education
State names first class of Delaware Future Ed Leaders
The Delaware Department of Education recently welcomed its inaugural class of Delaware Future Ed Leaders. These promising future leaders have a passion for education and want to gain hands-on exposure to policy work through the six-week unpaid internship. The program was developed for current students, recent graduates and junior teachers as they explore career paths in education and seek exposure to careers in state government.

The Dover Post
Capital School District Board of Education uses reserve funds to receive state funding
The Capital School District Board of Education voted Thursday morning to pull $91,200 from the district’s reserve fund to match unexpected additional funding provided by the General Assembly. The funding is destined for the district’s “minor cap” fund, programmed for repair and upkeep of district facilities.

National News

Education Week
Tougher requirements ahead for teacher prep
A panel tapped by the national accreditation body for teacher preparation has finalized a set of standards that, for the first time, establishes minimum admissions criteria and requires programs to use much-debated “value added” measures, where available. The action promises to have major ramifications for how programs select, prepare, and gauge the success of new teachers.

Chronicle of Higher Education
Report sees strengths and failings in America’s career and tech education
Career-and-technical-education programs offered by employers and colleges in the United States are diverse and decentralized, and those traits are both their strength and their failing, according to an OECD report. One concern is that program accountability is “relatively weak and fragmented,” especially given that in 2008 an estimated $68 billion in public and personal funds were spent on such training.

The Los Angeles Times
California holds out against Obama’s education vision
California has defiantly refused to follow the administration’s lead in grading the performance of teachers and using those measurements to reward the best teachers and punish the worst. The state is one of very few that have told Washington that under no conditions will it put in place the type of teacher evaluation system Obama has championed. As a result, the administration has not given California a waiver from the requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind law, leaving thousands of local schools exposed to expensive federal sanctions.

The New York Times
The trouble with testing mania
An editorial
Congress made a sensible decision a decade ago when it required the states to administer yearly tests to public school students in exchange for federal education aid. The theory behind the No Child Left Behind Act was that holding schools accountable for test scores would force them to improve instruction for groups of children whom they had historically shortchanged.

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