July 17, 2013

Local News

The News Journal
Too few students going to college in Delaware, study finds
Not enough of the state’s students are graduating from college and there are big differences in how well public high schools are preparing students, according to a new study released Tuesday. The state’s high schools are increasing the number of high school freshmen who are on-track to graduate, but there is a wide spread between how different groups of students perform. The results of the study were unveiled to state education leaders and policymakers Tuesday in the P.S. duPont Middle School auditorium.

WDEL
18% of highly qualified students don’t go to college
The Harvard Strategic Data Project presents findings on Delaware students and their path to college. Lindsay Page is a senior research manager at the Center for Education Policy Research. She says students who score a 1550 on their SATs are considered ‘college-ready’. “What we find is that almost one in five of those students in Delaware fails to matriculate to college,” she said.

WHYY
New data promotes college readiness in Delaware schools
Delaware educators are better at tracking how students succeed in high school and college. That information comes from data released by the Strategic Data Project (SDP), which shows whether or not Delaware students are college ready. The new report, Delaware College-Going Diagnostic (An Analysis of The First State Students’ College Readiness) was put together in a partnership with SDP and the Delaware Department of Education.

WDDE
Wilmington welcomes Delaware’s first Freedom School
A national education program is planting its first seeds in First State. Educators and City Council members joined community residents Tuesday to welcome the state’s first Freedom School, the Peter Spencer Freedom School, to Wilmington. The Children’s Defense Fund created the Freedom School program in the 1990s. The summer school initiative is now in 25 states. It teaches literacy and cultural enrichment while attempting to develop self-esteem and positive attitudes toward learning in its students.

National News

CNN
Financial education: Does your state make the grade?
The Center for Financial Literacy at Champlain College has graded all 50 states on their efforts to teach the ABCs of financial literacy to high school students. The assessments are based primarily on published reports covering state-by-state measures, along with reviews of state legislation going back for more than a decade.

The Tennessean
TN seeks to toughen standards on teacher licensing
Tennessee Education Commissioner Kevin Huffman presented a plan that would make it tougher for teachers to get and keep licenses by demanding higher scores on initial licensing tests and then requiring more frequent renewals, which would be based in part on evaluations of their teaching effectiveness. Only six other states are known to have discussed or adopted similar changes to licensing.

The Philadelphia Inquirer
In city schools, signs of hope
An opinion by Janine Yass
For some of us who call the Philadelphia area home, the education crisis may seem like a tragic but distant concern. The reality, though, is that our region depends on the success of Philadelphia’s schools and their ability to provide all students with a strong education. The recently concluded legislative session focused on education dollars – if there are enough and how to wring more during this summer’s contract negotiations – but there is a much bigger story than just the dollars and cents.

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