July 22, 2013

Local News

The News Journal
Delaware right to study choices of students
An editorial
Here’s a statistic that no Delawarean should ignore if they care about the state’s work force – 37 percent of the state’s adults have no college degree. Yet by 2018, 59 percent of jobs will require college-level academic accreditation. It doesn’t help that about one out of six students who are academically qualified to go to college don’t enroll. And, of course, students of poor families with demonstrated academic promise are even less likely to go to college. The state Department of Education has to reroute traditional building blocks of its instructional mandate if Delaware is to avoid a fiscal crisis fueled by unemployable residents in a market demanding desirable workers. According to Delaware Secretary of Education Mark Murphy, new methods of teaching are being studied with models that use as much as six year’s worth of academic performance data on existing high school students.

Data will help Delaware help students get to college
A letter to the editor by Rod Ward, President of Corporation Service Company
The recent article about too few students going to college is important for people concerned about our state’s future. Our state is not alone. There are not enough kids across the country getting their degrees after high school to meet the growing demand in the workplace.

Problem solving goal during STEM summer camp
A ninja mounted on a rainbow-hued narwhal cavorted among canyons, collecting stars and hurling shurikens at opponents seeking to un-whale him. It may sound like a drug-fueled fever dream, but it’s not. It’s an alternate world straight out of the imaginations of a group of four rising seventh-graders in the Brandywine School District, who programmed the idea into a computer game. The foursome were among 22 students receiving advanced, hands-on training in science, technology, engineering and math – academic areas commonly called STEM – at the district’s Summer STEM Camp.

The Cape Gazette
Simpson elected Chair of Regional Education Group
Sen. Gary Simpson, R-Milford, has been elected chair of the Southern Regional Education Board’s Legislative Advisory Council. The nonpartisan SREB, formed in 1948, helps 16 member states to advance public education and student achievement at every level, from pre-kindergarten through post-secondary institutions. The Legislative Advisory Council, comprised of legislative leaders in education from each of the member states, advises the SREB on education matters from a legislative perspective.

The Dover Post
Capital school board outlines future plans for current Dover High building
The new Dover High School building is taking shape on Del. Route 8. With the future face of Dover High becoming clearer, some community members have begun to wonder what will become of the former home of the Senators. Those issues were addressed at Capital School District’s Wednesday Board of Education meeting. “There’s been a lot of questions of ‘Well can’t you use the old high school for this, that and the other?’” said Capital Superintendent Michael Thomas. “Well what I’m telling you is that we had to agree with the [Delaware] Department of Education to demolish the old high school in order to have a certificate of necessity to build the new one.”

National News

Education Week
How should teachers be paid?
Arguments around changes to teacher compensation have been heating up all across the country. In Tennessee, for example, education officials just put a new plan in place that eliminates annual step raises given solely for experience and advanced degrees, asking districts to also consider factors such as test scores and whether a teacher works in a high-needs school. The state’s teachers’ union has come out firmly against it, saying it could lower teaching requirements and overall teacher pay.

The Washington Post
Republican House leaders visit D.C. charter school to tout education bill
Republican House leaders gathered at a high-performing D.C. public charter school Tuesday to promote their vision for a new federal education law to replace No Child Left Behind. The GOP bill, known as the Student Access Act, would sharply shrink the federal role in K-12 public schools and mark a departure from the George W. Bush-era law that expanded federal authority in local school matters. The bill could go before the full House as soon as this week.

Chicago Tribune
City schools poised to feel impact of deep job cuts
The fallout from the Chicago Public Schools’ decision to lay off almost 3,000 teachers and school-based staff will be felt citywide when classes resume next month. Schools will be forced to increase class sizes, eliminate field trips, slash art and music programs and cancel intervention initiatives for struggling students, said principals and parents group leaders on a day when more than 1,000 teachers were let go. “You can’t lose programs at this rate, staff at this rate and maintain a quality curriculum at your school despite what CPS says,” said Clarice Berry, president of the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association.

The Los Angeles Times
A request for Supt. Deasy ‘succession’ plan attracts notice
A Los Angeles Board of Education member has requested a “succession plan” for schools Supt. John Deasy, sparking speculation about moves to replace the leader of the nation’s second-largest school system. The request, made in a Friday letter from board member Bennett Kayser, asks that the plan “be drawn up by and for” the superintendent and senior staff of the L.A. Unified School District. The timing is curious given that the seven-member board elevated Trustee Richard Vladovic to board president earlier this month. Vladovic and Deasy have a rocky relationship, and Deasy had privately threatened to resign before backing down.

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