August 1, 2013

Local News

The News Journal
Delaware STEM Council boosts technical education efforts
In the past few weeks, Secretary of Education Mark Murphy has talked to kids who have spent their summer programming computers, building water filtration systems and saving tons of garbage from landfills through a composting process. These, Murphy says, are perfect examples of the kind of hands-on STEM – science, technology, engineering and math – education Delaware students need to keep up with a changing job market.

National News

The Los Angeles Times
Adelanto school at center of parent trigger controversy opens
After two years of controversy and court battles, the first school forced into a major overhaul by the state’s pioneering parent trigger law opened its doors this week in the High Desert community of Adelanto. Nearly 600 students, outfitted in school colors of navy blue and khaki, gold and white, flocked to class at the Desert Trails Preparatory Academy, a public school now run by founders of a high-performing charter organization affiliated with the University of La Verne. In a case that drew national attention, Adelanto parents successfully used the parent trigger law last year to petition the school board to turn over management of failing Desert Trails Elementary School to the LaVerne Elementary Preparatory Academy.

The New York Times
In Missouri, race complicates a transfer to better schools
Public schools here in the St. Louis region, as in many other metropolitan areas across the country, have struggled for decades to bridge a wide achievement gap between school districts — a divide that often runs along racial and socioeconomic lines. By affirming the right to transfer students out of failing school districts, the State Supreme Court opened the doors for hundreds of families to cross the lines and move their children into better schools.

Governing
Chief Innovation Officers make their way into schools
Chief innovation officers are slowly popping up in districts around the country. Some say they fill a gap in leadership that’s preventing education from moving forward. Large urban school systems including Detroit, Chicago, and Milwaukee have created this position. The officers might provide visionary leadership, assist with communications, or help prepare students for college.

Education Week
Education Department picks new leader for Early-Learning Office
Libby Doggett, most recently the director of the home visiting initiative at the Pew Charitable Trusts, has been named the head of the Department of Education’s office of early learning. Doggett is expected to help oversee the Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge grant program and promote the administration’s proposal to distribute $75 billion to the states to bolster high-quality preschool programs.

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