September 26, 2013

Local News

The News Journal
Moyer Academy clears one hurdle with purchase of Wilmington building
The New Moyer Academy charter school has inked a deal to buy its building, a move school leaders hope will put to rest concerns among some state officials that the school’s finances are not in order. Moyer had been leasing its building, located on East 17th Street in Wilmington, from Philadelphia-based The Reinvestment Fund. That lease was set to expire at the end of this month.

Capital school district balks at Delaware teacher-evaluation system
The Capital School Board is pushing back against the state’s teacher evaluation system, marking another protest among local school boards against tying teacher ratings to student test scores. School board members say they don’t believe the system is fair to teachers, so they can’t justify using it to rate their employees. “It seems to us that the concerns that are voiced to DoE are falling on deaf ears, so we felt that we had to take some action and start the conversation,” Capital School Board President Matthew J. Lindell said. But state officials say the system is necessary, effective and can’t be ignored. “Educator evaluations in Delaware are enshrined in law,” said Christopher Ruszkowski, head of teacher and leader effectiveness. “Not only is it in state law, but every federal guideline we’re under requires robust measurements of student growth, and for good reason.”

Delaware Ed
A ‘plea’ for better, less ‘boring’ education blogging
Education blogs, and advocates, sometimes can take a debate and make it personal. Ad hominem attacks. Heroes and crooks. A plea has emerged from a blogger: Please, can we debate the issues without assuming the worst of the other side? It would be more productive and not so boring, he said. I saw two things tonight on local Delaware blogs that made me toss this this debate out to you. The first Delaware-based blog item I read juxtaposed an upcoming state education community meeting with a mention of Pearl Harbor. The second blog comment made some assumptions, and personal attacks, on education writers and editors.

WDDE
Three Delaware schools open state-of-the-art fitness centers
Students at three New Castle County schools have a new space to stay in shape and fight childhood obesity. A.I. duPont Middle School, Bancroft Elementary School and McCullough Middle School are opening state-of-the-art centers this week. They were built with $100,000 grants from National Foundation for Governors’ Fitness Councils. The foundation in the process of awarding grants in all 50 states to schools already promoting physical activity and good nutrition

WHYY
NFL pro plays financial football with Delaware students
While Brandon Stokley is best known for catching passes for the Baltimore Ravens, the veteran wide receiver helped Delaware students score a touchdown in “Financial Football” this afternoon. Stokley joined Delaware Treasurer Chip Flowers for the statewide launch of the financial literacy game at Christiana High School in Newark. Financial Football was developed by a Visa and NFL partnership with Delaware as a way to get students thinking about building credit, saving money and planning for the future. “I think the earlier you learn, the better off you’ll be, especially when you start making money and you have to start planning for the future,” said Stokley. “The things you learn now will help you better when those obstacles come in your way and those situations arise out of nowhere. You know what to do with your money.”

National News

Education Week
Philadelphia seeks salvation in lessons from model school
In little more than two years, the Philadelphia school district has stripped $400 million out of its annual budget, closed 30 schools, eliminated nearly 7,000 jobs, and lost more than 20,000 students. The teetering city system, said Superintendent William R. Hite Jr., desperately needs “to show a win.” So Mr. Hite is placing a controversial bet: Although scores of schools opened here this month without regular guidance counselors, nurses, or basic supplies, the superintendent is pouring millions of dollars into expanding what he considers to be three of the city’s most innovative schools. They include Science Leadership Academy, an acclaimed magnet high school at the forefront of the national effort to marry educational technology with so-called “deeper learning.”

Detroit Free Press
House Panel OKs moving ahead with controversial education standards—with conditions
Michigan should move forward with the implementation of the controversial Common Core standards, says the chair of a House subcommittee that studied the issue. But the recommendation comes with conditions, including that the state be able to add or remove standards that “are in the best interest of the students of Michigan, with no ramifications from the federal government.”

Idaho State Journal
New data tracks Idaho graduates after high school
New state data that tracks Idaho students after graduation show that fewer than half of the graduates went on to postsecondary schools in the months after getting their diplomas. The new information is expected to help the state board and other groups figure out why more graduates don’t go on to postsecondary education. Idaho, where 48% of students go on to college, has one of the lowest college-going rates.

Hechinger Report
Employers and students still prefer brick-and-mortar—not online—education
The enthusiasm for online learning, including MOOCs, has led some to question the future brick-and-mortar postsecondary institutions. But a new survey shows that 56% of employers prefer a job applicant with a degree from an average school where they attended physical classrooms, while only 17% prefer an applicant from a more elite university where they took only online coursework.

Los Angeles Times
LAUSD halts home use of iPads for students after devices hacked
Following news that students at a Los Angeles high school had hacked district-issued iPads and were using them for personal use, district officials have halted home use of the Apple tablets until further notice. It took exactly one week for nearly 300 students at Theodore Roosevelt High School to hack through security so they could surf the Web on their new school-issued iPads, raising new concerns about a plan to distribute the devices to all students in the district. “Outside of the district’s network … a user is free to download content and applications and browse the Internet without restriction,” two senior administrators said in a memo to the Board of education and L.A. schools Supt. John Deasy. “As student safety is of paramount concern, breach of the … system must not occur.”

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