December 1, 2014

Delaware News

The News Journal
Red Clay district Priority School plans taking shape
After refusing to sign onto a state plan to turn around three low-scoring Wilmington schools, Red Clay School District officials have crafted an alternative that removes or reduces some controversial details. Still intact is a strategy to exempt the schools from most district rules, allow them to manage their own budgets and give them flexibility to change things like the school calendar, hours and curriculum.

Once again, who runs Delaware schools?
An editorial
The news articles said the city of Wilmington has filed suit to stop the state from closing the Maurice J. Moyer Academic Institute. The reality behind the news is that this is just the latest development in the battle over who runs Delaware’s schools. It is not simply a case of city vs. state. That could be worked out. The real problem is that too many institutions are trying to run the schools and the lines of authority – and responsibility – are not clear.

Charter school growth slow downstate
As the number of charter schools surges in New Castle County, downstate residents are finding themselves with fewer such options. First State is the only charter scheduled open over the next two years in either Kent or Sussex County. By contrast, there are six new schools scheduled to open in New Castle County during that time.

Support mounts against Indian River health textbook censorship
Residents and students continue to support the inclusion of materials defining the terms lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered in the Indian River School District’s health curriculum. The Monday Board of Education meeting was not as well attended as the October meeting, which drew about 100 protestors.

Delaware State News
Delaware college graduate debt load near tops in nation
According to a recently released study, students who attend Delaware colleges have more debt than those from every other state but one. The data, which comes from The Institute for College Access and Success, found that 62 percent of graduates of a Delaware university in 2013 had student debt, with an average of almost $32,600 in student loans.

WHYY NewsWorks
Wilmington joins civil action suit against Department of Education
Last week, Wilmington Mayor Dennis Williams addressed education on ‘First’ and stated that he recently visited several area schools that ran into trouble. “It amazes me anyway that people say schools are in trouble. The Department of Education should have known this quite a while ago. All of a sudden schools are in trouble and everybody is blaming the teachers. I don’t believe in that Philosophy,” Williams said.

WDDE
Unaccompanied minors settle into new life in First State
Last summer, the immigration issue received significant attention nationally and in Delaware when the a surge of unaccompanied minors from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras who had crossed the US-Mexico border illegally reached the tens of thousands. In July, Gov. Markell’s office informed lawmakers over a hundred were placed with families in the First State – mostly in Sussex County – sparking questions about what their presence means for schools and communities. One set of voices rarely heard in that discussion is those of the children themselves.

Dover Post
First Delaware Latino Summit highlights prominent issues
The theme of the summit was “Connecting for a Brighter Future,” and attendees including Gov. Jack Markell, state business leaders, community organizers spent the daylong event discussing issues affecting the Latino community, such as health and social services, housing, transportation, economic development, community and legal/social justice and education. “We have a lot of young Latinos in schools that don’t know English,” said Javier G. Torrijos, chairman of the three-year-old Delaware Hispanic Commission, which organized the summit. “If you’re not educating these children than you are going to have a problem, because they’re not going to graduate from high school and they’re not going to seek post-secondary education.”

Milford Beacon
Kent County school receives achievement awards
Lake Forest East Elementary School in Frederica, Nellie Hughes Stokes Elementary School in Dover and Sunnyside Elementary School in Smyrna are among 15 schools statewide that were each awarded a $50,000 grant as 2013 Recognition Schools. The awards are based on their exceptional performance on state standardized tests or their success in closing the achievement gap for students with disabilities, those from low-income households and various minority groups.

National News

The News Tribune
Fight continues over Washington’s No Child Left Behind waiver
Washington lost its waiver from onerous parts of the education accountability law in April, after the Legislature declined to bring the state’s teacher evaluation system in line with federal requirements. Now, the state schools chief and some state lawmakers plan to try again in hopes of regaining the state’s exemption from No Child Left Behind.

Los Angeles Times
Stanford teams with teacher union CTA to train for Common Core
Stanford University is joining with the state’s largest teachers union to prepare schools for new learning goals that will change the way California students are taught and tested.

Chronicle of Higher Education
Students’ long path to completion carry major financial consequences
Bloated curricula, remediation roadblocks, and students’ meandering path through college are contributing to a completion crisis that is costing students and their parents billions of extra dollars a year, according to a new report.

Education Week
Ed. Dept. puts spotlight on principals’ central role
In the second term of the Obama administration, the U.S. Department of Education, under Secretary Arne Duncan, has trained its efforts on principals by rolling out a series of initiatives that build on the growing body of research underscoring the role they play in schools’ success.

Pearson’s work on PARCC Common-Core field tests scrutinized in survey
A report that reviews schools’ experiences with common-core field tests given earlier this year offers a mostly positive picture of those assessments—but also shows that K-12 officials were dissatisified or ambivalent about the execution of a number of tasks overseen by Pearson, a major contractor for the exams.