December 16, 2014

Delaware News

WHYY NewsWorks
Delaware school entrance assessments face tough test
Jennifer Nagourney, head of Delaware’s charter school office, told a General Assembly task force last Monday that she disagreed with the use of entrance assessments at Delaware’s charter schools, according to multiple people who attended the meeting. Some of the state’s highest-performing schools require applicants to take admissions assessments or perform entrance auditions. They include the high-achieving Charter School of Wilmington, which was named the nation’s 10th-best high school by Newsweek this year.

The News Journal
State: Most Priority School principals must go
The state Department of Education has said that most of the principals currently serving in Priority Schools cannot be the ones for the job unless the state agrees to an exception. That has outraged many in those school communities who say the leaders are dedicated, talented and well-loved, and that firing them will smash any sense of trust and consistency they have built up with students, teachers and parents.

Priority Schools: Constant change brings instability
An op-ed by Paul Baumbach, State Representative, 23rd District
In Delaware, the perpetual, chronic pattern of change and upheaval in our public education system is tearing apart our schools and communities. The truth is that we are the cause of this problem and, too often, the changes we impose make things worse instead of better. In public education we tend to spend all of our time addressing symptoms, rather than focusing on underlying, structural problems.

Milford Beacon
FOLLOW UP: Military Academy makes progress in Clayton, will open in Fall 2015
First State Military Academy “broke ground” Tuesday on a renovation project at the former St. Joe’s School in Clayton with plans to open with 200 freshman and sophomores in the fall of 2015.

Susssex County Post
IRSD: School choice applications required for some special programs
Students interested in applying for several special programs in the Indian River School District for the 2015-2016 school year are required to submit state school choice applications and district supplemental forms.

Dover Post
Edney discusses school board’s contract decision
In an exclusive interview with the Dover Post on Sunday, Dover High School Principal Evelyn Edney said she doesn’t know why her contract was not renewed. The Capital school board’s decision not to renew Edney’s contract became public at a Dec. 11 board meeting.

National News

Education Week
States slow to close faltering teacher ed. programs
Amid the intense recent policy interest in educator quality, the list of proposed remedies for improving teacher preparation has grown long. It ranges from using performance assessments to measure candidates’ classroom skill, to giving prospective teachers higher doses of hands-on “clinical” training in K-12 schools, to setting up charter-school-like preparation academies outside traditional teacher colleges.

Venture Beat
Khan Academy founder has two big ideas for overhauling higher education in the sciences
Khan Academy founder Sal Khan has a few ideas for how to radically overhaul higher education. First, create a universal degree that’s comparable to a Stanford degree, and second, transform the college transcript into a portfolio of things that students have actually created.

The Clarion-Ledger
In Mississippi, education money gap grows to $1.5B
Since 2008, Mississippi legislators have spent $1.5 billion less on education than what’s required. Across the country, state spending is lower than before the recession in 35 states, yet it hits Mississippi harder because the state’s per-pupil spending levels were already among the nation’s lowest and its percentage of students in poverty is the highest of any state.

The Journal
States need to rejigger policies for competency ed to flourish
If states are serious about implementing competency-based education in the hope that it will prepare students for college and career, policy makers had better be ready to update their rules and regulations, according to a new report.

The Hechinger Report
Does Common Core really mean teachers should teach differently
The Common Core wasn’t necessarily supposed to change how math is taught, but in many schools that’s exactly what’s happening.