December 21, 2015

Delaware

Delaware State News
William Henry students get up-close look at justice system
Thanks to a cooperative partnership between Kent County Courthouse personnel and Capital School District educators, kids are getting a firsthand look at the daily legal process in a nurturing environment. From 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., 25 students received a behind-the-scenes tour of how the justice system works in the courthouse and who takes part.

More than 300 graduate at Delaware State University commencement
Delaware State University held its 2015 December Commencement on Sunday in the Memorial Hall Gymnasium where more than 300 graduates received their diplomas. The keynote speaker was Ann Rosenberg, the vice president and head of Global SAP University Alliance.

Delaware Public Media
Wilmington Redistricting plan sparks questions of cost
State Board of Education members say they’re hesitant to sign off on a plan to redistrict the City of Wilmington when it has no price tag. Board members grilled the Wilmington Education Improvement Commission over just how much it’s going to cost to put an end to the city’s hodgepodge education plan borne out of years of bussing students to suburban schools.

Enlighten Me: More Generation Voice projects
Once again this week, we’re dedicating our Enlighten Me segment to pieces produced this fall by Generation Voice – our youth media program. It’s an ongoing collaboration between Delaware Public Media and the Brandywine School District. First, we bring you a story by 16 year-old Max Rakus. When he set off to Germany right after his sophomore year of high school ended, he had no idea that the trip would change him forever.

News works
Delaware state board tackles big education issues in December meeting
The December meeting of Delaware’s State Board of Education lasted more than six hours and touched on some of the First State’s hottest education debates. Charter schools, accountability, school expansion, testing, redistricting–all of it surfaced at the marathon Thursday meeting. Here’s a quick primer on one of the busiest state board meetings in recent memory.

Office of the Governor
Governor’s Weekly Message: Preparing our youngest learners by investing in our educators
In his weekly message, Governor Markell highlights efforts to better support teachers in our early childhood programs. “Ensuring Delaware children start school ready to learn is vital to their lifelong prosperity. It’s why we’ve invested heavily in strengthening our early learning programs, as well as supports for new mothers,” said Governor Markell. “By continuing to better support them, we’ll keep Delaware moving forward.”

Sussex County Post
Grant funding supports Selbyville Middle School library
Selbyville Middle School has received a $3,000 grant from bestselling author James Patterson to support its school library. In addition, Scholastic Reading Club will match each dollar of Patterson’s donation with “bonus points” that teachers can use to acquire books and other materials for their classrooms.

The News Journal
It’s now or never for fixing Wilmington schools
Opinion by Tony Allen, chairman of the Wilmington Education Improvement Commission and Dan Rich, policy director for the Wilmington Education Improvement Commission
For nearly three generations, state government leaders have not acted to strengthen public education in Delaware’s largest and only metropolitan city. Instead, our leaders waited for the federal courts to impose remedies, and then they acted to dilute the impact of those remedies. The remedies have not worked.

Parent engagement matters most for student success
Opinion by Yvonne Johnson and Chandra Pitts, co-chairs of the Wilmington Education Improvement Commission’s Parent, Educator, and Community Engagement Committee
When parents and families are engaged in their children’s education, the outcomes are significantly better. Virtually all parents and families want to be involved and supportive. The challenge is to put engagement into practice, but that is not always easy. Engagement requires time, effort, and knowledge of how to positively influence the education of your child.

Educational breakthroughs
Letter to the editor by Jim Purcell, Dover
The passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act represents a breakthrough for students and schools. It follows years of debate about the right balance of federal vs. local influence in public education. This new legislation will give our local schools more flexibility to decide what works best for our students.

National

Education Week
Year round schooling explained
At more than 3,000 K-12 campuses around the country, school’s not necessarily out for the summer. Year-round schooling, in which a single summer break is swapped out for a series of shorter breaks throughout the year, has become increasingly common, both as an academic improvement strategy and as a solution to overcrowding.

Faced with shortage, Calif. District opens own teacher-education school
Blog by Elisha McNeil
In an effort to combat a regional teacher shortage, the Sonoma County, Calif., school district is planning to open its own school of education, the district announced in a press release. The school will be designed to coach and support first-time teachers and provide potential teachers with a quick pathway into the classroom.

NPR
Politics in the classroom: How much is too much?
The first presidential primaries are just weeks away and with all these debates and issues in the headlines, there’s no question that students are going to want to talk about them. But how should teachers handle these discussions? In their book, The Political Classroom: Evidence and Ethics in Democratic Education, Diana E. Hess and Paula McAvoy offer guidelines to these and other questions, using a study they conducted from 2005 to 2009.

The Atlantic
What happened to the Common Core debate?
The Common Core was expected to be a ubiquitous subject on the campaign trail in 2016. The education standards had, over time, become a political football as conservatives condemned them as federal overreach.

The Washington Post
‘Its hard to educate a kid that’s dead’- Education Secretary Arne Duncan
Blog post by Valerie Strauss, reporter at The Washington Post
I point out this quote, from an interview that Education Secretary Arne Duncan gave to my Post colleague Emma Brown, not for any profound insight that it offers but as a suggestion of what he may be doing when he leaves his post on Dec. 31. Duncan, who is returning to Chicago, has long been an advocate of stricter gun laws.