December 22, 2014

Delaware News

Delaware Department of Education
DOE and State Board issue diecisions on charter schools up for renewal
A press release
The State Board of Education, following recommendations by Secretary of Education Mark Murphy, agreed to renew the charters of Delaware Academy of Public Safety and Security, EastSide, Gateway Lab, ASPIRA, and Odyssey. Reach Academy for Girls will close at the end of this academic year, having remained one of the lowest-performing schools in the state, with students making only limited growth over their five-year history. The Board deferred on a decision on a seventh school, Family Foundations.

The News Journal
Delaware schools re-segregating, report says
Though its schools were once among the most desegregated in the country, Delaware and Wilmington in particular is rapidly returning to a system in which many black and Latino students attend separate schools than their white cohorts, the UCLA Civil Rights Project says in a report released Friday.

It’s all out schools and opportunity
A letter to the editor by Ronald D. Snee, Newark
Our View’s recognition that there are only a few root causes among the list proposed as the source of Wilmington’s problems is indeed refreshing. Let’s get to the heart of the matter. There are arguably two real, deep cause’s which drive the others: education and economic opportunity.

Innovation is bound to help all students
A letter to the editor by Italo Carrieri-Russo, Newark
In a recent article said Padua Academy issued all its students laptop computers and so they can electronically submit their assignments. This an excellent use of innovation and technology through a private school but maybe more challenging for public schools to take on. The challenges is funding a massive project within a school district, putting more responsibilities on school administrations and their teaching staff, and families may not be able to have the access to the Internet (especially in rural and lower income areas of Delaware).

WHYY NewsWorks
The national movement behind Delaware’s charter closures
In 2012, the state introduced a new charter accountability system to better police schools, and, ultimately, shutter failing ones. Governor Jack Markell backed the effort, as did the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA), a pro-charter advocacy group. “The framework can assist the state in both rewarding its best charter schools with opportunities to grow, and in taking the necessary action on schools that aren’t living up to their promise to educate Delaware’s children well,” NACSA president Greg Richmond said at the time.

Cape Gazette
Teachers oppose state’s new pay plan
A plan to change the way teachers are compensated for education and years of service is drawing criticism statewide from the same educators the plan is intended to benefit. “It seems like they’re going to try to force this through even if teachers don’t support it,” said Matthew Lindell, a teacher at Cape Henlopen High School who is also vice president of the Capital School District Board of Education.

National News

Education Week
More than 1 in counties still have more kids in poverty now than pre-recession
Nationwide, child poverty in 2013 dipped for the first time this century, but nearly 30 percent of counties still have more children—particularly young children—living in poverty today than before the recession, according to the U.S. Census.

Settlement agreement reached in NOLA special education lawsuit
The state of Louisiana, the Orleans Parish School Board, and the Southern Poverty Law Center have agreed on a settlement in a lawsuit involving special education and charter schools. The Southern Poverty Law Center filed the complaint on behalf of their plaintiff students four years ago against the state and the school board.

More students – but few girls, minorities – took AP computer science exams
As the Advanced Placement computer science exam celebrated its 30th anniversary this year, the number of students who took the assessment skyrocketed, but females and minorities remained underrepresented and, in multiple states, not a single black or Hispanic student sat for the exam.

Inside Higher Education
Rating plan arrives, details scant
After nearly a year and a half of public debate over its proposed college ratings, the Obama administration on Friday provided the first glimpse into how it will structure such a system, including the criteria it will use to judge colleges.

The Tennessean
McQueen must be bold as education commissioner
An editorial
Tennessee Education Commissioner-designate Candice McQueen’s appointment received an extraordinarily warm welcome that united the political parties. The Left and the Right applauded Gov. Bill Haslam’s pick to replace Kevin Huffman, who served for the last four years, often implementing policy, even successful ones, in a polarizing way.