December 5, 2014

Delaware News

The News Journal
Address the real Delaware school problem: Poverty
An editorial
A coalition of legal rights groups and legislators has asked the federal government to intervene in Delaware’s charter schools in order to stop what it terms the resegregation of the state’s education system. The coalition highlights a major problem: How do we help minority, lower-income or disabled children succeed and get a top-rate education? Charter schools are not the cause of the problem. Instead, we should address the poverty that affects so many of these children. Supply all schools with the tools, the staff and the facilities to solve the real cause.

WDEL
College Opportunity Day marks increased access to higher ed
Delaware’s effort to improve college access and enrollment also includes a partnership with StandByMe to give financial aid support to students and families, and free school-day administration of the PSAT to every public high school sophomore and the SAT to every junior in the state.

National News

Inside Higher Ed
A flexible future
As some of the country’s most rigorous research universities are contemplating a more modular future, experiments with blended learning may provide an early glimpse at their plans.

Education Week
Maine students’ test scores up slightly
Maine high school students are doing slightly better in math, writing and science, but the majority of students aren’t performing at grade level.

Education advocates to pursue more state funding
South Dakota teachers didn’t get the break they were looking for in Gov. Dennis Daugaard’s spending plan for the state’s next budget cycle. So, education advocates said they plan to push for more funding and measures to hike teacher pay during the 2015 legislative session, which convenes in January.

Census: Young Americans more educated, not necessarily better off than parents
American young adults are more likely to have attended and graduated college today than in earlier generations, according to a new data analysis by the U.S. Census Bureau—but they are also more likely to be earning considerably less, and living either in poverty or with their parents than they were in 1980.

‘Mystery Parents’ test charters’ enrollment of spec. ed., ELL students
Modeled after “mystery” or “secret shopper” services used in retail, authorizers in the District of Columbia and Massachusetts are using a similar tactic to make sure the charter schools they oversee are not turning away students with more specialized needs, such as children with disabilities or who are still learning English.