December 6, 2016

Delaware News

Delaware 105.9
Indian River district asks judge to toss discrimination suit
Attorneys for the Indian River School District say a racial discrimination lawsuit filed by a Sussex County citizens group should be dismissed. The Coalition for Education Reform claims that the district is using the George Washington Carver Academy, a special education school, as a “punitive dumping ground” for African-American students branded as “troublemakers.”

Department of Education
Federal funds available for meals served in day care settings
Federal funds are available to help child and adult day care providers in Delaware serve nutritious, healthy meals to children and adults in their facilities. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) regulates the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP). Sponsors in CACFP can receive cash reimbursement for meals served. Participant eligibility is tied to income eligibility guidelines that are adjusted annually by the USDA.

Delaware Public Media
My Very Own Library literacy program expands across First State
A Delaware youth literacy program is expanding to all three First State counties. My Very Own Library is putting books in the hands of young Delawareans. Shannon Boehmer is the project director. “We found that some of the students in the communities this program supports don’t have access to books, and in some cases are sadly too afraid to visit their local libraries,” Boehmer said.

The News Journal
Delaware charter school settlement details released
The lawsuit filed by 15 charter schools against the Christina School District and the Delaware Department of Education has been settled. All parties have signed off on an arrangement meant to redistribute dollars withheld from charter schools by sudden changes just before the start of the school year. A larger portion of those dollars now will be shared between the district and charter schools.

Delaware high school job skills program grows
High school students who are interested in becoming nurses, teachers, or environmental scientists could get a head start on job training thanks to an expansion of a state workforce preparation program. Gov. Jack Markell announced Monday that the state’s Pathways to Prosperity program is growing to include those careers, thanks to $450,000 in grants from private companies and the state Department of Education.

Schools win awards: is yours on the list?
The Delaware Department of Education has given awards to 14 schools for strong academic performance. Each school will win $8,000 to spend as the school chooses. The awards come in three different categories.

WDEL
Christina School District signs principled settlement with 15 charter schools seeking revenue from 2003 referendum
Representatives from the Christina School District on Monday announced a settlement in principal with 15 charter schools who had brought civil action centered around property tax revenue sharing. The suit alleged the law was breached in August and September by the Delaware Department of Education (DOE), the Secretary of Education, the Christina School District, and the Christina School District’s chief financial officer.

National News

Chron
Feds: Fatal wreck shows need for seat belts on school buses
The head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Thursday re-emphasized the agency’s call for seat belts on school buses in the aftermath of a crash in Chattanooga that killed six students. Administrator Mark Rosekind said at a transportation safety conference in Washington that while school buses remain the safest way for children to get to and from school, they “can be safer.”

The Atlantic
The challenge of manufacturing a diverse campus
It was four days into the two-week enrollment period for the new Detroit Prep charter school and Kyle Smitley was starting to worry. Smitley, the school’s co-founder, had opened Detroit Prep in September with grand ambitions of building the city’s first truly diverse charter school. She had embraced an idea that’s gained momentum across the country as educators have increasingly acknowledged that the nation’s segregated schools are hurting children and communities, and had managed to recruit an impressively diverse group of black, white, and mixed-race kids for her school’s inaugural year.

The Hechinger Report
Mississippi raises the bar students have to meet to pass third grade
For Mississippi’s third graders, the stakes for good performance on the reading test that can knock them out of timely promotion to fourth grade are now higher than ever. State law requires public schools to retain a third grader scoring on the lowest achievement level on the Reading Summative Assessment unless he or she qualifies for a good-cause exemption.

The Washington Post
The national teacher shortage is a myth. Here’s what’s really happening.
Opinion by Kate Walsh, president of the National Council on Teacher Quality
Here’s something I’ve been struggling to understand: What makes the prospect of a national teacher shortage such an immediately compelling narrative, capable of spreading with the speed of a brush fire? With almost no real data — because neither states nor the federal government collects the information that would be needed to pronounce the onset of a true teacher shortage — we witness the press, school districts, state school boards and even Congress conclude that we are in the throes of a full-blown national crisis.