February 13, 2014

Local News

The News Journal
Some Delaware districts plan make-up time, others waiting
This winter’s frequent snow storms have forced schools to cancel class more often than most years, eating up most of the leeway built into schedules. State law requires 1,060 hours of instruction time a year, with 1,032 hours for high school seniors.

All students deserving of federal and state aid
An editorial
So far the Obama administration has invested $2 million per school at more than 1,500 U.S. schools. Some of the greatest gains have been in small towns and rural communities, according to the federal DOE. But students who excel academically are not without aid. They are eligible for more support as a result of a bill proposed last year by Lt. Gov. Matt Denn and the chairs of the General Assembly’s education committees, Sen. Dave Sokola and Rep. Darryl Scott.

Delaware’s Charter World
2014 School Choice Week recap
A blog post
There were over 5,500 events nationwide, making this year the biggest yet for School Choice Week. Our Executive Director, Kendall Massett, had the opportunity to be present at The Charter School of Wilmington this past Friday as Governor Markell congratulated the students, teachers, and staff on the school’s newest honor, being named a National Blue Ribbon School—a title awarded to only 286 American schools this year.

National News

Inside Higher Ed
AP growth and inequalities
A new College Board report shows sustained growth in the number of students taking Advanced Placement exams, with more than 1 million members of the class of 2013 taking the tests. The data also show a substantial increase in low-income students taking AP exams, a more than doubling in the number of examinees who receive test scores of less than three on the exam and significant gaps in participation and success rates by racial and ethnic groups.

Is ‘undermatching’ overrated?
The idea behind “undermatching” is that many academically talented, low-income students who could succeed at top colleges are not applying to, enrolling in or graduating from them. Research on the topic has attracted widespread attention. But a new analysis argues that some key assumptions behind much of the research are flawed — and that new studies are needed to determine how much of the theory holds.

Minnesota Public Radio
Bill targets underperforming Minnesota charter schools
A proposed Minnesota bill, S.F. 836, would pressure charter school authorizers, the organizations that oversee the schools, to close chronically underperforming charters. If it were law, 17 of the state’s 157 charters would be flagged for closure. However, charter schools that have a high number of English language learners or special education students would be exempt.

Albany Times-Union
N.Y. regents plan to ‘adjust’ Core
The New York Board of Regents agreed to slow down the implementation of the Common Core standards and accompanying assessments. Under the proposal , teachers would be protected from being fired if their students score badly on standardized tests, and all teachers would receive more training on the new standards and tests. Still, lawmakers said they’d proceed with a push for adjustments and Gov. Andrew Cuomo named a commission to examine how to fix problems through legislation.

Education Week
Unfazed, Houston pushes ahead on 1-on-1 computing
Undeterred by high-profile problems experienced by other large school systems attempting to put digital devices in the hands of their students, the Houston Independent School District began distributing more than 18,000 laptop computers to high schools last month.

What now? Federal education policy adrift
A blog post by Marc Tucker, President of the National Center on Education and the Economy
With each new report from the PISA surveys, the United States drifts a little further down the international rankings of national school performance. You might think that would concentrate the minds of our federal policy makers. What we have instead is a farce.

Ed Source
StudentsFirst forming small donor campaign fund for local, state elections
Sacramento-based StudentsFirst is seeking to expand its political clout in California by asking its members to contribute to a new election campaign fund. The advocacy and lobbying organization wants to set up a small contributor committee, Californians for Putting Students First, that would give money directly to state and local candidates.