February 17, 2016
Delaware
Cape Gazette
Indian River School District to host teacher recruitment fair Feb.27
The Indian River School District, in partnership with Academic Partnerships LLC, will host a teacher recruitment fair from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 27, at the Clarion Resort Fontainebleau Hotel in Ocean City, Md. The second annual fair will attract school district recruiters from all of Delaware and the eastern shores of Maryland and Virginia. The event is designed to match teacher candidates with anticipated kindergarten through 12th-grade vacancies in the participating school districts.
Delaware Department of Education
Educators: Common Core going well here
Press Release
A significant majority of educators are supportive of the Common Core State Standards and believe their colleagues are effectively implementing them, according to a new study of educators in Delaware and four other states by the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University. The report – “Teaching Higher: Educators’ Perspective on Common Core Implementation” — collected perspectives from a sample of teachers and principals in Delaware and four additional states last spring, focusing on math and English language arts (ELA) teachers and principals in grades 4 through 8.
Newsworks
Harvard study: Delaware teachers, principals embracing Common Core
Delaware teachers and principals have largely embraced the Common Core, though not as heartily as peers in other states. That’s according to a survey conducted by Harvard University’s Center for Education Policy Research last spring and published in a research brief Monday. Overall, the survey–which canvassed teachers and principals in Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, Nevada, and New Mexico–found that 73 percent of teachers believe fellow educators in their building have embraced the Common Core “fully” or “quite a bit” and that 69 percent of principals believe the new standards will lead to “improved student learning.”
Newark Post
Newark Charter students win award for app design
In today’s world, there is an app for everything — from apps that track your calories to those that manage your finances and even help you sell your unwanted items. There are also dozens of apps that can remind you to take your medication, but they aren’t geared to users with special needs. A group of eighth-graders at Newark Charter School thought there should be an app for that. Last fall, classmates Gabrielle Ryu, Emanuel Rios, Hannah Strong, Aarti Itikirala and Emma Ryan spent three months nailing down the concept, design and functionality of Pill Pal — a pill reminder app for users with Down syndrome — and their idea drew national attention.
Rodel Blog
Two great events on college & career readiness
Blog post by Jenna Bucsak, program officer at the Rodel Foundation of Delaware
When it comes to preparing students for success after high school, Delaware is making some great strides. This time next week, a gathering of school, business, and community leaders from throughout the state will assemble for two great events focused on the efforts underway. First up is the 2nd Annual DE Pathways Conference, 8:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m., Delaware Tech Stanton Campus. The Delaware Pathways Conference will bring together local and national thought leaders to discuss the work underway across the state that’s equipping young Delawareans with the knowledge, skills, and experience to successfully transition to high-growth, high-demand occupations.
National
Education Week
Report: Many Minnesota schools not closing achievement gaps
A new state report finds hundreds of Minnesota school districts are not making significant progress to close achievement gaps. Under a 2013 state law, all school districts and charter schools in Minnesota are required to adopt a plan to improve reading and math test scores, boost graduation rates and cut achievement gaps for all students. But the Star Tribune reports the Minnesota Department of Education reviewed the first year of those plans and found many are not meeting their targets.
Philly.com
At 10, a north Philly prep school savors success
Ten years ago, Germantown Academy teamed with Project HOME to create something unique: a small, top-notch private school for low-income kids in North Philadelphia. With alumni placed in high-achieving prep schools around the region, the Community Partnership School (CPS) is celebrating a decade of success and making plans to expand. “When people ask what I feel are the greatest accomplishments in my time at GA, I always list the Partnership School,” said James Connor, who’s retiring in June after heading that independent school for 26 years.
Reuters
Bilingual toddlers better at solving certain problems
Toddlers who already speak two languages are better than their peers at a particular kind of problem solving that requires knowing when it’s okay to change the rules, according to a new study. “Most of the research on the benefits of bilingualism comes from children aged four years and up,” said senior author Diane Poulin-Dubois of Concordia University in Montreal. “So showing a more precocious benefit is important.”
The Boston Globe
Education chief backs two new charter schools, expansion of five
Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester will recommend that the state approve the opening of two new charter schools and the expansion of five others, including four in Boston, his office said Tuesday. The Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education will vote Feb. 23 on the charter school proposals. Chester said he would endorse plans to open the Libertas Academy Charter School in Springfield and the New Heights Charter School of Brockton. It would be Brockton’s first independent charter school.
The Hechinger Report
Outdated Pell rules may discriminate against low-income students
John Davis had been working as a shelf-stocker at his local grocery store in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for more than a decade when he realized there was no way he would be able to help his ailing mother on his salary. Her degenerative spine condition, combined with diabetes and cancer, was making it more and more difficult for her to get to her job as a paralegal. He could have gotten a federal Pell grant to go to college, but even an associate’s degree takes two years to complete, with no guarantee of a good job waiting at the end.