February 18, 2014

Local News

Sussex Countian
Logullo named principal of Lord Baltimore Elementary School
Ann Marie Logullo has been named as the principal of Lord Baltimore Elementary School in Ocean View Feb. 11 at the Indian River Board of Education meeting.

Cape Gazette
Forum focuses on Common Core Standards
As the last year of Delaware’s current system of student testing comes to a close, educators are focusing on a new test and the standards it will measure. To help explain the process, the League of Women Voters of Sussex County and the Coastal Georgetown Chapter of the American Association of University Women held a forum Feb. 11 in Lewes featuring two downstate educators and a Delaware Department of Education official.

The News Journal
Delaware students will face tough test
It won’t be long before every Delaware student will face a tougher standardized test, one that some students could spend more than eight hours finishing only to end up with lower scores. Starting in a few weeks, thousands of Delaware students will take the Smarter Balanced Assessment. They are part of a dry run, a chance for officials to get an early look at how students will do and work out the logistics of a completely new assessment.

Students put creations to the test at LEGO tournament
It was one disaster after another Saturday – ripped from the headlines, it seemed – for the more than 400 kids who converged in a hangar at the Air National Guard’s base in New Castle for the First State FIRST LEGO League Champion’s Tournament. This year’s competition – the 13th such event – presented dozens of disaster-response missions for the young teams, who came from Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia and – of course – Delaware. Each team had to engineer a variety of rescues and supports using LEGO-based robots.

Smyrna-Clayton Sun Times
Smyrna High welcomes two new associate principals
Smyrna High School has had the great pleasure of recently welcoming two new associate principals into the Smyrna Eagles nest – LaTonya Pierce and Leon Clarke. Clarke and Pierce replace former SHS associate principals John Camponelli and Mikell Reed. Camponelli left SHS for a position in the Appoquinimink School District; Reed is now the associate principal at Clayton Elementary.

Smyrna School District officials hold meeting on referendum
With a room filled with some Smyrna School District staff and a handful of residents, the Smyrna School District administrations and Board of Education held a public meeting Feb. 5 at Smyrna Elementary to discuss the upcoming major capital improvements and current expense referendum. Voting will be done on Saturday, Feb. 22.

Milford Beacon
Working with autism: Milford schools aim to boost education, awareness of growing population
Parents, educators and professionals well-versed in autism spectrum disorders repeat the same mantra: If you meet one person with autism, you have only met one person with autism. While each case is completely unique, the Milford School District has planned a webinar session for staff with Barbara Boroson, an autism educator and parent of a child on the autism spectrum, to expand the knowledge of district educators concerning autism spectrum disorders.

National News

New York Times
Magnet schools find a renewed embrace in cities
Nearly five decades ago, as racial tension raged in cities, magnet schools were introduced as an alternative to court-ordered busing in the hope that specialized theme schools would slow white flight and offer options to racial minorities zoned for low-performing schools. Magnet schools never quite delivered on that desegregation promise, and in the past couple of decades they have largely fallen off the radar. But increasingly in urban districts including Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, Newark and Washington — public school leaders are refocusing on the idea as traditional public schools come under increasing pressure from charter schools and vouchers for private schools.

Common Core curriculum now has critics on the left
The Common Core has been applauded by education leaders and promoted by the Obama administration as a way to replace a hodgepodge of state standards with one set of rigorous learning goals. Though 45 states and the District of Columbia have signed on to them since 2010, resistance came quickly, mostly from right-leaning states, where some leaders and political action groups have protested what they see as a federal takeover of local classrooms. But the newest chorus of complaints is coming from one of the most liberal states, and one of the earliest champions of the standards: New York. And that is causing supporters of the Common Core to shudder.

Washington Post
A fight is brewing over tests in the Common Core age
This year’s student testing season across the country is filled with tumult. Educators are questioning the purpose of testing, lawmakers in several states are pushing back against federal regulations and a standoff between California and the Obama administration looms. California is defying No Child Left Behind requirements to give annual tests in math and reading to every student in grades 3-8.

Education Week
Charter school student population tops 2.5 million
About 600 new charter schools opened in 2013-14, serving an additional 288,000 students, according to estimates from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. That brings the total number of charter schools to 6,400 serving 2.5 million students. About 200 charter schools that were open in 2012-13 did not open back up this year. California topped the list for both the highest number of school closures and the number of new charters.

Des Moines Register
Two bills could distance Iowa from Common Core
Two proposed bills could limit Iowa’s involvement in the Common Core standards — known as the Iowa Core — and the aligned assessments. House File 2140 would make the Iowa Core curriculum voluntary, and House File 2141 would remove Iowa from the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium. Business leaders and Gov. Terry Branstad have spoken in favor of the Iowa Core.

Indiana Chalkbeat
In rare legislative appearance, Indiana Gov. Pence touts preschool
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence testified on behalf of a bill for the first time as governor, making a personal plea for support for his proposed preschool pilot program. House Bill 1004 would establish a framework to provide tuition support for about a thousand 4-year-olds from low-income families in five counties to attend preschool. By one estimate, the program would cost $10.6 million when fully implemented.