February 20, 2015
Delaware News
The News Journal
Duncan defends Delaware education model
Pointing to dropout rates at the lowest level in decades, more high school students applying to college and “unprecedented” investments in Pre-K education, the nation’s top school official, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, called Delaware a model for the rest of the country.
WHYY
Arne Duncan tours Delaware, touts education reform efforts
His Thursday docket included a speech at the Rotary Club of Wilmington, a visit to Delaware Technical Comunnity College’s Stanton campus, and a return trip to Howard High School of Technology in Wilmington. Duncan first visited the school in 2011, shortly after declining test scores prompted the state to name it a “partnership zone” school.
WDDE
U.S. Education Sec. offers support for First State education efforts
U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan visited Delaware Thursday, praising state education successes while criticizing the Republican-controlled Congress for failing to compromise on overhauling the controversial No Child Left Behind policy.
Cape Gazette
Public input sought on new school times
Cape Henlopen school district is ready to set new start times at some of its schools to allow buses to run two routes, but before the times are changed, officials want to hear from the community.
An opportune time for Sussex Tech
An editorial
Sussex Tech has been turning out well educated graduates for many years. But somehow the school’s emphasis on academic excellence and college preparation has created the impression, if not the reality, that it has veered away from its original mission as a vocational and technical school.
WDEL
Two state reps send Duncan letter, criticizing standardized testing
In the letter, sent ahead of Duncan’s visit to Delaware Thursday, Reps. John Kowalko (D-South Newark) and Sean Matthews (D-Brandywine Hundred) said testing corporations are recording report profits while school districts and states like Delaware struggle for basic resources.
State of Delaware
Delaware School Libraries Council to conduct statewide master plan for Delaware school libraries
A press release
The Delaware School Libraries Council, with support from the Delaware Department of State and the Department of Education, is embarking on a Statewide Master Plan for Delaware School Libraries, a comprehensive planning effort designed to create a vision that will inform solutions for the development of state-of-the-art school libraries.
National News
Wichita Eagle
State formally appeals Kansas school funding ruling
A court ruling that Kansas schools are unconstitutionally underfunded fails to take into account some sources of funding, according to the state’s formal appeal of the ruling. A three-judge panel ruled that the state’s school funding is “inadequate from any rational perspective.”
U.S. News and World Report
Education reformers have a big blind spot
One perspective remains almost absent from the conversation about American education: The viewpoint of those who weren’t good at school in the first place.
Education Week
Calif. districts seek $1 billion to fund test mandate
A push by four California school districts to increase state funding for standardized assessments could complicate the state’s rollout of the common core and aligned tests, as well as provide an early challenge for a revamped school finance system that is not yet two years old.
Clash looms over Obama’s education-budget priorities
President Barack Obama’s fiscal year 2016 budget request marks the opening bid in what will likely be a messy spending battle over how to fund the government, including the U.S. Department of Education and federal education programs, when its purse empties Oct. 1.
The Philadelphia Inquirer
SRC feels heat for adding five charters
The School Reform Commission continued to take heat Thursday for its decision to approve five new charter schools, with critics from both sides railing against the action.
EdSource
California task force urges reform of special education funding
Federal and state funding rates for special education would be equalized across California and new special education teachers would be authorized to teach general education if draft recommendations from a task force presented on Wednesday are implemented.