February 24, 2016

Delaware

Delaware Department of Education
State Report: High student remediation rates remain
Press Release
Of Delaware public high school graduates entering an in-state college or university, 42 percent will begin their post-secondary education behind their peers, according to the state’s 2016 College Success Report released today. Students who do not score well on college placement tests may be forced to take and pass non-credit, remedial courses before entering the college-level courses required for their degrees. These courses often cost the same as credit-bearing classes but don’t count toward a student’s degree.

Delaware Public Media
Visually impaired students demand a better state education
Delaware lawmakers are pledging to help visually impaired students as the state struggles to keep up with a demand for services. Several kids and their families spoke to the Joint Finance Committee Tuesday of a lack of certified teachers versed in braille – with some children only getting an hour a week of instruction.

Cape Gazette
Mariner students grill governor
Seventh-grader Jacob Alt was looking for tips on how to become governor. So he went straight to the top. Lucky for him, Gov. Jack Markell visited Jacob’s U.S. History class Feb. 17 at Mariner Middle School. “To win requires an ability to understand the needs of the state,” Markell answered. “And you need to be a good listener.” Markell recalled an old saying: You have two ears and one mouth for a reason.

Scholarships available to Delaware Tech graduates who transfer to Salisbury University
Representatives from Delaware Technical Community College and Salisbury University gathered at the Jack F. Owens Campus in Georgetown Feb. 17 to announce and celebrate new scholarships available to Delaware Tech associate degree graduates who transfer to SU. The Delmarva Partnership Scholarship program provides eligible students who are Delaware residents with $5,000 in scholarship funds annually to cover approximately 60 percent of the cost difference between in-state and out-of-state tuition at SU.

Community meetings scheduled for upcoming referendum
Cape Henlopen School District will hold a series of community meetings to inform the public about the district’s upcoming referendum to pay for improvements to its four elementary schools. Set for Wednesday, March 23, the referendum seeks approval to build new elementary schools to replace Rehoboth and H.O. Brittingham elementaries and for renovations at Milton Elementary and the Lewes School, which will replace Shields Elementary at a total cost of $121 million, plus another $22 million fully-funded by the state for Sussex Consortium.

Newsworks
New analysis shows Delaware college-going, remediation rates rise
The proportion of Delaware students attending college rose sharply in 2014, so too did the percentage requiring remediation once they arrived. That’s according to Delaware’s most recent College Success Report, an annual state analysis that examines higher education outcomes. Among those Delawareans who graduated high school in 2014, 57 percent went on to either a four- or two-year college.

The News Journal
Remedial courses still common, but progress made
Too many Delaware students are having to take remedial classes when they get to college, and one way to change that is to encourage more kids to take tougher classes in high school, state leaders said in a report released Tuesday. Remedial classes are a raw deal for college freshmen. They – or their parents – have to pay for courses that don’t earn any credits toward a degree.

Prison or school? Students asked on Choice Bus
Jay’Juan Jones knows what it’s like to see a jail cell. His all-star athlete uncle dropped out of high school, got into the wrong crowd and ended up locked up, the 17-year-old said Tuesday outside of A.I. du Pont High School. Just minutes after a presentation on “the Choice Bus” – a converted school bus that is part classroom, part prison cell – Jones said he was determined to not follow the same path.

State’s future depends on true education reform
Editorial
If we were handing out report cards, we’d find it very difficult to give passing grades to the powers that be in Delaware public education. This point was highlighted last week when the state board of education gave conditional approval to the Wilmington Education Improvement Commission’s plan for improving city schools. If any conditions were necessary, they should have been predicated on ensuring students are getting a better education.

Celebrating career and technical education success
Opinion by Victoria C. Gehrt, A.J. Lathbury, Jr., and Deborah H. Zych, superintendents of the New Castle County Vo-Tech, Sussex Technical and Polytech School Districts
February is designated as national Career and Technical Education (CTE) month, which makes it an opportune time to recognize how Delaware’s three vo-tech school districts have worked collectively to establish model tech high schools that incorporate academic and technical education, pairing the acquisition of knowledge with the demonstration of workplace skills. We have learned, through decades of experience, how to engage employers to provide students with career guidance, mentoring and most importantly work-based learning opportunities.

National

Education Week
Personalized Learning isn’t about isolation
Two thousand fifteen was a big year for personalized learning. Nearly every ed-tech pitch to my venture capital fund opened with a black-and-white image of a 1950s one-size-fits-all classroom, and proceeded to tell the story of how Startup X would fix schools through personalization. In a world where we expect our Starbucks drinks customized, gifts recommended by Amazon.com, and music playlists tailored to our tastes, why should our education be any different?

KSLcom
State House approves proposed sales tax hike for teacher pay
The proposed half-cent sales tax hike that would help fund Republican Gov. Dennis Daugaard’s plan to raise teacher pay survived a difficult political test Monday by clearing the state House after narrowly failing there last week. The full chamber voted 47-21 to approve the plan, hitting the required two-thirds margin necessary to pass the tax hike. The proposal fell just one vote short of that threshold last week, but Monday’s vote means the measure is headed to the state Senate.

The Brookings Institute
How performance – based funding can improve education funding
Blog post by Doug Mesecar, former senior official at the U.S. Department of Education and Don Scoifer, executive vice president at the Lexington Institute
Is the annual expenditure on U.S. public elementary and secondary education appropriate and sustainable?  Reasonable people can disagree whether the current $600+ billion—5.4 percent of the nation’s GDP—is too much or not enough, especially when considering the different federal, state, and local jurisdictions involved.  However, there are increasing signs that it is likely not sustainable at its present, relatively low level of productivity.

The Hechinger Report
Here’s one way to fight to end the digital divide: Strong leadership in schools
As teachers know, what happens in a child’s home often carries over into the classroom. Lack of access to a speedy, reliable Internet connection at home can limit learning opportunities for poor students. This problem, dubbed the “homework gap,” has been the topic of national conversations, and is set to undergo a comprehensive study by the federal government. And some advocates for education technology say that school leaders ought to take a pro-active role in championing for reliable Internet access — not only at school but also at home.

USA Today
Illinois students rally against higher education spending cuts
Demonstrations at the Illinois state capitol on Wednesday saw hundreds of students, faculty and community members from eight of the state’s public universities urging the governor and legislature to end an eight-month budget battle to restore FY2016 funding for higher education programs and grants. But the standoff is not over funding the next academic year — it’s for money that was supposed to be available last July for the current school year.