February 27, 2017

The News Journal
Delaware students make easy test to detect sickle cell
Tower Hill senior Tej Vaddi’s test for detecting sickle cell disease is small, simple and unassuming, but the potential to save lives is big. He was inspired to develop the test by a 2012 visit to Africa, where he met doctors struggling in undermanned and underprivileged hospitals.

Rodel Blog
The importance of employability skills
Blog post by Jermaine Williams, cooperative employment coordinator at St. Georges Technical High School and Rodel Teacher Council member
As the cooperative employment coordinator at St. Georges Technical High School, my job, in conjunction with our career and technical instructors, is to usher our senior students out into the working world as employed adults. It’s a tough job, especially considering that we have 254 seniors spread across 15 different career programs, which span from construction to automotive to business to early childhood to food service and nursing.

A wholehearted approached to learning
Blog post by Paul Herdman, president and ceo of Rodel Foundation of Delaware
A few years ago, my fellow members of the Vision Coalition and I began reaching out to Delawareans. We wanted to hear what they thought a well-educated young person would need to know and be able to do in the year 2025. What we heard from more than 4,000 people was not surprising. People told us that better academics and improved test scores are important—being able to read and understand math would still be foundational. But they wanted more than that.

Digging Deeper: Are Delaware Students safe and engaged?
Blog post by Shyanne Miller, policy associate at the Rodel Foundation of Delaware
“Digging Deeper” is a recurring feature at the Rodel blog where we take some data on Delaware public schools—and put it under the microscope. In the spirit of our Public Education at a Glance, we’ll present a straightforward look at the numbers, and search for some deeper meaning.

Delaware 105.9
Indian River School District celebrates Special Education Week this week
The Indian River School District will devote this week to recognizing the importance of special education. Teachers, students and specialists will be celebrated during the district’s first Special Education Week today (Monday) through Friday. Special Education Ambassadors will be chosen from each school in the district. Wednesday will feature programs at all schools with the theme “Spread the Word to End the Word.”

Over 150 DE schools will participate in Special Olympics ‘Spread the Word to End the R-Word’ campaign Wednesday
Special Olympics Delaware is uniting with schools statewide in a global movement called Spread the Word to End the Word. The goal of Spread the Word to End the Word is to end the use of the word retard or retarded. On Wednesday, nearly 150 Delaware preschool, elementary, middle and high schools will conduct assemblies, hang banners and hold activities in support of the campaign.

National News

NPR
English language learners: How your state is doing
About 1 out of every 10 public school students in the United States right now is learning to speak English. They’re called ELLs, for “English Language Learners.” There are nearly 5 million of them, and educating them — in English and all the other subjects and skills they’ll need — is one of the biggest challenges in U.S. public education today.

EdSource
California examines how and why to improve its measures of school climate
The tricky matter of how to quantify nearly everything at school that is not an academic test score — from staff friendliness at the water cooler to student trust of adults on campus — will be before the State Board of Education next month when an advisory group is scheduled to recommend ways to make measuring “school climate” a potentially more meaningful exercise for school districts.

Chalkbeat
Colorado lawmakers are stepping in to help prepare students for the state’s booming tech sector
More Colorado students could be building smartphone apps by the end of next school year. In an effort to prepare students for the state’s booming technology job market, lawmakers are considering three bills that would beef up access to computer science classes and provide students with new credentials after they leave high school.

Getting Smart
It’s time to personalize learning in Alaska
In the middle of January, with little daylight and plenty of snow, we began the process of bringing together the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District community to learn about personalized learning. With a week of workshops, board sessions and community nights behind us, we realized that over the course of a few days we significantly moved forward work that would impact our 14,000 students for the rest of their lives.

Boston.com
New Hampshire Senate approves bill to to set up ‘education freedom savings accounts’
The New Hampshire Senate has given the greenlight to a bill that could vastly expand the use of public dollars for tuition at private elementary, middle and high schools. Senators on Thursday passed a bill to set up “education freedom savings accounts” that appear similar to voucher programs. The state now pays public schools roughly $3,600 per student.