February 9, 2016

Delaware

Delaware Public Media
Rep. Ruth Briggs King demands education funding reform
Rep. Ruth Briggs King delivers this week’s GOP message, demanding changes in how the state finances education programs. Delaware currently allocates more than $2 billion for public education. But King says that the state’s system for funding education must be upgraded to truly benefit students. “Our current funding system is 75 years old, and was last tweaked 15 to 20 years ago,” said King. “The multi-tier, formula-driven system is rigid, and has led to lumpy, unbalanced financing between districts.

Newsworks
University of Delaware drops SAT/ACT requirement for in-state applicants
Starting with the next year’s crop of applicants, the University of Delaware will not require in-state students to submit SAT or ACT scores. The move, which was approved Monday by the Faculty Senate, will help UD attract a more diverse applicant pool, officials say. UD joins a flood of universities—large, small, prestigious, and otherwise—who have gone “test optional” in recent years.

Rodel Blog
Make time for the RTC workshop
Blog post by Jennifer Hollstein, secondary English teacher and teacher evaluator at the Charter School of Wilmington
Time. Ask any teacher what’s in short supply and that is most likely what you’ll hear. We’d love to meet, to collaborate, to learn something new, to reflect, and to capitalize on our own strengths, but finding the time to make that happen feels like a feat of mythical proportions. Yet, an opportunity awaits! The Rodel Teacher Council has created a day dedicated to helping teachers grow in their understanding of personalized learning, and working alongside colleagues who are currently practicing this method.

The News Journal
UD Faculty Senate: Make SAT optional
The University of Delaware’s Faculty Senate overwhelmingly voted Monday night to approve a pilot program that will make UD “test optional” for in-state students. The change, proposed by a panel of faculty and administrators, will allow students who are from Delaware to ask that their SAT scores not be considered as part of their admissions process, starting in the fall of 2017. The university will monitor how those students do over four years and return to the faculty to consider expanding the policy.

UDaily
For Delaware students
The University of Delaware Faculty Senate today approved implementation of a four-year pilot program in which Delaware students will be able to choose whether or not to submit their SAT or ACT test scores for first-year admission to the University. The decision will go into effect with the class to be considered for fall 2017 (current high school juniors). “This is a big step forward for the University of Delaware and for all outstanding Delaware high school students who want access to a high quality education at UD,” said Nancy Targett, acting president of the University.

National

Courier – Journal
Kentucky education bill might surprise you
Much ado is being made over a sweeping education bill filed in the Kentucky Senate this session, with some saying the wide-ranging bill contains “fundamental changes” to education assessment and accountability in the Bluegrass State. Talk outside of education circles has focused mainly around the idea that the education bill, or Senate Bill 1, would “repeal” Common Core, but a read through the 88-page legislation shows a number of other major proposed changes. “That piece of legislation is a big one,” Tracy Herman, legislative liaison for the Kentucky Department of Education, told the state board of education this week.

Education Week
Teacher shortages put pressure on Governors, Legislators
There’s heated debate nationally over whether K-12 teachers really are in short supply and—if so—what’s caused the shortage and how widespread it is. But in a number of states with dwindling supplies of new teachers, overcrowded classrooms, months-long substitute assignments, and droves of teachers quitting midyear, activists on both sides of the issue are seizing the opportunity to push their policy agendas. Those divisions are on stark display in places like Indiana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Washington, where policymakers, including governors and legislators, are floating a variety of approaches to address the challenge of recruiting and retaining teachers.

NJ.COM
Paper tests can increase PARCC scores, report says
New Jersey’s sweeping change to computerized exams may have put its students at a disadvantage on new standardized tests, according to a report by Education Week.  Students who took the PARCC exams on paper in other states tended to score higher than those in the same state who took the tests on computers, the education trade publication reported.  In Illinois, one of 10 other states that took the same exams as New Jersey, 43 percent of students who took the PARCC language arts exam on paper earned proficient scores compared with 36 percent of students who took the exam online.

The Atlantic
The math revolution
On a sultry evening last July, a tall, soft-spoken 17-year-old named David Stoner and nearly 600 other math whizzes from all over the world sat huddled in small groups around wicker bistro tables, talking in low voices and obsessively refreshing the browsers on their laptops. The air in the cavernous lobby of the Lotus Hotel Pang Suan Kaew in Chiang Mai, Thailand, was humid, recalls Stoner, whose light South Carolina accent warms his carefully chosen words. The tension in the room made it seem especially heavy, like the atmosphere at a high-stakes poker tournament.

The Huffington Post
In education “reform” nothing means what you think it does
In the world of Education reform, nothing means what you think it will. We learned that the hard way with No Child Left Behind. I mean, of course we don’t want a child left behind! Why would we want a child left behind? Sign the bill! Stamp the approval! All kids succeed! But it didn’t really pan out that way. Instead it was more like, no school left unpunished. As the clock wound down to the point where ALL schools were supposedly passing ALL kids or else ALL would be failing, a feat that educational experts new from the beginning was impossible, we abandoned NCLB and moved to Race to the Top.