January 14, 2014

Local News

WBOC
Del. Blue-Collar Task Force wraps up work
Delaware’s Blue-Collar Task Force wrapped up five months of work Monday. The group was looking at how to bring in and keep more jobs in The First State. Members finalized the draft of their report for lawmakers at a meeting Monday morning. Task force co-chair Sen. Robert Marshall, D-Wilmington North, says those recommendations suggest pushing public works projects, providing opportunities for small businesses and changing the education system.

WDDE
Felton students learn about bridges from DelDOT engineers
A group of Lake Forest North Elementary second graders learning about engineering and bridge design had special visit from DelDOT bridge engineers Friday afternoon. The students, who have been designing and constructing their own bridges out of string, tape, and various types of paper, were treated to a presentation about different bridge designs and why they’re used. The engineers also helped the students test the strength of their bridge by seeing how many metal hex nuts it could hold.

Seaford School District
Seaford School District making strides in Common Core learning in mathematics
A press release
Global education leader Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has highlighted the successful implementation of its popular Math in Focus: Singapore Math program in Seaford, Del. Dedicated to excellence in instruction and to college and career-readiness for all students, Seaford School District launched a rigorous implementation process this fall with a pilot program involving nearly 450 students in grades K-5 at Frederick Douglass Elementary School.

Delaware Department of Education
Hodgson, Delmar students to represent Delaware at Senate Youth program
A press release
Secretary of Education Mark Murphy selected Tiddy Mauti, a Hodgson Vocational Technical School senior, and William Bounds, a Delmar High School senior, as the First State’s delegates. U.S. Senators Tom Carper and Chris Coons announced the names. The competitive, merit-based program brings together 104 top high school students – two from each state, the District of Columbia and the Department of Defense Education Activity – for an intensive, week-long study of the federal government and those who lead it. The students rank academically n the top one percent of their states among high school juniors and seniors and have shown outstanding leadership abilities and commitment to volunteer work.

National News

State Impact Indiana
With new Senate bill, Indiana would slow Common Core review
The “pause” in Indiana’s rollout of the Common Core standards would stretch into yet another year if lawmakers adopt proposed legislation. Senate Bill 224 would give the state board an extra year—until July 2015—to continue its review of the Common Core, adopt a set of academic standards, and select a statewide test to match those standards.

Education Week
Nearly half of high school sophomores in 2002 had no college credential 10 years later
New federal data finds that 48% of students who started 10th grade in 2002 had not earned any kind of college degree or certification in the decade since, even if they did take some postsecondary credits. Moreover, 27% of the students who did not go on to college were unemployed or otherwise out of the labor force a decade later, compared to only 6% of those who earned at least a bachelor’s degree.

No girls, blacks, or Hispanics take AP Computer Science exam in some states
A new analysis of test-taking data finds that in Mississippi and Montana, no female, African American, or Hispanic students took the Advanced Placement exam in computer science. In fact, no African-American students took the exam in a total of 11 states, and no Hispanic students took it in eight states, according to state comparisons of College Board data compiled by Barbara Ericson, the director of computing outreach and a senior research scientist at Georgia Tech.

PISA denial: Another flavor
A blog post by Marc Tucker, President of the National Center on Education and the Economy
I had an interesting conversation with Motoko Rich, the New York Times education reporter, the other day. We were talking about the reactions of Americans not just to the fact that the United States’ place on the OECD-PISA league tables is falling, but also to the fact that more and more of the top places are being taken by Asian countries. She told me that many of the educators she talks with tell her that Asian dominance of the PISA league tables shows that the falling ranking of the United States doesn’t matter.

Inside Higher Ed
Feedback from the field
Feedback on President Obama’s plan to develop a federal ratings system for colleges show concerns about how the Education Department would factor graduates’ earnings into a rating system, which may not reflect the true value of higher education. College leaders also worry that the use of earnings data would punish colleges for producing graduates in important but lower-earning fields.

Albany Times-Union
New York is tops in pre-K funding increase nationally
New York had the fourth-highest increase by dollar amount in funding for prekindergarten programs in its 2013-2014 fiscal year, according to an ECS analysis. But the state was not in the Top 10 when comparing funding increases by percent. The report found a nationwide increase of $363.6 million compared to the previous year, or 7%, for a total of $5.6 billion.