January 14, 2015
Delaware News
The News Journal
Christina again delays decision on Priority Schools
The Christina School Board again delayed a final decision on its three Priority Schools on Tuesday night, saying they wanted to give the school communities time to study a new compromise proposal worked out between district and state officials.
Charter leaders fired, they spent thousands on cars, spas, concerts
Amid accusations its co-leaders used school credit cards for more than $94,000 in personal purchases, the Family Foundations Academy charter school has fired the pair, re-shuffled its board, and handed the reins to the leaders of Eastside Charter School in hopes of convincing the state that it should stay open.
Delaware Department of Education
State grants support local innovation in educator mentoring programs
A press release
Districts and schools across Delaware are providing better and more customized support for novice educators through enhanced mentoring programs with the support of state grants.
National News
Education Week
With Common Core, more states sharing test questions
Item-sharing agreements are becoming more commonplace now that most states share the same academic standards.
Sen. Alexander’s ESEA draft offers two options on testing
Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, kicked off the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act, the latest iteration of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, by saying he wants to start a dialogue about testing.
Los Angeles Times
L.A. Unified’s iPad program plagued by problems early, review says
A $1.3-billion iPads-for-all program in Los Angeles schools was plagued by lack of resources and inadequate planning for how the devices would be used in classrooms and, later, how they would be evaluated, according to a federal review.
New York Times
Silicon Valley turns Its eye to education
The education technology business is chock-full of fledgling companies whose innovative ideas have not yet proved effective — or profitable. But that is not slowing investors, who are pouring money into ventures as diverse as free classroom-management apps for teachers and foreign language lessons for adult learners.
New York Magazine
How did an ex–news anchor become the most controversial woman in school reform?
Over the past few years, Campbell Brown transformed herself from a TV journalist to a hero reformer for the teacher-tenure-busting crowd, a spinoff of the charter-school-and-make-education-a-business crowd.