January 15, 2016

Delaware

Delaware State News
Attempt to override testing opt-out bill fails
A veto override attempt by a group of lawmakers failed Thursday, the first veto override try since 1977. Legislators, led by Rep. John Kowalko, D-Newark, sought to pass a testing opt-out bill over Gov. Jack Markell’s July veto but were unsuccessful after a motion failed to gain the necessary votes. House Bill 50 would codify parents’ rights to opt their children out of standardized tests, specifically the Smarter Balanced Assessment.

Delaware 105.9
Cape Henlopen School Board approves March referendum vote
In a unanimous vote, Cape Henlopen School Board members approve a $154 million referendum for several capital projects receiving support from the state. During a School Board meeting Thursday night, Project Manager Brian Bassett said the state is providing about $106 million in funding. The referendum vote, slated for March 23, is asking for taxpayer funding of about $.37 per $100 of property value.

DSU to add international bachelors program
DSU is set to add another international bachelor’s degree program to their line-up, called the two plus two program. The course will take place two years in Jeju University in South Korea and two years back here on Delmarva at DSU in Dover. 47 ABC reports that students will have the opportunity to study accounting, administration and management.

Delmarva Now
Cape Henlopen launches Common Core training initiative
After two years of taking part in state organized Common Core training, the Cape Henlopen School District set out to do its own professional development to align with the educational standards. Administrators set up a team, known as the Cape Henlopen Action Team, to make that happen. The school district took the money it would have spent on the state professional development programming and hired a consultant to help direct the necessary course of action.

Delmarva Public Radio
ACLU criticizes new rules of suspending Delaware students
Sharp criticism is coming from civil rights groups for new disciplinary rules for public schools in Delaware. The new regulations by the Department of Education, they said, would make it too easy for administrators to suspend or expel students rather than seek alternatives. The Wilmington News Journal reports that the American Civil Liberties Union of Delaware believes the new regulations would remove safe guards against suspensions or expulsions for minor infractions.

Middletown Transcript
Appoquinimink takes the first step towards a $379 million capital referendum
The Appoquinimink School District has taken the first step that could lead to a capital referendum at the end of this year or early in 2017 to finance the construction of new schools. On Tuesday night, the five members of the school board voted unanimously to approve certificates of necessity (CN) that the district will submit to the Delaware Department of Education for review and approval. The CNs detail the district’s recommendations to build three new schools and renovate facilities.

Sallie Mae
Sallie Mae provides $105,000 in grants to help Delaware kids prepare for college
Press Release
Sallie Mae, the nation’s saving, planning, and paying for college company, today announced its charitable foundation, The Sallie Mae Fund, made three significant grants to support programs that help Delaware students prepare for college. The company provided $50,000 to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Delaware, $30,000 to Junior Achievement of Delaware, and $25,000 to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Delaware.

The News Journal
UNCF president backs Markell on testing
An address on the issue of racial equity in education on Thursday night turned into a forum on one of Delaware’s most hotly contested issues in education – testing. Michael Lomax, president of the United Negro College Fund, spoke to a packed room at the Christina Cultural Arts Center in Wilmington about the importance of education in black communities and the struggle to get it. Even after winning the battle to desegregate schools, “we are still fighting for an equal education,” he said, adding that, in Delaware, the “fight is being fought” by the governor.

National

Education Week
At 25, Teach for America enters period of change
The story of TFA’s birth in Kopp’s 1988 senior thesis at Princeton University is by now so well-known as to be almost the stuff of legend. It hinged on the audacious, if not totally original idea that putting high-achieving young people into under-resourced, struggling schools could change students’ trajectories for the better. A quarter of a century later, Teach For America is miles away from its plucky startup days. It has more than 40,000 alumni and commands a budget of some $300 million, most of it derived from philanthropic and government support.

The Hechinger Report
An experiment in teacher training: More in-person fieldwork, but more online professional development
Teacher training programs have new competition from an array of outside-of-academia organizations – think tanks, nonprofits and money-making businesses – that all claim to have the latest, greatest way of preparing educators for the classroom. But all that is new is not gold. Some of these programs are of questionable value. Meanwhile, some of the oldest institutions are rethinking their degree programs for teachers.

The Topeka Capital Journal
Kansas to start measuring academic readiness of kindergartners
The Kansas State Board of Education took the first step Tuesday toward measuring the academic preparedness of 5-year-olds as they embark on their educational careers. In a 9-to-1 vote, the board instructed the Kansas State Department of Education to develop a system for gauging the needs of kindergartners. In an interview, Jim McNiece, a Wichita Republican and former high school principal who chairs the state board, called the change significant.

The Huffington Post
A successful personalized learning initiative: Lessons learned
It’s tempting to believe that money can solve all your problems–especially if you’re a school superintendent. I’ll never forget the moment my school district won its Race to the Top district grant from the federal government in 2012. 28.6 million dollars! I felt like I had won the lottery. Except that instead of buying a mansion or a yacht, my reward would be ensuring better outcomes for all my students in Warren Township in Indianapolis. We rushed to start implementing the ambitious plans we outlined in our Race to the Top application, which included 11 different projects embedded within three overarching goals.

The Washington Post
Loudoun County schools budget proposal tops $1 billion for first time
The superintendent of the fast-growing Loudoun County school system has proposed a budget that for the first time would top $1 billion, a marker of the rapid transformation of a once-rural school district that now serves more than 76,000 students. Superintendent Eric Williams’s proposal for next school year calls for $86.7 million more than this year’s budget of $981 million — an 8.8 percent increase. If approved, it would expand the district’s offering of full-day kindergarten, direct more teachers to schools with large populations of at-risk students and increase teacher salaries.