January 28, 2014
Local News
Delaware Department of Education
Sponsors sought for 2014 Summer Food Service Program
A program that targets children in low-income areas to ensure they have meals during the summer is seeking sponsors for meal locations. The Summer Food Service Program (SFSP), a federally funded program operated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and managed locally by the Delaware Department of Education, seeks to increase the number of children 18 years of age or younger who receive nutritious and healthy meals during the summer months. Organizations that participate are eligible to receive reimbursements for meals served and administrative expenses.
Cape Gazette
Referendum on new school set for April 2
Cape taxpayers will head to the polls Wednesday, April 2, to decide the fate of a proposed new elementary school. The proposed $31 million project will cost an average taxpayer at least $39 more a year, officials say.
WDEL
KIDS COUNT: More than half kids in nation aren’t reading proficiently
The KIDS COUNT report finds 62 percent of fourth graders in Delaware aren’t reading at their grade level. “That’s an improvement from 2003, when it was 57-percent,” says Laura Speer, associate director for Policy Advocacy Reform with the Casey Foundation.
The News Journal
State says it won’t give feds individual student data
Amid concerns over the information-gathering power of the federal government and worries among parent and activist groups about what the Common Core State Standards mean for student privacy, state Secretary of Education Mark Murphy and other education leaders are taking a stand, saying they will not give the federal government access to individual student data.
It’s time to start challenging the status quo thinking
An op-ed by Greg Lavelle, Delaware State Senator
Delaware’s economy needs to grow to fund the vision set out by the governor and others. True innovation around the economy, education and crime needs to replace the old guard solutions that protect special interest silos and result in stagnant growth and poor performance. More of the same will surely result in more of the same, and none of us should settle for that.
National News
Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel
Scott Walker backs revisiting Common Core Standards in Wisconsin
In a speech, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker said that the state should develop its own academic benchmarks and that he is working to create a commission to revisit the Common Core standards. A legislative panel recently issued a series of recommendations for modifying the Common Core standards in Wisconsin. Walker also said he would support a bill that requires the same accountability consequences for voucher schools as public schools.
Hechinger Report
Tests to test into college now being followed by tests to get out
Such tests as the SAT and ACT are among the long-established requirements for getting into college. But students increasingly have to take a test to get out. The advent of the college exit test is being driven largely by parents, legislators, and others intent on making sure they’re getting their money’s worth from universities and colleges—and by employers who complain that graduates arrive surprisingly ill-prepared.
Education Week
Standards: A view from my classroom
Natalie McCutchen, a Hope Street Group 2013-2014 fellow, teaches 7th grade Math at Franklin Simpson Middle School in the Simpson County School District.
“Math is hard!” “I’ve never been good at math!” “I hate math!” As a math teacher, I have heard these words uttered repeatedly by my students and one of my top priorities has always been to help my students learn to enjoy math. In order to make this a reality, I have been on a constant quest to find the right strategies and resources to make math more enjoyable and fun for my students. While on this quest, I began to realize that getting my students to like math should not be my focus, but rather getting my students to love learning.
In five states, districts bail out on Race to the Top grants
Concerns over costs and student privacy have spurred districts in Delaware, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, and Ohio to withdraw from Race to the Top. A central complaint has been that the district-level grants to pay for program requirements fell short of their actual costs. In New York, a controversy kicked up over the state’s plan to collect a trove of student data to be stored in a cloud-based repository operated by a private, nonprofit group. Schools chiefs from 34 states have banded together to make a public declaration that they will not share personally identifiable student data with the federal government. In a letter to Education Secretary Arne Duncan, the state superintendents said they are trying to calm concerns that administering student assessments through the two federally funded multistate consortia—PARCC and Smarter Balanced—puts the privacy of personally identifiable student data at risk.