January 4, 2016

Delaware

Cape Gazette
Freeman Foundation mural project continues in schools
The Joshua M. Freeman Foundation announced it is continuing to partner with middle schools in Sussex County on its arts initiative to help bolster confidence and inspiration within the student body. Nearly 1,300 students from two schools, Seaford Middle School and Southern Delaware School of the Arts, will participate in a week-long exercise that will produce large legacy murals to hang throughout the schools.

Baker Exxon grants $500 to H.O. Birttingham Elementary for math and science
H.O. Brittingham Elementary School in Milton was honored again this year with a $500 grant from the Exxon Mobil Educational Alliance Program. This grant was sponsored by local Exxon Distributor Baker Petroleum to help local schools purchase items used in their math and science programs.

Delaware State News
House Democrats seeks to ease Delaware students’ test burden
Ten House Democrats, including leadership, want the governor to replace the Smarter Balanced standardized test with the SAT for 11th graders. Currently, Delaware students in grades three through eight and grade 11 take the Smarter Balanced test. The test has been criticized for being too difficult and part of a curriculum overly focused on standardized assessments. Objections reached a peak with a bill that would allow parents to opt their children out of the test.

Hockessin Community News
Opt Out supporters rally Jan. 14 to override veto
The tug of war between advocates of the Smarter Balanced Assessment test and members of the Opt Out movement has been a source of constant debate in the General Assembly. In July Gov. Jack Markell vetoed House Bill 50, which would have made it easier for parents to opt out of the statewide assessment test.

Office of the Governor
Governor’s Weekly Message: Increasing opportunities in the New Year
In his weekly message, Governor Markell highlights efforts to provide better opportunities for the workforce in Delaware. “In the coming year, our state’s leaders must continue to give our people and our institutions the chance to set and reach higher expectations. And we should never be satisfied with the status quo,” said Governor Markell. “I wish all Delawareans a very happy New Year and I look forward to working together in 2016 to keep Delaware moving forward.”

The News Journal
Teachers show student he’s not alone
Since the first time he saw them on TV, Dexter Crockett has been a fan of the Philadelphia 76ers. But the first time the 18-year-old William Penn High School senior got to go one of the team’s games was Dec. 22, when he went with four school staff members as a Christmas gift. Crockett, who has a learning disability, has a troubled home life, and he is currently living with a friend instead of with his family.

National

Education Week
With Budget Veto, Pa. schools get emergency funding, but little certainty
Blog post by Daarel Burnette II, education policy reporter at Education Week
With Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s line-item veto of a proposed $30.26 billion state spending budget Tuesday, the state’s 500 school districts won’t get a fix for a broken school funding formula and a ballooning pension crisis any time soon. But Wolf did provide the state’s very-frustrated district leaders with a slight reprieve by releasing to them six months worth of emergency funding.  The budget standoff in the Keystone State, which began in July, is the longest in the state’s history and has held up millions of dollars meant for education and other state services.

City – Journal
A half-charter school District for L.A.?
Eli Broad made his fortune in construction and real estate. But he’s building a legacy as a philanthropist and an education reformer. Working under the auspices of his family foundation, Broad would gather some of the biggest names in private philanthropy—Gates, Walton, Ahmanson, Bloomberg, Annenberg, and Hewlett, as well as David Geffen, Kirk Kerkorian, and Elon Musk—to open 260 new charter schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District over an eight-year period, with an enrollment goal of at least 130,000 students.

Marketplace Education
What to expect from new education chief John King
The U.S. Department of Education has a new boss, albeit a temporary one. With the New Year, John King, Jr. became Acting U.S. Secretary of Education, after the departure of Arne Duncan. King is a former education commissioner of New York State, and more recently Duncan’s second-in-command. At a press conference announcing his appointment, King credited teachers with getting him through a rocky childhood in Brooklyn, New York.

NPR
6 education stories to watch in 2016
Claudio Sanchez is the senior member of the NPR Ed team, with more than 25 years on the education beat. We asked him for his list of the top stories he’ll be watching in 2016.

The Hechinger Report
Stop all the testing in math, and set free a generation of American mathematicians
Why do so many students either hate math, fear it or both? If you ask most students what they think their role is in math classrooms, they will tell you it is to get questions right. Students rarely think that they are in math classrooms to appreciate the beauty of mathematics, to ask deep questions, to explore the rich set of connections that make up the subject, or even to learn about the applicability of the subject; they think they are in math classrooms to perform.