January 5, 2017
Delaware News
Cape Gazette
H.O.B. students perform community service for holidays
Students at H.O. Birmingham Elementary performed community service during the holiday season. They took two-hour shifts as bell ringers for the Salvation Army. They also provided stocking stuffers for soldiers.
Rodel Blog
Digging deeper: Does teacher diversity matter?
There is a growing body of research suggesting that a more diverse teacher workforce increases student wellbeing and academic success. However, in Delaware—and the nation—the teacher workforce is far less racially diverse than the student populations they serve.
What will President-Elect Trump’s education agenda mean for Delaware?
President-Elect Donald Trump has selected Betsy DeVos as his choice for Secretary of Education. A number of people in the community have asked me for my take on what this will mean for public education in Delaware. Here are some initial thoughts. Of course, she’s not been confirmed yet and we don’t know what her plans will be, so we’re reading tea leaves at this point.
Delaware goes to Harvard: Interview with Kimberly Neal
In July 2016, Rodel Teacher Council member and secondary English teacher Kimberly Neal attended Project Zero with 15 of her Brandywine High School (BHS) colleagues. The Harvard Club of Delaware graciously provided the group with a full scholarship to attend the three day workshop. We recently interviewed Kimberly to learn more about her experience at Project Zero.
Sussex Countian
Man shares life with disabilities with students
In 1999 Donald Lanspery’s life changed when his doctors told him they were going to amputate all of his fingers and toes. It was the only way to save the then-56-year-old’s life. Septicemia, a form of blood poisoning usually caused by bacteria, had caused gangrene. While work wasn’t a concern – he retired from the Maryland Department of Social Services in 1997 — he was worried he’d never be as active as he once was. An avid athlete, he enjoyed regular visits to the gym for a game of tennis or basketball.
Newsmaker: Christa Ferdig
Christa Ferdig spent six years as a real estate agent. She hated every moment of it. The Long Neck Elementary School teacher said she was in real estate during a time when she was struggling to find work as a teacher. Six years ago she landed the job as a math teacher and hasn’t looked back. She is one of two teachers chosen for the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching.
National News
Associated Press
Help wanted: Bilingual teachers for California schools
While Californians passed a ballot measure to bring back bilingual education in the upcoming school year, educators say a challenge to getting the programs started will be finding more bilingual teachers. Nearly two decades after banning most bilingual education, Californians voted in November to let schools restore it for both English learners and English speakers whose parents want them to learn Spanish, Mandarin and other languages to compete globally for jobs.
Delaware 105.9
Maryland launches listening tour for Every Student Succeeds
The Maryland State Department of Education is launching a statewide listening tour to help the agency develop a plan for meeting requirements of the federal Every Student Succeeds Act. The first of five scheduled sessions is set for tonight (Thursday) in Hagerstown. The new law allows states and districts to design their own measures of achievement and progress, and decide independently how to turn around struggling schools.
NPR
Relics of the space race, school planetariums are an endangered species
The 24 juniors and seniors in the astronomy class at Thomas Jefferson High School in Alexandria, Va., sink into plush red theater seats. They’re in a big half-circle around what looks like a giant telescope with a globe on the end. Their teacher, Lee Ann Hennig, stands at a wooden control panel which has enough buttons and dials to launch a rocket. Above this whole room is a large white dome. It’s lit up right now — like daytime — but with the turn of a dial, Hennig makes the sun set.
The Atlantic
Taking stock of educational progress under Obama
As they prepare to leave office, members of President Barack Obama’s cabinet are beginning to file their exit memos. Partially a chance to take credit for progress made and partially a final opportunity to call for changes in policy they’ve yet to push through, the memos offer insight into what the administration’s top officials think they have—and haven’t—accomplished over the last eight years. On Thursday, Education Secretary John King delivers his memo.
The Charlotte Observer
North Carolina’s charter surge: Attendance has doubled in the last 5 years
While North Carolina’s traditional public schools lost students this school year, charter school enrollment has more than doubled since the state lifted a 100-school cap in 2011. State tallies show 168 charter schools had 91,815 students in the first month of this school year, compared with 45,215 in 100 schools five years earlier.