January 7, 2014

Delaware News

The News Journal
The strange and difficult moves of Delaware politics
An editorial
The Democratic leadership in the state House just imposed a little discipline on two representatives, John Kowalko and Helene Keeley. Mr. Kowalko was bumped from the House education committee, Ms. Keeley from the capital budget committee. The Kowalko bump is widely interpreted as payback for, among other things, his outspoken criticism of Gov. Markell’s education policies.

Sussex Central wins coding grant
Sussex Central High School has won a $10,000 grant for a program that teaches students how to code. One school from each state received one of the grants. Many schools across Delaware participated in Hour of Code, with two schools winning online web-chats with Microsoft founder Bill Gates and pop star Usher.

National News

Education Week
R.I. Chief Deborah Gist’s fate uncertain as contract-renewal deadline passes
Rhode Island Commissioner of Education Deborah Gist’s future with the state is uncertain after the state Board of Regents missed a deadline at the end of last month for renewing her contract, which expires this summer. The deadline’s passage doesn’t definitively mean that Gist is on her way out. But it does create uncertainty for Gist’s long-term future in the state, where she was first appointed to the commissioner’s role in 2009.

E-rate undergoing major policy, budget upgrades
Federal officials have dramatically overhauled the E-rate program to prioritize expanded support for broadband and wireless connectivity, through the approval of a series of changes that have been widely hailed by education, library, technology, and industry groups as much needed and long overdue.

Differentiation doesn’t work
A commentary by James R. Delisle, President, Growing Good Kids, Inc.
In theory, differentiation sounds great, but there’s only one problem: Differentiation is a failure, a farce, and the ultimate educational joke played on countless educators and students.

Los Angeles Times
An insider or outsider as next head of L.A. Unified
The nation’s second-largest school system now finds itself at a crossroads. Does the system go with a leader from the inside who knows the system and its players? Or does it go with an outsider who would be charged with making rapid progress and difficult decisions while working to understand a byzantine bureaucracy?

Bellwether Education Partners’ Ahead of the Heard
Optimistic predictions notwithstanding, Common Core faces brutal 2015
A blog post by Andy Smarick
Lots of edu-commentators have lots of edu-predictions for 2015. I’ve tried my hand at the forecasting business (relentlessly in some cases), so far be it from me to nitpick all this crystal-balling.