January 9, 2017
Delaware News
Newsworks
Del. Tech gets $3.5 million for IT/Manufacturing students
The grant money will help 600 students get their IT and Advanced Manufacturing certificates at Delaware Technical Community College. Funding for this project comes from the U.S. Department of Labor’s America’s Promise Grant to help support workforce development and training programs at community college. The money will help Del. Tech partner with other agencies including the Delaware Department of Labor and the Delaware Economic Development Office.
Rodel Blog
Ten ways coaching helps in the classroom
Blog post by Jared Lelito, middle school math and special education teacher at Fred Fifer III Middle School
Rodel Teacher Council member Jared Lelito teaches math in an inclusion classroom at Fred Fifer III Middle School in the Caesar Rodney School District. In addition to teaching, Jared coaches football, basketball, and baseball for the Caesar Rodney High School Riders. During his time in the Caesar Rodney School District, Lelito discovered a few ways coaching has helped improve his teaching in the classroom. Here are just a few.
Delaware, the U.S., and the global report card: What it means
Blog post by Liz Hoyt, research associate at the Rodel Foundation of Delaware
An often-unpredictable 2016 came to a close with some status-quo scores and glimmers of promise in science for U.S. students on the Program for International Assessment (PISA), a “global report card” of student achievement. The PISA is administered every three years to 15-year-old students around the world, assessing their knowledge and ability to think critically in math, reading and science.
Sussex County Post
IRSD: Changing of the guard could spur talk of additional change
Potential changing of the guard might bring additional change in the Indian River School District. If confirmed by the Delaware State Senate, IRSD Superintendent Dr. Susan Bunting will be leaving the school district as Governor-elect John Carney’s pick for Department of Education Secretary. Governor-elect Carney’s inauguration is Jan. 17.
The News Journal
State budget grim, but leaders hope to avoid tax increases
As John Carney prepares to become Delaware’s 74th governor, the state faces one of its largest budget gaps since being savaged by the Great Recession of 2008. Those hoping for new spending from state government should prepare for another grim year. After years of relative austerity, there are many requests: Education advocates in the Wilmington Education Improvement Commission are clamoring for extra resources for high poverty schools.
National News
NPR
‘Schools Can Save Lives’: An exit interview with the U.S. Education Secretary
He didn’t have long. Education Secretary John B. King Jr. was confirmed by the Senate in March 2016 after President Obama’s long-serving secretary, Arne Duncan, stepped down at the end of 2015. No matter the outcome of the 2016 presidential election, King knew that Obama would be out in a year and replaced by a president who, regardless of party, would almost certainly replace him.
The Hechinger Report
National nonprofit to recruit Mississippi communities for reading program
Five Mississippi communities are in preliminary discussions with the national Campaign for Grade Level Reading to roll out community-based initiatives that will aim to improve third-grade reading success. Hattiesburg, Vicksburg, Clarksdale, Jackson, and New Albany may join Oxford and Gulfport as “Campaign for Grade Level Reading Communities,” which means those cities would receive small grants to roll out or ramp up various educational initiatives like summer learning opportunities or efforts to improve school attendance.
The Philadelphia Inquirer
He seeks more black men to teach in Philly and beyond
Sharif El-Mekki vividly recalls every black male teacher who ever taught him: two in elementary school, two in high school. “They were transformative figures in my life,” said El-Mekki, a veteran Philadelphia educator. For 2017, El-Mekki has a goal to organize 1,000 black men to show up for the first day of school, encouraging city youths to be their best.
The Tennessean
Minority student achievement to play bigger role in school accountability
This is the first in a four-part series on how Tennessee plans to put in place the Every Student Succeeds Act, a new federal education law. School report cards in Tennessee are data treasure troves. Dozens of data sets, like student demographics, ACT scores and state test scores, help illustrate a school’s successes and challenges.
Thomas B. Fordham Institute
ESSA accountability should be like water: Weighty, transparent, and fluid
In education reform’s post-election landscape, long-dormant fault lines have slipped, opening huge chasms of belief as former allies run to their respective partisan or issue-based corners. Accountability, one of the deepest of those fault lines, seems to have become a totemic stop sign among reformers who find their political anchor in the Democratic Party.