July 21, 2015
Delaware News
Newsworks
Progress or illusion? Examining Delaware’s dropout rate
But the department’s sunny interpretation obscures a deeper truth: Delaware’s tumbling dropout rate is as much a triumph of better book-keeping as it is a triumph of better education. In fact, evidence suggests that Delaware has not done a significantly better job over the last two years keeping students in school.
UDaily
UD recognized for exemplary admissions programs, services and strategies
The University of Delaware has been awarded a 2015 Marketing-Recruitment Excellence Award by leading higher education consulting firm Ruffalo Noel Levitz. The firm specializes in student retention, recruitment, financial aid, market research, marketing communications development and fundraising management.
UD professors receive $5 million grant to examine implementation of education research
University of Delaware researchers Henry May and Elizabeth Farley-Ripple were awarded a $5 million grant by the Institute of Education Sciences and the National Center for Education Research to establish the Center for Research Use in Education (CRUE). This new center, housed within UD’s Center for Research in Education and Social Policy (CRESP), will focus on studying the connections and gaps between education research and schools’ practices.
Delaware 105.9 FM
IRSD lowers property tax rate for FY16
The Indian River School District has lowered its property tax rate for the second consecutive year.
Education Week
States in holding pattern on ELL waiver requests
The U.S. Department of Education gave Delaware a no-go on their requests for flexibility on ELL testing and accountability. Under the state’s proposed plan, tests and accountability would be phased in gradually until an English-learner had enrolled in school in the United States for four years, at which point that student’s growth and achievement would count the same as that of any other student.
National News
Cleveland.com
State’s top school choice official resigns after illegal e-school omission
David Hansen, the school choice director for the Ohio Department of Education, resigned late Saturday after throwing failing grades for online schools out of key charter school evaluations.
Los Angeles Times
Group sues 13 school districts for not using test scores in teacher evaluations
An education advocacy group, Students Matter, sued 13 California school districts Thursday, claiming that they have ignored a state law requiring teachers’ performance evaluations to include student standardized test scores.
The Brookings Institution
The importance of the teacher supply to education reform
Many teacher evaluation reform efforts may be focused too heavily on the demand side of teacher evaluation. After all, the extent to which a principal is willing to dismiss (or give a poor evaluation to) a teacher will likely depend in part upon her beliefs about the probability of finding a superior replacement in a reasonable period of time.
Education Week
ESEA rewrite: What to expect from House-Senate conference
Now the representatives from both parties and both chambers will attempt to find common ground between their dueling reauthorization bills, which contain some big policy differences. Chief among those differences is how to beef up accountability in a way that appeases the concerns of Democrats and the civil rights communities that the end result must include stronger federal guardrails for the most disadvantaged students, while at the same time ensuring the small federal footprint that Republicans are adamant about.