June 15, 2015

Delaware News

Delaware Public Media
DSEA president weighs in on Delaware’s education debates
On this week’s edition of The Green, Jenner discussed the growing discontent among teachers, administrations and parents — and why the goodwill seen five years ago has dissolved.

Education bills moving forward in General Assembly
It’s been the year of education in the General Assembly and lawmakers get set to recess at the end of the month a handful of education bills are making their way through the legislature that would look at how much kids are being tested, redraw Wilmington school district lines and more.

UD researchers test intervention program for infants with poor motor skills
This fall, Michele Lobo, co-director of the Pediatric Mobility Lab and Design Studio at University of Delaware, will be one of a handful of scientists carrying out a new intervention program called START-play, that will target sitting and reaching abilities in infants with poor motor skills.

The News Journal
Freire wants to bring more safety, more collaboration
Opinion by Kelly Davenport, Head of Freire Charter School.
Along with the many educators and community leaders across Delaware who are dedicated to providing no less than the best possible education for all students, we at Freire Charter School Wilmington are excited to join this important dialogue as we prepare to open our doors this fall.

Don’t forget talented, lower-income students
Opinion by Harold O. Levy, a former New York City Schools chancellor and the executive director of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation
Without a doubt, Delaware falls behind other states in serving academically talented, economically vulnerable children. The recommendations the Cooke Foundation provides – to make high-performing students more visible, remove barriers to accelerated coursework, ensure access to advanced educational services for all high-ability students, and hold local school systems accountable for their performance – are commonsense, cost efficient approaches that can be implemented tomorrow.

How to invest in Delaware’s Community College System
Opinion by Mark T. Brainard, president of Delaware Tech.
While Delaware’s public school districts and other two public institutions of higher education can raise additional capital funds through issuing bonds, referendum or endowments, Delaware Tech’s only source of revenue for capital projects is the State Bond Bill. That is why we have urged the governor and Legislature to establish a Community College Infrastructure Fund that will enable the College to maintain our facilities and prevent a looming crisis.

National News

The Washington Post
Colleges are using big data to identify when students are likely to flame out
To gain insight into when and why people drop out, Education Advisory Board (EAB), a consulting firm that uses predictive analytics to improve retention and graduation rates, has collected 10 years of student transcripts from more than 150 four-year public and private U.S. colleges. With that insight, the company created a platform that let Virginia Commonwealth University advisers flag students who are in that danger zone and intervene. Sometimes that means getting students set up with a tutor or simply making sure they are taking the right classes to complete their degree.

Cleveland.com
Ohio ignores online school F’s as it evaluates charter school overseers
It turns out that Ohio’s grand plan to stop the national ridicule of its charter school system is giving overseers of many of the lowest-performing schools a pass from taking heat for some of their worst problems.

The Detroit News
New state superintendent: Give power back to Detroit schools
Michigan’s incoming state superintendent of schools opposes any effort by lawmakers to dissolve Detroit Public Schools and says the state should hand back power of the district to locally elected officials.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Gov. Deal’s Education Reform Commission pushes back on school funding
Lawmakers on Gov. Nathan Deal’s Education Reform Commission are pushing back against a key concept in his plan to change the way education is funded in Georgia. Deal wants to streamline the decades-old formula that distributes state tax proceeds to school districts. It uses complicated calculations that consider details like the number of years teachers have been on the job or the level of formal education obtained.

Education Week
‘Nation’s report card’ to gather data on grit, mindset
Evidence has been building for years that these so-called noncognitive factors play a role in whether children succeed both academically and socially. Now, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, often dubbed the “nation’s report card,” is working to include measures of these factors in the background information collected with the tests beginning in 2017.