June 18, 2015

Delaware News

The News Journal
Delaware Senate passes opt-out bill with wider scope
The Delaware Senate passed a fiercely debated bill that would allow parents to pull their kids out of standardized tests, but only after adding amendments that broadened its scope. That means the bill must go back to the House before it passes the General Assembly.

Newsworks
Broad opt-out bill passes Delaware Senate
A bill passed Wednesday in the Delaware Senate would allows parents to opt their children out of any district- or state-wide assessment. The bill goes further than a Delaware House version, which only certified that parents could opt out of a new, statewide exam known as Smarter Balanced. The Senate bill, unlike its House counterpart, also allows eleventh-graders to refuse to take statewide assessments. In prior versions, parents had to refuse the test on behalf of their children. The amended legislation passed 14-7 and now heads back to the House with new language in tow.

Cape Gazette
UD hosts broadband forum in southern Delaware
Technology specialists, businessmen and educators recently gathered at the University of Delaware Carvel Research and Education Center in Georgetown to discuss the past, present and future status of broadband internet access in the business and agriculture communities of lower Delaware.

WDEL
‘Opt-out’ bill clears Delaware Senate, but amendments send it back to House
Using himself as an example of a struggling student, Dover Republican Colin Bonini, who voted “yes,” voiced his fear that it could lead to teachers persuading parents of underachievers to opt out.

Red Clay educators recognized for educational excellence
Lewis Dual Language Elementary School was named thenational elementary School of the Year for academic excellence by the Embassy of Spain, the only elementary school in the United States to receive the award.

National News

Chalkbeat Colorado
In first test of flexibility plan, nearly a fifth of Denver principals go their own way
Nearly one-fifth of Denver principals are taking the district up on an offer to opt their schools out of centrally provided curriculum or professional development programs next school year and instead choose their own.

Real Clear Education
Eliminating annual tests would hurt teachers
Commentary by Stephenie Johnson is a former fifth grade special education teacher and the current Social Policy & Politics Fellow at Third Way
These unintended consequences of abandoning annual tests are real. Yet there has been little discussion of another inevitable result of moving to grade span testing: making life harder for teachers. Grade span testing would not address the anxiety associated with overtesting. Instead, this policy would intensify the pressure for some teachers while completely discharging others from any responsibility — and that would be a step backward for both students and their teachers.

Education Week
N.Y. ‘open’ education effort draws users nationwide
An online library of academic materials created in New York state to align with the Common Core State Standards has improbably found a vast, nationwide audience—which doesn’t have to pay a cent for the content. The resources, developed through a project called EngageNY and housed on a state-managed website, have been downloaded an estimated 20 million times by educators and others in states around the country, and even in foreign countries, according to estimates provided by New York officials.

The Washington Post
What is making one first-year teacher reconsider her future? Lots of testing.
While she began the school year in Virginia’s Fairfax County full of optimism, Asselin now finds herself, as many young teachers do, questioning her future as an educator. What changed in the months between August and June? She says that an onslaught of tests that she’s required to give to her 5- and 6-year-old students has brought her down to reality.

Magnet schools struggle to be diverse, says study
While the specialty schools do boost diversity, students outside their local neighborhoods are not flocking to them as expected, say researchers who studied 21 nonselective magnets.