June 19, 2014

Local News

The News Journal
Teacher salaries focus of Delaware Lawmakers
Teachers could soon be able to get promotions without leaving the classroom and might even see base salaries increase, but many details, like how the state will pay for such changes, will take months to work out. Senate Bill 254, introduced Wednesday, lays out what the new system would look like and would create a committee to craft a detailed plan by November. That means Gov. Jack Markell could add the changes into his proposed budget for fiscal year 2016.

Mentorship program guides students to graduation
Johnson and Johnson company’s Bridge to Employment program matches students with long-term mentors. Mentors like Evonne Pierson who mentors at Newark High School meet with students at school and help them overcome educational and life issues.

Smyrna-Clayton Sun-Times
Smyrna School Board approves smaller than expected tax increase
The Smyrna School Board approved the Fiscal Year 2015 tax rate at the BOE meeting Wednesday night at the Central Administration Building. The increase is roughly 16 percent over last year’s tax rate.

National News

The Plain Dealer
About 12 percent of Ohio’s third graders still can’t read well enough for fourth grade
About 12 percent of third graders in Ohio can’t read well enough to qualify to move on to fourth grade under the state’s Third grade Reading Guarantee. Previous test results this school year have sounded warnings about how many children are in danger of being held back in third grade if their reading does not improve.

Inside Higher Ed
‘Tough love’ for higher ed
A new report by Education Trust — titled “Tough Love: Bottom-Line Quality Standards for Colleges” — calls for the federal government to demand better performance from a wide range of colleges and universities in exchange for the $180 billion it pours each year into student loans, grants and higher education tax breaks.

Education Week
Phila. Funding crisis threatened spread of innovation
Nearly a year after Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. committed millions of dollars to expand Science Leadership Academy and two other pioneering district schools here, the investment in hands-on, technology-rich instructional models has stirred hope and experimentation across the city. But the tentative flourishing of innovation is at risk of being overwhelmed by a massive funding shortfall that has cast doubt on the superintendent’s ability to safely open schools in September, let alone spread promising new models across the 131,000-student system.

College prep is career prep
We believe we have an imperative to graduate all students with a skill set that prepares them for economic independence and their next step in life, wherever and however they choose to pursue it. Our experience has been that focusing students on goals, rather than segregating them by what those goals are, is the pathway to success.

Students learn to fail – and recover – at Calif. school
Many students at risk of dropping out enter high school already behind on credits and with a history of academic struggle. Some educators say, however, that teaching students to “fail productively” and recover may do more to help them succeed in the long run than a high-pressure crunch to recover credits.

Shreveport Times
Business groups to Gov. Bobby Jindal: Don’t scrap Common Core
A coalition of Louisiana business and civic groups are calling on Gov. Bobby Jindal to keep the Common Core education standards in Louisiana schools. The groups — which include many of the state’s chambers of commerce — noted in a letter Friday that state lawmakers and education leaders have voted to maintain the benchmarks adopted by most states for English and math.