June 2, 2015

Delaware News

The News Journal
Summing up the courage to “Stay In”
Op-ed by Dr. Teri Quinn Gray, president of the Delaware State Board of Education
I am asking our legislators, teachers and parents to join the State Board of Education and dozens of local and national business and community leaders, civil rights and child advocacy groups in saying “NO” to HB 50. Let us all have the strength to endure the discomfort of the unfamiliar; the willingness to honestly look at where we are; and the courage to “Stay In” so that someday, our kids will come out on top.

Education Week
School choice works, privatization won’t
Commentary by Governor Jack Markell
Policies to divert public spending on education into private school vouchers or “education savings accounts”, already enacted in several states and proposed in several more, are a reminder that privatization is not a ready-made solution for every government problem.

Kudos to Delaware Governor for school choice commentary
Letter to the editor by Edd Doer, President of Americans for Religious Liberty
The Commentary by Gov. Jack Markell of Delaware on school choice and privatization was spot on and courageous. His summary of the reasons why vouchers are a bad idea reflects the best thinking of decades of educators and the wisdom of the millions of voters who handily rejected vouchers or their variants in 28 state referendums from coast to coast between 1966 and 2014. Mr. Markell stands as a shining example for other governors and politicians to emulate.

WDEL
Brandywine opens new manufacturing job ‘pathway’ for HS students
A new technical program available to juniors and seniors in Brandywine School District was unveiled at Monday night’s school board meeting. The program is through the state’s new Pathways to Prosperity program, an initiative unveiled in Governor Markell’s State of the State earlier this year.

First coding school in Delaware set to open in Wilmington this fall
A new school opening in Wilmington is promising high-paying jobs with less than a year of training. Zip Code Wilmington is the first coding school in Delaware and one of only a few in the country. Jim Stewart, co-founder and president of school, said the program, which teaches skills for web engineering and software development, will begin its first class in September.

Delaware Department of Education
A press release
Delaware teachers training peers, sharing lessons and materials
Delaware’s Dream Team teachers are training hundreds of their peers to create high-quality, Common Core-aligned lesson plans and materials that will be available to educators across the state.

National News

Education Week
Philadelphia voters approve measure in favor of elected school board
Philadelphia voters approved a ballot measure to abolish the School Reform Commission, the unelected board made up of gubernatorial and mayoral appointees that runs the school system, and put a locally-elected board in charge.

The Washington Post
Some high-performing principals to get three-year appointments
Some high-performing D.C. public school principals will be offered three-year appointments starting next school year, an effort to retain talented principals and respond to calls for more stability among city school leadership.

U.S. public schools report fewer violent incidents
The rate of violent incidents in the nation’s public schools fell between the 2009-2010 and 2013-2014 school years, a period in which security measures such as surveillance cameras became more widespread, according to new federal data released Thursday.

Center for Reinventing Public Education
Avoiding the comprehensive schools trap for charter high schools
ocal leaders committed to the portfolio strategy of managing a city’s system of schools—and even local charter authorizers who sponsor and oversee schools that serve only a fraction of the city’s students—need to think about how schools meet a diverse set of student and neighborhood needs. Issues of fit between students’ needs, and priority attention to underserved groups, are particularly important at the high school level.

Detroit Free Press
Teacher evaluation bill’s focus is local control
A Michigan bill would require that a school would have to limit the number of consecutive years a student is assigned to a teacher deemed ineffective. Also, some of the rules dictating how teachers and school administrators are evaluated would be delayed another two years, among other highlights.

Chalkbeat Indiana
20 years of Spanish immersion make Lawrence Township a model for Indiana
A just-passed bill encouraging more dual-language study could mean more students learning in both English and a new language.