June 20, 2014

Local News

The News Journal
Delaware consider school funding overhaul
Delaware’s state-centric model for funding schools could be headed for a change, as Gov. Jack Markell’s administration plans to pilot a new system in two years. Markell’s administration has added to its proposed budget for next year a plan that would create a working group tasked with finding a different way to distribute money that would give districts and schools more spending flexibility.

National News

Education Week
Doomsday scenario: A court order to increase taxes for K-12
On June 12, the state’s top court said that unless state lawmakers can convince them otherwise, the justices will hold the state in contempt of court for not increasing school funding to the court’s satisfaction, in light of its ruling in McCleary v. Washington.

Poll: Nearly half of American adults haven’t heard of Common-Core Standards
The MSN/Wall Street Journal poll, conducted by Hart Research Associates, shows that 47 percent of the 1,000 adults surveyed have not heard of the common core. Of those who have, only 22 percent said they’d heard a lot about it. The remaining 30 percent said they’d heard “some.”

New York Post
Albany OKs Common Core reprieve for low-rated teachers
Bowing to pressure from the teachers union, Gov. Cuomo and the Legislature reached a tentative deal Thursday that delays the use of state Common Core student test results to grade teachers who’ve been rated “ineffective” or “developing.” The low-ranked teachers’ extended lease on job security would last for two years, 2014 and 2015, when their evaluations would be recalculated by excluding the state test score results of their students.

ABC News
DC to suspend test scores in teacher evaluations
The District of Columbia public school system, one of the first in the country to evaluate teachers using student test scores, announced Thursday that it would suspend the practice while students adjust to new tests based on Common Core standards. Chancellor Kaya Henderson announced the decision, saying officials are concerned it wouldn’t be fair to use the new tests until a baseline is established and any complications are worked out.

New York Times
Efforts to inspire students have borne little fruit
Five years ago, President Obama began the Educate to Innovate initiative, a series of private-public partnerships with companies and nonprofits that was intended to get more students fascinated by science, technology, engineering and math — the so-called STEM fields. But that goal has been an elusive one.

Wall Street Journal
Jeb Bush charts tricky course with embrace of Common Core
Most potential Republican presidential contenders are renouncing the national educational standards known as Common Core. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who has championed measuring academic achievement for two decades, is doubling down.