June 23, 2017

Delaware News

The News Journal
Delaware lawmakers consider fewer school districts
Some members of the General Assembly want to create a task force that would figure out how much money Delaware could save if it reduced the number of school districts. Delaware has 19 school districts, including three vo-tech districts. Those districts serve anywhere from the 15,929 students in Red Clay to 1,200 in Polytech.

Appoquinimink bookmobile serves hundreds
When the Appoquinimink School District bookmobile first launched 11 years ago, it served fewer than 200 kids each summer.  Today, it reaches over 600, Silver Lake Elementary Librarian Jodie Klein said. “When you drive up, you feel like a rockstar,” she laughed. Kids line up at one of four different locations just waiting for the small district van to pull over, open its doors and start handing out books.

WilmU teacher residency program gets $500K grant
Maggie Brady still remembers her first year as a teacher.  “It was rough,” she said laughing. “It was just very overwhelming because I had only student taught in a classroom for 80 days. I didn’t know what I didn’t know.” A full school year, in comparison, is 180 days. And there’s very little time for learning on the fly. Perhaps that’s why Brady, a second-grade teacher at Richey Elementary in Wilmington, is such a proponent of Wilmington University’s one-year teacher residency program.

Preserve the positive momentum of our public schools
Opinion by Paul Herdman, president and ceo of the Rodel Foundation of Delaware
As we close in on the end of the legislative session, our elected officials have some hard choices to make. When it comes to our public schools, my hope is that they build on what’s working. The narrative on our public schools has been that better options exist over the state line in Pennsylvania, or at one of our private schools. That story is changing.

The 74 Million
Delaware lawmakers mull nixing state board of ed to help ease budget crisis
When looking to fix a financial crisis, most state lawmakers turn to conventional budget line items such as jobs and administrative expenses to make cuts. Rarely do legislators get rid of public governmental bodies. Until now. The Delaware legislature’s Joint Finance Committee has approved eliminating all funding for the State Board of Education as part of a wave of cuts designed to address a $400 million budget gap, according to The News Journal.

Delaware Public Media
Charter school preference bill passes Delaware Senate
A controversial bill that gets rid of a geographic enrollment preference for charter schools is headed to the governor’s desk. The proposal would forbid charters from using a five-mile radius as a screening tool for prospective students – instead using the school district boundaries where it’s located as a way to keep kids local. But the bill specifically leaves out a sliver of the Christina School District in Wilmington, which critics say excludes poor, minority students from getting a preference for Newark Charter.

Cape Gazette
Cape High students sound off about bullying
Students and recent Cape High grads say students who are not top athletes or part of the in-crowd are often put down; their concerns are ignored by administrators. Adrian D’Antoni, 18, a 2017 Cape High graduate, was one of eight students who attended a meeting June 19 at CAMP Rehoboth.

Coastal Point
IRSD scrutinizing school-choice enrollment procedures
The Indian River School District has been juggling school choice for the past few months. Between space constraints and the now-resolved question of next year’s kindergarten program, school board members have spent more time each month combing through their rules on and goals for school choice.

National News

ABC News
Bill passes NY Senate requiring school employees to notify parents about bullying
If your child was being bullied at school, would you even know it? The state Senate passed a bill on Monday to make sure you would be informed. Jacobes Law requires school employees to make a good faith effort to notify parents when their child is being bullied. The law is named in honor of Jacobe Taras, a 13-year-old boy from Fort Edward who committed suicide in 2015 due to bullying.

Education Week
States consider competency-based learning—but mostly for adults
Three states considered bills that would have enacted competency-based education policies in 2016, and five considered such bills in 2017, according to a new report from the Education Commission of the States. A number of states (including New Hampshire) and districts (including Chicago) are using or contemplating competency-based learning in K-12 schools.

NPR
How it all turned out: A kindergarten story, 13 years later
Today we’re going to update a story we first brought you back in 2004. That September, NPR set out to document what may be the most important day in any young child’s life — the first day of kindergarten. For parents it’s a day filled with hope, anxiety and one big question: Is our child ready? The answer back then, as far as 5-year-old Sam Marsenison was concerned, was “No, no, no!” For his parents, Paul and Maryanna Marsenison of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., it was tough letting go too.

The Hechinger Report
Bridging the divide between ed tech research and the classroom
There’s a lot of knowledge packed away in academic journals. But it can be difficult for education technology developers, teachers and administrators to find and comprehend that information. An interactive “Research Map” website – with data visualizations, videos and links to relevant studies on an array of topics – hopes to bridge the divide. It draws from 100,000 articles published in 180 journals.