June 4, 2014

Local News

The News Journal
Bill lets state board restrict charter schools
A bill that received final approval in the General Assembly on Tuesday would allow the Delaware Board of Education to restrict geographic areas, grades and academic emphasis served by charter schools if it’s determined they will affect surrounding districts. The House gave final passage to the bill on a 24 to 13 vote despite Republican opposition. The measure now awaits Gov. Jack Markell’s signature.

Dover Post
U.S. immigration policy poses unique challenges for school language program
Two years ago, the Caesar Rodney School District created a Mandarin immersion program at McIlvaine Early Childhood Center that gave students the opportunity to learn the language from native speakers. That program has now expanded to several elementary schools in the district, but the staff members who emigrated from China to Delaware to teach the classes are now struggling to learn their own lessons about navigating the complicated waters of U.S. immigration policy.

Coastal Point
IR students climb STEM to architecture and engineering
As technology catapults forward, Indian River High School is pulling the lever with a pre-engineering pathway for STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics). Only two years old, the four-year STEM pathway is aimed at preparing students for a new level of technology and design in their college and careers.

National News

Michigan News
Researchers join forces to study high school policy
Researchers at the University of Michigan, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Tennessee Department of Education will share in a $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to launch a five-year study on the impact of a new dual-credit policy in Tennessee.

The Associated Press
Indiana preschool program delayed, future uncertain
Indiana’s first state-supported preschool program won’t be starting up this coming school year, and when that will happen remains uncertain.

The Atlantic
Kids who spend all day at school
Extended school days, or extended learning time, have become ubiquitous among charter schools and lower-performing schools looking to improve academic achievement. Still, given the wide socioeconomic gaps and educational disparities across the United States, many schools, charter networks, and districts have turned to extended learning time as a pragmatic reform.

Education Week
New York State sets focus on English learners
Education leaders in New York state are pushing a new agenda for English-language learners that calls for more accountability for their needs and more opportunities for rigorous bilingual and dual-language instruction.

Huffington Post
A glimpse of Common Core in the special education classroom
An opinion by Lindsey Siemens, teacher at Chicago’s Myra Bradwell Communications Arts & Sciences Elementary School, and Teach Plus Teaching Policy Fellow
As we begin to implement the Common Core State Standards, all of our truths about what teaching can and should look like are changing. We have spent far too much time focused on what our students – whether they have diagnosed disabilities or NOT – can’t do. It is time to change the conversation.

USA Today
Study: Teachers absent far too often
A study that looked at attendance for more than 234,000 teachers in 40 districts during the 2012-13 year found that 16 percent of all teachers were classified as chronically absent because they missed 18 days or more.