March 11, 2015

Delaware News

WHYY
Delaware, Christina School District reach priority schools compromise
After continued negotiation, The Delaware Department of Education and the Christina School District agreed 2015-16 will be a transition year, with the schools likely to become part of the Red Clay Consolidated School District in 2016-17. Until then, administrators and staff at Christina’s priority schools will keep their jobs and the buildings will remain open.

The News Journal
Christina district gets reprieve on Priority Schools
The Christina School District’s three Priority Schools in inner-city Wilmington can keep their principals and teachers next year while state leaders grapple with a redistricting plan that would hand over all of the district’s schools in the city limits to the Red Clay School District.

Biden, Markell: Training key to filling tech jobs
Opinion by Vice President Joe Biden and Governor Jack Markell
In Delaware, several of the state’s biggest employers are joining the effort as part of the governor’s “Pathways to Prosperity initiative.” They plan to fill thousands of technology jobs through accelerated training programs at local colleges and at a “coding school” launching this fall.

Learn from charter schools
Letter to the editor by Kathy Laskowski, Wilmington
As an educator who has taught in both public and private schools, I was originally suspicious of the worth of charter schools. But in researching the development of the charter movement, I discovered, as was revealed in Monday’s article, that the goal is actually to develop innovative practices in a more open environment and then scale these up to use in district schools where appropriate.

More than the ‘Delaware Way’ is needed
Editorial by the News Journal
Well about 700 people gathered in one room Monday night to talk about Wilmington’s schools. Many of them were the “right” people, from the governor to the heads of the General Assembly’s education committees to teachers and school officials to concerned parents. The consensus seemed to be that they wanted things done. That is the first step. The next one will be a little more difficult – the heavy lifting, as one panelist called it.

Taking school ideas to the next step
Editorial by the News Journal
Monday night’s conversations were often direct and to the point. That is a positive. The conversations must continue. Identifying the problems – the disadvantages faced by low-income students, for example – are crucial.

WDDE
Governor mulling state student testing review
Gov. Jack Markell (D-Delaware) is expected to take executive action to review all statewide testing required of Delaware schools. Markell notes that the recent switch to the Smarter Balanced Assessment already reduces the amount of testing for Delaware students, but that more might need to be done.

Budget concerns in the spotlight at Christina School Board meeting
Facing major budget cuts after its recent referendum was defeated, the board approved planning for a second referendum May 27th to pursue the tax increase needed to fill a 9 million dollar budget deficit.

Sussex County Post
Youth movement at Sussex Central spreading the word
There’s an ongoing youth movement at Sussex Central High School spurred by the Student Council that involves taking the pledge and fulfilling it each and every day.

WBOC
Panel examines education of Delaware blind and visually-impaired
A large portion of how the kids are educated is handled at the state, not district, level. The panel will examine assistive technology, individual education plans, post-secondary transitioning and, perhaps most importantly, the teachers.

National News

Education Week
Chiefs for Change announces new focus on big cities, John White as new leader
Chiefs for Change, the advocacy group of state superintendents prominent for supporting the Common Core State Standards and teacher evaluations based on test scores, has announced that it is shifting its mission to focus more on major urban districts.

Robert Putnam: When did poor kids stop being ‘our kids’?
“If it takes a village to raise a child, the prognosis for America’s children isn’t good: In recent years, villages all over America, rich and poor, have deteriorated as we’ve shirked collective responsibility for our kids,” Mr. Putnam wrote.

NJ.com
NJ passes two bills related to standardized testing
The state Assembly passed two bills related to standardized testing, including one bill that would require New Jersey schools to provide parents information about what tests their students take and how they will be used. The other bill would officially recognize a parent’s right to opt their child out of standardized testing.

World-Herald
NE rating system would reward improvement
Public schools that improved test scores for struggling students will boost their state performance ratings under a new Nebraska accountability system. Schools will jump to a higher performance class if scores on state tests improve from the previous year or kids demonstrate sufficient academic growth and vice versa.

The New York Times
Gender gap in education cuts both ways
Top-performing boys score higher in math than the best-performing girls in all but two of the 63 countries in which the PISA standardized tests were given, including the United States.

Chalkbeat New York
Council members push forward on special education transparency
The City Council’s education committee passed a bill Tuesday that would require the Department of Education to release annual reports detailing what percentage of students are getting the special-education services they require. The full Council is expected to approve the bill this week, chair Daniel Dromm said.