March 18, 2015

Delaware News

WHYY
Delaware moving toward second delay on teacher evaluations
Delaware teachers won’t be judged by how their students perform on this year’s Smarter Balanced assessments. And it’s looking like they’ll get a second reprieve in 2015-16. The state recently added language to its annual Elementary and Secondary Education Act flexibility waiver asking the federal government for a second year to adjust to the new test, which is being rolled out this year.

Delaware teachers union votes no confidence in secretary of education
Delaware’s statewide teachers union has issued a vote of no confidence in Secretary of Education Mark Murphy. The vote took place Saturday at the Delaware State Education Association’s annual Representative Assembly and was taken by elected delegates from each of the state’s local teachers unions.

The News Journal
Delaware teachers union: no confidence in top education leader
Nearly 200 delegates representing 19 school districts voted no confidence. The move follows similar votes in the Red Clay and Christina branches of DSEA that were announced last week. The union voted over the weekend.

Delaware Department of Education
Teachfest Delaware: Spring Academy announced
A press release
The Delaware Department of Education (DDOE), in partnership with LearnZillion, a leader in Common Core digital curriculum and professional development, invites 200 K-12 teachers from across the state to attend TeachFest Delaware: Spring Academy on May 28, 2015 at Dover Downs Hotel & Casino. The Spring Academy will be a hands-on, day-long professional learning session designed to support teachers in bringing the Common Core State Standards to life in their classrooms.

National News

Seattle Times
Criticism of Common Core is misdirected
Editorial by the Seattle Times editorial board
Common Core has been unfairly blamed for a variety of problems in America’s schools, from over-testing at Nathan Hale High School in Seattle to teachers not instructing elementary school kids to write in cursive. None of that is true.

Lawrence Journal-World
Kansas Senate passes Brownback’s school funding overhaul
The Kansas Senate gave final passage to a bill overhauling the way Kansas funds its public schools, sending it to Gov. Sam Brownback for his signature even though a three-judge district court panel has suggested it may try to block the bill from taking effect. The bill does away with the per-pupil funding formula that has been in place since 1992, as well as the various weightings that provide more money for different categories of students, such as bilingual students and those from low-income households.

Indianapolis Star
Do charter schools deserve more state funding?
Educating Indiana’s poorest students at a lower cost than traditional public schools was a selling point of charter schools when they first opened 13 years ago. This spring, charter schools are clamoring for more funding from the General Assembly while facing criticism they have not succeeded at the job they set out to do.

Education Week
States prepare public for Common-Core test results
Even as states begin administering new tests aligned with the Common Core State Standards, they are ramping up efforts to eliminate or minimize public backlash when the scores—widely expected to be markedly lower than results from previous assessments—are released later this year.

The problem with our school boards
Commentary by John Mannes
While national education reform dominates media coverage, local school boards wield significant influence over student performance. Board members are tasked with solving such large-scale problems as achievement gaps, budget shortfalls, and aging facilities. However, the discrepancy between effective and ineffective school system governance is clear among the more than 14,000 public school districts nationwide.

Politico
Mike Pence’s (latest) education power play
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence wants to strip his Democratic schools superintendent of power — and both Democrats and Republicans say it is a telling example of the aggressive style of this potential 2016 presidential contender.