March 2, 2015

Delaware News

The News Journal
“I Love to Read Month” gets kids excited about books
Gallaher Elementary’s campaign to get students excited about reading is reflective of the state’s push to boost literacy for students.

Tough new Delaware testing concerns parents
The debate over standardized tests has become particularly intense this year because students and schools are gearing up to take a brand-new exam, the Smarter Balanced Assessment.

Parents, teachers push back against Delaware testing
The stress that Delaware’s high-stakes standardized tests place on students, teachers and schools is leading a small, but vocal contingent of parents to say, “Keep my child out of it.”

Want to see kids have fun? Watch them build robots
Opinion by Ted Kaufman
Nonprofit organizations such as those working to promote STEM education in Delaware will keep us competitive in a fast-changing world. First State Robotics is one of my favorites.

WHYY
Separate but thriving: how one Delaware district teaches its unaccompanied minors
Indian River School District’s APELL program–short for Advancing Preliterate English Language Learners—seems to be a burgeoning success story.

Cape Gazette
Delaware to fund student training in high-demand fields
School districts will have access to programs that prepare high school students to thrive in growing industries under a statewide effort recently announced by Gov. Jack Markell. Initially previewed in the Governor’s State of the State address, the Pathways to Prosperity initiative will establish partnerships with Delaware employers, universities and school districts to prepare students for a bright future in high-demand fields and careers.

Coastal Point
Students spend less time, more thought, on state tests
Delaware public students are already spending a lot less time in standardized testing. This year, the State shifted to the Delaware System of Student Assessments (DeSSA), meaning that, after years of interrupting classrooms three times annually for state standardized tests, Delaware is returning to a one-time student assessment.

Homeroom
Highlighting success in Delaware
The official blog of the U.S. Department of Education
“The lessons here are really profound, and the progress is fantastic, but what happens here, I think has national implications,” said Secretary Arne Duncan.

National News

Education Week
In anti-testing push, unions turn to polls, ads
At least two teachers’ unions are trying to get the number of tests students must take in their states reduced, and they’re relying in part on ad buys and commissioned polls that, they say, reflect widespread concern among parents and the public about the exams.

Inside Higher Education
Family influence on education
Spending your teenage years in a single-parent family puts you at a larger educational disadvantage today than it did 40 years ago, claims a new study. The college completion rate also was 26 percentage points lower for 24-year-olds who lived in single-parent homes as teens.

Chalkbeat New York
De Blasio rejects Cuomo’s school takeover plan, citing city’s turnaround program
Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday that the governor’s plan to let outside groups take over struggling schools is unnecessary in New York City, since the city is going to “enormous lengths” to turn around those schools. He also repeated his pledge to close troubled schools that fail to improve after three years, and said that his authority over the city’s schools means that voters can hold him accountable for their progress.

The Denver Post
Educator’s refusal to give PARCC called into question by district
Among parent activists fed up with standardized tests, Peggy Robertson is a hero — an experienced educator who has witnessed damage wrought by high-stakes tests and is doing something about it.

Chalkbeat Colorado
Bill to encourage tech careers advances in House
The House Education Committee approved a bill Wednesday that would tweak the state’s school and district rating system to give credit for high school graduates who move into career training programs, as well as those who attend college.

Politico
Unable to repeal Common Core, foes try sabotage
Conservative lawmakers in state after state are running into difficulty rounding up votes to revoke the academic standards outright. Instead, some are trying a new tactic: sabotaging, in incremental steps, the academic guidelines and the new Common Core exams rolling out this spring.