March 22, 2017

Delaware News

Cape Gazette
Sussex Science Fair highlights area students
Beacon Middle eighth-grader Douglas Heid had a sweet idea for his science fair project. Using two chocolate bars, a Hershey bar and a Lindt chocolate bar, Heid swapped labels, and set out to see whether consumers could tell the difference between the brands. Lindt chocolate did get the highest ratings, but Hershey wasn’t far behind.

Delaware 105.9
Delaware State Board of Education survives Sunset Committee elimination attempt
The Delaware State Board of Education has dodged a recommendation to eliminate it altogether from the Joint Legislative Oversight and Sunset Committee. The board came under scrutiny after some state lawmakers on the committee accused it of egregious public access violations, a lack of transparency, and downright dysfunction. State Rep. Jeff Spiegelman (R-Clayton) was one of those in favor of getting rid of the board.

Delaware State News
Changes to Delaware Board of Education aim for more transparency
After considering eliminating the state Board of Education entirely, lawmakers instead chose to order the board to clarify its duties and make several other changes with an eye toward greater transparency. The Joint Legislative Oversight and Sunset Committee officially recommended the board’s duties be better defined and its monthly meetings be more accessible to the public.

Department of Education
Teachers of Year visit legislative hall
Delaware 2017 Teacher of the Year Wendy Turner, joined by the state’s 2017 District and Charter Teachers of the Year, addressed legislators in both chambers today after lawmakers passed a concurrent resolution honoring the educators.  Governor John Carney also invited the teachers to his office for a meeting. The resolution sponsors were Rep. Earl Jaques and Sen. David Sokola, who chair the House and Senate’s respective education committees.

Sussex County Post
Seeds of respect planted in East Millsboro Elementary kindness gardens
Respect and kindness are in full bloom at East Millsboro Elementary School. Seeds planted in late February have blossomed into a “Kindness Garden” theme with several “gardens” located on hall walls throughout the K-5 school. “We thought that kindness and respect are certainly two words that we wanted to be able to spread throughout the school and remind students to always be kind, no matter others’ differences – and that that should be happening all of the time,” said East Millsboro Elementary Principal Kelly Dorman.

The News Journal
Christina moves ahead with ‘sanctuary’ policy
Applause filled the room Tuesday night after the Christina School Board moved one step closer to approving a new policy meant to establish the district as a “safe haven” or “sanctuary” for students in the country illegally. The policy will need to come back before the board at least one more time — it still needs to be fully vetted by the school’s legal counsel and re-reviewed by the board before it is put on the books.

National News

Chalkbeat
Tennessee lawmakers revise school recess law to strike the right balance on playtime
Tennessee teachers will have more flexibility over their students’ recess time under a bill that Gov. Bill Haslam is expected to sign into law. The state Senate voted unanimously on Monday to approve the measure, which rolls back stringent playtime requirements that went into effect this school year. The legislation passed unanimously last week in the House.

Education Week
Why are we criminalizing black students?
Commentary by Tyrone C. Howard, professor of education in the Graduate School of Education Studies at the University of California
A recent special report in Education Week revealed serious concerns about the prevalence of school resource officers at elementary and secondary schools across the nation (“Policing America’s Schools: An Education Week Analysis,” Jan. 25, 2017). On the surface, the presence of law-enforcement personnel would seem to be a good step in helping to create and sustain safe learning environments for students and school personnel.

Forbes
8 ways technology can improve education
As technology grows, so do the options for gathering and sharing information. Because while finding cat gifs or funny memes on the internet is fun, there are also scholarly dissertations on a variety of subjects, public domain novels and classics, and up-to-date scientific information. This, in combination with advances in personal computing in both applications and general hardware, means that there are a host of new tools and methods that can be used to improve student learning outcomes. But what ways work?

Indiana Daily Student
House education committee debates over bill regarding teacher union involvement numbers
A bill related to teacher unions passed with a complete partisan split in the House education committee Tuesday morning. These splits have become a common occurrence recently, with many education-related issues causing a heated divide between Democrats and Republicans. Legislators put forth Senate Bill 407, which supporters view as “simple transparency” legislation, but opponents said they thought the bill has deeper, potentially divisive intent.

The Atlantic
How universal child care affects boys vs. girls
Among its many milestones, the 2016 U.S. presidential race marked the first time both the Democratic and Republican nominees released their child-care and paid-leave plans prior to the election. While campaigning, Donald Trump proposed a dependent-care savings account and a small earned-income tax credit for middle-class families. Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, called for direct government investment in early childhood education—including universal pre-k for 4-year-olds—and tax relief for working families’ child care.