March 29, 2016

Delaware

Coastal Point
Indian River only school district without 2016 election
The Indian River School District will not hold a school board election in 2016, as only one candidate registered for each seat that was up for election this year. The incumbents were uncontested, so their new terms will begin on July 1. The IRSD is the Sussex County’s only school district without a contested election this spring.

Rodel Foundation Blog
Do You #KnowYourLegislator?
On March 15, members of the Rodel Teacher Council assembled at Legislative Hall in Dover to get to know our legislators and other key education policymakers. All of us would admit to being far more at ease in our classrooms than a legislative boardroom, but with growth mindsets and a passion for excellent teaching—we came to talk about personalized learning and the gains we have made with our students.

Sussex County Post
‘Plan to move forward’ focus of special IRSD board meeting
Indian River School District’s board of education will meet in special session April 7 to possibly define the direction the district will take in addressing enrollment growth and space shortage. The special session, which follows the March 21 monthly board meeting, will be held at Georgetown Middle School, starting at 7 p.m. Agenda topic “will only be for the plan that we hope to move forward on,” said IRSD school board president Jim Hudson.

The Dover Post
Dover High exchange students struggle to visit Japan: Sister school is in Miyagi Prefecture
Alejiah Boehme has been planning to visit Japan for three years and she’s struggling to find $3,600 to make the trip.  Her goal is to visit Dover High School’s sister school, in the city of Kakuda. School officials do the initial planning, making sure students get there safely. But it’s up to students and staff members to raise the money.

National

CBS Boston
Emotional debate over charter schools in Massachusetts
With the demand increasing each year, Massachusetts officials are trying to create more opportunities for students to attend charter schools like Mystic Valley Regional in Malden. Many students at Mystic Valley have been in this charter school system since kindergarten, chosen in the annual lottery. The wait list at Mystic Valley is 3,600 students deep and it’s the longest in the state. Why is the list so long?

Education Week
New initiative to redesign principal preparation programs
Blog post by Frederick Brown, Deputy Executive Director of Learning Forward
These last few years have been extremely powerful for education leadership. We’ve witnessed the unveiling of the Professional Standards for Educational Leaders, formally the ISLLC Standards. The field also has its first-ever Model Principal Supervisor Professional Standards. Both of these significant contributions to the field come to us thanks in part to the support of The Wallace Foundation. Wallace has been engaged for almost two decades in national efforts to strengthen leadership at the school and system levels.

NPR
How teachers are using Snapchat
What’s the first step of learning? Paying attention. Which may be hard for students to do when they’re constantly peeking at their phones. So, as the adage goes: If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. One app that teachers are embracing is Snapchat. That’s the one where you send a video or picture, and then it disappears 10 seconds after you open it. For some teachers, it makes sense. Their students are already using it.

Parent Herald
Mastery CEO Scott Gordon aims to revive high school education in Philadelphia
Mastery Charter Schools CEO Scott Gordon has spent the last 15 years improving the state of education in Philadelphia. His next big challenge is to breathe new life into Simon Gratz High School, one of the city’s most underperforming public institutions. In order to fix specific academic and social problems in Simon Gratz, Gordon had to do away with his long-standing solution of project-based direct-instruction curriculum. Instead, he formulated a new model which includes new teaching methods, new disciplinary system and the introduction of social assistance and training for students.

The Hechinger Report
A principal who puts people first – and sometimes on YouTube
Opinion by Ray Schleck, principal of March Next
In The End of Average, Harvard researcher Todd Rose argues that “average” is the white whale of social science. There is no average person, average newborn or average student – there is only the abstract amalgamation of individuals into that neat category. It’s one of the many challenges of being a classroom teacher.