March 30, 2015

Delaware News

WHYY
One teacher, one lesson: Common Core in Delaware up close
This spring, Delaware students in grades 3 through 8 and grade 11 are taking Smarter Balanced, the state’s first standardized test fully aligned with Common Core principles. The results from Smarter Balanced will provide an early statistical indicator on how Delaware students are taking to the new standards. For teachers, the impending test has forced many to integrate Common Core more deeply and completely than in past years. And it means many are getting up in front of their classes and trying something new.

The News Journal
ACLU: Red Clay tax vote should be invalidated
The ACLU claims the district skewed the vote by hosting “family fun nights” at schools where the votes took place, in some cases giving pizza to students if their parents voted. In addition to attracting “yes votes,” the complaint claims those events packed parking lots, making it difficult for other voters, especially older people, to make it into the polling places.

Report discusses cutting Sussex Tech enrollment goals
Sussex Tech school officials say the district is at a fork in the road – either the district gets the Legislature’s approval to more than double its property tax rate over six years, or dozens of educators could lose their jobs because of budget pressures. A report from a subcommittee tasked with studying the district’s finances, though, says there are other possible paths, including one funding formula that would hold Sussex Technical High School’s population steady at its current 1,545 students – putting a stop to years of enrollment growth.

Students use robots to help disabled peers make art
When students with severe disabilities like cerebral palsy want to draw or paint, for example, that usually means having a helper guide their hands for them. But a team of high school students in New Castle County called the Odyssey Angels came up with a better way.

Stronger school leaders needed
Letter to the Editor by Guy Mazza, Ed.D., Wilmington
Wake up….you need to have strong administrators that have the mind set to be involved with their students, staff and parents. They need to know who these students are, where they come from, what their expectations are down the road, and be willing to work 24-7, if need be.

Stop the standardized test mess
If you live in Delaware you have no parental rights as designated by the state nor the federal government to choose to opt out your child from the frenzy of standardized testing that support these measures.

Widener Law announces split into two schools, new dean in Delaware
Major changes are coming to Widener Law School. The school announced Friday the American Bar Association has approved splitting its Wilmington and Harrisburg, PA campuses into two separate law schools. The Wilmington location will now be called the Widener University Delaware Law School and the Harrisburg campus will be called the Commonwealth Law School.

WDEL
ACLU of Delaware claims Red Clay rigged its referendum
The American Civil Liberties Union of Delaware (ACLU) has filed a complaint in the Delaware Court of Chancery against the Red Clay Consolidated School District over its referendum last month.

Cape Gazette
Students attend business professionals leadership conference
Approximately 627 business students from 28 middle schools statewide participated in the 2014-15 Business Professionals of America State Leadership Conference at the Dover Downs Hotel and Conference Center last month in Dover.

National News

Education Week
Gov. Cuomo’s budget riles N.Y. Unions, protestors
Do schools need more money or greater accountability? That age-old education debate, currently playing out between New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and the state’s teachers’ union, is becoming a powder-keg thanks to the fallout from the governor’s budget proposals.

Common-Core testing clashes with social-media monitoring
A New Jersey high school student who posted a tweet about a question on a common-core test last month has unintentionally sparked a controversy that is reverberating through the first wave of state assessments this year.

WHYY
Pa. Gov. Wolf says school ratings should be less tied to tests
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf intends to steer the state away from school accountability measures that he says place too great an emphasis on standardized test scores. Wolf says the state’s existing accountability tool doesn’t provide parents with a comprehensive view of school performance.

Governing
Wyoming, the red state that likes Common Core
Republicans, it seems, do not like the Common Core. Several red states — Indiana, Oklahoma and South Carolina — have withdrawn from the effort, at least officially. But not every Republican-dominated state wants to repeal the standards. Consider Wyoming, a surprising example of a deliberate, bipartisan effort to refine and ultimately enshrine the new education standards.

Seattle Times
Criticism of Common Core is misdirected
Opinion by 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.