March 9, 2016

Delaware

Cape Gazette
Shields second – and third- graders collaborate for Digital Learning Day
For Digital Learning Day at Shields Elementary School, Candice Ruckle’s second grade and Melissa Tuttle’s third-grade classes worked collaboratively. The third-graders helped the second-graders log onto Schoology for the first time. After logging on, the students worked together to set up a profile and view class pictures. Once they were set up, they joined discussion groups where the children engaged in conversation with one another on how they think Schoology could be used in the classroom.

Send a kid to…culinary school!
It started just a few years ago, but most food industry professionals took it with a grain of salt. New hires for restaurant kitchen duty were often not as skilled as they said they were. And applicants for upper-level positions that required certifiable experience, such as executive chef or general manager, were fewer and further between. And new hires sometimes didn’t make it through the season. And nowhere was this trend more obvious than in seasonal resort communities, not the least of which is Delaware’s Cape Region.

Delaware 105.9
Delaware lawmakers eye bill mandating school health centers
The House Education Committee is set to consider a bill requiring all public high schools in Delaware, other than charter schools, to have school-based health centers. The bill to be discussed Wednesday says the state will pay startup costs for any school that doesn’t have a health center. The state also would fund the operational costs of each center for at least one school per fiscal year until all schools are in compliance. Currently, only three high schools don’t have school-based health centers.

Middletown Transcript
Richard Forsten will stay on school board for another term
Appoquiniminink Board of Education President Richard Forsten will automatically serve a second five-year term after no one else filed to run for his seat. The New Castle County Board of Election filing deadline was March 4. Forsten announced last month that he would file for another term. Forsten, a partner with the law firm of Saul Ewing where he practices commercial real estate and land use, was first elected to office in 2011. Last July, the five-member board selected him as its president. He will be sworn in for his second term after his current one expires on June 30.

Newark Post
Four candidates file for two seats on Christina board
Four candidates have filed for two seats on the Christina School District Board of Education, setting up two contested races. Two-term incumbent David Resler will face off against Meg Mason, a former district principal, in the District B contest, while Boys & Girls Club staff member Desiree Brady will challenge incumbent Elizabeth Paige for the District F seat. While the school board is comprised of one member from each of the seven electoral areas in the school district, anyone who lives in the district can vote in the May 10 election, even if they don’t live in the electoral areas with open seats.

Smyrna – Clayton Sun – Times
One candidate files for Smyrna Board of Education
One candidate filed for one seat on the Smyrna Board of Education by the filing deadline on Friday so no election will be needed. Kathryn “Katy” O’Connell of Clayton filed for the five-year term, according to the Kent County Department of Elections. Incumbent Ron Eby decided not to run for re-election for a third term on the board. O’Connell, 38, graduated from Smyrna High School in 1996.

The News Journal
Six educational programs called ‘superstars’
Two programs that bridge school and work are among the six that are being recognized by the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce as superstars in education this year. The chamber of commerce has been giving the superstars award for 24 years to recognize outstanding programs and highlight the importance of quality education for students who will grow up to work in Delaware’s businesses. The chamber considered 42 nominees this year and chose six programs to honor at a reception on May 9.

Give, advocate and volunteer your way
Opinion by Tierra Fair, community relations associate at the United Way of Delaware
For World Read Aloud Day, I sat in a classroom full of kindergartners and read Dr. Seuss’s “One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish.” At the end, I had the opportunity to gift one lucky five-year-old with the book; her name was Brittany. She was so excited about her prize that she held it up proudly, and told me that although she can’t read it yet, one day she will be able to read just like me. Did you know that the quality of life for students who are not able to read by the third grade is significantly lower than their classmates who can read on grade level?

WDEL
Kindness catching on at Appoquinmink High School
Something as simple as holding a door for a fellow student or sitting with someone who looks lonely at lunch–that’s what about 20 Appoquinimink High School students are trying to do each day as part of a Random Acts of Kindness project. The project was inspired by former Appo science teacher Brian Conley, who died of brain cancer on April 21, 2015. Fellow teacher and Conley’s best friend, Aaron Rush, launched the idea in December.

Appoquinimink unveils more rigorous coursework for incoming high school students
Students starting high school in the Appoquinimink School District next year will face a tougher course load. At Tuesday’s monthly Appoquinimink School Board meeting, Board President Richard Forsten told WDEL about the changes that will begin the 2016-17 school year. “Several years ago, board members challenged the administration to improve the high school course catalog by making it more rigorous with more course selections,” said Forsten. Incoming high school students will be able to choose from one of 24 possible career pathways offered through Appo’s schools.

National

Chalkbeat
New citywide campaign tries to attract minority educators to Denver
A joint effort introduced Friday involving Denver Public Schools, the mayor’s office, charter school operators and others aims to sell the city to minority educators, part of a push to build a more diverse workforce that better reflects the student population. The two-year campaign is called Make Your Mark Denver. It pitches prospective teachers and principals on the opportunity to make a difference in narrowing the district’s race- and income-based achievement gaps while living in a growing city that’s become a magnet for millennials.

Education Week
California leader puts spotlight on long-term English learners
Michael Matsuda often reflects on his mother’s experience as a student in the Anaheim Union High School District. The former Ruth Ikeda—then a 14-year-old freshman—was among the dozens of Japanese-American students forced out of Anaheim High School in the early 1940s after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Her family, including two older sisters who graduated from Anaheim High, spent two years detained in a World War II internment camp near Yuma, Ariz. The family of Michael Matsuda’s father, Jack, was detained at the same camp.

PBS
As the SAT evolves, so do opinions on its value
Thousands of high school students piled into test centers early March as the first group to take the new, revamped SAT. The College Board, which administers the test, promises a more comprehensive, modern evaluation of potential college success. However, as April Brown reports, this new initiative isn’t without controversy and push back. That’s to be expected of a national college-readiness assessment with a unique evolution.

The Hechinger Report
In college remedial classes, unprepared students get the least-trained teachers
At Rutgers University-Newark, 20 college students were working through a word problem on a rainy February morning when several got stuck. “I got 1/10 as the answer, but the computer says it’s 0.1,” called out one young woman. “That’s the decimal equivalent of 1/10, right?” asked the professor, Robert Puhak. “I guess so,” replied the young woman. Puhak paused as he was erasing the problem from the board. “Do you understand why those two things are the same?” “Not really,” she admitted.

The Washington Post
Most literate nation in the world? Not the U.S., new ranking says
A new world ranking of countries and their literacy rates puts the United States at 7th. Who’s No. 1? Finland. The study, conducted by John W. Miller, president of Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, Conn., analyzes trends in literate behavior and literacy in more than 60 countries. It found that Nordic countries are among the most literate in the world but countries in the Western Hemisphere didn’t do well.