March 9, 2017

Delaware News

Newsworks
Task force: To bridge achievement gap, Delaware needs more after-school programs
Delaware is sorely deficient in affordable after-school and summer learning programs, a problem that disproportionally affects the scholastic performance of children from low-income families. That’s the conclusion of a group of mostly educators, program operators and state officials, according to a report released Wednesday. Known as SAIL, the 17-member Statewide After-school Initiative Learning Task Force was created by state House Majority Leader Valerie Longhurst, a Democrat from the Bear area.

Rodel Blog
The case for personalized intervention programs
Blog post by Lyndsey Cook, secondary instructional coach at Kent County Community School 
From as early as daycare and pre-k, we mold our children for success. We monitor their abilities and use data to make sure they are on track. As teachers, when we notice that a student is not on track, we often refer them to intervention programs and pull-out sessions with teachers who specialize in their craft. For those who don’t spend their days inside a classroom, an intervention program is a resource used to close the gap between where a student is performing and the expectation.

The dangers of chronic absenteeism
Blog post by Shyanne Miller, policy associate at the Rodel Foundation of Delaware
If students are not in school, they are not learning. That is the main issue behind chronic absenteeism, which has serious implications for student success. Students that are chronically absent are at a higher risk of failing academically or dropping out. Chronic absenteeism is defined as missing at least 10 percent of instructional time within one academic year.

The News Journal
Report: More affordable after-school programs needed
Delaware needs more affordable and accessible after-school and summer-learning opportunities, according to a new report, especially as a lack of those services is leaving working families with insufficient after-school options and putting students at a disadvantage in school.

Amazon surprises Polytech robotics students with $15K
On Wednesday, Amazon surprised Polytech High School students in Woodside with $15,000 to support their robotics program. The donation is a continuation of support for the STEM initiative. Last fall, Amazon donated an initial $7,500 to fulfill the school’s robotics wish list. “We are proud to continue our support of Polytech High School’s robotics program to inspire imagination and ingenuity.

National News

The Guardian
An education system rigged against the poor
It is understandable that parents, heads, teachers and governors are angry about the increasing pressure within their school budgets (Schools urge parents to protest over funding cuts, 8 March). This is an important issue of national significance – a good society invests in its young people.

NJ.com
N.J. just made it easier to become a certain type of teacher
Facing a shortage of bilingual teachers in its public schools, New Jersey has made it easier to become one. The state Board of Education this month approved what education officials called a “slight relaxation” to the score teachers need on the written proficiency test for bilingual teachers, a move officials expect will boost the number of bilingual educators by 10 to 15 percent.

The New York Times
Diversity lags as students are matched with city schools
It was decision day for many New York City children on Wednesday, as the Education Department told eighth graders where they had been accepted to high school, and incoming kindergartners where they would start school in the fall. Despite a push to increase the number of black and Latino students at the city’s most competitive high schools, the specialized schools, the number of those students who were offered seats for the fall was essentially unchanged from last year, according to the department.

The Washington Post
Radical change for struggling schools? It’s reliably doable.
In education, few questions matter more than what to do for students stuck in enduringly terrible schools. Such schools produce more dropouts than graduates; they are associated with violence, community disorganization, and blunted futures for children. Bringing dramatic change to such schools has rightly become a national priority, in part because of the federal government’s multi-billion-dollar investment in School Improvement Grants, or SIG.

Star Tribune
Charter school enrollment is surging in Minnesota
At charter schools like Athlos Leadership Academy in Brooklyn Park, STRIDE Academy in St. Cloud and Twin Cities Academy High in St. Paul, student enrollment has skyrocketed, with each adding hundreds of new students over the last five years.The growth at those schools echoes the statewide boom in charter school enrollment, according to enrollment numbers for this school year from the Minnesota Department of Education.