May 18, 2015

Delaware News

The News Journal
Time to move on school changes
Editorial
This week, the Wilmington Education Advisory Committee’s chairman, Tony Allen, urged the General Assembly to push forward on those recommendations. He said the legislators should act on two priorities: first, a bill to establish a Wilmington Education Improvement Commission; and second, an amendment to the Delaware Code that would allow the State Board of Education to redraw school district boundaries.

Let’s stop shutting Wilmington out of its schools
Opinion by Theopalis T. Gregory, president of Wilmington City Council
As the leader of the legislative branch of Wilmington’s government, I express my support for the recommendations of WEAC. I concur with the committee’s assessment that its plan can strengthen the public education process and support the long-term interest of Wilmington students. The city should be granted the authority to gather the funding needed to support both the Wilmington Education Alliance and the Wilmington Office of Education and Public Policy which would, in effect, finally give city residents a voice in their child’s education and future.

Students gearing up for China trip
The trip is aimed at students who wants to be an engineer and knows that mastering Chinese will be a highly marketable skill as companies and industries connect across the world. On Saturday, the group met to flesh out a more detailed itinerary, and their busy schedule is taking shape.

Education alternatives put power in parents’ hands
Opinion by Ronald R. Russo, senior education fellow with the Caesar Rodney Institute
Our state legislature will soon be considering a new alternative for students with special needs, the Education Savings Account, which was initiated by Arizona in 2011. It is a parent-empowerment piece of legislation designed to enable parents of children with special needs to customize their children’s educational experience.

Strine: Panel continues to study racial inequalities
Chief Justice Leo E. Strine Jr. said in the State of the Judiciary speech Friday that a commission is continuing to analyze inequality in the state’s court system and will eventually make recommendations on how to reduce or eliminate barriers to accessing justice. Strine said the commission must go beyond the courthouse and justice system to look at inequalities that may exist in education and law enforcement.

International Society for Technology in Education
Turn your classroom into a personalized learning environment
Robyn Howton, English teacher at Mount Pleasant High School and member of the Rodel Teacher Council
Over the last two years, I have transformed my traditional classroom into a blended learning environment that provides a more personalized learning experience for each one of my students. It hasn’t been easy. It’s taken a lot of research, trial and error, and adjustments on my part. But the results have definitely been worth it. Here are five lessons I have learned that have helped me take my classroom from a traditional sage-on-the-stage affair to a tech-assisted personalized learning haven.

Dover Post
Capital’s hunt for a new Dover High School principal continues
The Capital School District Board of Education is restarting its search for a principal at Dover High School after being unsatisfied with the most recent pool of candidates, according to Superintendent Michael Thomas.

Coastal Point
Bombhardt named top elementary school counselor in state
Jan Bombhardt of John M. Clayton Elementary School was recently named Elementary Counselor of the Year for the state of Delaware after receiving an array of nominations from teachers and students alike.

National News

Education Week
Alabama reading intervention stands test of time
A statewide reading initiative begun 17 years ago in Alabama is credited with raising reading scores and narrowing racial achievement gaps in one of the nation’s poorest states.

Common-Core testing drives ‘tech prep’ priorities
As most states shift their required tests to computers, teachers are discovering that their students are missing key technical skills to show what they know.

Texas Tribune
Plan for school finance overhaul dies in Texas House
A months-long effort to reform the state’s problem-plagued school finance system before the Texas Supreme Court weighs in came to an end on Thursday. Facing a slew of amendments and attempts to kill his bill on procedural grounds, House Public Education Chairman Jimmie Don Aycock withdrew his measure from consideration less than an hour into a scheduled debate on proposed fixes to the way the state funds public schools.

The Los Angeles Times
In L.A. Unified races, there’s one issue where charter schools and teachers union agree
Charter-school backers and the teachers union are on opposite sides in next week’s Los Angeles school board elections. But both sides view the school district’s ill-fated and expensive effort to provide iPads to all students as key to victory.

The New York Times
New York Public Schools Fund, under Mayor de Blasio, struggles to secure donations
The Fund for Public Schools, the nonprofit organization that former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and his schools chancellors built into a fund-raising juggernaut, has struggled to attract donations under Mayor Bill de Blasio. The fund, which raised an average of $29 million a year over the last decade, has raised just $18 million this fiscal year.