May 20, 2015
Delaware News
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Is Wilmington U the future of college?
Interview with Dr. Jack Varsalona, President of Wilmington University
Wilmington University’s billboards boast that the Chronicle of Higher Education calls it one of the fastest-growing colleges in America, at a time many schools are having a tough time keeping enrollments up.
The News Journal
In some classes, cellphones are welcome
Instead of banning cellphones in class, Megan Szabo, the reigning Delaware Teacher of the Year, is on a campaign to help teachers and students across the state find the best ways to incorporate the technology in students pockets into the classroom.
Students need school libraries
Letter to the editor by Jennifer Delgado, Newark
Times are tight, there is no denying that the budget forces our hand and choices must be made. Eliminating quality library programs, however, is a short-sighted budget cut which harms all our students – especially our students in poverty who are effectively denied equal access to information and technology with the closure of school libraries.
WDEL
Padua senior, who beat cancer, named Top Youth Volunteer in the nation
In 2009, Pearce Quesenberry started the Pearce Q. Foundation which helps to raise awareness and funds for kids and their families to fight cancer. Her organization has raised more than $190,000 and helped 140 families. The organization pays electric bills, mortgages, or medical supplies to help alleviate financial burdens for families with kids with cancer.
National News
Education Week
Five principles for securing student-data privacy
Commentary by Cameron Evans, the U.S. chief technology officer of Microsoft Education
Regardless of whether a school is rural, suburban, or urban, or is large or small, there are a few fundamentals I can offer from my experience in school technology to help protect student-data privacy.
To opt out or not to opt out: That’s not the question
Blog post by Lily Eskelsen García, president of the National Education Association
Parents should have a right, if they are not satisfied with the answers to their questions, to opt their children out of any mandated standardized testing that they believe is inappropriate or harmful to their child or that serves no educational purpose. But making it easier for parents to opt out is not the solution. Getting rid of the source of test abuse is the solution.
Huffington Post
61 years after Brown v. Board Of Education, many schools remain separate and unequal
Decades after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education ruling declared segregated schooling of black students unconstitutional, many American schools with high minority populations continue to receive fewer resources and provide an education that’s inferior to schools with large white populations.
Chalkbeat Tennessee
Haslam signs special education voucher bill
Tennessee on Monday became the nation’s 22nd state to enact legislation allowing public funds to go to private schools as Gov. Bill Haslam signed into law a measure aimed at special needs students. The Individualized Education Act, which easily passed in the Tennessee legislature in April, will provide families of about 18,000 students with severe disabilities the option to forego public schooling for a bank account holding public funds for “education-related expenses.”
Portland Press Herald
Legislature’s Education Committee votes to drop Maine’s standardized test
Members of a legislative committee on Monday overwhelmingly opposed eliminating the Common Core education standards in Maine schools but endorsed a bill that would require the state to drop a current standardized test that is aligned with Common Core.