May 23, 2014

Local News

The News Journal
Bill would let schools boost tax rate without vote
House Bill 355, which House Education Committee Chair Darryl Scott, D-Dover, plans to file next week, would allow districts to raise their local tax rate by up to 3 percent a year without going to referendum. “I think this is a more flexible approach that allows [school boards] to ask only for what they need when they need it,” Scott said. “They have the responsibility for managing districts’ money, but we only give them part of the tools they need to do that.”

School tax bill should be withdrawn
An editorial
Although this idea is intended to help districts cover growing operating costs from increasing enrollments and the federal mandates tied to the Race to the Top grant, a taxed public first deserves an accounting of efforts to control those related expenses. Before, not after, they are assessed.

Appreciate Edison Charter School honor
A letter to the editor by Joan Dey, Wilmington
Congratulations to all the students, faculty and especially the parents who encouraged their children and worked hard to make this possible. Parents are the ones who change our headlines from tragic shootings and beatings to something so positive. Looking forward to more positive articles about Wilmington public schools. Yes, charter schools are public schools.

Dover Post
Capital school board considers allowing students to opt out of state testing
A proposal that would allow the parents of Capital School District students to decide whether their children take state standardized tests might not be legal, according to the state department of education.

Sussex Countian
Sussex Academy prepares for International Baccalaureate Program
Sussex Academy freshmen are preparing for the recently implemented International Baccalaureate Program that will begin in their junior year.

Delaware State News
Ahead of schedule, Indian River schools meet state safety program requirements
Indian River school officials, committed to the State’s Comprehensive School Safety Program, completed the initial school safety plan and requirements more than three months ahead of the deadline.

National News

The Los Angeles Times
Opposing visions for education on view in state superintendent race
In next month’s contest to lead the state’s public schools, the two front-runners represent opposing forces within education over how best to improve student achievement. The education department has an annual budget of $65 million to oversee $70 billion in education funding. The superintendent interprets and enforces the vast number of education laws, oversees standardized testing and, more recently, has helped school districts adapt to the new learning goals.

Education Week
Companies pledge to back Common Core and science standards
Twenty-six companies, including ExxonMobil, Intel Corp., and Time Warner Cable, have signed a pledge stating they will help advance STEM education and advocate for the Common Core State Standards and the Next Generation Science Standards.

Indiana data network draws opposition
Rising concerns about the privacy and security of vast amounts of student data are playing out across the country. That is especially true in Indiana, where the state is building a network that would gather and analyze academic information on students from the time they enter kindergarten to their days as adults in the workplace.

Arne Duncan spotlights inequities in rigorous coursework
Sixty years after the passage of Brown v. Board, there’s still a wide gulf in educational opportunities for low-income and minority students and their more advantaged peers, including when it comes to access to rigorous coursework aimed at preparing students for college and the workforce, said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

National landscape fragments as states plan Common-Core testing
Only a few years ago, the ambitious initiative to use shared assessments to gauge learning based on the new common-core standards had enlisted 45 states and the District of Columbia. Today, the testing landscape looks much more fragmented, with only 27 of them still planning to use those tests in 2014-15, and the rest opting for other assessments or undecided, an Education Week analysis shows.

Huffington Post
It’s time for a new accountability in American education
An opinion by Linda Darling-Hammond and Randi Weingarten
Voices across the country are raising concerns about the new Common Core State Standards. But if you listen carefully to the conversations, the main concern is not about the standards, themselves, but about the consequences of high-stakes tests attached to the standards. And those concerns are well-founded.