May 28, 2014

Local News

Waterloo Courier
Delaware trip provides glimpse into possible high school task force recommendations
A three-day visit to Delaware’s New Castle County Vocational Technical School District made a positive impression on a dozen Cedar Valley travelers. And what they saw there may provide a glimpse into a task force’s proposal for the future of high school education in Waterloo Community Schools.

Technical studies supplemented by regular subjects
Enrolling in one of the New Castle County Vocational Technical District schools means focusing on a single career area. “After high school I plan on attending a four-year college, learning law studies,” said Lucatamo Duncan, a St. Georges Technical High School junior who is in the auto technology program. He views working as a mechanic a “fall-back” career and a job he can do while pursuing a college degree.

Technical education developed differently in Delaware, Iowa
Technical high school districts in each county draw students from comprehensive school systems, which also continue through 12th grade. Students can choose to keep attending their traditional district or apply to a technical high school. New Castle County has five comprehensive school districts. Students come to technical schools from a variety of other systems, as well.

Delaware trip gives Waterloo schools a map
The career and technical education programs participating in the house construction are just a sample of the 18 programs available at Hodgson, one of four high schools that make up Delaware’s 4,548-student New Castle County Vocational Technical School District in the Wilmington area. The district has a total of 40 career programs, with 12 to 21 options offered at each school. Some of the programs are available at multiple schools.

Technical teachers recruited from their professions
Career instructors in the New Castle County Vocational Technical School District have practical experience with the subject they’re teaching. The district recruits people out of their profession for the positions. In some cases, teachers find a way to continue working in their field.

The News Journal
More Delaware students learning Chinese, Spanish
More young students are learning Spanish and Mandarin Chinese as the state’s World Language Immersion Program grows. There were 10 different immersion programs across Delaware this year in the Caesar Rodney, Capital, Christina, Indian River, Red Clay and Seaford school districts. Next school year, there will be 11 schools serving 1,500 kids, nearly twice as many students as this year.

Delaware lawmakers begin trimming budget as revenue falls
Proposed programs to boost school security, enhance drug treatment and better prepare high school students for jobs all are on the chopping block as lawmakers and Gov. Jack Markell grapple with a budget gap.

Investing in Delaware jobs for youths
An editorial
The city of Wilmington has already reached its goal for applications for youth summer employment this year. In anticipation of the likely need, Mayor Williams’ administration increased the budget for summer youth jobs by 56.3 percent. Yet the city is not alone; summer openings in private industry, and the corporate and retail worlds for young people are drying up locally.

Don’t avert school referendums
A letter to the editor by Judy Whitaker, New Castle
Are we really serious about the prospect of allowing school districts to raise taxes without our voice being heard? Who is watching this process? Who is auditing the budgets? Who is in charge of spending? We should be – it is our money.

WHYY
Delaware kindergartners learn Chinese and Spanish
Featuring a video
Maria Leria, a native of Spain, has taught English-Spanish kindergarten for the last two years at William C. Lewis Dual Language Immersion Elementary School in Wilmington. “It is great to see how the 5-year-old kids come in August, they don’t even know how to hold a pencil or write their name,” Leria said. “After one year, they are able to read and write in Spanish and I can have conversations with them.”

WDDE
Vegetable gardens reward Colonial elementary students with healthy food, new skills
Students from several Colonial School District elementary schools are harvesting the fruits of their labors this week after planting and maintaining vegetable gardens at their schools over the spring. Colonial implemented three school gardens – Carrie Downie, New Castle and Eisenberg elementary schools – with financial help from USDA Farm to School grant. Each grade-level has a gardening role to play, from preparing soil and planting to watering, harvesting and composting.

Cape Gazette
In Delaware, school segregation persists until 1967
Appalled by Delaware’s schools, industrialist and philanthropist Pierre S. du Pont took interest in how Delaware’s coloreds were being educated. Du Pont also questioned the way school taxes were levied. Du Pont spent more than $6 million to build more than 80 schools throughout the state, including more than $1 million for Howard High School in Wilmington – Delaware’s only secondary school for black children until the 1950s. Today, adjusted for inflation, the schools du Pont built would cost more than $800 million.

Delaware Department of Education
Delaware Educator
Spring 2014 issue
Dropout rate hits 30-year-low; sharing best practices benefits schools; Delaware’s educators are using data; generating a passion for science…

Engineering & technology students apply spirit of innovation to excel at state conference
A press release
More than 670 students and advisors from 33 chapters across the state recently attended the 2014 Delaware Technology Student Association State Conference, many bringing home honors. This year’s conference had a record registration with more than 1,508 entries in all of the competitive events that were focused on topics in Technology, Innovation, Design and Engineering.

Dover Post
Lake Forest School District voters to head to the polls Wednesday for referendum
Voters in the Lake Forest School District are scheduled to take to the polls on Wednesday to vote whether or not to approve $7.7 million worth of improvements at all six of the district’s schools.

Graduates at special needs school prepare for life after commencement
Jordan Little began attending John S. Charlton School, a special education program for students from across Kent County, in 1998, when he was four. On Friday, Jordan began a new chapter of his life after received his diploma from the Caesar Rodney School District program along with 15 of his classmates.

Dover High weighs possibility of converting to a new class schedule
Administrators at Dover High School are considering a change to the way student classes are scheduled, possibly as early as the 2015-2016 school year. Classes at Dover High are currently on an A/B block schedule, meaning students take one set of four classes on ‘A’ days and another set of classes on ‘B’ days.

National News

The New Orleans Advocate
Louisiana pilot program could serve as model
A pilot project in New Orleans could pave the way for sweeping changes in how the state funds special education students.

The New York Times
Unlikely allies uniting to fight school changes
With tensions running high over issues surrounding academic benchmarks, standardized testing and performance evaluations for educators, unlikely coalitions of teachers, lawmakers and parents from the left and right are increasingly banding together to push back against what they see as onerous changes in education policy. Some have Tea Party Republicans and teachers unions on the same side.

The ripple effect of rising student debt
A collection of studies shows that the burden of student debt may well cause people to make different decisions than they would otherwise — affecting not just individual lives but also the entire economy.

Education Week
Federal grants emphasize STEM, Common Core
The U.S. Department of Education wants its upcoming $35 million investment in teacher preparation to focus on two main areas: Producing effective teachers in the STEM fields and preparing teachers to instruct to the Common Core State Standards.

Common Core key issue in Alabama’s GOP primary
A University of Connecticut poll has found that despite years of debate, three Americans out of five say they’ve never heard of Common Core. A Gallup poll released in April found that parents of school kids were more likely to support the standards than oppose them, though 37 percent were unaware Common Core existed.