May 28, 2015
Delaware News
The News Journal
Christina School District residents reject tax increase
Voters in the Christina School District again rejected a property tax increase on Wednesday, which means the district will move forward with plans for layoffs and other budget cuts.
Delaware Public Media
Christina School District’s second chance referendum fails
The revised referendum failed by an 894-vote margin. It was seeking a tax increase of 37 cents per $100 of assessed property value, phased in over three years.
Non-academic skills are key to success. But what should we call them?
“Basically we’re trying to explain student success educationally or in the labor market with skills not directly measured by standardized tests,” says Martin West, at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. “The problem is, you go to meetings and everyone spends the first two hours complaining and arguing about semantics.”
National News
USA Today
Charter schools in Texas can make college graduates out of the poorest of America’s poor.
Column by Richard Whitmire, an Emerson Collective fellow and the author of several education books
Early results from this large scale experiment by IDEA charter schools — serving 15,000 students in the Valley alone — look promising. For eight years in a row, close to 100% of their graduates have been accepted into four-year colleges.
U.S. News & World Report
Stop the testing circus
Opinion by Andrew J. Rotherham
Schools are to blame as much as any test, test company, or public official. When did it become OK for educators to make tests into such a circus?
Education Week
Suicide and mental health: New resources inform teachers about warning signs
A coalition of organizations have partnered to develop online training materials that will help teachers of students as young as elementary school recognize and respond to early warning signs for suicide and mental health issues.
NJ Spotlight
Christie seeks to reshape school accountability mandates in federal waiver
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s administration has asked the federal government to allow some changes in the state’s accountability system for its most troubled schools, including the administration’s own state-controlled schools.
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Well-schooled in the ways of Philadelphia, School Reform Commission chair is still learning
“Schools are terribly, terribly under-resourced, and we need to do better,” she said. “It hits me every time I go into our public schools – Furness has one science lab in a school of 600 kids.” To address that, she finds herself learning on the job about how to become a politician.