May 7, 2014

Local News

Dover Post
Six vie for one Capital school board seat
Voters will cast their ballots on Tuesday, May 13 to determine who will fill a seat on the Capital School District Board of Education. The seat, which comes with a five-year term, is being vacated by Phillip Martino Jr. Six candidates have filed to run for the seat.

Cape Gazette
Financial advisors head to classrooms
If a penny saved is a penny earned, then children who were visited by Merrill Lynch financial advisors for “Teach Children to Save Day” recently picked up some important tips for making their money grow. One of four financial advisors to visit schools in early April, Josh Currence volunteered to twice visit H.O. Brittingham Elementary School fourth-grade classrooms.

The News Journal
Elevate teachers to be part of the education team
An op-ed by Donald Gephardt, professor and dean emeritus from Rowan University
A recent Dialogue Delaware article asked “Who controls our schools?” and listed all of the entities that have some input or influence in what goes on in our schools, except for one major group – the teachers. The only reference to teachers having any role is in mentioning their union. However, I do not believe that their union is a meaningful force in influencing or shaping the end product – the students.

National News

Inside Higher Ed
Report: Gauging graduates’ well-being
The evidence from a survey of 30,000 college graduates is mixed about whether colleges are doing enough to help students’ well-being in life. Researchers found that certain sorts of formative experiences in college help prepare graduates for not only “great jobs” but “great lives,” but that too few graduates recall having had those experiences.

N.H. university unveils self-paced degrees
The $10,000 bachelor’s degree remains elusive. But Southern New Hampshire University’s College for America has unveiled self-paced, competency-based degrees that students should be able to complete for that price, or less.

Education Week
Survey: More educators say ‘right amount of time’ is spent testing
A survey finds that teachers and administrators are looking more favorably than they did two years ago on the amount of time that students spend taking tests, and teachers spend preparing for them.

WFSB
Connecticut to expand early childhood education
Connecticut’s newly approved budget includes $12 million for early childhood education and will add more than 5,000 new slots for pre-kindergarten. This investment could help thousands of children from falling behind.

Time
Fewer than 1 in 5 public school teachers are nonwhite
While the population of minority students in public schools has risen steadily over the past few decades, new research finds that just 18 percent of teachers in those schools are nonwhite.

New York Times
Vermont school districts consider consolidation
Tucked into valleys and isolated by mountains and rural expanse, many of Vermont’s 273 school districts serve just a smattering of children. It is an old system, borne of the state’s agrarian history and knotty geography, and many Vermonters like it that way. But some in Vermont see little future in the tiny districts, and a move is on for consolidation. It will not be easy.