November 20, 2015

Delaware News

WHYY
First year, first generation: Cierra’s diary
We’ve been following a group of first-generation college students from Delaware as they transition to higher ed. In addition to running periodic stories about their journeys, we’ve helped each student keep an audio diary. The below diary is from Cierra Jefferson, a freshman at Wesley College in Dover, Delaware.

The News Journal
American Beauty Academy loses funding, temporarily closes
The American Beauty Academy in Wilmington has temporarily shuttered its doors after losing funding from the U.S. Department of Education, according to the academy’s CEO. Officials from the academy plan to meet with Delaware Higher Education Office to determine options available moving forward, Gillespie said. He did not elaborate on what those options may be or why funding was terminated.

Recent UD presidents
A look at the legacies of Patrick Harker (2007-2015), David Roselle (1990-2007), Edward Arthur Trabant (1968-1987 and 1988-1990), and John Alanson Perkins (1950-1967)

Delmarva Now
Trio of Cape teachers nominated for presidential award
A trio of Cape Henlopen School District teachers are three of 13 Delaware teachers who are in the running for the 2014 and 2015 Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching.

Education Week
Regional educational group calls for increased early-childhood investment
The Southern Regional Education Board—a coalition of 16 states that start as far north as Delaware and extend west to Texas and Oklahoma—released a report Wednesday outlining the steps it believes states should take to support early-childhood education. Building a Strong Foundation: State Policy for Early Childhood Education outlined five issues where states can take a leadership role: program quality, teacher quality, accountability, access, and governance.

Delaware Public Media
Del Tech keeps pushing for statewide property tax
Delaware Technical Community College officials say they’d save the state more than $14 million next year in infrastructure costs if lawmakers allow it to levy its own property tax. During an early budget hearing Thursday, president Mark Brainard says he would drop his school’s proposed $14.2 million capital request for next fiscal year if the bill is approved. Del Tech’s Board of Trustees could unilaterally charge up to $100 per $1,000 of assessed value under the legislation from Sen. Harris McDowell (D-Wilmington North), though officials say they’d phase any increase in over time.

Delaware State News
Delaware Tech pushes property tax proposal
Delaware Technical Community College’s president called for top budget officials Thursday to support a bill that would impose a property tax on all state residents. Senate Bill 137, filed in June, would treat DelTech like the state’s three vocational school districts, creating a fund supported by a tax on assessed value of real estate. The legislation would create a tax maxing out at $1 for every $1,000 in assessed value. DelTech administrators say the proposal would cost most homeowners less than $10 in the first year. The legislation was released from committee but did not pass this past session, leaving DelTech officials disappointed but not discouraged.

Middletown Transcript
More than 800 cookies baked at Middletown High for soldiers overseas
Culinary students at Middletown High School teamed up with members of the American Legion Post 25 Auxiliary Unit on Friday to bake over 800 cookies for soldiers serving overseas.

Dover Post
New, larger Sankofa Center offering art and STEM classes
The Sankofa Cultural Arts Center is taking its community outreach to the next level with the Nov. 21 grand opening of its new expanded facility Larger than the previous location, the building at 39 South West Street will offer new science programs. According to the center’s director, Reuben Salters, this will include a flight simulator and a robotics club. It offers art, music and dance classes for students looking to become more proficient at a particular subject. Sankofa, at its South Kirkwood Street location for 25 years, provided an additional source of education for the community for a monthly membership fee.

National News

Education Counsel
The Right trajectory – State teachers of the year compare former and new state assessments
A blog post
EducationCounsel has been supporting the National Network of State Teachers of the Year (NNSTOY) to study what excellent teachers think about assessments, given the opportunity to perform a close, side-by-side analysis of the new and old tests. The results were clear: Participating teachers found that new consortia assessments – both PARCC and Smarter Balanced – represent a meaningful step forward for teaching and learning.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Education commission proposes broad overhaul of Georgia schools
Gov. Nathan Deal’s Education Reform Commission signed off on proposals that could radically change the way Georgia’s 1.7 million students get their schooling and how more than $8 billion in taxpayer money gets spent. It recommends the most comprehensive overhaul of education in recent memory, covering everything from teacher pay to the frequency of school testing and how the state divvies up money to 180 school districts.

The Washington Post
Congress blasts U.S. Education Department for vulnerabilities in data bases
The U.S. Education Department came under withering criticism — from Republicans and Democrats — at a House oversight hearing about just how vulnerable its information systems are to security threats. Lawmakers at the hearing, held on Tuesday by the full House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, took Danny Harris, the chief information officer of the Education Department, to task for the way data is handled for more than 40 million federal student loan borrowers as well as other aid programs that serve millions more students.

PBS
For young newcomers, school offers a stepping stone to life in America
Around the nation, cities that take in refugees face the challenge of how to educate young people who speak little or no English. The NewsHour’s April Brown visits Houston, now the most diverse city in the U.S., where Las Americas Newcomer School teaches both the ABCs and the basics of life in a new country.

The Columbian
State Supreme Court won’t reconsider charter school decision
A divided Washington Supreme Court ruled Thursday it will not reconsider its ruling striking down the state charter school law. In a one-page decision, the court denied all requests for reconsideration of its September ruling that the state’s charter school law is unconstitutional.