September 11, 2017

Delaware News

Delaware Public Media
First State preparations for hurricanes, other emergencies ongoing
September is National Preparedness Month. And Delaware’s Emergency Management Agency (DEMA) is preparing for hurricanes and other potential emergencies. Every year, DEMA receives needs-based federal grant funds to prepare for a variety of emergency scenarios. Sub-recipients of that funding include the city of Wilmington, all First State counties, Delaware’s Department of Education, the Delaware Geological Survey and UD’s Environmental Observing System.

Education Week
‘They’re taking our kids’: Teen gun violence is plaguing cities big and small
The bullets sprayed through her front door and window, leaving perfectly cylindrical holes in the glass. They blasted clear across the nursery, where her 2-year-old daughter’s toys were strewn on the carpet. They burrowed into the kitchen cabinetry—and hit her teenage son and daughter. Amid their screams, “All I could think of was, ‘I’m not losing another child,'” Williams recalled, tears spilling down her cheek.

The News Journal
Families without bus service juggle safety, financial costs
Delaware parents are expressing frustration with state school bus regulations this month, claiming they have been forced to balance their children’s safety against both their jobs and their checkbooks. The problem manifests among families that live only a short distance from their children’s school. According to state regulations, elementary students that live less than a mile away must walk to the building. For middle and high school students, the radius expands to two miles.

We must help kids when parents don’t
Opinion by Matthew Albright
If such a thing as American Values exist anymore in our fracturing society, then personal responsibility is one of them. Many of our biggest heroes are people who started with nothing, then worked their way to greatness through determination and perseverance. Our national origin story is that of people so willing to make their own fortunes that they picked up everything they owned and moved across an ocean.

Sussex County Post
Georgetown Elementary’s new playground for all dedicated
Adriana Jennings was a little bit under the weather last Friday. So, she didn’t actively take part in Sept. 8 formal dedication of Georgetown Elementary School’s new playground. But the 7-year-old second grader whose special needs were the inspiration for what blossomed into a massive all-inclusive makeover was enjoying playground fun earlier in the week.

National News

Education Week
Children’s trauma lasts long after disasters, studies show
From Hurricane Katrina to the Joplin, Mo., tornado, the past dozen years have given education researchers unwelcome opportunities to study schools in the wake of disaster. Lessons learned from studying those disasters may help Texas and Louisiana educators pick up the pieces in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey and, potentially, Hurricane Irma as Florida braced for that storm late last week.

Forbes
The big picture on school choice in Detroit
For years, school choice has been expanding nationally. There’s good reason for this steady growth: parents, especially low-income parents, want to decide where to send their kids to school. And the bulk of the evidence shows that school choice – charters, tax credits, vouchers, and homeschooling – leads to significant positive educational benefits. But when parents have a choice, some schools “win” and some “lose.”

The Atlantic
Why teachers need their freedom
My co-teacher and I met in the parking lot before school and stared into my car trunk at the costumes and props we had gathered over the weekend. We were giddy with excitement and nervous because neither of us had tried anything like this before. We also taught in the kind of school where one wrong move in the classroom could lead to disastrous results because of our students’ intense behavioral and learning needs.

The Washington Post
My vision for D.C. Public Schools
Opinion by Antwan Wilson, chancellor of D.C. Public Schools
In every ward and every one of our schools, families, community members and D.C. Public Schools’ own team members have told me about their dreams for our children. Their ideas and hopes inform the school district’s direction and particularly our new strategic plan. Our public schools are the fastest-improving of any major district in the nation, reinforced by record progress over the past year, which included growth for students in every grade, as well as for students of color, low-income students, students with special needs and students learning English.

NPR
Teaching Sept. 11 to students who were born after the attacks
“Never forget” became a national rallying cry after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Yet America’s schools — where collective memory is shaped — are now full of students who never knew because they weren’t alive then. Many teachers now struggle with whether and how to teach the attacks and their aftermath. According to one survey, only about 20 states include anything in depth about the events of that fateful day in their high school social studies curriculum.