September 26, 2014

Local News

WDDE
Gov. Markell creates advisory group for Wilmington education issues
Gov. Jack Markell is launching a new community advisory group focusing on education issues in Wilmington amid controversy surrounding his Priority Schools initiative. Led by Tony Allen, founding President of the Metropolitan Wilmington Urban League, the group will target social issues directly affecting Wilmington students. It will also focus on giving community members more access to state officials and school administrators to give feedback on the process.

Delaware Department of Education
State to name 2015 Teacher of the Year from among 20 nominees
A press release
Twenty Delaware teachers have been nominated for the honor of being named Delaware’s Teacher of the Year for 2015. Selected from among the 9,000 public school teachers in the state, the nominees each represent one of the state’s 19 school districts or charter schools. The winner will be announced on Tuesday, Oct. 21 at the annual awards banquet.

The News Journal
Don’t succumb to distorted teacher protection schemes
An op-ed by Laurence H. Tribe, professor, Harvard Law School
My support for curtailing teacher tenure and last-in, first-out layoff rules when they put the needs of adults before children is not a departure from my progressive roots. Rather, it is a natural and common-sense outgrowth.

Smyrna-Clayton Sun-Times
Program assist Smyrna School District in reaching more students with nutritious meals
While free and reduced breakfasts and lunches have been available in schools to students who applied and met income requirements, now all students are eligible for free meals at two Smyrna schools. And a partnership with the Food Bank of Delaware is also offering take-home meals to students in need on the weekends.

Cape Gazette
Sussex Tech down teaching positions, up enrollment
Sussex Tech High School has grown by about 50 students this year, but funding issues carried over from last school year have left the school short a few teaching positions. Last spring, district officials announced 24 positions would have to be cut unless the district could raise about $4 million through a legislative-approved tax increase. That number later rose to 27 including 14 teaching positions, said Superintendent A.J. Lathbury.

Delaware State News
Lake Forest High Principal moving to Central Elementary: District now searching for a replacement
Lake Forest High School Principal John Filicicchia will soon step down from his position at the high school to be the Assistant Principal at Lake Forest Central Elementary School. “I requested a transfer to the Assistant Principal position (open due to a resignation) at Lake Forest Central Elementary, grades 4 & 5,” said Mr. Filicicchia about his move.

National News

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Pilot program allows Pennsylvania schools to use snow days for digital instruction
The Pennsylvania Department of Education announced school districts can apply to use non-traditional educational delivery methods on regularly scheduled school days in which circumstances, such as inclement weather, necessitate an alternate approach.

Daytona Beach News-Journal
Florida first to adopt national financial literacy standards
Florida became the first state in the country to follow national financial literacy standards starting this year, and all public school students must pass the class to graduate.

The Tennessean
Common Core losing support of Tennessee teachers, survey finds
Support for Common Core among Tennessee teachers has waned so much since last year that a majority now opposes the academic standards, a new statewide survey shows.

Education Week
Will Common-Core testing platforms impede math tasks?
As two state consortia work to finish new assessments aligned with the Common Core State Standards, some mathematics experts say they’re worried that the computer-based testing platforms will hamper a key element of the exams: open-ended math-performance tasks that test students’ ability to apply their knowledge.

Harvard-MIT partnership opens MOOCs for high schoolers
High school students looking to prepare for Advanced Placement exams, or simply expand their academic knowledge, now have free access to an array of classes through an online platform created by two of the nation’s top universities, in one of the most ambitious and direct efforts to date to bring MOOCs into K-12 education.

The Atlantic
How to make teachers more like doctors
Taxpayers spend huge sums of money on both, though spending for healthcare is twice as high as for education—$1.2 trillion versus $595 billion. Both teaching and medicine require initial financial sacrifice by practitioners: Teachers earn relatively modest starting salaries, while physicians spend 7-12 years after college accumulating debt in medical school and residencies. Back-loaded income for physicians and benefits for teachers only partially make up for this, so both sectors face retention and recruiting challenges, especially when it comes to specialized needs like obstetricians in rural areas, or mathematics teachers in urban areas.