December 19, 2014
Delaware News
WHYY NewsWorks
Delaware shuts one charter school, spares another
One Delaware charter will close at school year’s end, a second will live at least another year, and a third could be in big trouble due to financial malfeasance. That was the takeaway from Thursday’s eventful state board of education meeting.
Charter learn fates: Reach to close, Gateway spared
Secretary of Education Mark Murphy and the State Board of Education chose Thursday to close the Reach Academy for Girls charter school but allowed Gateway Lab School to stay open with an ultimatum that it quickly improve test scores or face closure.
Dual-enrollment classes double in Delaware
More than twice as many high school students in Delaware enrolled in dual-enrollment classes with local colleges this year, which school officials hope will better position students to successfully get degrees. Dual-enrollment classes are college-level courses taught to high school students that earn them college credit.
The takeover madness that threatens our schools
An op-ed by John Kowalko, State Representative, 25th District
A recent headline in the News Journal stating that “State says Priority School principals must go” inaccurately reflects the reality that it is not the “State” as comprised of the legislative branch and the judiciary that is forcing this unsubstantiated and judgmental attack on these school principals’ credentials and performance.
Dover Post
Communities in Schools helping struggling students at DHS
Communities in Schools of Delaware aim at helping students achieve in school and develop skills. A recent grant from AT&T will help the organization’s presence grow at Dover High School.
National News
The Texas Tribune
Higher Ed Commissioner: Increase focus on students
Texas’ next long-term higher education plan will be more ambitious and will refocus attention on the needs of students, said Higher Education Commissioner Raymund Paredes. The current plan, Closing the Gaps by 2015, is likely to meet its enrollment goals and has surpassed its goals for increasing the number of degrees and certificates awarded annually.
WRAL
Flexibility, clarity key to replacing Common Core standards
Members of a state commission have identified their top priorities for revising the Common Core academic standards used for North Carolina’s public school students. They said they want to focus on increasing flexibility for teachers and school districts, rewriting the standards so they’re clear and understandable and identifying standards that are developmentally inappropriate.
Washington Post
MD teachers union wants kindergarten tests suspended
The Maryland State Education Association is calling on the State Board of Education to suspend its Kindergarten Readiness Assessments, arguing that teachers lose too much instructional time administering the new computer-based tests and are not receiving useful data to improve teaching and learning.
Education Week
Miss. loses out on federal pre-K grant – again
Mississippi’s flawed application and underdeveloped plans to provide preschool for all children is partly to blame for why the state’s youngest learners were bypassed once again for federal funds that could have provided a boost to early education, a review found.
New York Times
Cuomo signals changes for education next year
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo signaled on Thursday that he intended to push next year for sweeping changes to the state’s education system, with goals that include making it easier to fire low-performing teachers and increasing the number of charter schools.