Posts Tagged ‘Data Systems’

Daily Education News – 6/10/13

Posted by rodel

Here are several stories in today’s news about Delaware education and from across the nation:

Local News

The News Journal
STEM model takes root at Concord High School
As state education and business leaders try to coax more women and minorities into the fields of science, technology, engineering and math, many are pointing to Concord High School’s Advanced Placement program as a model. The school recently received a grant from the College Board and Google that will allow it to offer every AP course in fields commonly called STEM.

Middletown Transcript
Administrative changes announced at 8 Appoquinimink schools
Two of Appoquinimink School District’s 16 schools will have a new principal next year, while six others will begin the 2013-2014 school year with a new assistant principal. Superintendent Matthew Burrows announced the administrative changes Monday, although they will not become official until July 1.

National News

Education Week
Teachers’ data use becoming PD emphasis
While schools and districts now have a wealth of longitudinal student data at their fingertips, teachers are just at the beginning of learning how to use that information effectively, says a New America Foundation report. Despite various challenges, professional development programs in Oregon and Delaware provide valuable models for making data useful to teachers

A ‘neglected’ population gets another chance at a diploma
Educators and researchers who work with at-risk students say there is no way to really achieve the Graduation Nation goal of a 90% graduation rate by 2020 without taking time to find, bring back, and keep the students who already have fallen through the cracks, at a rate of roughly 1 million every year.

Arne Duncan unveils high school grant program details
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan offered more details on the administration’s proposed $300 million high school redesign initiative, which will have a career-related and STEM focus. The program would dole out competitive grants to districts in partnership with postsecondary institutions and other organizations to help high schools emphasize the skills that prepare students for higher education and the workforce.

Education Department puts numbers to ‘preschool for all’ proposal
The Education Department released fact sheets for every state letting them know how much they stand to gain if the Obama administration’s proposal to expand preschool opportunities is adopted. The funding level is based on the state’s population of 4-year-olds in low-income families and assumes that states will expand to 20% of their eligible 4-year-olds in the first year.

The New York Times
Who’s minding the schools?
An opinion by Andrew Hacker and Claudia Dreifus
In April, some 1.2 million New York students took their first Common Core State Standards tests, which are supposed to assess their knowledge and thinking on topics such as “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” and a single matrix equation in a vector variable. Indeed, the first wave of exams was so overwhelming for these young New Yorkers that some parents refused to let their children take the test.

Philadelphia Inquirer
More than 3,700 school employees are being laid off
Philadelphia Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. announced Friday that the School District had begun mailing layoff notices to 3,783 employees, informing them they will lose their jobs July 1 because of the district’s financial crisis.

Casper Tribune
Wyoming legislators seek to coordinate early childhood education
Wyoming legislators agreed to consider new funding sources for early childhood education programs and to study how to improve their coordination across the state. Members of the education and the health and social services committees discussed early learning efforts with officials from four state departments and various professionals. Only 52% of kindergartners in 2009 were prepared to begin school.

Huffington Post
Senate Republicans: No Child Left Behind should give governors more say
Republicans on Congress’ education committees unveiled rewrites to No Child Left Behind that would give governors final responsibility for holding schools accountable and largely limit the Education Department to promoting the importance of learning. States would determine if their schools are succeeding and could ignore previous federal requirements to show they are getting better every year.

Daily Education News – 6/7/13

Posted by rodel

Here are several stories in today’s news about Delaware education and from across the nation:

Local News

Education Commission of the States
Delaware Receives 2013 ECS Frank Newman Award for State Innovation
The Education Commission of the States (ECS) will honor the state of Delaware with the prestigious Frank Newman Award for State Innovation at the 2013 National Forum on Education Policy in St. Louis, Missouri, on June 26. The award recognizes the state’s bold approach to comprehensive education reform and its successful model of collaboration among a broad range of stakeholders.

The Milford Beacon
Milford Middle School set to close after more than 80 years of history
For many members of the staff and student body, Milford Middle School has all the charm of an old house full of leaks, quirks and lacking air conditioning, but steeped in nostalgia. The building is in desperate need of repairs and is no longer fit to house students and staff.

National News

The New York Times
Obama promises to have high-speed internet in most schools in 5 years
President Obama visited an innovative middle school in central North Carolina on Thursday to demonstrate the Internet-based education programs that he is proposing to make available nationwide. Speaking to an audience of excited teenagers in a steamy gymnasium, Mr. Obama called on the Federal Communications Commission to expand an existing program to provide discounted high-speed Internet service to schools and libraries, even if it meant increasing the fees that for years had been added to consumers’ phone bills. He said the initiative could lead to better technology at 99 percent of schools in five years.

Education News
Data, information collection helps improve MOOC experiences
Massive online open courses are evolving thanks to extensive data collection from the early efforts to offer college-level classes to a worldwide online audience for free. According to MIT Technology Review, as the number of MOOCs offered grows, course designers are already looking at ways to make MOOCs 2.0 better.

The Washington Post
Plans to replace ‘No Child’ law bring dueling visions of federal role in education
Republicans in Congress have rolled out legislation that would sharply limit the power of the executive branch and shrink the role of the federal government in public education in a rebuke to the Obama administration’s influence over education from kindergarten through 12th grade. Meanwhile, Senate Democrats have unveiled their own K-12 plan, which would cede more control to states but still maintain some federal oversight, especially of the worst-performing schools.

MLive
Common Core funding blocked in new Michigan budget after Senate vote
Michigan is poised to became the second state to “pause” implementation of the Common Core standards after the Senate approved a budget barring funding for the guidelines. The omnibus budget measure, which now heads to Gov. Rick Snyder, includes a provision that prevents the education department from spending any money on implementation of the standards. Indiana has passed similar legislation.

The Boston Globe
Jumble of education topics facing Congress
From pre-kindergarten to No Child Left Behind, from broadband-wired schools to college loans, students in every age group are suddenly finding the spotlight on Capitol Hill. After months of relative neglect, education issues are getting the attention of lawmakers—as well as President Barack Obama—just as the school year is ending and, for many college students, the cost of education is about to go up.

Daily Education News – 5/17/13

Posted by rodel

Here are several stories in today’s news about Delaware education and from across the nation:

Local News

The News Journal
Christina pulls out of fight with Delaware
Christina School District has withdrawn its request for a hearing in its feud with the state over $2.3 million in federal Race to the Top money, which means the district will likely lose those funds. The money has been tied up for months in a battle between the district and the state Department of Education over a plan to attract top-flight teachers to low-performing schools. The state wanted Christina to give $20,000 over two years to only the most elite teachers, while administrators proposed giving much smaller bonuses to more teachers or boosting technology in struggling schools.

Toughened teacher preparation standards in Delaware win final approval
Delaware lawmakers gave final approval Thursday to a measure that aims to strengthen teacher preparation standards at the state’s colleges and universities, a proposal that was central to Gov. Jack Markell’s legislative agenda. The changes, proposed in Markell’s State of the State address in January, passed 37-2 in the House. It passed the Senate earlier this month and now heads to Markell’s desk for his signature. “We want to attract the best candidates into the teaching profession because our state’s success in the future is dependent on how well we educate our children today,” Markell said in a statement after the House action.

National News

Education Week
Do new exams produce better teachers? States act while educators debate
Mario Martinez has until the fall to hone his skills before he will be sent into a classroom to practice as a student teacher. And he has at least a year before he will have to prove that he can not only teach math, but also create tests and analyze student results. It is a skill that many educators say is a sign of a good teacher, and one so important it was included in a lengthy exit exam that all aspiring teachers must take before they receive a teaching credential from the state.

The Washington Post
Microsoft donates $1 million to help expand ‘blended learning’ in D.C. schools
Microsoft has donated $1 million to help D.C. teachers redesign their classrooms using a “blended learning” approach that combines online learning with face-to-face instruction. Blended learning has drawn both excitement and skepticism as it has exploded in popularity in recent years. Boosters believe that technology could transform schools and give students a more personalized learning experience, while critics fear that when executed poorly, blended approaches reduce learning to clicks on a computer.

Washington Monthly
Measure what matters in education
A hallmark of leading business management and public policy design today is an increased reliance on measuring results. If you don’t track your performance, you can’t tell if you’re improving, and you have no reliable way to know whether your improvement strategies are having the desired effects. Resistance to measurement can often reflect a reluctance to face up to the need for sometimes unpleasant but vitally important change. Yet measuring outcomes badly or incompletely brings risks and pitfalls of its own. Getting measurement wrong, whether because it is too narrow or too loosely connected to the outcome you really care about, can lead to disappointment or worse. This problem is exacerbated when rewards or punishments are connected to performance on the measures you are using.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Deal signs order addressing Common Core standards
Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal signed an executive order putting in place restrictions on the Common Core State Standards. Under the order, the state will be prohibited from collecting certain information on students and their families. The order also requires any proposed changes to state educational standards shall be posted for public review and comment for at least 60 days.

Columbus Dispatch
House revises reading plan for Ohio schools
In response to concerns over Ohio’s new early reading guarantee, the House approved S.B. 21 to expand the pool of teachers who can provide reading instruction and tutoring for students. The bill also says that districts or charters that score a D or F on the K-3 literacy-progress test for two consecutive years and have fewer than 60% of 3rd-graders proficient on the English test must submit reading-improvement plans. See ECS’ summary of reading policies.

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