Posts Tagged ‘Graduation Rate’

Daily Education News – 6/17/13

Posted by rodel

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

Local News

The News Journal
Markell seeks $31 million more for education in budget
Gov. Jack Markell’s proposed budget includes no new education cuts and some new money, garnering some positive vibes from district officials struggling with tight budgets. Under Markell’s budget, which is expected to be introduced this week, Delaware public schools would receive $31 million in new funding, according to spokeswoman Cathy Rossi. “It is an economic imperative and moral obligation to give every Delaware student the best chance to acquire the most valuable skills for colleges and careers,” Markell said in a statement

Investment in early education may be best crime-prevention tool
An opinion by Harriet Dichter and Drewry Nash Fennell
As the News Journal’s Sunday lead story made clear, crime has a high cost for us all. Delaware’s criminal justice system is working hard at the state and local level to reduce recidivism and increase public safety. In addition to those immediate efforts, though, there is an effective, long-term way to help curb crime: An investment in quality early education for all of Delaware’s young children.

WDDE
Teachers’ union maintains support of charter reform bill
A bill seeking to reform Delaware’s charter schools has a backer in the form of the state’s public school teachers union. The measure would revamp the charter school application process and provide a competitive fund for capital projects.

The Dover Post
New construction may be necessary to relieve CR district overcrowding
Members of a citizen’s committee formed to study the future of the Caesar Rodney School District turned in their report Wednesday night during a special school board meeting held at the W. Reily Brown Elementary School. The Resource Development Committee, made up of parents, teachers, staff members and district residents, told the board that the district’s increasing student population, which is outstripping the number of available classrooms, must be addressed in the near future.

National News

The New York Times
Schooling ourselves in an unequal America
An opinion by Rebecca Strauss
Averages can be misleading. The familiar, one-dimensional story told about American education is that it was once the best system in the world but that now it’s headed down the drain, with piles of money thrown down after it.

Chicago Public School System lays off 850 in move to cut budget
Nearly 850 Chicago Public Schools employees received layoff notices on Friday, hours after officials said they had identified $52 million in administrative and operational cuts to help close an estimated $1 billion deficit in the coming fiscal year.

Budget cuts reach bone for Philadelphia schools
When a second grader came to the Andrew Jackson School too agitated to eat breakfast on Friday, an aide alerted the school counselor, who engaged him in an art project in her office. When he was still overwrought at 11, a secretary called the boy’s family, and soon a monitor at the front door buzzed in an older brother to take him home. Under a draconian budget passed by the Philadelphia School District last month, none of these supporting players — aide, counselor, secretary, security monitor — will remain at the school by September, nor will there be money for books, paper, a nurse or the school’s locally celebrated rock band.

Education Week
Questions arise about need for Algebra 2 for all
Should all students take Algebra 2? Florida seemed to say “no” this spring with the passage of a law striking it from graduation requirements. Texas said much the same in legislation Republican Gov. Rick Perry signed this week that also backs away from Algebra 2 for all. Those steps come as the Common Core State Standards for math set the expectation that all students should meet learning objectives at what’s generally considered the Algebra 2 level.

Daily Education News – 6/11/13

Posted by rodel

Here are several stories in today’s news from across the nation:

National News

Education Week
Race is on to ready teacher evaluations in New York City
Administrators and teachers in New York City have just three months to adapt before the expectations of a new teacher-evaluation system kick in. State Commissioner of Education John B. King outlined the system’s criteria in an arbitration ruling issued last week, putting an end to years of bitter disagreement between city school officials and the local teachers’ union.

Chicago Charter Network specializes in dropouts
Last June, Chicago public schools officials announced that the district was on the cusp of setting a new record for graduation: Slightly more than 60 percent of students would earn a diploma in 2012. Chicago’s record high is still roughly 20 percentage points below the national four-year graduation rate, but some of the progress the city has made in driving down the dropout rate over the past five to 10 years is because of a network of charter schools around the city that for more than 15 years has provided small, alternative programs that specialize in serving recovered dropouts or students at high risk of becoming dropouts.

The New York Times
Tablets in Dutch schools usher in a new era
Some of Robin Smorenberg’s students were shooting aliens on their iPads. “Ooh, I almost died!” one of them exclaimed at De Windhoek, the only primary school in the small Dutch town of Egmond-Binnen. But Mr. Smorenberg did not mind. He had instructed his students to download the game, Math Evolve, which is part of the curriculum and which requires players to both shoot aliens and collect numbers that add up to a certain figure.

Mlive

Michigan House approves changes to High School merit curriculum graduation requirements
The Michigan House approved two bills that expand the subjects which satisfy high school graduation requirements. House Bills 4465 and 4466 allow for career and technical education courses to count toward the Algebra II requirement, expand the foreign language requirement to include credits earned as early as kindergarten, and make other changes to science and physical education requirements.

The Washington Post
With ‘reconstitution,’ D.C. officials hope for school turnaround
D.C. Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson called it a “fresh start” and a “momentum-shifter” for Cardozo Senior High last month when administrators removed nearly half the staff at the school. Henderson had used her power to “reconstitute” the struggling school, requiring the entire staff to reapply for their positions.

The Chicago Tribune
Annual report card for parents part of new CPS education plan
Chicago Public Schools unveiled a five-year education plan on Monday that promises an annual report card to provide parents with information on the academic performance of schools and show how many principals and teachers are rated as high performers. The plan also aligns the entire district with the rigorous Common Core Curriculum by the 2014-15 school year.

Daily Education News – 3/11/13

Posted by rodel

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

Local News

The News Journal
Delaware’s education policies honored with national award
Delaware has won a national award for its education policies from the Education Commission of the States. The 2013 Frank Newman Award for State Innovation goes to “states and territories for enacting innovative education reforms or implementing innovative programs that go beyond marginal or incremental changes to improve student outcomes on a large scale.”

WDDE
New curriculum structure helps William Penn students succeed
The pursuit of education at William Penn High School is anything but old school.  One part college prep, one part vocational, the new curriculum at what historically has been an academically challenged school embraces both scholarly excellence and partnerships with community businesses. The goal is to engage students by equipping them to succeed in a challenging, competitive world.  One year after restructuring, William Penn’s enrollment is up by 200 students, an increase of more than 10 percent. That’s due, in part, to an aggressive campaign to sell parents on the new curriculum concept. Colonial used money from the Race to the Top federal education grant to organize 11 meetings in every middle school in the district to outline the plan.

National News

Chronicle of Higher Education
At South by Southwest Education Event, tensions divide entrepreneurs and educators
Who should lead innovation in education—teachers or entrepreneurs? That key question was in the air at this year’s South by Southwest Edu conference. In a keynote address, Bill Gates made the case for why more venture capitalists and businesses should invest in building education products and services to kick-start new ways of teaching with technology.

Education Week
Diane Ravitch launches new education advocacy counterforce
Education historian Diane Ravitch is launching a new advocacy organization that will support political candidates who oppose high-stakes testing, mass school closures, and what her group calls the “privatizing” of public schools. The new Network for Public Education is meant to counter organizations that promote other state-level education reforms.

Graduation rates for individual high schools unveiled
The Department of Education posted online data on the graduation-rate performance of individual schools. The new data follow state-level graduation rates for 2010-11 that the department previously released. Both sets are based on states’ use of a common measure for graduation rates, making it easier to compare student success across states and schools.

The New York Times
Creative learning pays off for web start-ups
Anyone who wants to learn calculus, statistics or ancient Greek history can take free online courses in those subjects at a variety of sites from instructors with distinguished academic pedigrees. For more mundane pursuits, like learning how to paddleboard or build a planter box for the garden, there is an inexhaustible supply of free how-to videos on YouTube, eHow and other sites. But if you’d like to watch a recording of a three-day course on the minutiae of photographing clients who commission high-end portraits of themselves in lingerie, that will cost $149 on a Web site called CreativeLive.

Education News
Self-directed learning project gives students full control
Monument Mountain Regional High School in Massachusetts is running an audacious experiment. Called the “Independent Project,” it allows students complete control over how and what they learn. The project functions like a school-within-a-school with traditional fixtures of academia dotting the landscape, yet with students who find themselves in IP answering to no one. There are no principals, teachers or oversight. There are no curricula either – except those the students write themselves.

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