Posts Tagged ‘Teacher Compensation’

Daily Education News – 3/14/13

Posted by rodel

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

Local News

The News Journal
State rejects Christina’s teacher bonus proposal
The state Department of Education rejected the Christina School District’s proposed alternative to the state teacher bonus program, according to a letter sent Tuesday to district officials.  This volleys the issue back into Christina’s court, with millions in grant money at stake. The district stands to lose more than $2.3 million in Race to the Top funds and has two weeks to respond before action on the money would be taken by the state.  The Department of Education says in 2011 the district agreed in writing to be a part of the state’s bonus program, and that if it does not do so – or create an acceptable local alternative to it – the district will lose its grant money.  “This is about making good on promises made to parents and students,” said Delaware Secretary of Education Mark Murphy.

The diploma gap between rich and poor
An opinion by Peter Orszag, vice chairman of corporate and investment banking and chairman of the financial strategy and solutions group at Citigroup Inc. and a former director of the Office of Management and Budget in the Obama administration
Gaps in high school graduation by income, the researchers find, account for about half of the gap in college entry rates. After all, college entry isn’t an option for people without a high school degree. Among those who do finish high school, though, the percentage who go on to enter college has risen to about 70 percent among those born around 1980 — up from about half of those born around 1960. So raising high school graduation rates among low-income students could make a difference.

The Dover Post
Military charter school could come to Smyrna-Clayton area
Community leaders and parents in Kent County are hoping to bring a military charter school to the area, possibly even to Smyrna or Clayton, in time for the 2014-2015 school year.  The founding board of the First State Military Academy has been working on the application process for a few years, hoping to bring an academy to Kent County that will give students an education that resembles that of Red Clay School District’s Delaware Military Academy, said Board Chairman C. Scott Kidner.  “The intent is to look at education differently and to educate kids in a manner that the real world is starting to do and has been doing,” Kidner said. “We think the combination of those two components of education really brings together something neat and quite different from traditional schools in Delaware.”

National News

Education Week
Survey suggests hurdles for math, science teaching
A rich new set of survey data on math and science teachers highlights some big challenges the nation faces if it hopes to significantly increase student achievement in those disciplines. It also drives home, experts say, the huge need to support teachers as districts begin implementing the common-core math standards, and as an effort to develop common standards for science nears completion.

Digital learning priorities influence school building design
As school districts plan and design new buildings, a philosophical shift in how learning environments look is happening, fueled largely by technological advancements and a belief that classrooms should be more interactive and mirror the workplaces of today and the future. That new look puts a high priority on small-group work, use of mobile devices, and project-based digital learning.

Details trickling out on latest NCLB waiver bids
With the addition of three longtime holdouts of states seeking NCLB flexibility, nearly every state has sought to design its own accountability system to replace the outdated law. But the waiver applications from Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wyoming are by no means a sure thing. Texas’ application, for example, omits some key elements that federal officials require as a condition of receiving waivers.

Columbus Dispatch
Race to Top grants not worth costs, officials say
About 80 Ohio districts and charter schools have backed out of the state’s Race to the Top grant program, including an initial flurry of withdrawals because school officials realized that grants weren’t enough to cover the requirements. But some districts that have received money for years are reconsidering now, partly in response to costs but also because of new teacher evaluations tied to the grant.

Education Next
Research: Sorting students by ability increases achievement
Sorting students by ability substantially helps their achievement in mathematics and reading, according to a new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research. The authors looked at student performance in schools that sort their classrooms by skills and those that do not and compared the outcomes.  Sorting students has long been controversial because of the interplay of two social forces in effect in classrooms. One is the “tracking effect” which allows teachers to focus more narrowly on a group of students with particular set of needs. The other is the “peer effect” where students could be influenced to perform better by the higher achieving classmates around them.

Education News – 2/27/13

Posted by rodel

Local News

WDDE
Additional time helps improve Delaware teacher survey response
An extra nine days got the state Department of Education much closer to its goal of 80 percent participation in a recent teacher survey about their workplace.  The window for responding to the TELL Delaware survey closed at midnight Monday. The final tally of responses shows 22 percent of schools failed to reach the 50 percent participation mark needed to get their survey results.  38 percent of schools were under that mark as of the original deadline on February 15.

WHYY
White House outlines sequester effects on Delaware
As Congress debates action on the sequester, a package consisting of billions of dollars in spending cuts that is set to kick in March 1, President Barack Obama hosted a meeting with the nation’s governors at the White House, urging state leaders to promote compromise.  The White House has released examples of how the federal cuts could affect each state.  According to the release, Delaware’s budget could lose millions in funding for education, early childhood development, public safety, public health and environmental protection.

The Newark Post
Christina submits Race to the Top amendment
Hoping not to forfeit more than $2.3 million in federal funding, the Christina School Board voted unanimously Monday night to amend a portion of the district’s Race to the Top plan.  The proposed amendment, which is subject to Delaware Department of Education approval, expands an existing initiative that supports staff stability in low-performing schools.  Monday’s vote was the latest step in a sometimes-contentious dance between Christina School District and the Delaware Department of Education over how to improve struggling schools.

National News

Education Week
Grant contest to aid high schools still work in progress
Proponents of better aligning high school improvement, postsecondary education, and the workforce have high hopes for President Barack Obama’s recent proposal to create a Race to the Top-style competitive-grant program specifically for secondary education.  But the plan, which still needs to be fleshed out by the administration, could face long odds in a Congress that’s looking to cut spending.

States size up Obama pre-K proposal
Well before President Barack Obama vaulted early-childhood learning to the top of the education agenda in his recent State of the Union address, states were taking steps to bolster their own preschool programs.  More than a dozen states—including some, such as Hawaii and Mississippi, that have had no state-financed preschool programs in the past—are currently eyeing proposals to launch or expand early education.

The Washington Post
More universities try the MOOC model by moving professors’ lectures online
This massive open online course, or MOOC, offers the world a free sample of education from the elite public university that Thomas Jefferson founded. But it also reflects a broad push in academia to redefine the college classroom for students who pay tuition on campus.  Zelikow’s U-Va. students watch his lectures on their own time, freeing up precious classroom hours for in-depth discussion with a historian who has served in the upper echelons of U.S. government. This technique, known as flipping the classroom, is spreading in universities around the country as educators seek to harness technological advances to make undergraduate lecture courses less of a passive listening exercise and more of a dynamic give-and-take.

Biggest study ever says KIPP gains substantial
KIPP, previously known as the Knowledge Is Power Program, has had more success than any other large educational organization in raising the achievement of low-income students, both nationally and in the District. But many good educators, burned by similarly hopeful stories in the past, have wondered whether KIPP were for real.  We just got a big dose of data on that. Mathematica Policy Research has released its five-year investigation of 43 KIPP schools — the largest study ever of any charter school network. It concludes: “the average impact of KIPP on student achievement is positive, statistically significant, and educationally substantial.”

The New York Times
Only half of first-time college students graduate in 6 years
As we’ve covered here many times before, there is an abundance of evidence showing that going to college is worth it. But that’s really only true if you go to college and then graduate, and the United States is doing a terrible job of helping enrolled college students complete their educations.  A new report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center digs deeper into these graduation rates. It finds that of the 1.9 million students enrolled for the first time in all degree-granting institutions in fall 2006, just over half of them (54.1 percent) had graduated within six years. Another 16.1 percent were still enrolled in some sort of postsecondary program after six years, and 29.8 percent had dropped out altogether.

Daily Education News – 2/26/13

Posted by rodel

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

Local News

DE Department of Education
5 school districts, 9 charters join Delaware Talent Cooperative
The Delaware Department of Education announced today that five school districts and nine charter schools have confirmed their participation in the Delaware Talent Cooperative. In addition to Capital School District and Laurel School District, two districts that participated last year, Brandywine School District, New Castle County Vo-Tech School District and Seaford School District also will participate in the initiative, which offers state-sponsored retention awards and recruitment incentives for educators in their highest-need schools. Additionally, nine eligible charter schools have confirmed their participation in the initiative.   “When we brought this opportunity to our educators at Harlan, they discussed what it would mean for them and for the school’s culture,” said Mark Holodick, superintendent of the Brandywine School District, “Ultimately, their voice in this decision-making process was the most important voice.”   The state has extended the deadline for several school districts to respond regarding their participation since their December invitation. The Indian River School District will make a final decision this week, and the Christina School District’s invitation to join the Delaware Talent Cooperative remains open given their local commitment to participate as part of their district Race to the Top (RTTT) plan.

National News

The New York Times
Citing ‘urgency,’ Georgia Governor ousts 6 members of DeKalb County School Board
Gov. Nathan Deal removed six members of the DeKalb County School Board on Monday, trying to save the state’s third-largest school system by exercising a relatively new power in Georgia that allows him to supersede the choice of voters.  “I feel it’s my responsibility to act,” he said at a news conference announcing his decision Monday. “This is a matter of urgency.”

Education Week
Watchdog gnaws on foundation with Jeb Bush ties
Jeb Bush’s education advocacy organization is being criticized by In the Public Interest, a group that says the former Florida governor’s Foundation for Excellence in Education is easing private-sector access to government officials.  Correspondence between former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s K-12 advocacy organization and state education leaders—obtained and publicized by a privatization-watchdog group—has renewed debate over the extent to which the private sector can benefit by gaining access to government officials, and markets, through nonprofit advocacy groups.  The emails between Mr. Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education and officials in Maine, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, and other states show the group discussing model bills with state officials and promoting specific policy initiatives, such as online education and retaining 3rd graders not reading at grade level.  The nonprofit group In the Public Interest, which is based in Washington and published the emails last month, is critical of many privatization initiatives. It says it doesn’t have a problem with businesses seeking new markets, but contends the foundation is being used as cover for companies seeking public money without lobbying in an upfront way.

Some states on pace to hit 90% high school grad. rate by 2020
A 90% high school graduation rate by 2020 was a lofty goal set by the Grad Nation campaign in 2010. But the latest report from the coalition of education organizations shows that, with a 78.2% graduation rate in 2010, the pace of improvement is picking up—putting some states on track to meet that goal if the progress continues. Still, significant disparities remain between white and minority students

The Los Angeles Times
Low achievement imperils black students in L.A., report says
African American students in Los Angeles County demonstrate significant learning gaps by second grade, which widen with age and lead to the highest school dropout rate among all races, according to a new report released Monday.  Black students are far less likely to take the rigorous college preparatory classes required for admission to California universities and miss more school days because of suspensions than their white counterparts, according to the study by the Education Trust-West, an Oakland-based nonprofit advocacy group.   Only one of every 20 African American kindergartners will graduate from a four-year California university if current trends continue, according to the report, which compiled data on academic achievement, suspensions and the emotional conditions of African Americans in 82 school districts in L.A. County.

Inside Higher Ed
Who benefits from online ed?
Online education is often held out as a way to increase access to higher education, especially for those who have historically been underrepresented in college. A new Columbia University study suggests that some of the students most often targeted in online learning’s access mission are less likely than their peers to benefit from—and may in fact be hurt by—digital as opposed to face-to-face instruction.

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