Sussex Montessori School is one of six charters in Delaware up for renewal this year.

6 charter schools up for renewal, decision in December

Jarek RutzHeadlines, Education

Six of the First State’s 23 charter schools are up for renewal this year and will have their futures decided at the State Board of Education’s December meeting. First State Military Academy, Freire Charter School Wilmington, Great Oaks Charter School, Kuumba Academy Charter School, Positive Outcomes Charter School and Sussex Montessori School are the six that submitted their renewal application …

There appears to be little correlation between cost per student and test scores.

Numbers show gaps in test scores, money spent on students

Jarek RutzHeadlines, Education

The amount of money spent on Delaware students in 2022 varied widely from school to school and can’t be correlated with results on standard tests. The average per student expenditure for the top 10 performers on the Smarter Balanced Assessment – taken by students in third through eighth grade – is $17,894. It’s $11,489 for the schools that did best …

The Teacher of the Year will be named Oct. 18.

Here are nominees for Delaware’s 2024 Teacher of the Year 

Jarek RutzHeadlines, Education

The 20 nominees for Delaware’s 2024 Teacher of the Year have been announced. All 20 will be honored at a celebration 5 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 18 at Modern Maturity Center in Dover.  The winner of the title will be announced that night. Every nominee will pocket $2,000, and the winner will get $5,000 to use in the classroom and $3,000 …

The Public Education Compensation Committee will submit its final recommendations for educator pay by Nov. 15.

Suggestions for educator raises finalized by pay panel

Jarek RutzHeadlines, Education

The committee responsible for evaluating and adjusting the salary scales of Delaware’s educators to attract more to the state has solidified its recommendations.  At Monday’s Public Education Compensation Committee meeting, the 15-person group made of government and education leaders approved its final suggestions that it will submit to Gov. John Carney by Nov. 15 for consideration in his fiscal year …

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Sussex Tech adds locations, classes for growing ESL program

Jarek RutzHeadlines, Education

Sussex Tech’s Adult Education Division is expecting to double its enrollment for the second year in a row in an effort to help First Staters learn English. Because of the popularity of its Education English as a Second Language (ESL) course, the division is adding two new locations and a few more classes to the course schedule. Sussex Tech Adult …

Delaware students are heading back to school.

Back to school: teacher raises, mental health help, funding

Jarek RutzHeadlines, Education

As First State public schools reopen next week, most students won’t see much difference in the day-to-day workings of the classroom. But there’s a lot going on in the background. Many districts will be adopting new science and math curriculums designed to help counter the state’s dismal test scores – and continue the battle against COVID-19 learning loss. More mental …

Reading Assist released promising performance results from last school year Monday.

Reading Assist: 89% of kids gained reading skills this year 

Jarek RutzHeadlines, Education

A nonprofit focused on improving literacy rates says that 89% of the students it helped in the last year met standards for at least one early foundational reading skill. Reading Assist said that’s a nearly 20% improvement from the 2021-2022 school year, during which 70% of students reached at least one benchmark. “Our students exceeded our expectations this year with …

Media literacy standards were presented to the State Board of Education Thursday.

Media literacy standards discussed in State Board

Jarek RutzHeadlines, Education

Delaware’s State Board of Education is in the process of drafting standards that align with a new state law requiring schools to teach media literacy.  At its monthly meeting Thursday night, Alyssa Moore, education associate for digital learning at the Department of Education, presented proposed standards to the board. The legislation, known as the “Digital Citizenship Education Act,” requires the …

For school-level proficiency data, the public should select the "all students" filter for a school.

How to navigate the state’s test scores data

Jarek RutzHeadlines

An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that individual school proficiency rates were unavailable.   Parents might need help navigating the million data points in the Delaware Open Data portal. Within the dataset on student assessment performance, much of the school-level data has been “redacted,” which means it’s been removed for publication in the case of the dataset for …

testing

Want to better understand child’s testing scores? Here’s help

Betsy PriceEducation, Headlines

If you are a parent of a school-aged child and worried about your child’s test results, make an appointment with your principal to discuss them. Don’t contact the child’s teacher or school counselor, said Theresa Bennett, director of the Delaware Department of Education’s Office of Assessment. “Each school is different in how they handle you know parent concerns,” she said. “Sometimes …