A Senate committee hearing Tuesday heard the state Secretary of Education apologize about the way lead testing in schools was handled and that trained pros will handle testing instead of school staff. Through a federal grant, the Department of Education began a sampling initiative in October, 2020 to identify the levels of lead within drinking water at schools. “While well-intentioned, …
Gov. John Carney’s announcement last week of a 9% pay raise for teachers caused a lot of comment in Monday night’s Public Education Compensation Committee. Also discussed was a proposal to keep teachers in their Delaware jobs by giving them full pension benefits at 25 years of service instead of making them wait until they reach 30 years. Carney said …
This story was originally published in August 2022. Delaware’s 2022 test scores were released this August, and they aren’t pretty. Just 30% of Delaware students in grades three to eight met grade-level math requirements, while 42% earned a proficient score in English language arts. These scores come from the state-administered Smarter Balanced Assessment, an end-of-the-year summative test that measures the …
Great Oaks Charter School, a Wilmington charter serving a student body of more than 80% Black students, will not be shut down. After nearly three months of being placed on formal review by the Charter School Accountability Committee, Education Secretary Mark Holidick recommended Thursday night to the Delaware State Board of Education to allow the school to continue operating. The …
Delaware’s state teachers union got one of its wishes Monday when the state committee charged with adjusting the salaries of public school workers announced it will push its monthly meeting back an hour. Mark Holodick, education secretary and chair of the Public Education Compensation Committee said at the start of Monday’s regular meeting that starting next month, the committee will …
Delaware’s teachers union is circulating a petition that demands a state compensation committee move its monthly meeting time an hour later so teachers can attend. Right now, the Public Education Compensation Committee, which is considering raises for teachers and other school workers, meets at 3:30 p.m. Lack of teacher voice “If you want to hear from educators, hold meetings when …
The 20 individuals who have been named as Educational Support Professionals of the Year are the “glue that keeps our schools together.” “Educating kids through teachers is the goal and the mission of schools,” said John Marinucci, executive director of the Delaware School Board Association, “but the support folks handle all the things that have to take place around the …
The Wilmington Learning Collaborative already is forming the council that will govern it. Once the council is established, it will order a needs assessment, which will help the council decide where to put or share resources. Those are the starting tasks of the new education group that state, city and district officials hope will help raise learning and test scores …
Great Oaks Charter parents, students and teachers laughed, cried and pleaded with an Education Department representative Thursday for the survival of their school. “What real love means is we bear all things, because these are just kids,” said math teacher Anthony Davis, choking up with tears. “These students come to Great Oaks and we see the best in them, not …
The Delaware Library Consortium announced Tuesday that it will spend $1 million to add school libraries into the statewide catalog. The goal is to broaden the First State’s library catalog and provide more students an opportunity to conduct research or read for pleasure. “Over the years it seems like everything around literacy has been tweaked except school libraries, until now,” …
