Where public policy meets common sense
Posted in Education on Feb 2nd, 2010
When you have a real study instead of a poorly designed one funded by the hard left, abstinence based education shines. This is the first real study, in recent years, which tracked a population who took different courses. A number of studies showed the same results, but a much media attention has been given to [...]
Posted in Education on Jan 15th, 2010
The Opinions expressed are those of the author. In the past the adminstration had an unedited posting on its educational strategy.
Eli Broad is #42 on the 2009 Forbes list of the richest Americans and one of the richest people in the world. The son of Lithuanian immigrants, he was born in the Bronx [...]
Posted in Education on Dec 10th, 2009
Due to innovation and planning, the well managed Appoquinimink School district did not have to raise taxes to fund a new school. The sound management brought resounding yes vote to the disrtict.
Assured that their taxes would not go up, voters Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a referendum that will allow the Appoquinimink School District to build two [...]
Posted in Education on Dec 8th, 2009
Another day and another incident of bullying and ethnic intimidation in a Philly School. If it happened in a work place, it would not be tolerated by adults. Now students are taking matters into their own hands after 26 Asian students were assaulted and needed medical treatment. The environment of ethnic intimidation and harassment has [...]
Posted in Education on Dec 3rd, 2009
There would seem to be some similarities between healthcare reform and the proposed school consolidation here in Delaware.
Like those who support healthcare reform, those who support school consolidation , tell us about how much money it will save the tax payers. But when you look behind the numbers and think about how government works, [...]
Posted in Education on Dec 2nd, 2009
I’d like to cover some of my thoughts regarding the discussion of school consolidation.
Let’s look at the money. The possibility of saving $45,469,422 is slim to none. There’s a number of things that should be considered.
We will need to pay a hefty salary to a superintendent for the large districts like we would have. Of [...]
Posted in Education on Dec 1st, 2009
A new Stanford study will cast doubt in some minds about the effectiveness of Charter Schools. The study had novel methodology and was very complicated. It compared individual charter school students with group averages of traditonal public school students. It did not compare the individual student’s gain or loss from the year before, but compared the individual [...]
The Next Generation of Innovators
Posted by John P. Holdren & Melody Barnes on November 23, 2009 at 11:35 AM EST on Whitehouse.gov
President Obama today helped launch a new campaign, “Educate to Innovate,” designed to energize and excite America’s students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). It builds on the President’s pledge that he would [...]
Posted in Education on Nov 19th, 2009
51 DELAWARE CHARTER SCHOOLS STUDENTS RECEIVE 2009 MICHAEL C. FERGUSON ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS
The 2009 Michael Ferguson Achievement Award Winners were recently announced by the Delaware Department of Education and 51 students from Delaware charter schools were among those recognized. Hanna Kempton of Charter School of Wilmington and Elliot Hale and Erin Simmons, of Newark Charter School [...]
Posted in Education on Nov 16th, 2009
The CR Institute put out some informationon sunlightonschools.org. It is aimed at helping us to understand education spending better. Here is an extract of their districts of the week. The interesting statistic to me is “percent of total expenditures spent on instruction”. CR spends over 60% on instruction while the other districts are in the [...]
Posted in Education, Jack Markell on Oct 13th, 2009
Update at end
Governor Minner gave us the brilliant slogan “Delaware, It’s Good Being First,” and indeed we were first, page A1 of the Monday edition of the New York Times. However, based on the article maybe we should change our slogan to “Delaware, It’s Good Being Zero,” as in zero tolerance. Hat Tip to Delaware Dem over at Delaware Liberal for first bringing [...]
Posted in Education on Oct 11th, 2009
Teacher Kevin Jennings (see his website)claim to fame began with an appointment by Clinton ally and RINO Gov. William Weld of Massachusetts were he wrote a report on Making Schools Safe for Gay & Lesbian Youth. He is better known today because wrote the foreword to The Queering of Elementary Education– Yet the Delaware [...]
Posted in Education on Oct 5th, 2009
Kilroy brought this to our attention. Here are the latest crime stats for our schools. What is not reported are the many incidents of bullying that never get beyond a teacher or principal. Adults would never tolerate an environment where their personal safety was threatened for work. Our children certainly need [...]
A few weeks back when Obama scheduled a speech for all of the U.S. school children, some protested. In some quarters these folks were dismissed as kooks. Surely there would be no effort to just indoctrinate kids by Obama supporters?
Well in one New Jersey school it is already going on. Here are the lyrics of [...]
Posted in Change, Education, National Dems, Obama, economy on Sep 8th, 2009
Yeah, you heard me, the year was 1991:
Rep. William Ford, then chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, ordered the General Accounting Office to investigate the cost and legality of Bush’s appearance. On October 17, 1991, Ford summoned then-Education Secretary Lamar Alexander and other top Bush administration officials to testify at a hearing [...]
Posted in Education on Sep 3rd, 2009
The principal got this one right, it was not assembly material. I accept her explanation that she accepted the recommendation of others. I could see it as a discussion item in middle school or above, but not in an elementary school assembly. How about I pledge to work to the end of legal [...]
We can spend all the money we want on education, but it ain’t no good if the kids don’t care. An interesting approach is to begin a conversation about the value of education launched by 20 TV networks including the BET family of channels, the MTV family of Channels, the VH1 family of [...]
It took a while but I got back my notes so here is the second part of last week’s Kent County Town Hall.
Part two began with Senator Bushweller and Representatives Bennett and Scott introduced themselves and talked about what they had done over the past seven months. Then they moved into a question and answer [...]
Posted in Budget, Business, Education, Jack Markell, Markell on Aug 20th, 2009
August 19, 2009
Governor Markell and the General Assembly members for the Dover area held an under advertized town hall meeting for the local residents at the Kent County Administrative Offices in Dover. The 2 hour meeting began with the Governor laying out some of his vision and answering questions from the public. It ended with [...]
Posted in Education on Aug 3rd, 2009
The state has released the ratings for your local schools. What do they really mean? As usual there is no context given, but the good news it that we actually have some mechanism to begin rating our schools. The problem is that after a decade and half we have yet to come [...]
Posted in Antiwar Left, Armed Forces, Books, Change, Education, Ethics, National Dems, National GOP, Reform on Jul 27th, 2009
Rep. John Conyers finally admitted what we already knew, that our elected officials on Capital Hill don’t read those pesky pieces of paper that turn into laws and taxes and even wars because it’s just too darn hard:
“I love these members, they get up and say, ‘Read the bill,’” said Conyers.
“What good is reading [...]
Posted in Education on Jul 21st, 2009
It appears that actually teaching reading works. Delaware made more progress closing the achievement gap between black and white students than any other state. This is thanks in part to Carper era reforms. Charter schools, reading specialists, and standards that included decoding all played a role in my view. It is [...]
Gays need the right to alter the definition of marriage or else our children won’t learn. That must be the case because the National Education Association is backing changing marriage. I am glad that someone is on top of the crucial issues facing our children.
They found other problems as well. They solved [...]
Posted in Education on Jul 17th, 2009
We are almost ready to dump the DSTP. It appears that we are stuck with it one more year. It is mid-summer and the scores have finally been released to the public. There is little meaning to the scores as far as the public is concerned. They do not tell what [...]
Posted in Cathcart, Education, Guest Opinion, Guest Posts, Joanne Christian on Jun 17th, 2009
smitty-note: bumped this post up to give it a chance in the sun, rapid posting caused it to get pushed down on the page rather quickly
PSSST….Dover…you passed an Onion not an Apple
by Joanne Christian
Let me applaud the 17 Representatives who “got it” in their decision to vote “NO” to HB 117.
HB 117 has been presented [...]
In spite of the fact that the DSTP was a state mandate, at least the state paid for the actual test. A new assessment would likely save the state money, but in spite of cutting the contribution to the local schools, the Department of Education seems to want school contributions. The districts at least control [...]
Posted in Education on Jun 10th, 2009
Friend and commenter, Joanne Christian, dropped a comment on Delaware Liberal in reference to the shocking and seemingly ignorant passage of HB117 in the house yesterday. 17 wise and well-thought-out Representatives voted no on this bad piece of Longhurst legislation. My focus being on Appoquinimink, I’d like to thank Rep Dick Cathcart for [...]
Posted in Education on May 30th, 2009
Assassination ads do not usually get placed in the classified ad section of newspapers especially when they are against the President. It read, “May Obama follow in the steps of Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley and Kennedy!”
I hardly think that I need to condemn such an ad because it should be a given that I see [...]
Posted in Education on May 15th, 2009
Joanne…need your input!
Rescued comment from David A:
Art brings up a point that is not lost on voters. Most of the decisions are already made at the Department of Education. Local control is a talking point not a reality. Most of the budget is mandated down to the line. For only the second time that I [...]
Posted in Comment Rescue, Education on May 14th, 2009
Smitty made a great point over on DL that deserved a wider audience than one blog. He is opposing changing school board elections to November with the general elections. I agree with him.
I do NOT EVER want to know or hear what political affiliation a school board candidate identifies with. If nothing else, [...]
Think you're not at risk? Unfortunately, you are. Identity Theft Shield click here!
