Education

Kaufman prepared to tackle STEM education in Delaware.

Former U.S. Sen Ted Kaufman has been named co-chair of the state’s STEM Council by Governor Jack Markell (D). Kaufman, an engineer with the DuPont Co. before becoming a longtime advisor to Sen. Joe Biden and succeeding Biden in the Senate when he became vice president in 2009, recently offered his thoughts on STEM and related issues in a phone interview with DFM News . ...More

Back to the want ads for some older workers in jobs program

Since 1964, older, low-income Americans looking for work have received on-the-job training through a community-based program that pays minimum wage and gives them another crack at employment. But now, as the ranks of displaced workers swell and government budgets shrink, the Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP) has placed a 48-month cap on benefits for the first time in its 47-year history. ...More

Who does SCSEP help? Profile of a beneficiary.

GEORGETOWN - 20 percent of the over 350 Delawareans are currently enrolled in the Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP) will be phased out as a 48 month cap on benefits in that program begins. SCSEP provides on-the-job training and a source of income for some low income people 55 and older. People like Dagsboro's Betty Payne. DFM News' Patrick Mairs met Payne at the job SCSEP helped her land in the Sussex County courthouse to learn more about the program from someone who used it ...More

COMMENTARY: Our teachers need ongoing training with targeted, measurable outcomes

Many careers demand ongoing training and retraining. We expect professionals—from physicians and dentists, to car technicians, to hair stylists—to continue to learn new information and skills in their fields. We should expect no less of teachers. Although some critics believe teachers should have learned everything they need to know in college, that view does not recognize the realities and challenges of the evolving 21st-century classroom. We must ensure that teachers receive the training needed to continually sharpen and expand their effectiveness. ...More

Teaching the teachers

Betsy Chapin attended Sanford School in Hockessin and then spent six years teaching high school level English there. Now an associate professor of English at Gwynedd-Mercy College in Pennsylvania, Chapin is spearheading a new project at her alma mater: the Sanford School Summer Teacher's Institute. The project reflects Chapin's belief that private school, public school, and home school teachers need locally available opportunities to pursue professional development suited to the needs of their teaching environments. ...More

Professional development makes teaching “a way of life”

For two weeks in the summer of 1995, Betsy Chapin studied English literature at its source—in England, at the oldest university in the English-speaking world, Oxford. An English teacher with a master’s degree and a doctorate in her field, she was one of about a dozen U.S. high school teachers who earned a coveted spot in the class. At that time, Chapin was a teacher at Sanford School in Hockessin, which gave her a grant to attend the seminar. Now a professor at Gwynedd-Mercy College in Pennsylvania, Chapin wants to provide that type of enrichment to other Delaware high school teachers. ...More

Out of foster care, into college

The state and Delaware State University have launched an initiative to give young people aging out of foster care a chance to make DSU their collegiate home. Delaware State President Harry Williams and Vivian Rapposelli, secretary of the Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families, signed an agreement Tuesday that will offer a DSU education annually to two foster youths who have reached 18 and are aging out of the system. ...More

Pushing back against bullying at school

WILMINGTON - With a row of school lockers projected on the large screen behind him, Michael Morrow asked his audience to raise a hand if they could remember being bullied in school. Then he raised his own. The room became quiet, and slowly the hands started rising. Nearly half the audience of about 50 adults responded yes. Clearly the audience understood that bullying is a serious and widespread problem. What brought them to Wednesday’s seminar on bullying, held at Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, was a desire to spare today’s children that same trauma. ...More

Hopes raised for Delaware student testing

At the start of this school year, when Delaware launched its new standardized tests—and tougher grading standards—state and local officials started preparing parents and the public for bad news. Standards for demonstrating proficiency on the exams had been raised and the percentage of students testing as “proficient” on the new Delaware Comprehensive Assessment System (DCAS) was expected to be lower than with the Delaware State Testing Program (DSTP), in use until last year. As it turns out, Delaware students might be exceeding the lowered expectations. ...More

Indian River takes childhood obesity battle into the classroom

“Attention!” fourth grader Jhony Velasquez barked. “What are the rules?” “Good health, high-fiber, lots of water, and exercise,” his classmates responded, their feet marching. Velasquez was one of the many students at Frankford’s John M. Clayton Elementary School who had the important job of issuing “orders” to his class about healthy habits. Like all students in kindergarten through Grade 5 in the Indian River School District, he participates in the “Take 10” program, which provides 10 minutes of exercise in the classroom at 10 o’clock each morning. ...More