School & Education
Cape Gazetle
CHEF Winterjam
fundraiser
reset for March 19
Convc
Winterjam the Cape Hen-
lopen Educati, real Foundation's
biggest year]y fundraiser, is
rescheduled fr( )m 7 to 11 p.m., Fri-
day, March 19, at the Rehoboth
Beach Convenl ion Center.
Tickets may be purchased at
the door for 15 each. Tickets
purchased cartier for the previ-
ous date may b used for the new
date.
Members of the Funsters,
Comfort Zone, 33 1/3 and the
Cape Henlopea School District's
Hindsight 20/20 will perform.
Guests can check out more
than 50 items in the silent auc-
tion, buy a rfle ticket for two
tickets to a Philadelphia Eagles
game, win dopr prizes, dance,
gather with ape alumni and
have fun to benefit the Cape
Henlopen School District stu-
dents and teachers.
All proceeds support the Cape
Henlopen Educational Founda-
tion's (CHEF's) teacher mini-
grant progra m , Cape's home-
less/at risk program, a student
performing arts grant and future
programs for the Cape schools.
For more information about the
Cape Henlopen Educational
Foundation anal how tO help, vis-
it the website capeeducation-
fund.org.
The following community
ntion center is venue
iliiI'1!tilI! i!
members and busindsses are
contributing to CHEF'£ Winter-
jam event: A&B Ceations,
Abraxas, Ancient Art Tattoo,
Artistic Day Spa & S lon, Are-
na's, Backyard Jams altd Jellies,
Bad Hair Day, Bari, ta Caf,
Beach Jetty, Below Bq)ok Auto
and Service, CAMP lq ehoboth,
Cape Gazette, Child's P ay by the
Bay, ConCierge by the ;ca, Clear
Space Productions am[ Dogfish
Head Craft Brewery, D{,mino's in
Milton, Eric M. Blon ]in State
Farm, Essential Chef a ad Beach
Baker, Fisherman's Wh aft, Flow-
ers by Mayumi, Food Lion of
Milton, Giant, Irish Eyes of Mil-
ton, Lewes Gourmet, Linda Fern,
Mario and Matt DiSabatino, Mi-
ki and Susan Math, the Milton-
ian, Milton Subway, Oyster
House, Kids Cottage, Kim Klabe,
Nassau Valley Vineyards, Pat
Staby Designs, Quest Fitness, Re-
hoboth Yoga Center, RE/MAX
Realty Group, Resort Paints
Benjamin Moore, Sandy Moore,
Sandy Roskos, Shorebreak, Shore
Electric, Sign-o-Rama, Surf Bagel
of Lewes, Sussex Family YMCA,
The Bake Shoppe, The Rookery
and Tina Nigh-Johnson.
pros and cons of national standards
TimF to examine the
ecretary of Education this initiative will support a billion in federal aid, also known The district is also part of the
S Arne Duncan recently state-led movement toward as the Title I program, initiative. Texas and Alaska are
asked the National Gov- common standards. This is not a There are two ways that the not. Kentucky this month be-
ernor's Association to new concept but one that is White House and the education came the first state to decide to
stop lying to c1
them to look c
and tell the tru
theatrics? The
tration wants t
regarding the t
building block
dards.
In 2002, Gec
into law No C1
(NCLB). This i
based on stanc
ability with ck
student achier
NCLB states a:
own standards
with the critici
many states h
dards to help s
law's testing m
......... .requirements.
a move toward
fildren. He wants
!ildren in the eye
th. Why all the
Obama adminis-
change the rules
,asic educational
- academic stan-
rge Bush signed
did Left Behind
fistoric law is
ards and account-
ar guidelines for
ement. Under
'e free to set their
for achievement,
sm being that
ve lowered stan-
ehools meet the
td accountability
o.what started as.
excellence has
now sunken to a race just to stay
in the game and appe.ar viable.
President Barack Obama and
Duncan are interested in creat-
ing national standards. Accord-
ing to Washington Pos reporter
Nick Anderson, "President Oba-
ma will seek to raise academic
standards across the country by
quite groundbreaking since
states have always retained the
right to develop and manage
their own individual systems.
But that is the problem: there are
so many different standards that
the current expectations for chil-
dren vary widely across the
country. Arkansas curriculum is
quite different from Arizona or
Delaware. In fact, many in the
educational community feel as if
common standards would help
our students be better prepared
for college or career. Also, they
would not allow states to dumb
down the curriculum in order to
requiring states to certify that manipulate test results.
their benchmarks for reading State standards will be judged
.and mathematics put students as college and career ready. If
on track for college oracareer." ........ states meet this expectation,
As a revision of NCLB law, then they would qualify for $14.5
department officials have de-
fined for states to show that they
meet the criteria. They can
adopt standards that have been
created by a consortium of
states or by certifying in a
process that involves universi-
ties. The higher education insti-
tutions will develop guidelines
for determining if the existing
standards are high enough.
Just last year the governors
and the state school chiefs began
an initiative to draft new bench-
marks for math and English lan-
guage arts. According to the
Washington Post, "Forty-eight
states, including Maryland and
Virginia, are part of the initia-
tive, although it is unclear how
adopt the standards, after offi-
cials reviewed a late draft."
Delaware has a well-devel-
oped set of state standards that
have been in place for many
years, but there have been at-
tempts to reach out to other
states and form collaborative
groups because of the high cost
of developing and sustaining vi-
able standards and effective test-
ing.
Change can be good. It may be
time to take a closer look at the
pros and cons of national stan-
dards.
._.manywill adoptthe final draft ........ writingsvisit her biog.t
to be released in coming weeks, dalbanese.edublogs,org.
Diane Saienni Albanese is a writer, parent
and teacher in the Cape Henlopen School
District. For previouscolumns and other
