Afternoon Announcements: June 5, 2012

Good afternoon and welcome to your Tuesday edition of Afternoon Announcements here at High School Soup. Let’s get right into it today!

A success story from the New Haven Independent leads us off today. College Summit, a private group hired by the New Haven school district, has had some success implementing a culture where attending college is expected. The use of peer leaders and college readiness boot camps were some of the techniques employed in this district.

Education Sector’s blog The Quick and the Ed discusses the context surrounding General Electric moving its headquarters from Erie, Pennsylvania to Chicago. The move, the writers argue, makes the case for why Erie, and other small communities with high unemployment like it, could benefit from a local community college.

Columbus, Indiana’s The Republic says that the implementation of “blended learning” into Indianapolis charter schools may “change [the] face of public education.” Blended learning, also known sometimes as hybrid learning, pairs the effective use of digital technology with traditional classroom teaching. The move to a blended learning focus in Indianapolis is expect to save money and improve results.

The Connecticut Mirror offers up this article about 16 school districts that will begin to implement teacher and principal grading largely based on student performance. The grades “will come from a mix of teacher observations, standardized tests and student, parent and peer surveys.”

That’s it for today, a relatively light news day. We’ll see you tomorrow for more announcements and your favorite Sticky Stats!