Mid-Del school leaders are anxiously awaiting information they say could have a big impact on the school district.
On Tuesday, the Oklahoma State Department of Education announced the results of a study looking into the disruption some students had while taking their state tests last year.
The independent study by HumRRO found that students did as well on the tests as students not involved in the disruption.
Based on this finding, State Supt. Janet Barresi has decided to retain all scores of impacted students who scored proficient or advanced, a press release stated.
Then, students with unsatisfactory scores will not be reported.
Teachers from across the U.S., including Alaska, are in Del City this week for a national math and science conference that aims to provide top-notch training to high school teachers in those fields.
On Tuesday, the National Math and Science Initiative conference kicked off with the opening ceremony at Del City High School. In attendance was State Supt. Janet Barresi and Ross Marshall, executive director of the Air Force Sustainment Center, Air Force Material Command at Tinker Air Force Base.
Marshall was asked to attend because the conference focuses on high school teachers that serve military students from across the country.
Both Marshall and Barresi delivered comments to the more than 300 attendees, saying how important the job is to ensure that military families have access to consistent, rigorous educational opportunities as they move between bases in the service of our country.
Military youth are not the only students to benefit from the conference, though.
Mid-Del Public Schools received $25,000 recently to help students learn through robots at each of the district’s five middle schools.
At the school board’s May regular meeting, the Mid-Del Public Schools Foundation presented the check to provide funding for one team at each school site, which will expand the Botball® Educational Robotics Program.
Working with district officials, the foundation identified the Botball® program as a project that met the foundation’s goal of supporting the implementation of Common Core Standards and S.T.E.M. (Science Technology, Engineering and Math) education.
The Mid-Del Public School Foundation was one of two statewide selected as selected as recipients of the 2012 Outstanding Program Awards for Local Education Foundations sponsored by the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence.
The awards, which recognize innovative programs sponsored or administered by public school foundations in Oklahoma, will be presented at the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence Fall Forum for Local Education Foundations and Youth Mentoring Programs on Oct. 23 in Norman. Receiving plaques and monetary awards of $1,000 each will be the 2011 Technology Initiative sponsored by the Claremore Public Schools Foundation and the Homeless Student Education Fund sponsored by the Mid-Del Public Schools Foundation.
These are all signs of construction, and currently in the Mid-Del school district, they are showing up everywhere as work progresses on numerous bond projects approved by voters in September.
The biggest projects included in the $90 million bond are two new elementary schools - one at Soldier Creek on SE 15th Street and Douglas, and another on Key Boulevard at East Side Elementary - both in Midwest City.
