Priority Schools-The Truth Revealed Part 39 **”But Wait, Didn’t Red Clay Come Up With….”**

We have reached the end of the Delaware Priority Schools FOIA Saga.  This picture actually harkens back to the bygone days of the Summer of 2014, but it was always my intention to save this one for last.

At this point in time you are probably thinking “Uh, okay, what’s the big deal about this?  Just another education reform Turnaround School document.  I’m sure these are a dime a dozen around the DOE offices.”  You are right.  But if you look at the bottom right corner, there is an emblem for the University of Virginia.  The very same university that Red Clay put in their priority schools plan to use as a vendor to help out with their priority schools.  But if the DOE used WestEd earlier in the summer to get help with the Memorandum of Understanding and the methodology for the calculation of the priority schools, and Red Clay used University of Virginia, doesn’t that mean…  Yes, there was some collusion somewhere along the way between the summer and when Red Clay officially signed on in December 2014…

We know Penny Schwinn used WestEd as a consultant in the summer, and she asked them for a turnaround plan to work on the Delaware priority schools initiative. Did she work with someone at Red Clay in advance to get the University of Virginia thing going? Who? Hugh Broomall? He is mentioned in a couple emails in this FOIA party. This Transparent Christina link may shed some light on what was going on at Red Clay when they announced this:

There will be one more part after this, maybe two. I want to put all this together along with some other sources and put a working theory together on what the DOE was up to with the whole priority schools deal.

Delaware Priority Schools-The Truth Revealed Part 38 **The Masterplan**

We are at the bottom of the ninth inning in this priority schools FOIA story.  In this one, you can see the actual timeframe for the whole kit and caboodle.

Is this even real?  If this was included as a part of a FOIA request, it would be assumed the dates would show a completion date.  Why was this not done?  Why wasn’t that included with the request?  And MM is definitely Mark Murphy, the Secretary of Education.  This document does show that Penny Schwinn had the bulk of the lifting work on the priority schools.  Something she had very little experience with prior to her appointment at the DOE.

Delaware Priority Schools: The Truth Revealed Part 37 **The Unfair Comparison**

In order to sell the methodology for the six priority schools in Red Clay and Christina, the DOE had to find comparison schools. One of the biggest schools the DOE praised was all the way down in Dover in the Capital School District. What made Booker T. Washington Elementary School so awesome (aside from the fact my own son went there during the 2nd half of 4th grade)?

Many viewed the rise of Booker T. as an unfair comparison. First off, Booker T. stops at 4th grade, so there was no 5th grade scores to compare it to. Second, Booker T. includes the “gifted and talented program” so there is also a rise in standardized test scores. Third, Capital changed their zoning a few years previous so the very demographics of the school were changing over time. An unfair comparison indeed!