House Bill 50 Is Up Now: Live From The Floor Of The Delaware Senate!

Finally!  They are reading the bill.  I have seen a new amendment but not the one we thought it was.  This amendment would allow for high school juniors to not take the assessment.  But for now Senator Sokola is introducing an amendment to add district and statewide assessments that parents can be opted out of.  They are doing a role call on the amendment.  11 yes 9 no to the Sokola amendment.  They fell for the Sokola trap.  Sokola just came out and said he doesn’t support opt-out.  Bonini is saying he supports this bill but he has grave concerns.  He thinks it will make smart kids take the test and students who are struggling will get out of the test.  Once again he doesn’t realize the schools are held accountable for doing this.  Senator Lawson called Yvonne Johnson to testify.  She is letting the Senate know parents opted their kids out of Smarter Balanced, not all the other tests.  Lawson asked Johnson how many tests kids are taking.  She mentioned juniors are faced with an unbearable amount of assessments.  “Delaware PTA does not feel this test gives usable data,” she said.

Governor Markell’s Education Policy Advisor is texting to Senator Sokola’s legislative aide named Tanner, and Tanner is going back to Senator Sokola to give him the information.  Typical political games going on…

State Rep. Kowalko just came in.  Senator Peterson is talking about an email she got from a teacher stating how children are “tethered” to taking this test.  No word on this 3rd amendment I’ve seen floating around.  Peterson is talking about how kids don’t care about the test, as heard from a high schooler she talked to today, and the test is about the teachers.  Johnson is talking about the high-stakes involved with this assessment in a very passionate way.

Donna Johnson with the State Board of Education is here and some other DOE reps.   Senator Sokola called Jessie Parsley from the Milford School District up to testify.  He is saying this test takes shorter than DCAS and gives better results.  Now Parsley, Sokola’s own witness, is saying this bill do more damage if it applies to all state assessments.  And the trap is sprung.  Parsley is saying spring to spring results are more beneficial than fall to fall results.  Parsley is a traitor to all public school educators in Delaware.  What should we expect from a Rodel Dream Team guy….

Senator Townshend is saying we need to take a more measured approach.  He is talking how switching from test to test is a detriment to students and educators.  The way we rolled this out was not good according to Townshend.  Now he is quoting the Gates Foundation that said we should not have rolled  it out so fast and waited to test the test for years.  Now he is totally bashing the DOE in terms of how they paint inner-city schools.  “How can you possibly say kids are going to do well on this test when they don’t have skin in the game?”  He is now talking about a student with a 504 plan who struggled through the test and other students have said “How does this benefit us?”  Now he is saying this test is forcing young kids to express their thoughts.  Why are 11th graders taking a Common Core aligned test when they have only had this for 2-3 years was one question students asked him.  Townshend wants to add an amendment that 11th graders can opt out of the test.  His amendment passed on a 13 yes, 2 no, 5 not voting.  There are now two Senate amendments.

Sokola is now saying even with these two good amendments, he still can’t support the bill.  This is a complete crock.  This was all set up.   Sokola doesn’t care about parents.  He cares about corporate education reform.  These are the NO votes: Bushweller, Henry, Lavelle, Marshall, McBride, Simpson and Sokola.

roll call: HB 50 14 yes, 7 no